City Hall, Newcastle
Monday, 21 September 2026
VIOLENCE INSANE IN A BEAUTIFUL WORLD TOUR
Other than a quick clarification to confirm that I am talking about the right Roger Taylor of Queen, rather than Duran Duran, I don’t think I need to spend too long telling you about the man. If you don’t know him, and his main band, then you probably have quite possibly been stuck on some remote island for the last 50 years. But to those of us familiar with Queen, any of his seven solo albums, or his collaboration projects with the great and the good, I will save the platitudes and get on with the review.
I know it is shameful and I should support all musicians but I am someone who can take or leave support acts so my concert companion suggest a trip to the local rock bar for a pint and I felt that it would have been rude to refuse, especially as he was paying. Therefore, I missed Freddie Lennox’s set. I’ll survive, as I am sure he will. But we made sure that we arrived and were seated in plenty of time for the main attraction. The venue, which was rich in musical history, was packed and all the bodies were already making it feel like an oven warming up for the Sunday roast, which could only get hotter.
Dry ice aplenty and the usual audience anticipation added to the atmosphere. The intro music started, then ended as the band came on, with Roger in dark glasses and black velvet jacket, he was every inch the rock legend, albeit a little wide in the girth these days. Then he began with one of his solo pieces, Strange Frontier. Despite his age, 77, it was a high energy belter, and it showed that he had no intention of giving people some laid back easy listening experience, and the crowd, singing along, loved it.
He followed that up with more of his own work, Nation of Haircuts and Gangsters are Running This World and, despite having so many of his solo albums, it was only then that I realised how much social commentary he managed to fit into his songs. Messages about the decline of British industry and how the world leaders are hardly trustworthy and honest, all delivered in a powerful but intricate way that it would be, like I did, easy to miss and just listen to the music. He added to the tally of his solo works until he came to his first Queen song, the self-penned I’m In Love With My Car. The audience went wild and proved that they knew the lyrics as well as he did.
Then it was back to his own songs and one of the standout tunes was Violence Insane, from his latest album. Thanks to having two mics he was able to duet with himself with both ‘dark and light’ voices and when I say dark I mean that I have never heard a more sinister voice on a song and it somehow managed to capture the spirit of violence perfectly. Chilling but with hope in there too. Next up was a song that I can identify with. I think it was written as a joke aimed at all those people who seem to think that other people have never seen a beefburger or pizza before and feel the urge to take snaps of their plates of grub and post it on Facebook. It might have been tongue in cheek, but Don’t Photograph Food was far from being some kiddie’s bubble-gum song.
Throughout the performance something had been bugging me about his voice. Thanks to age having left him with a gravelly tone I suddenly realised that, despite looking like Tom Jones in his more recent silver fox hair and beard phase, he sounded a lot like Tina Turner and for the rest of the night I could not get that thought out of my mind. And now I have planter that thought in your mind, you might hear it too, and hate me for it.
Although it is hard to think of These are the Days of Our Lives as anything but a song delivered by Freddie Mercury. To me he put his heart and soul into it and there could be nobody who could sing it better, but Roger gave it a damned good try, and the lyrics still had the hairs on my arms standing on end with their beauty, eloquence and resonance. Following on with another Queen song, Tyler Warren, the drummer, took over the vocal for Rock It (Prime Jive) while Roger went off stage for a break. Although I had heard it before it is not a song on my regular play list, but it was sung with such energy that it would have been easy to forget the original.
Rested and having taken off the velvet jacket, Roger returned and delivered a lovely pared back acoustic guitar, care of Tina Keys, and vocals rendition of John Lennon’s Jealous Guy. This was followed by a couple more tongue in cheek political songs. Mr Murdoch, about the media tycoon and Chumps which could either be seen (or heard) as a swipe at a certain American president or, like me, pretty much any current British Prime Minister (but of course it you could choose any world leader depending on your point of view).
Back to the Queen catalogue and this time it was Under Pressure, with the duet vocals provided by Tina Keys. She was no David Bowie but it was still a fantastic rendition and it had the audience singing along while doing the full “Queen” raised arm claps. Man on Fire by song name and his singing and the bands performance were on fire by nature as well. If you are not familiar with this song, find it on YouTube, hit play and crank it up to full volume and that might give you a hint as to what they performed on stage.
If anyone was thinking that the energy level couldn’t get any higher, they broke into a phrenetic cover of Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll, followed by a fast and funky rendition of Kind of Magic. If they were not already on their feet the crowd were now and savouring every note with synchronised their clapping.
There was the obligatory leaving of the stage and when they returned, for the encore, Roger was wearing a magnificent gold braided North African shirt. I can say magnificent because I have one just like it. My goodness he has style! And he was straight into Beautiful World, again from his latest album. A song of hope in uncertain times. This was followed by the penultimate song, Come on Summer (It’s Party Time) which was delivered partly with him at the second drum kit performing a drum battle with Tyler Warren.
Sadly, like all good things, it came to an end but not without a rousing rendition of Radio Ga Ga. And why not? If you are going to end a brilliant concert, and it is something you’ve co-written, then do it. The crowd loved it and once again did their clapping and arm salutes like all true Queen fans would.
Although Roger could easily have rested on his many laurels this was not just some legacy act with by the numbers Queen songs and a smattering of solo stuff. This was the real deal and thanks to wise selection of backing musicians who proved that they could exceed expectations with every note, he proved that he was simply the best.
[Our thanks to Mark Dobson for the photos used in this article]
SETLIST
Strange Frontier
A Nation of Haircuts
Gangsters are Running This World
Surrender
I’m In Love With My Car
Absolutely Anything
Violence Insane
Don’t Photograph Food
These are the Days of Our Lives
Rock It (Prime Jive)
Jealous Guy
Dear Mr Murdoch
Chumps
Under Pressure
Man on Fire
Rock and Roll
A Kind of Magic
~ Encore:
Beautiful World
Come On Summer (It’s Party Time)
Radio Ga Ga
MUSICIANS
Roger Taylor – Vocals, Drums, Tambourine
Spike Edney – Keyboards, Kazoo, Whistle
Tyler Warren – Drums & Vocals
Tina Keys – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Violin, Keyboards
Neil Fairclough – Bass
Christian Mendoza – Guitars
LINKS
Roger Taylor – Website | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram
