{"id":29272,"date":"2025-05-06T05:30:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T09:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29272"},"modified":"2025-04-15T08:15:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T12:15:48","slug":"killer-queen-guaranteed-to-blow-your-mind-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/06\/killer-queen-guaranteed-to-blow-your-mind-part-2-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Killer Queen: Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind (Part 2 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

How did that lead to the band getting going?<\/b><\/p>\n

The idea of tribute bands was really only just starting then. At the time there was this one Band called Bjorn Again that played the music of ABBA; they weren\u2019t even called<\/i> a tribute band. But I went back to university and said, \u201cMaybe we should do a concert\u201d of Queen\u2019s music. So we got ourselves together, and we rehearsed and rehearsed. A friend of ours called Amanda said she wanted to make costumes for us.<\/p>\n

And then bizarrely, we got offered this headline spot in the middle of London for our first ever show. I wasn\u2019t sure were ready, but someone had passed a photograph of me to the venue\u2019s entertainments officer. He\u2019d forgotten to renew his entertainment license, so he couldn\u2019t put on a major band like Nirvana or the Pixies or Blur or whoever was big at the time. So the only thing he could put on was a student band.<\/p>\n

And I said, \u201cWell, no one\u2019s going to come to a ball to see a student band!\u201d He said, \u201cThey will do if it\u2019s a tribute<\/i> band.\u201d But I said no. I didn\u2019t think were ready. I was scared. And I wasn\u2019t sure people would like the idea of [a band] pretending to be Queen: Was it sacrilegious?<\/p>\n

And then he said, \u201cNo, go on. I\u2019ve got faith in you. Please give this some thought.\u201d So I gave some thought and said, \u201cYes, let\u2019s just do it, because I\u2019m never going to get an opportunity like this again.\u201d I thought, \u201cEven if we do one show, wouldn\u2019t it be great to do that one brilliant show in front of loads of students as opposed to trying to get a gig in a pub or something?\u201d So that\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How did that show go?<\/b><\/p>\n

That first gig took off, and the entertainments officer said, \u201cI want to manage you.\u201d He booked us into big clubs like the Marquee, and he handled our marketing. He was very clever and savvy. And we were just shell shocked! This was like an abstract project, and it suddenly went from an abstract to \u201cOh, right, this is happening!\u201d<\/p>\n

Within about a year, we were in the West End; we had the first-ever tribute to anyone in the West End. There were musical shows \u2013 jukebox shows \u2013 but there wasn\u2019t a tribute band having their own evening where there was a concert. Then we were on national TV, and we started getting loads of work abroad.
\nBut you were all students at the time; how did that work? <\/b><\/p>\n

Right. And the students that I was with all had to go back to university, because it was too much to do [both]. But I had already taken a year off to do a theater show, which fell through. I was footloose and fancy free for a year, so I carried on.<\/p>\n

Where did you find new musicians?<\/b><\/p>\n

At first I recruited some Notting Hill musicians who were a lot older than me; it was like being invaded by a bunch of pirates! It was really awkward, because they didn\u2019t understand tributes. They weren\u2019t that bothered about Queen. And it was like, \u201cOh, no, this music is really tricky.\u201d Whereas before, we were all students and we were all getting on the same side. Now suddenly I am with people that are going, \u201cWhy do we have to play exactly like another band? I want to express myself, man.\u201d So we had quite a few teething troubles for a while, finding the right bunch of people.<\/p>\n

But it kept on. It kept on growing and growing, and we started winning awards. And then, when the internet came along, I started marketing the band. At the time, Queen weren\u2019t touring, and it looked like they might not tour again. Suddenly the arenas got in touch and said, \u201cWould you like to come and play some arenas?\u201d And again, my first reaction was, \u201cBloody hell, no!\u201d And then I thought, \u201cWell, if we get them to put all the big lights on, and we insist on the big Queen experience, if that\u2019s what they\u2019re offering, it could work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, I was in the same position as that first-ever show. I thought, \u201cI\u2019ve got to do it, because at least if this is the last gig we ever do, this is a daydream that became real overnight.\u201d I know it doesn\u2019t sound<\/i> like a daydream, because were rehearsing and marketing ourselves. But I didn\u2019t seriously expect it. So I just said yes.<\/p>\n

And then America got in touch. We played Red Rocks and places like that, and different arenas all over the world. And we still do arenas every couple of years, depending on our touring schedule. We play prestigious places like Austin City Limits.
\nI\u2019ve \u201cjust said yes\u201d at strategic times in my life, and it seems to have worked out all right.<\/p>\n

What makes Queen and their music special for you?<\/b><\/p>\n

The lovely thing is to share all this with audiences that love the music. They\u2019re beautiful songs.
\nI think a lot about Queen as a band; not just Freddie. I think of their musicality, their personality and their sense of humor. I\u2019ve never met them, and I don\u2019t know whether I ever will or not. But I\u2019ve spent so much time in the company of their songs that those songs feel like friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One\u2026 How did that lead to the band getting going? The idea of tribute bands was really only just starting then. At the time there was this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,62],"tags":[5668,1764],"class_list":["post-29272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-rawk","tag-killer-queen","tag-queen","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29272"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29281,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29272\/revisions\/29281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}