Queen Discovers Tape Of Early, Pre-Fame College Gig

Queen's Brian May revealed that he has discovered an unheard pre-fame concert tape of the band recorded at London’s Imperial College. The guitarist told Classic Rock, “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.”

The tape remains undated, but Queen performed at the venue several times — including a July 18th, 1970 show with original bassist Mike Grose.

May went on to say of the recording, “We were very unformed (on the tape). Hearing Freddie (Mercury) 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.'”

He and Roger Taylor are weighing their options as far as whether to release the show commercially: “We're debating what to do with it. 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.”

Shortly before his 1991 death, Freddie Mercury looked back at Queen's storied career that had not only spanned — but incorporated — prog, glam, punk, and new wave: “I must say, I didn't really think we were gonna last that long. I mean you never think about it; like, you don't get up every morning and think, 'My God, this is going to be over.' You just carry on and come up with fresh ideas and think about what to do. So, as long as we don't take it too seriously. Earlier on, we used to take it very seriously and I think it got a bit too serious. Now, I just thought to myself, we should try to inject some fun into it, y'know?”