Tribute act does a killer Queen

Diehard Queen fanatics will be asking themselves if this is real life as they’re caught in the landslide of tribute acts, with a second major international Queen show coming to town in just two months.

UK tribute act One Night of Queen, fronted by Scottish singer Gary Mullen, is set to rock the Regent in Palmerston North this August. This follows a performance by Queen: It’s a Kinda Magic last month.

Both acts take great pains to recreate a medley of Queen’s greatest live performances, down to the last stitch on their costumes.

Mullen’s Mercury mimicry was so good even Queen guitarist Brian May was impressed and invited him to hang out and chat backstage at the Queen and Paul Rodgers Show in 2008.

Every tribute artist had a slightly different take on the rock legend, but the key was always boundless energy.

‘‘You can’t just stroll on stage and say ‘hi, I’d like to play some of my favourite Queen songs’.

‘‘No-one wants to see that. They want to see something they can never see again – Freddie Mercury,’’ he said.

‘‘Freddie was a dynamo on stage. He’d be all over the place like an uncaged tiger. He was full of adrenaline and made the crowd feel it too.’’

Mullen has honed his impersonation for decades and has tried to capture that mercurial spirit for most of his life.

When he was a young lad, growing up in Glasgow in the 70s and 80s, Mullen spent hours in his room with a tape deck to learn his favourite Queen songs.

He’d pretend to be Freddie with his friends, with whatever was handy standing in for a microphone, and when he got older he’d wow karaoke crowds in pubs with his spot-on sound.

Mullen said the rocker was his hero and whenever his grandfather asked what he wanted to be when he grew up he always answered ‘‘Freddie Mercury’’.

‘‘I didn’t mean it literally. I meant I wanted to be like him. But here I am.’’