Queen used to get “irritated” by crowds singing every lyric to their songs.
Guitarist Brian May has admitted they were annoyed because they wanted their fans to listen to the amazing lyrics they had spent hours penning.
Speaking to Total Guitar magazine, Brian explained: “Because we thought: ‘People, just listen.
We’re working really hard, so bloody well listen!’ But they were unstoppable.
“And this particular night, they sang every word to every song, which was rather novel in those days. I mean, I went to a Zeppelin concert and I don’t remember people singing along to ‘Communication Breakdown’ or whatever they were playing. When Zeppelin played, they listened. They banged their heads, and they listened. And I thought about our concerts: why don’t you buggers listen instead of singing?”
However, after they performed ‘We Will Rock You’ at Bingley Hall in the Midlands, England, in the late-70s, Brian told late frontman Freddie Mercury they should start encouraging the crowd to sing-along because they can do amazing things with their “energy”.
He added: “Anyway, that night at Bingley Hall, we came off stage and we all looked at each other in amazement, because all that singing from the audience was so extreme. And I said to Freddie, ‘Maybe, instead of fighting this, we should be encouraging it. Maybe we should be harnessing this kind of energy which seems to be happening.’ And we all agreed that this was something really interesting that we should experiment.”