Queen And Freddie Mercury: Concert Review

The band I will be writing about is the band Queen considered a Rock Band. It was said to be recorded at Montreal Forum. Brian May was an Astronomy student at Imperial College and bass player Tim Staffell who was also a student at Imperial College, they both decided to form a group. Brian put a flyer on the college notice board for a “Ginger Baker type” drummer, and a young student called Roger Taylor tried out and got the job. They called the group “Smile”. Smile were signed to Mercury Records in 1969 and had their first recording at Trident Studios that year. Tim Staffell was at Ealing College of Art with Freddie, and he introduced him to the band. Freddie became a fan of theirs. Freddie would come to join them in 1970. About a year later John Deacon was recruited for the band Queen which Freddie suggest should be their band name. Freddie Mercury’s big influences were Elvis Presley and David Bowie. Overall Queens influence were The Beatles. Queen has influenced artist like Backstreet Boys and Shawn Mendez. In an iHeart radio interview Shawn Mendez said about Freddie, ‘Freddie Mercury is one of the most free people ever to watch perform. And I just think of how he was just so out there, and that’s why people loved him.’ I would describe the sound of Queen as electric. All their songs included this electric feeling.

The lead singer Freddie Mercury sings in melodies but also shouts and screams. He does all of the above which is surprising which I think fans enjoy. According to interviews all the songs were written by various members of the band. Freddie Mercury and Brian May contributed to the hit songs “We Are the Champions” and “We Will Rock You” and they were inspired by audiences in a venue they were performing. In an interview with Freddie Mercury he said

‘I was thinking about football when I wrote it (We Will Rock You). I wanted a participation song, something that the fans could latch on to. Of course, I’ve given it more theatrical subtlety than an ordinary football chant. I suppose it could also be construed as my version of ‘I Did It My Way’ We have made it, and it certainly wasn’t easy. No bed of roses as the song says. And it’s still not easy.’

The songs weren’t mostly about anger but telling a story or being inspirational. The way each performer was dressed was different from each other, at least that’s how the concert I saw looked like. Each band member had a different hair style but in their earlier albums almost all of them had an afro kind of looking hair. Their hair style changed as the years progressed even their wardrobe. Freddie Mercury the lead singer seems to be the one that goes to engage with other band members doing their live performances. The others react to the way he engages. There are four instruments used to play their music. You have Freddie on piano, Brian on guitar, John on bass, and Roger on drums. This music of theirs I like, it’s interesting because I grew up listening to their music either in shows or movies. I had heard of their songs I just didn’t know who they were. I like how on some of their songs they gradually pick up the beat, or they keep the beat steady throughout the song, but the lyrics are really engaging. They tend to do a lot of solos of each instrument depending on the song they are performing.

I honestly have never watched a rock concert before this class. I didn’t think I would be interested enough to go through the whole concert. I started watching a little bit of it and it caught my attention. The concert started off with the stage lighting up with different colored lights. Freddie started singing their hit “We Will Rock You”. Everyone tried their best to make an exploding introduction. From my perspective it was an exploding introduction. I am a musician myself and the way that bass sounded in the deep side sounded perfect. The way drums accompanied the bass was a masterpiece. The guitar served as an addition to the group, what made more exhilarating was the solo Brian did in the middle of the song. My explanation of the introduction does no justice because I believe that’s what really grabbed my attention. For someone who was at home watching from their computer and not being in that environment I was able to feel like as if I were in there with the rest of the fans. Queens “Let Me Entertain You” was the next attention grabber. It wasn’t a performance that started slowing or anything the beginning of the concert started fast instantly, so you being there had to be ready from the moment you stepped in that venue. The venue wasn’t filmed as much just the people in the front of the stage were filmed other than that only the band Queen was filmed which I found very interesting it wasn’t a distraction anywhere to come up cause the whole concert was just focused on them.

Freddie’s wardrobe in the concert I watched he was dressed as if he was there to have fun, he was there to be representable. He had white jeans with a white muscle shirt that had the Superman S on it and wore adidas shoes I believe. Not even halfway through the concert he takes off his muscle shirt. What I found so impressing that his performance looked so spontaneous and reckless, but it was all choreographed. From when he got on the piano to perform and then once he would get back to singing, he had a staff member just through him the mic exactly as he got off the bench. I think what caught audience’s attention was the constant movement. Freddie would be moving up and down camera following him through his performance. His facial expressions and the way he talked to the fans just made it seem as if he were a fan just as much as they were.

I found it was a nice small break for all the performers when roger does a drum solo a long drum solo too. After a fast-paced concert, I believe it was a good performance. John Deacon I felt was more kept to himself during the whole performance. He was just focused on playing his bass and that was about it. Freddie thought the concert as an actual performance type of situation than anybody else. The second one was Brian on the guitar he contributed to performance and his facial expressions just said a lot of how much he was having a good time. Roger, I believe if he had the ability to move around, he would have. He was playing the drums and singing, and it seem he wanted to be part of everything Freddie was doing. His addition to the vocals were perfect they accompanied Freddie’s voice. Bohemian Rhapsody was probably the most contributing song for all of them. It was one of the longest songs and required different singing style for it.

I enjoyed doing this assignment I ended up watching the whole concert in one sitting, I thought I was going to watch it in two sittings, but Queens performance was spot on. I wonder if they would’ve still performed all together if Freddie would’ve still been alive. I wonder what energy Freddie would’ve had at an older age. Watching this concert made me see that he loved performing for others and he didn’t care that much how he looked as long as he was appealing to others.