On July 27, 1986, Queen made history by becoming the first Western rock band to play an outdoor stadium show behind the Iron Curtain. Elton John played a run of indoor shows in Russia in 1979, and Iron Maiden kicked off their 1984 World Slavery tour with a run of dates in Poland. Yet Queen’s appearance at the 80,000-capacity Népstadion in the Hungarian capital Budapest set a new benchmark.
“We believed music was for people – and people are everywhere,” Queen guitarist Brian May tells Classic Rock in a brand new interview. “We tried to avoid politics, and even play places people told us we shouldn’t play. For years, Hungary and these places in Eastern Europe were unreachable to us. It was exciting to open the door.”
This landmark gig was filmed for the concert film Queen Budapest, which has recently been restored in retina-dazzling 4K and set for release on DVD/Blu-ray on October 30. The film shows Queen in their mid-80s pomp and features such nailed-on classics as Now I’m Here, Hammer To Fall and Bohemian Rhapsody. It also captures the moment when Mercury treats the crowd to a solo version of beloved Hungarian folk ballad Tavaszi Szél Vizet Áraszt, with the singer surreptitiously reading from a set of phonetic lyrics scribbled on his hand.
“Freddie singing the folk song meant so much to the audience,” says photographer Denis O’Regan, who accompanied the band to Hungary. “I spent time on the hotel terrace overlooking the Danube, with Freddie and Roger rehearsing it. When I speak to people in Budapest now, they still say it was such a moment in their cultural history.”
Queen Budapest also shows the band making their grand entrance into the city four days before the concert. “We came in from Vienna, down the Danube on hydrofoils,” drummer Roger Taylor tells Classic Rock. “On one side you had what was then Czechoslovakia, and that was just one big, electrified fence. Then we came into Hungary, and I remember this splendid parliament building in Budapest that Freddie thought would make a lovely home.” (“Is it for sale?” Mercury quips in the film).
Yet the triumph is tinged with sadness. This tour, in support of 1986’s A Kind Of Magic album, would be their last. Less than three weeks after the Budapest gig, Queen played what turned out to be their final show, at Knebworth on August 9, 1986. Neither May nor Taylor know exactly when Mercury was diagnosed with HIV, though the guitarist wonders today if the singer was aware of it at the time of the Knebworth gig.
“I distinctly remember backstage after Knebworth, Freddie with a drink in his hand, saying: ‘I can’t do this any more after this,’” recalls May. “We all looked at him as if to say ‘Okay,’ because that was the kind of stuff Freddie would always say. But I think at that point he knew his life was going to change radically and he wouldn’t be able to do it any more.”
Mercury died in 1991, effectively marking the end of Queen. May and Taylor united with former Free/Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers in 2004 as Queen + Paul Rodgers. In 2011, they relaunched the band with former American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert, embarking on a series of hugely successful tours. But they haven’t played live under the Queen name since two shows in Japan in February 2024, and while May takes a ‘never say never’ approach to future shows, people shouldn’t hold their breath.
“It’s a big ‘I don’t know’ from me,” the guitarist tells Classic Rock. “I’m not bursting at the seams to do it again. When we finished in America the last time [in November 2023] I wanted to take a proper break, and that’s lasted until now. I wanted to pick up some pieces and be a better parent and grandparent.”
The band may be dormant, but the Queen brand is as strong as ever. But in an alternative universe, if Freddie Mercury was still here, would he and Queen have stayed together?
“Yes, I think so,” says May. “I’d have still been doing my stuff and Roger would have been off doing his things, but if Freddie was here we would probably be touring next year. We’d always come back to The Mothership.
“He loved it – absolutely loved it – and don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise,” adds May of Mercury in his capacity as rock’s greatest live performer, as showcased in Queen Budapest. “He lived for those moments and was in his element. Up on that stage he was king.”
Read the full interview with Brian May and Roger Taylor in the brand new issue of Classic Rock, on sale now.
