| City: | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Venue: | Estadio José Amalfitani |
| Date: | February 28, 1981 |
| Presumed setlist: | We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Mustapha, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, I'm In Love With My Car, Get Down Make Love, Need Your Loving Tonight, Rock It, Save Me, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise), Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Flash, The Hero, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen |
 
 
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This is Queen's first performance in Argentina. The band have plenty to prove to their new South American audiences - something they haven't needed to do on this level in several years, which would lead to seven incredibly energetic performances over the next three weeks. This article provides a brief summary of things after the first concert: http://www.queencuttings.com Queen were the first rock band to play the big football stadiums in South America - a huge accomplishment. Just to grasp the idea of how popular the band were at the time, 9 of the top 10 albums in the Argentinian album chart were Queen albums. Reflecting on 1981, John Deacon later said it was "A year for discovering new audiences we didn't know existed." Similar to their first visit to Japan, they were being treated like The Beatles in America in 1964. As if that wasn't enough, radio and TV stations would interrupt regularly scheduled programs with special Queen news bulletins. Further behind-the-scenes happenings are well-documented in Greg Brooks' revised "Queen Live" book, although he gets most of the setlists of the concerts wrong. Although the venue normally attributed to the shows in Buenos Aires is "Vélez Sársfield," the name of the stadium is "Estadio José Amalfitani." Vélez Sársfield is the name of the Buenos Aires football team. South American stadiums are often named informally after the teams that inhabit them, as football is such a huge part of their culture. A press conference with the band the day before the show was shown on TV (many of the above pictures are from this event). 
After the first song, Freddie very excitedly greets the equally excited audience in Spanish. The band perform their set full of vigour, and Freddie, as usual during this time period, is in fantastic voice. Brian, although not always perfectly clean with his guitar playing tonight, creates a beautiful solo with the delay in Need Your Loving Tonight. It must have been difficult to concentrate on business as usual while buzzing off the energy of their first South American audience. Freddie Mercury stated after the show how nervous the band were, particularly about how the audience, who had never seen a big rock concert, would respond. Much to their delight, everything ran perfectly, on stage and off. Like he did in Tokyo, Freddie says a few words between lines of the first verse of Rock It. After the first stanza he says, "Let's see if I hit it," but he chickens out, saying "I'm never gonna make that note," followed by a lower yet soulful take of "Thaaaaat rock and roll." The show was broadcast live on the radio, but no recording of it has seen the light of day. However, incomplete recordings from a soundboard tape have circulated for many years. Many of the pre-show pictures are from February 26 or 27, most of which were submitted by Alessio Rizzitelli and Fabio Minero. Here are a few more pre-show pics, from either the 26th or 27th: 1 2 3 4 The last set of pictures is from Argentinian newspaper. Surely this is the show in question because Mustapha, which wasn't played at the other two shows in Buenos Aires, is mentioned in the 12th pic. A picture of John Deacon and the head of the Queen crew, Peter "Ratty" Hince, taken after this show, can be seen on his website. |
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| Recording length: | 1 LP, incomplete |
| Quality: | B+ |
| Source: | Radio |
| Lineage: | "The Falklands Are Rocking" LP |
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| Track listing: | We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Rock It, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Flash, The Hero, Another One Bites The Dust |
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This LP bootleg from late 1981 is sourced from the Radio Rivadavia live broadcast. "Recorded In Buenos Aires In 1981" is an overstock copy. |
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| Recording length: | 1 LP, incomplete |
| Quality: | B+ |
| Source: | Radio |
| Lineage: | "Falklands II - The Sequel" LP |
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| Track listing: | Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Sheer Heart Attack, Mustapha, Crazy little Thing Called Love, Need Your Loving Tonight, Rock It, Save Me, Tie Your Mother Down |
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This is another 1982 LP from the radio broadcast, with mostly different songs (only Rock It is repeated). A few songs from the broadcast never made it to the early bootlegs. God Save The Queen wasn't broadcast on the radio probably for political reasons of the day. |
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| Recording length: | 68 minutes (1 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | B+ |
| Source: | Radio |
| Lineage: | "Waiting On A Death Trip" (Grand Pick) silver |
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| Track listing: | We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Rock It, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, Another One Bites The Dust, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Sheer Heart Attack, Mustapha, Crazy little Thing Called Love, Need Your Loving Tonight, Save Me, Tie Your Mother Down, drum/guitar solos, Flash, The Hero |
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Sourced from the above LPs, this 1991 bootleg was the first silver release of this show. As evidenced by the artwork seen above, there seems to be two different versions of this bootleg. |
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| Recording length: | 1 LP, incomplete |
| Quality: | B+ |
| Source: | Radio |
| Lineage: | "Tie Your Mother Down" LP |
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| Track listing: | We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Rock It, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, Another One Bites The Dust |
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This is a 1992 reissue of "Falklands II - The Sequel." It was pressed numerous times over the next couple years with various colours of vinyl. |
