Location: Grado, Italy
Date: 16.07.2013
Guitar legend and respected astrophysicist Brian May, who rose to fame as a member of one of the best rock bands of all time, the unforgettable Queen, stopped by Grado with 34-year-old singer and actress Kerry Ellis on their joint ‘The Born Free Tour’. The local summer music festival was in full swing there at the time. Compared to the rather pompous previous tour, ‘Anthems: The Tour’, this year’s collaboration unfolds in a much more intimate, acoustic-leaning atmosphere, lit by candles, as May and Ellis present songs from the live album »Acoustic By Candlelight« (2013). Along the way, through the Born Free Foundation, the two also try to draw attention to humanity’s grave crimes against nature, which undoubtedly include hunting wild animals and their sooner-or-later sad end in captivity. To that end, various animals, such as a lion and a badger, pop up repeatedly in the stage projections.
Their tour so far, on which they play some beloved Queen classics along with well-known and lesser-known songs by other writers, has earned plenty of glowing reviews, so it was fascinating to see up close how the legendary guitarist and occasional singer works alongside a much younger vocal partner, one who complements him beautifully on the singing side too. As for the third leg of the tour, which includes four duo shows in Italy (more than in any other continental European country), you could say they’d hardly have found a better venue than the seaside resort of Grado, just across the border from us. A real concert treat was in the cards for all the music gourmets.
After a seriously fun intro, during which a short, humorous cartoon laying out the Born Free Foundation’s core message was screened, maestro May strolled onto the stage with an acoustic guitar in hand. In the very next second his younger colleague appeared too, and with her voice she immediately convinced anyone unfamiliar with her work so far why the two have been collaborating successfully with the famous guitarist for years. Ellis can’t reach quite the same high notes as one of her great vocal idols, Freddie Mercury, as she admitted herself, so Queen’s more vocally demanding songs were off the table that night. The beneficial sea aerosols, however, didn’t do May’s acoustic guitar any favors when it came to tuning, which showed already during the first number of the night, »Born Free«. The seasoned guitar hero shook his head within the opening seconds because his guitar didn’t sound the way it should. The nearby sea moisture and salt surely played their part here, since the stage offered a sweeping view of the sea right beside it.
Maybe it was precisely the quiet anger smoldering ever more in the guitar legend that made Ellis forget to sing the next verse. That forced them to stop playing and apologize to the crowd for the clumsy start, which May topped off with typical English sarcasm. From then on, starting with »Butterfly (Something That Glitter)«, the show went as planned and there were no more major hiccups, although the acoustic guitar in question stayed a bit ‘disobedient’ for a while. Then again, maestro May had a pretty rich collection of electric and acoustic guitars at the side of the stage, so he swapped between models quite a few times. On keyboards, Jeff Leach faithfully accompanied May and Ellis. He was responsible for the symphonic arrangements, which considerably enriched the mostly acoustic nature of the individual performances.
One of the nicer surprises was a lovely version of the Kansas evergreen ballad »Dust in the Wind«, which Ellis sang with real fire. As expected, the crowd got fired up the most by Queen classics like the legendary love ballad »Somebody To Love«, while the performance of »No-One But You (Only the Good Die Young)«, a posthumous Queen song from 1997, was another surprise. With Marvin Hamlisch’s »The Way We Were«, May and Ellis moved on to some deeply heartfelt interpretations of beloved classics, including a couple of Beatles evergreens, »Tell Me What You See« and George Harrison’s songwriting masterpiece »Something«. Quite a racket, especially from the home crowd, greeted the arrival of Irene Natalie Fornaciari, daughter of popular Italian entertainer Zucchero Fornaciari, as special guest vocalist on two songs. She fully justified her stage presence and switched smoothly between Italian and English while singing, but despite considerable vocal talent she wasn’t quite on Ellis’ level.
As for the Queen classics, a big pleasant surprise was the successful version of »Life Is Real (Song For Lennon)«, an otherwise excellent ballad from the album »Hot Space« (1983). The legendary guitarist dedicated it to his late vocal partner from the Queen days. The performance of the sci-fi ballad »39« came out especially well, with May once again proving himself as lead vocalist, while on »Love Of My Life« both of the night’s main vocal stars shone. The crowd completely ‘lost it’ when May took his famous Red Special guitar into his hands, the one he built himself many years ago and with which he played his solo spot. The hillbilly version of the Queen standard »Tie Your Mother Down« was a rather unusual but still fun experiment.
The main set wrapped up with the comical »The Kissing Me Song« and the rather clichéd but obligatory »We Will Rock You«, just as the atmosphere between the stage and the roughly 800 people in the audience hit its peak. For the encore, the gray-haired but still recognizably curly-haired, long-maned guitarist and his blonde vocal sidekick played the night’s last Queen standard, Freddie’s answer to Elvis and their most basic, rock’n’roll achievement, »Crazy Little Thing Called Love«, which is first and foremost meant for getting the masses going. Not quite the finale most Queen fans were hoping for (what was missed above all was »We Are the Champions«, which traditionally follows its inseparable partner »We Will Rock You«), but still a nice ending to a fantastic concert evening, over far too soon, in the company of a guitar legend and his talented vocal partner.
Hanging out with May and Ellis on the seashore in Grado served up yet more proof of how much more genuine and intimate a concert can feel on a small stage in front of a smaller crowd than at plenty of megalomaniac stadium shows, where such masses flock partly so they can brag to their friends about which big music name they recently saw, while the music is usually somewhere in the background.
author: Peter Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Intro
2. Born Free
3. Butterfly (Somethings That Glitter)
4. Dust in the Wind
6. Somebody To Love
7. The Way We Were
8. Can’t Help Falling in Love
9. Something
10. No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)
11. Guitar Solo
12. Love of my life
13. Tie Your Mother Down
14. The Kissing Me Song
15. We Will Rock You
—encore—
16. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
