Merely a month after concluding their "The Game Tour" on November 24th and 25th, 1981, Queen took the stage at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for two consecutive nights in front of approximately 16,000 attendees. Their sole purpose was to capture their live concert experience on film for a cinematic release. Montreal was chosen as the venue due to the audience's reputation for being "louder than the monitors" during the band's previous visit, and as the audience recording attests, the atmosphere at these shows was anything but lifeless.
The misconception of a subdued audience stems from the deliberate choice made by the project's director and producer, Saul Swimmer, to mix the audience microphones at a low level, intending for cinema audiences to behave as if they were present at an actual concert. Furthermore, Swimmer made requests that conflicted with Queen's beliefs, such as demanding that the audience remain well-behaved, that the band perform the same setlist on both nights, and even that they replicate their exact movements to facilitate easier editing. This led to an confrontational dynamic, with the band pushing back against Swimmer's demands, evidenced by Freddie Mercury's wardrobe changes during the encores and the addition of "Jailhouse Rock" to the setlist on the first night alone.
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