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| Recording length: | 68 minutes (1 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | B+ |
| Source: | Radio |
| Lineage: | "Bohemian Rhapsody (Vol.1)" (Banana) silver |
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| Track listing: | We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Rock It, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, Another One Bites The Dust, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Sheer Heart Attack, Mustapha, Crazy little Thing Called Love, Need Your Loving Tonight, Save Me, Tie Your Mother Down, drum/guitar solos, Flash, The Hero |
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This is identical to the others. The scans are of two different pressings. |
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| Recording length: | 68 minutes (1 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | B+ |
| Source: | Radio |
| Lineage: | "Rhapsody In Gold" silver |
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| Track listing: | We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Rock It, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, Another One Bites The Dust, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Sheer Heart Attack, Mustapha, Crazy little Thing Called Love, Need Your Loving Tonight, Save Me, Tie Your Mother Down, drum/guitar solos, Flash, The Hero |
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This 1993 box contains another copy of "Waiting On A Death Trip" along with a disc of Tokyo '85 material. 300 numbered copies exist, all including a t-shirt, silver pin and certificate. |
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| Recording length: | 68 minutes (1 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | B+ |
| Source: | Radio |
| Lineage: | "My Favourite Dance Tracks" (Make Me Smile) silver |
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| Track listing: | We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Rock It, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, Another One Bites The Dust, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Sheer Heart Attack, Mustapha, Crazy little Thing Called Love, Need Your Loving Tonight, Save Me, Tie Your Mother Down, drum/guitar solos, Flash, The Hero |
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This is another re-release from the 90s. |
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| Recording length: | 68 minutes (1 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | B+ |
| Source: | Radio |
| Lineage: | "South America" (Lollywood Records) silver |
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| Track listing: | We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Rock It, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, Another One Bites The Dust, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Sheer Heart Attack, Mustapha, Crazy little Thing Called Love, Need Your Loving Tonight, Save Me, Tie Your Mother Down, drum/guitar solos, Flash, The Hero |
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Yet another re-release. |
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| Recording length: | 68 minutes (1 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | B+ |
| Source: | Radio |
| Lineage: | "South America" (Lollywood Records) silver |
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| Track listing: | We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Rock It, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, Another One Bites The Dust, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Sheer Heart Attack, Mustapha, Crazy little Thing Called Love, Need Your Loving Tonight, Save Me, Tie Your Mother Down, drum/guitar solos, Flash, The Hero |
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This version of "South America" had a different cover. |
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| Recording length: | 89 minutes (2 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | A |
| Source: | Soundboard |
| Lineage: | Soundboard > Radio Rivadavia stereo 1-inch reel master > 'Gogo' Safigueroa 90-min cassette (with fades) > TDK SA90 Cassette > MOTU 24 I/O -> WAV (24-bit/96 kHz) |
| Track listing: | We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Mustapha, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, I'm In Love With My Car, Need Your Loving Tonight, Rock It, Save Me, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Flash, The Hero, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions |
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This is a great copy of the pre-FM cassette, in stereo sound. There aren't too many recordings of Brian's guitar solo in stereo, so this recording is a worthwhile listen if only for that. Dragon Attack and We Are The Champions were given long fade-outs by someone down the line, so the Now I'm Here reprise and God Save The Queen are missing, as is Get Down Make Love. |
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| Recording length: | 88 minutes (2 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | A- |
| Source: | Soundboard |
| Lineage: | "First Major Rock" (Gypsy Eye) silvers |
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| Track listing: | We Will Rock You (fast), Let Me Entertain You, Play The Game, Mustapha, Death On Two Legs, Killer Queen, I'm In Love With My Car, Need Your Loving Tonight, Rock It, Save Me, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Love Of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, drum/guitar solos, Flash, The Hero, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down, Another One Bites The Dust, Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions |
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This bootleg is sourced from the stereo pre-FM cassette, although in worse quality. It plays a quarter-tone too fast. |
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| Recording length: | 25 minutes (1 CD, incomplete) |
| Quality: | A |
| Source: | Radio |
| Lineage: | Soundboard > Mono 120-min cassette > ? > Rock & Pop 2001 FM Special > WAV (24-bit/48 kHz) > FLAC level 8 |
| Track listing: | Need Your Loving Tonight, Rock It, Save Me, Now I'm Here, Dragon Attack, Now I'm Here (reprise) |
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A mono cassette copy of the complete concert was made not long after the show and was given to some media/PR people. A few songs from it were broadcast on the radio in 2001 (as part of a 20-year commemoration of the South American concerts), including the first airing of the Now I'm Here reprise. |
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