Queen and Adam Lambert are heading back to Australia for the first time since 2014 – and are promising to dig deep into the band's back catalogue beyond the hits.
The iconic British rock band – or 50 per cent of them at least in Brian May and Roger Taylor – are hitting the road again with American Idol alumnus Adam Lambert, touring the US and Europe this year before reaching Australia in February.
The band will perform in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth over their two-week tour. Tickets go on sale June 23.
There's hints that the band may centre the tour around their 1977 album News of the World, marking its 40th anniversary. It remains the band's biggest-selling studio album and includes anthems such as We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions.
Queen's drummer Roger Taylor said the show will be very different to what they've performed before.
"We're planning on doing stuff we either haven't done before or haven't done for a long time," he said. We started as an albums band, that's what we were. The fact that we had hits was just a byproduct."
Guitarist Brian May adds: "The general public know the hits, so you've got to cater for that. But we can chuck in a few things that people really don't expect. We'll do quite a bit more of that this time around."
Adam Lambert has been touring with the band since 2011, a collaboration first triggered by performing with Queen on American Idol in 2009.
Queen's original, inimitable frontman Freddie Mercury died of AIDS-related complications in 1991, aged 45. The band's other original member, bassist John Deacon, retired from the group in 1997.
Adam Lambert said the tour will be very different from their last global circuit a few years ago.
"Obviously we will still be playing the big hit songs you know and love from Queen, but we thought it would be good to challenge ourselves a bit," he said. "Change it up a little bit, change the visuals, change all the technology, change the set list to some degree. We will probably be pulling some other songs out of the Queen catalogue which we haven't done before, which I am very excited about."
The tour production will be done by U2 and the Rolling Stones collaborator Ric Lipson, with lighting by Rob Sinclair who has worked with Adele, Kylie Minogue and on the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics.
The touring band will include Spike Edney on keyboards, Neil Fairclough on bass and Tyler Warren on percussion.
Queen + Adam Lambert Australian tour 2018 dates:
Sydney – Qudos Bank Arena, February 21
Brisbane – Entertainment Centre, February 24
Adelaide – Entertainment Centre, February 27
Melbourne – Rod Laver Arena, March 2
Perth – Perth Arena, March 6
Tickets go on sale through Ticketek.com.au on June 23 at 10am. A Telstra presale starts June 20, 10am, see telstra.com/music.
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