My second consecutive night of tribute acts. But this one was a definite grade above. Just on a wholly different level to the Doors gig the night before. Larger venue - Shepherds Bush Empire. More of a show. Probably a step up in the ability and quality of the performers. Well no, definitely a step up.
This outfit has the specific authorisation of Queen drummer Roger Taylor. And lead singer Marc Martel has every bit of the voice of Freddie Mercury. Quite incredible. They performed in two halve, plus an encore of course. All one's favourites were there. While they sounded like the real thing, they were not playing as Queen (there were five of them rather than four). And as Marc Martel was at pains to point out, there were no drawn on Freddie moustaches or Brian May wigs. They were paying tribute to, not acting as, Queen.
Also clearly this band (all Americans or Canadians) were making a good living from this. They tour the world doing this. In a way sad as Marc Martel had a career with a band of his own, but that didn't catch on the way playing Freddie Mercury has done. As I remarked to my friends, there are people who can play and sing brilliantly, like him and the band, but the real skill is coming up with the songs.
The audience loved every moment of it. And a very varied audience. There was a little old lady in front of me who could easily have been in her eighties. I was with two teenage boys. They sang along lustily, knowing all the songs. But then so did almost everyone in the place. It was one massive singalong.
And the nice thing was I could see how much the boys enjoyed it all. They are far too polite to say otherwise. By the beaming faces said it all. You can't fake that. But I think if you had done an audience satisfaction survey it would have come up five stars from everyone.
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