# The Game Tour

The Game Tour was the eighth headlining concert tour by the British rock band Queen to support their successful 1980 album The Game. This tour featured the first performances in South America by the group.

## Background

This tour marked the introduction of a new lighting rig for Queen; the "Fly Swatters", also referred to as the "Bic Razors". This is also the first tour where Freddie Mercury had his moustache grown out. He would often ask the audience what they thought, to a mixed reception, where he would often pledge to keep it. Several songs from the new album were incorporated, such as "Play the Game", "Need Your Loving Tonight", and "Rock It". The latter two of which saw very few performances on this leg of the tour, with Rock It being dropped before the four Inglewood dates, and Need Your Loving Tonight being dropped in the middle of August. Both songs would return to the stage in one form or another. Notably, "Somebody to Love" was only performed rarely early in the tour, being practically absent in the first three legs, but would return as a staple to the set by early March in South America. Early in the North American tour, as suggested by bootleg recordings, Mercury's voice mostly retained his late 1970s vocal tone in July before changing it to a more "macho" and aggressive style in August to match his appearance.

### 1980

At one of the concerts in Inglewood, Michael Jackson recommended that the band release Another One Bites the Dust as a single, which they did. Believing it not to be single material, the song became a large success for the band, particularly in North America. The Hartford concert in August marks the first known time the song was played live. Dragon Attack was added to the set in Providence later that same month. "You're My Best Friend", a successful single for the band, was dropped from the medley after the last night of the North American leg, at the Madison Square Garden. Some encores of this leg featured Mercury on the shoulders of a Darth Vader cosplayer during the performance of "We Will Rock You".
At the start of the European leg of the tour, the Battle Theme from the Flash Gordon soundtrack was incorporated into the set. "Need Your Loving Tonight" was also reincorporated into the set after a lengthy absence, now coming after "Get Down, Make Love". The concert in Essen featured the first performance of "The Hero" from the Flash Gordon soundtrack, with the second night in Birmingham being the debut of "Flash's Theme".
Due to the murder of John Lennon on the 8th of December, the members of Queen created an arrangement of Lennon's greatest hit, "Imagine", which was played on a handful of dates (in place of "Keep Yourself Alive"), including the night after Lennon's death, and on the final night of the leg. "Need Your Loving Tonight" and "Jailhouse Rock" were also dropped on the 9th.

### 1981

On the Japanese leg of the tour, Vultan's Theme was added to the setlist on February 13, staying as part of the set until the end of the leg.
Queen was encouraged to play in South America, after discovering that they were extremely popular. In Buenos Aires, Queen drew a crowd of 300,000—the largest single concert crowd in Argentine history as of 1982. In São Paulo, Brazil, the attendance was 131,000 and 120,000 on two consecutive nights. All three Buenos Aires shows were filmed and broadcast, however, only the second night has its footage completely available. A fragment of the first night's footage and a screenshot of the third night's are all that are known to exist. The first São Paulo show was also broadcast and is widely available, however, the second night only circulates via a low quality broadcast, and a poor-quality bootleg.
This was the only tour that Queen played in Venezuela, where they were due to play 5 shows in its capital city, Caracas. However, after their third performance on 27 September, the Venezuelan government declared an 8-day period of National Mourning due to the passing of one of Venezuela's former president. The remaining two concerts were cancelled and all tickets were refunded to more than 50,000 fans. The third night was filmed and was eventually leaked.
Queen were due to play two nights in Monterrey and Guadalajara each, however, due to subpar treatment of the crew by locals during the first night in Monterrey, Queen cancelled the remaining three shows. Two nights in Puebla were quickly set up as replacements, where the band faced unruly crowds that often threw shoes at the band.

