Queen December 1979 at The Brighton Centre, England.
Just turned 18, I had been a huge fan for 5 years, and tickets for any Queen gig were impossible to get, always sold out, in those days you had to either visit the venue and stand in line to buy a tcket or order by post, therefore unless you were close to the venue or told in advance of a tour, you had zero chance of seeing the band. Anyway got lucky and bought 2 standing tickets, booked a cheap hotel for the night and arrived midday to get in line for a decent spot to watch the band. Doors opened at 7pm I was very near the start of the queue, so I run to the stage barrier and stake my claim.
Queen had decided to play a number of 'small' venues on The Crazy Tour' - Brighton Centre as a venue was just such a place, capacity tiny at around 3000, can you imagine these days reincarnation permitting.
This was a band who had sold out gigs of 250,000 in their pocket...
So there I was, leaning on a barrier which was actaully part of the stage, no distance maybe 2 feet from the stage itself, I could reach out and touch the stage floor, that close. Beside me, under my left arm was a stage monitor for Freddie Mercury whilst at his piano, maybe 5 feet in front of me, this was just great.
At around 9 pm ish' the huge ( for the time ) 'Crown' of the lighting rig began to rise - from a position maybe three feet above the top cymbals on the drum riser - a sub bass note rumbled from the PA and lightning effects ( with Thunder ) filled the auditorium, jeez this was exciting, then the band launched into a fast version of We Will Rock You.
I cannot adequately descride how profound this moment was for me. I was close enough to make eye contact with the musicians, the volume was all pervading to the point that no sound could be heard from my mouth as I shouted some expletive to my then girlfriend standing shoulder to shoulder with me, the heat from the lights was as strong as any sunny beach I had been to, but it was multi coloured and layed with smoke, OH MY GOD this IS HEAVEN.
The rest of the gig was a masterclass in 'How to be the Best Touring Band on the Planet' certainly at that time, maybe ever.
There, you did ask. lol