What was Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor’s visionary first show like?

The scene became famous thanks to the movie Bohemian Rhapsody: Freddie Mercury He goes to see the group Smile and offers to be a singer. Reluctantly, Brian May and Roger Taylor They accept it and the three make their live debut on Saturday, June 27, 1970 in the small town of Truro, in the town of Cornwall, in the extreme southwest of England. Exactly 54 years ago.

It was the beginning of what would become What in, as they quickly changed their names at the suggestion of Freddie, who still used his real surname: Bulsara. And the following year the bassist joined John Deaconcompleting the band’s classic lineup.

That recital at Tsuro City Hall was the origin of Queen, with music that still had strong hard rock roots, without the orchestral and vocal arrangements of later. They came from a soul stage and were embarking on a more post-Zeppelin rock sound. Mike Grose was on bass, but he only lasted three shows. He was replaced by Barry Mitchell, who lasted eleven.

The set list included some covers and also two songs that they would record on their first albums: Son and daughter, from the 1973 debut album, and Stone cold crazyof Sheer heart attack of 1974.

The founding members of Queen met in west London in the late ’60s. Guitarist Brian May had built his famous guitar with his father in 1963 and the following year he formed the group 1984 (named after Orwell’s novel) with singer Tim Staffell.

May left that band in early 1968 to pursue his degree in Physics and Infrared Astronomy at Imperial College and look for a group that could write original material. He formed the group Smile with Staffell on vocals and bass, and Chris Smith on keyboards.

To complete the lineup, he put an ad on the university’s billboard looking for a “Mitch Mitchell/Ginger Baker type” drummer. Roger Taylor, a young dental student, entered there. Smith left the group in early 1969.

Staffelli, while attending Ealing Art College in West London, befriended fellow student Farrokh “Freddie” Bulsara, who was from Zanzibar and of Parsi Indian descent. Bulsara had studied fashion design before switching to graphic art and design, and soon became a fan of Smile. He asked if he could join the group as lead singer, but May felt that Staffell would not give up that role.

Finally, in 1970 Staffell left Smile due to musical differences: Their passion for soul and R&B clashed with May and Taylor’s hard-rock sound. That’s when they took on Bulsara as a singer and recruited Taylor’s friend, Mike Grose, as a bassist.

That was the formation of the concert at a charity event in Truro, where Roger Taylor had grown up, who recalled: “My mother got the date, to benefit the Red Cross. They paid us £50 and I don’t remember many people going “. The following month they gave their first concert in London, on July 18, already under the name Queen.

Son of Bomi and Jer Bulsara, Freddie spent most of his childhood in India, where he attended a boarding school. He began taking piano lessons at the age of 7, but no one could have predicted then how far his love of music would take him.

The Bulsara family moved to Middlesex in 1964, and there Freddie joined a blues band called Wreckage while studying graphic design at Ealing College of Art. When he was singing for the group Wreckage, a classmate introduced him to Roger Taylor and Brian May. , by Smile, which later became Queen.

The final member of the group, which would remain together for the next 20 years, was bassist John Deacon, who joined on March 1, 1971.