Album Review: Queen - Live At The Rainbow '74

In 1974, Queen were already commanding figures; the hits were yet to come, but in Seven Seas Of Rhye and Killer Queen their precocity for penning rock classics was evident.

These two concerts proved to be a coronation of a live reputation that would remain their hallmark. Even now, Queen’s voracious appetite for prog (then enjoying its much maligned heyday) coupled with Freddie Mercury’s fabulous peacocking sound even more electric than the most polished of hit compilations. Yet whilst it took a lot to upstage Mercury’s stage presence, Brian May’s cracking guitar solos pull it off.