Brian May’s Sphere dreams are taking flight
About a month ago, Brian May attended the “Wizard of Oz” premiere at Sphere. He was not there just to traipse the Yellow Brick Road.
The knighted guitar legend says he wants Queen + Adam Lambert to play the Bulbous Wonder. He told Rolling Stone he was “blown away” by the venue’s production effects. This was after seeing the Eagles play there.
“It’s one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my life,” May said in an interview marking the 50th anniversary of the rock anthem “Bohemian Rhapsody.” “Such a wonderful marriage of sound and wonderful music and incredible visual contact content. And yeah, it’s got my mind working.”
May added that he and the band are “having conversations” about a Vegas show. It wasn’t clear if those conversations were internal or involved someone who could make such a residency a reality — Sphere Entertainment’s James Dolan, for instance.
Asked if this means Queen is destined for Sphere, a venue reps issued the familiar, “We do not comment on any artists performing at Sphere except for those who have been announced.”
May also told RS, “I’m very keen on the Sphere. I sat there watching the Eagles, thinking, ‘We should do this. The stuff that we could bring to this would be stupendous.’ So, yeah, I would like to do it.”
The band, with Lambert as front man, previously played a soaring residency dubbed “The Crown Jewels” at Park Theater (today’s Dolby Live) from Sept. 1 to 22, 2018.
May joins Lars Ulrich of Metallica as a rock star with designs on Sphere. “I’m not going to confirm anything because there’s nothing to confirm,” Ulrich said on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show in August. “But I’m not going to deny it because we’re all such fans of this venue.”
Ringo Starr said in a Zoom interview and also during his “Starr Art” exhibit at Animazing Gallery at The Venetian’s Grand Canal Shoppes that he is a fan. Starr, too, saw the Eagles there. He and Joe Walsh are brothers-in-law, married to sisters Barbara Bach and Marjorie Bach, respectively.
“It was great! Ah, it was far out,” Starr said in an appearance at the gallery Sept. 17. “There’s a show, the band’s down there, and then, suddenly, there’s like seven miles of beach, and you’re sort of on it.
“And the craziest one is, we’re watching, and between us and the band, people were swimming. Only illusions, but they were swimming. It’s, like, ‘That’s so real!’ I loved it.”
The Who, playing their “Song Is Over” tour stop Sunday at MGM Grand Garden, has dropped into Sphere speculation.
From Rock Cellar Magazine’s account of their Sunday show at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. “The screen display, meanwhile, was especially impressive — and wouldn’t have felt out of place at a venue like Sphere Las Vegas, should the band ever have aims of taking its live show to the state-of-the-art facility for a run of gigs (which wouldn’t count as touring, after all).”
The band has pledged this will be its last tour. Sphere is not a tour stop.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