## Tour dates

List of tour dates with date, city, country, venue :
| Date | City | Country | Venue | Attendance | Gross | Ref(s) |
| North America |||||||
| 30 June 1980 | Vancouver | Canada | Pacific Coliseum | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 1 July 1980 | Seattle | United States | Seattle Center Coliseum | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2 July 1980 | Portland | United States | Portland Memorial Coliseum | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 5 July 1980 | San Diego | United States | San Diego Sports Arena | 11,500 / 11,500 | $110,000 | |
| 6 July 1980 | Phoenix | United States | Compton Terrace | 8,410 / 8,410 | $77,351 | |
| 8 July 1980 | Inglewood | United States | The Forum | 60,800 / 60,800 | $594,970 | |
| 9 July 1980 | Inglewood | United States | The Forum | 60,800 / 60,800 | $594,970 | |
| 11 July 1980 | Inglewood | United States | The Forum | 60,800 / 60,800 | $594,970 | |
| 12 July 1980 | Inglewood | United States | The Forum | 60,800 / 60,800 | $594,970 | |
| 13 July 1980 | Oakland | United States | Oakland Coliseum Arena | 19,861 / 29,000 | $179,466 | |
| 14 July 1980 | Oakland | United States | Oakland Coliseum Arena | 19,861 / 29,000 | $179,466 | |
| 5 August 1980 | Memphis | United States | Mid-South Coliseum | 6,200 / 11,999 | $50,611 | |
| 6 August 1980 | Baton Rouge | United States | Riverside Centroplex Arena | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 8 August 1980 | Oklahoma City | United States | Myriad Convention Center | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 9 August 1980 | Dallas | United States | Reunion Arena | 10,313 / 18,500 | $90,925 |
| 10 August 1980 | Houston | United States | The Summit | 10,222 / 17,048 | $98,642 | |
| 12 August 1980 | Atlanta | United States | Omni Coliseum | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 13 August 1980 | Charlotte | United States | Charlotte Coliseum | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 14 August 1980 | Greensboro | United States | Greensboro Coliseum | 5,200 / 8598 | $41,976 |
| 16 August 1980 | Charleston | United States | Charleston Civic Center | 5,459 / 7,092 | $43,262 |
| 17 August 1980 | Indianapolis | United States | Market Square Arena |
| 20 August 1980 | Hartford | United States | Hartford Civic Center | 9,930 /13,000 | $91,590 | |
| 22 August 1980 | Philadelphia | United States | The Spectrum | 14,117 / 18,454 | $121,764 | |
| 23 August 1980 | Baltimore | United States | Baltimore Civic Center | 8,695 / 12,007 | $73,827 |
| 24 August 1980 | Pittsburgh | United States | Pittsburgh Civic Arena | 7,319 / 17,500 | $64,260 |
| 26 August 1980 | Providence | United States | Providence Civic Center |
| 27 August 1980 | Portland | United States | Cumberland County Civic Center |
| 29 August 1980 | Montreal | Canada | Montreal Forum | 16,403 / 16,403 | $173,447 | |
| 30 August 1980 | Toronto | Canada | CNE Grandstand | 22,312 / 22,312 | $227,166 | |
| 10 September 1980 | Milwaukee | United States | MECCA Arena | 6,705 | N/A | |
| 12 September 1980 | Kansas City | United States | Kemper Arena | 10,825 / 12,000 | $100,529 | |
| 13 September 1980 | Omaha | United States | Omaha Civic Auditorium | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 14 September 1980 | Saint Paul | United States | St. Paul Civic Center | 13,900 | $133,000 | |
| 16 September 1980 | Ames | United States | Hilton Coliseum | 9,215 / 10,372 | $84,143 | |
| 17 September 1980 | St. Louis | United States | Checkerdome | 6,667 / 10,000 | $61,295 | |
| 19 September 1980 | Rosemont | United States | Rosemont Horizon | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 20 September 1980 | Detroit | United States | Joe Louis Arena | 15,559 / 15,559 | $152,955 | |
| 21 September 1980 | Richfield | United States | Richfield Coliseum | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 23 September 1980 | Glens Falls | United States | Glens Falls Civic Center | 7,500 / 7,500 | $67,694 | |
| 24 September 1980 | Syracuse | United States | Onondaga County War Memorial | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 26 September 1980 | Boston | United States | Boston Garden | 13,000 / 13,000 | $131,580 | |
| 28 September 1980 | New York City | United States | Madison Square Garden | 50,000 / 50,000 | $500,000 | |
| 29 September 1980 | New York City | United States | Madison Square Garden | 50,000 / 50,000 | $500,000 | |
| 30 September 1980 | New York City | United States | Madison Square Garden | 50,000 / 50,000 | $500,000 | |
| Europe |||||||
| 23 November 1980 | Zürich | Switzerland | Hallenstadion | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 25 November 1980 | Paris | France | La Rotonde du Bourget | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 26 November 1980 | Cologne | West Germany | Sporthalle | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 27 November 1980 | Leiden | Netherlands | Groenoordhallen | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 29 November 1980 | Essen | West Germany | Grugahalle | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 30 November 1980 | West Berlin | West Germany | Deutschlandhalle | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 1 December 1980 | Bremen | West Germany | Stadthalle Bremen | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 5 December 1980 | Birmingham | England | Birmingham International Arena | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 6 December 1980 | Birmingham | England | Birmingham International Arena | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 8 December 1980 | London | England | Wembley Arena | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 9 December 1980 | London | England | Wembley Arena | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 10 December 1980 | London | England | Wembley Arena | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 12 December 1980 | Brussels | Belgium | Forest National | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 13 December 1980 | Brussels | Belgium | Forest National | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 14 December 1980 | Frankfurt | West Germany | Festhalle Frankfurt | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 16 December 1980 | Strasbourg | France | Hall Rhénus | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 18 December 1980 | Munich | West Germany | Olympiahalle | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Asia |||||||
| 12 February 1981 | Tokyo | Japan | Nippon Budokan | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 13 February 1981 | Tokyo | Japan | Nippon Budokan | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 16 February 1981 | Tokyo | Japan | Nippon Budokan | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 17 February 1981 | Tokyo | Japan | Nippon Budokan | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 18 February 1981 | Tokyo | Japan | Nippon Budokan | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| South America Bites the Dust |||||||
| 28 February 1981 | Buenos Aires | Argentina | José Amalfitani Stadium | 54,000 | N/A | N/A |
| 1 March 1981 | Buenos Aires | Argentina | José Amalfitani Stadium | 52,000 | N/A | N/A |
| 4 March 1981 | Mar del Plata | Argentina | Estadio José María Minella | 30,000 | N/A | N/A |
| 6 March 1981 | Rosario | Argentina | Estadio Gigante de Arroyito | 34,000 | N/A | N/A |
| 8 March 1981 | Buenos Aires | Argentina | José Amalfitani Stadium | 58,000 | N/A | N/A |
| 20 March 1981 | São Paulo | Brazil | Estádio do Morumbi | 131,000 | N/A | N/A |
| 21 March 1981 | São Paulo | Brazil | Estádio do Morumbi | 120,000 | N/A | N/A |
| Gluttons for Punishment |||||||
| 25 September 1981 | Caracas | Venezuela | Poliedro de Caracas | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 26 September 1981 | Caracas | Venezuela | Poliedro de Caracas | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 27 September 1981 | Caracas | Venezuela | Poliedro de Caracas | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 9 October 1981 | Monterrey | Mexico | Estadio Universitario | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 17 October 1981 | Puebla | Mexico | Estadio Ignacio Zaragoza | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 18 October 1981 | Puebla | Mexico | Estadio Ignacio Zaragoza | N/A | N/A | N/A |

### Cancelled concerts

| 16 August 1980 | New York City | Battery Park Open Air | Cancelled. |
| 17 August 1980 | Cincinnati | Riverfront Coliseum | Cancelled. |
| 2 September 1980 | New Haven | Veterans Memorial Coliseum | Cancelled. |
| 5 September 1980 | Lexington | Rupp Arena | Cancelled. |
| 9 September 1980 | Madison | Dane County Coliseum | Cancelled. |
| 13 March 1981 | Porto Alegre | Estádio Olímpico Monumental | Cancelled. |
| 27 March 1981 | Rio de Janeiro | Maracanã Stadium | Rescheduled to October 1981, then cancelled. |
| 29 September 1981 | Caracas | Poliedro de Caracas | Cancelled due to Romulo Betancourt's national mourning period. |
| 30 September 1981 | Caracas | Poliedro de Caracas | Cancelled due to Romulo Betancourt's national mourning period. |
| 10 October 1981 | Monterrey | Estadio Universitario | Cancelled. |
| 15 October 1981 | Guadalajara | Estadio Jalisco | Cancelled. |
| 16 October 1981 | Guadalajara | Estadio Jalisco | Cancelled. |

## Personnel

* Freddie Mercury – lead vocals, piano, guitar ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love"), tambourine.
* Brian May – guitar, backing vocals, piano.
* Roger Taylor – drums, timpani, lead vocals ("I'm in Love With My Car"), backing vocals.
* John Deacon – bass guitar, additional vocals