16 September 1980, Queen performed at the James H. Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa, USA 🇺🇸 with Dakota. “The Game Tour”
When Queen hit the stage, after ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and ‘We Will Rock You (fast)’ Freddie said to the audience: “Hello Ames, Iowa… home of the Cyclones!” and everybody truly went nuts! That’s because back in the day, the Iowa State University Cyclones were a strong basketball team.
Here’s a fantastic fan story written by Dave about his experience: 💛
I first saw Queen in Chicago on the Day at the Races Tour. It was the show where someone from the balcony dropped eggs onto the stage and Brian slipped and fell during The Millionaire Waltz. We had lousy seats behind the stage.
In 1980 they were coming to Iowa State University where I was going to school. Tickets went on sale the day that the dorms opened. My plan was to drive the 4 hours from home early that morning to get in line for good seats.
As it turned out, one week earlier, my family left on a vacation without me since I had to go back to school. The last thing my mother said to me before they left was “Paint the house”.
I had a better plan.
I packed up everything I owned and drove back to school a week early and set up camp outside the box office.
The box office was next to a huge parking lot with grassy boulevards here and there. I pitched my tent on the nearest boulevard right next to a sidewalk that was lighted from dusk to dawn. I unscrewed one of the lights and screwed in an electrical socket. So for one week while waiting for tickets to go on sale I had my television, stereo and hot plate working from dusk to dawn.
I arrived on a Tuesday and was pretty much by myself until Friday. Other people began camping out on the weekend and by the following Tuesday when tickets went on sale it was a huge party.
Needless to say, I bought the first 15 tickets and filled up the center section of the first row and some of the side sections with all of my friends for one of the best concerts of my life.
Amazing!
@Queen Live / Concert archive
