On June 27, 1970, a historic and significant event in the history of "Queen" took place.
(Photo: Flickr.com)
Freddie Bulsara takes the stage for the first time with members of the band "Queen" then called "Smile".
The band then included Brian May on guitar, Roger Taylor on drums, Freddie Bulsara (Freddie Mercury) on vocals, and Mike Gross on bass. Gross replaced the band's former bassist/singer Tim Staffell, who left and joined a band called Humpy Bong.
This historic show, which took place on June 27, 1970, took place in the town hall of Truro in the county of Cornwall in England, which will later become the Hall For Cornwall.
Drummer Roger Taylor was a native of the city of Terror, to which he moved with his family when he was 7 years old.
The person who organized the show was Taylor's mother. This was a charity show of the Red Cross held in front of 200 people and the band members earned 50 pounds each for it, a nice amount for the period and circumstances.
Taylor's mother placed two ads in the Brighton newspaper to promote the show. Although the ads were still published with the band's name as Smile, just before the show, the band members decided to take the stage with the name Queen after Freddie insisted.
The show opens with "Stone Cold Crazy" which 4 years later will be part of the band's third album "Sheer Heart Attack". The rest of the songs on the show were a mix of original material like "Father to Son" which would be released later on the album "Queen II", along with cover versions of Little Richard's songs. Brian May later noted that given the nature of the show they played more cover versions than original material.
People in the audience will tell that Freddie's performance was tremendous, he sounds like he's been doing it for years. He had a tremendous stage presence and sheer charisma that swept the band forward. Roger Taylor noted years later that his mother who organized the show was simply shocked by Freddie's performance. He had a tremendous voice and he had not even yet developed at that time his familiar and powerful singing technique.
Gross will later be replaced by John Deacon, Freddie Bulsara soon changes his last name to Freddie Mercury and the rest is history.