11-25-1998 – The Advertiser – Adelaide, Australia
Guitarist proves that there is life after Queen
Heaven II, Sunday
QUEEN’S sole touring member, guitarist Brian May, cast off his opening comic guise of a 1950s crooner to re-emerge, band rocking and Red Special guitar blazing, on Since You’ve Been Gone, a tribute to his late drummer Cozy Powell. Much of the show was tribute: to Queen’s greatest hits, to its late singer Freddie Mercury with the singalong Love of My Life, to the outstanding collection of musicians on stage and to some of May’s own idols.
At the same time, May asserted his own musicianship and personality as a late-blooming frontman. It’s an amazing legacy to confront and May did it with good humor and humility, embracing the rowdy reception. His virtuosity on guitar remained something to behold, especially at close range, as he wove intricate patterns using a series of delay pedals.
He turned ’39 into a choir arrangement, pulled the heavy rock crunch of Hammer To Fall into a ballad before letting it rip and ploughed through blistering renditions of Headlong, Tie Your Mother Down and the inevitable chant of We Will Rock You.
Former Queen guitarist Brian May was a little dismayed by the size of the venue – or rather, the lack of it – during a soundcheck at Adelaide’s Heaven nightclub on Sunday. “This feels like I’m playing in my loungeroom,” May remarked, to which his sound engineer responded that the multi-millionaire rocker’s loungeroom was “probably bigger than this.” “So this is where my life’s destiny has brought me. Welcome to Wembley,” a forlorn May continued. In its heyday, Queen would perform multiple nights at the legendary London stadium before tens of thousands of fans. Only a few hundred turned out to see May’s new band at Heaven but their enthusiasm seemed to pick up his spirits and he eventually told the Adelaide crowd that he’d pick them over a Wembley audience any day. Typical stage banter? Not so. May was overheard enthusing about the gig and the crowd participation to fellow band members backstage afterwards.
