Queen guitarist Brian May launched the forthcoming Queen Rock Montreal live DVD at London’s Hard Rock Cafe last night (October 16).

Making a jovial, anecdotal speech before an edit of the concert film was shown, Brian May apologised on behalf of Roger Taylor who couldn’t make it to the launch, saying: “he sends his love. He told me to tell you that he would actually MUCH rather be here with us for the launch of the DVD, rather than sunbathing on his luxurious boat off the coast of Africa, if he were someone who gave a shit!”

May also told the story of how Queen came to play the Montreal Forum for two nights on November 24 and 25 in ’81 – after touring South America – as director Saul Williams had decided it would be great to make a cinema quality live film.

May explained the back story that as the band were no longer on tour at the time of the filming, everything had to especially constructed for those two nights. The stress of that combined with the band’s (especially Mercury’s) dislike of the Williams working practices meant that tempers flared. May advised us retrospectively saying: “What you see in this film is a very edgy, angry band, carving out a performance in a rather uncomfortable situation. But it does mean it’s very high energy, real, and raw.”

One of the highlights of the film is the first ever live performance of ‘Under Pressure’ their soon to be global hit, in collaboration with David Bowie.

The DVD will also come with extended Live Aid footage.

Check out the queenrockmontreal.com microsite here – for some video and audio clips from the show.

Plus check out Brian May’s regularly updated blog here and to see all of his speech notes from last night..

Queen Rock Montreal is released on DVD and double CD on October 29.

Disc one:

God Save the Queen (tape) (arr. May)