Queen, like many iconic bands, have all sorts of treasures in their various archives, and Brian May stumbled upon one such treasure recently.
In a new interview with Classic Rock, May said, “We’re always looking at finding stuff that is historically important. And this one tape that cropped up very recently which I am excited about, which is one of the first gigs we played in a lecture theatre at Imperial College. I didn’t even know I had the cassette.”
Classic Rock notes, “While May doesn’t specify the date of the Imperial College gig, the band played several shows there during their very early days, including their first ever London gig, on July 18, 1970, with original bassist Mike Grose.”
So, what’s going to happen with this new tape? May’s not quite sure at the moment.
“We’re debating what to do with it,” said May. “A few years ago we’d have felt very protective and thought, ‘Nobody should hear this, because we’re very rough.’ But now, in the position that we are in our lives, we feel forgiving. We’re not ashamed of where we were at that time. It was us against the world.”
May says of the tape, “Hearing Freddie at that point in his development is fascinating. He had all the will and charisma and passion, but he didn’t have the opportunity to harness that voice yet. Which makes me hesitate a little bit, because I’m not sure Freddie would be that happy hearing himself at this stage. But strangely, if he were alive and sitting here at this moment, he’d probably be the same as me: ‘Oh darling, we were kids.’”
Of course, if fans are looking for more polished live material from Queen, there are plenty of albums available to them, including Live Around The World, which is the band’s first official release with Adam Lambert.
