How Pope John Paul II forced Queen to cancel a planned appearance at Manchester United's 'Theatre Of Dreams'

Pope John Paul II, Freddie Mercury — (Image credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images | Graham Wiltshire/Getty Images)

When Queen announced the opening leg of their 1982 Hot Space tour, only two English shows were listed on their European itinerary: a May 29 stop at Manchester's Old Trafford Stadium (home of Manchester United FC) and a June 5 visit to London's Highbury Stadium (home of Arsenal FC). Ultimately, however, neither show took place as originally scheduled: the proposed London gig was moved to Milton Keynes Bowl due to concerns over noise levels in the residential N5 area, while the planned Manchester gig was switched to Elland Road stadium in Leeds because - somewhat randomly - the date coincided with Pope John Paul II's British tour plans.

The first ever visit to the UK from the reigning head of the Catholic Church was kinda a big deal. Three years earlier, 2.5 million Irish Catholics had attended Masses performed by the Supreme Pontiff on his debut Irish tour, and Pope John Paul II's British tour itinerary included open air Masses scheduled in London, Coventry, Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff. Reading this, you might assume that the issue for Queen was that their proposed May 29 visit to Old Trafford directly clashed with JP II's planned Eucharistic service at the city's Heaton Park, at which 200,000 worshippers were expected, but not so, for His Holiness was not due in the 0161 area until May 31. The issue, put bluntly, was shithouses, or specifically the lack of them.

The problem was flagged up in the March 6, 1982 issue of UK music magazine Sounds, with a news story - amusingly titled 'Queen gig goes down the pan' - warning that Queen's visit to the self-styled 'Theatre of Dreams' could be kicked into touch if the required entertainment license for the event was not approved.

Jack Humphreys, the Chairman of the Old Trafford Licensing committee, told Sounds, "The promoters say they will bring in chemical toilets, but we have discovered that none are available because of the Pope's visit. You can't hire chemical toilets anywhere in the country because they have all been booked to follow the Pope around."

"There are also problems with traffic and catering," Humphreys added. "We have to be satisfied that everything will be alright."

In the end, clearly, it was decided that everything would not be alright, and the gig was switched to West Yorkshire. AS far as we're aware, the Pope made no apologies to inconvenienced Queen fans when he showed up in the city 48 hours later.

Happily, Queen's Milton Keynes show ended up being a triumph for the band. As you can see for yourself below.

Queen will release an expanded box set of their second album later in 2026.

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

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