Ratty's Queen Memories

Queen Laminated passes began their raunchy reputation with the Fat Bottomed Girl for the 1978 Jazz USA tour. These were followed by illustrations of various female forms by David Morris, an art director friend from New York of Tour Manager Gerry Stickells. The Works tour had a novel metal pass engraved with an image of a female construction worker being spanked by a rotating machine. This synchronicity of The Works industrial feel extended to luggage tags too. There were some photographic passes, including the final Magic Tour pass that had the theatrical message of putting ‘bums on seats’

The Magic Tour was Queen’s largest in terms of size of show and the amount of personnel needed for the outdoor venues. However, many people who were issued laminates did not work on all shows: scaffolders, drivers, caterers, heads of lighting, sound, staging, freight and trucking companies etc. There were also many laminates issued politically; to record company people, promoters, TV and film bosses, ‘important’ guests and friends.

The reality was a mess. Passes could be handed on, lent or even sold...

The solution was to have a pass with a large number 2 overprinted for all the shows after Wembley until the final one at Knebworth. You can see from the images below that Staff passes had run out and so a guest pass was written over in felt pen.......

The crew were usually issued with one laminated pass and the threat of a fine if you lost it. There were spares issued to key members of the crew - such as myself!! This was useful for my ‘special friends’ who would naturally like to accompany me backstage.......