When Queen announced the opening leg of their 1982 Hot Space tour, only two English shows were listed on their European itinerary: a May 29 stop at Manchester's Old Trafford Stadium (home of Manchester United FC) and a June 5 visit to London's Highbury Stadium (home of Arsenal FC). Ultimately, however, neither show took place as originally scheduled: the proposed London gig was moved to Milton Keynes Bowl due to concerns over noise levels in the residential N5 area, while the planned Manchester gig was switched to Elland Road stadium in Leeds because - somewhat randomly - the date coincided with Pope John Paul II's British tour plans.
The first ever visit to the UK from the reigning head of the Catholic Church was kinda a big deal. Three years earlier, 2.5 million Irish Catholics had attended Masses performed by the Supreme Pontiff on his debut Irish tour, and Pope John Paul II's British tour itinerary included open air Masses scheduled in London, Coventry, Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff. Reading this, you might assume that the issue for Queen was that their proposed May 29 visit to Old Trafford directly clashed with JP II's planned Eucharistic service at the city's Heaton Park, at which 200,000 worshippers were expected, but not so, for His Holiness was not due in the 0161 area until May 31. The issue, put bluntly, was shithouses, or specifically the lack of them.
