2 March 1970 – Freddie Bulsara begins rehearsals with his new band – Sour Milk Sea

On 1 March 1970, High Street, Leatherhead, Surrey, UK – Freddie Bulsara auditioned for Sour Milk Sea band, after seeing a ‘vocalist wanted’ in the ‘Melody Maker

Rob Tyrell recalls seeing him for the first time: “Freddie auditioned with us in a youth club in crypt of a church in Dorking. We were all blown away. He was very confident. I don’t think it was any great surprise to him when we offered him the job.”

Jeremy Gallop agrees: “He had an immense amount of charisma, which is why we chose him. Although, we were actually spoilt for choice that day. Normally at auditions, you’d get four or five guys who were rubbish, but we had two other strong contenders. One was a black guy, who had the voice of God, but he didn’t have the looks of Fred, and the other person was Bridget St. John.

Chris Chesney: “I remember Freddie being really energetic and moving around a lot at the audition, coming up and flashing the mike at me during guitar solos. He was impressive. There was an immediate vibe. He had a great vocal range. He sang falsetto; nobody else had the bottle to do that. He said ‘Do your own songs and I’ll make up my own words’ It was very clever and very good.”

3 March 1986 – Queen film the ‘hobo’ footage for ‘A Kind Of Magic’ promo video, at the disused Playhouse Theatre in London’s Northumberland Avenue at Charing Cross. It was directed by Russell Mulcahy

The video was Queen’s first to include animation since ‘Save Me,’ with computer graphics bringing the characters from the cover of the new album to dazzling life as, among other things, the band’s backing singers.

The theatre was once used by the BBC to record programming for radio, and this was the inspiration for the video itself – Freddie is the magician who returns to the abandoned theatre where he was once a star and turns three down-and-out squatters (Brian, Roger and John) into his band. The shoot itself was somewhat less magical – the theatre lacked central heating and was very cold, much to the discomfort of the band and the crew.

The results spoke for themselves however – the single was an enormous hit, reaching number three in the UK singles charts in March of 1986, and hitting number one in no less than 35 other countries – helped in no small part by both the Highlander connection and the promotional video, which proved so popular that it was released as a VHS video single (the first of its kind) in October of 1986 together with the promo for Who Wants To Live Forever.

That, and it’s just a damn catchy song. 💛👑💛

👉👉 https://youtu.be/0p_1QSUsbsM

2 March 1979 – Queen flew to Mountain Studios in Montreux to begin working on “Live Killers” album.

1979 was considered a year of temporarily suspended activity for Queen. They had been working virtually non-stop since 1970, and they had weathered quite a lot together: financial woes, managerial disagreements and harsh words slung by none other than the press.

Brian later admitted, there were times when the band thought about packing it all in, but by this time, they had established themselves as canny businessmen with a keen eye on the music industry market. They still believed they were a studio band more than anything else, and found the prospect of releasing a live album tedious. Queen’s live shows were more about presentation and theatrics than actual performances; they weren’t masters of improvisation, but their live performances were best seen in person, or, at the very least, on a cinema screen. No wonder, then, the band were less than thrilled about releasing a live album.

“Live albums are inescapable, really. Everyone tells you that you have to do them, and when you do, you find that they’re very often not of mass appeal, and in the absence of a fluke condition you sell your live album to the converted, the people who already know your stuff and come to your concerts. So, if you add up the number of people who have seen you over the last few years, that’s very roughly the number who will buy your live album unless you have a hit single on it.” ~ Brian May

Queen decided 1979 would be an off-year from the studio, consisting almost entirely of live shows. They have journeyed over much of the world (excluding North America) during the year.

‘Live Killers,’ as it was eventually titled, was culled from their three-month odyssey across Europe, though they never documented which songs derived from which shows. However, recently, it’s been speculated that most of the recorded material came from Frankfurt (2 February) and Lyon (17 February) performances, and that the segments from those shows were selected and spliced to create the perfect end-product. As a result, though there may not be many overdubs. (Brian vehemently claims that there are absolutely none), most of the errors – and we know there isn’t a single band that can perform perfectly night after night – were patched up with superior segments to the point that any one song may have originated from more than one show.

However, considering that this is Queen’s first live album, there is a lot to applaud and appreciate.

It is no secret that some of the Queen band members were not entirely happy with the final mix of the album, but even so the fans loved it and it was a significant hit.

The album sold swiftly as Queen’s live shows were now legendary and millions of fans wanted to re-create that awesome sound in their homes. The band’s already famous reputation as one of the world’s greatest rock attractions was finally on record for all to hear!