Sony Music Vision has announced that ‘Queen Budapest’, the first Western stadium rock show to take place behind the Iron Curtain, and the final filmed QUEEN live performance, will be presented in cinemas and IMAX worldwide beginning October 7 through Trafalgar Releasing.
‘Queen Budapest’ will be released to mark the 40th anniversary of this pivotal moment in the band’s history, and the film has been meticulously restored in 4K from the original filmed 35mm footage by Sir Peter Jackson‘s Park Road Post Production facility in New Zealand, with newly remixed audio from the original multitrack recordings to deliver the most immersive presentation of the performance to date.
Captured on July 27, 1986, at Budapest’s Népstadion, during the band’s ‘The Magic Tour’, the concert was a groundbreaking moment, as QUEEN became the first Western rock band to perform behind the Iron Curtain during a period of profound cultural and political change. In addition to 80,000 tickets selling out, an estimated 45,000 people listened to the group outside, and some fans had travelled from as far away as Russia and Poland to see the concert.
The show was professionally filmed on 35 mm movie film by 17 of Hungary’s best cameramen. The gear employed included 17 cameras and 25 miles of film, which was all that was available in the country, and the Hungarian government approved the entire operation, which was a first for a Communist State.
With the scale of the achievement, it would have been impossible to imagine that QUEEN would go on to play only a further five shows, ending forever their touring days with Freddie Mercury only one month later, with their final show played at Knebworth Park in England on August 9, 1986.
‘Queen Budapest’ is the last filmed live performance of the band with Freddie Mercury, showing the band at the height of their powers as a live act.
An edited version of the show was broadcast in December 1986 throughout the Communist Bloc, including China, Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Yugoslavia and Mongolia, as well as to 59 Hungarian cinemas on New Year’s Day 1987, which again was a first for a Western rock act.
‘Queen Budapest’ will be accompanied by a multi-format package via Hollywood Records in North America and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music, internationally on October 30. The soundtrack, newly remixed from the original multitrack by QUEEN‘s studio team, will be released alongside the Blu-ray, DVD, CD and digital editions as a 3LP vinyl set for the very first time.
‘Queen Budapest’ is directed by János Zsombolyai – Sony Music Vision is the distributor.