Rock legends Queen would not have played Bristol this week if the arena had been built in the city centre, insists Marvin Rees. The mayor says the original site, now known as Temple Island, had room only for “one or two” trucks but the iconic band brought 40 articulated lorries when they became the first act to grace the YTL Bristol Arena at the Brabazon Hangars.
Queen, fronted by lead singer Adam Lambert, have been secretly rehearsing at the former Filton Airfield for their upcoming Rhapsody tour and played some of their classic hits on Monday, May 23, to a small, invited audience. Mr Rees, who scrapped the original plans for what was then known as Arena Island in September 2018, told a fortnightly press conference on Wednesday that his decision was crucial in attracting the world’s biggest pop artists to the city.
He said Queen’s performance, which developer YTL said marked a “key milestone” in the venue’s journey to becoming a top-five global music arena, was a “very significant” moment that showed “what the venue could be”. Bristol’s Labour mayor said: “If you line up all the questions around the arena, it just makes sense.
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“One of those facts is that when you look out the back, for a band the size of Queen you have to think about how much equipment they bring. There were about 40 artic trucks out the back at that venue for Queen. I heard Beyonce brings about 50.
“The city centre arena site has room for one or two, maximum. So for any band that comes, are you going to get a band the size of Queen if they’re going to spend a day-and-a-half with the logistical challenge of how they sequence their trucks in and out? It’s not going to happen.
“At the Brabazon they just line them up, open up the back so the equipment is out, it’s back in in a day, they haven’t lost two or three days of gig time where they could have been earning revenue. Also there are some quite phenomenal numbers when you just look at that building, the amount of carbon capture that is already in that building that has been saved by not constructing a new venue.
“Talking to the engineer, it’s not just about the steel and concrete involved, it’s about the energy used in excavating the land to pour the concrete in, the transport back and forth to remove the soil. So much carbon has been saved it’s incredible. What we’ve just shown is that we will have a venue that is a world-class venue that will attract the biggest acts in the world now, not a venue that will bumble around about 3,000 or 4,000 who attend the events.”
In the early weeks of covid, Mr Rees said an arena on Temple Island would have been cancelled because of the pandemic and that the private sector was shouldering the financial burden and risk at the Filton location. Queen’s appearance this week came 45 years after they performed at Bristol Hippodrome.
The band chose the new arena to complete full production rehearsals in a five-day residency. YTL has confirmed the 17,000-capacity venue is “on track” to open in 2024.
