What started as a lark in a laundry room has resulted in a musical phenomenon.
In June of 1993, Patrick Myers was attending London University in England when he and several other students started playing and singing the songs of the British rock band Queen.
“We were singing songs to each other in the college halls and the laundry room where there was a piano,” said Myers, who performs as Queen’s lead singer, Freddie Mercury, in the tribute band Killer Queen.
“I decided to put my face in the mirror and I thought ‘That’s weird.’ I said to my friends, ‘Who does this look like?’ and they exclaimed ‘Freddie Mercury.’ Someone took a photo of me in a Freddie Mercury-like costume. We were already singing the songs; we were already into the nuts and bolts of the songs. So we thought, ‘Why not put on a show.'”
A summer dance at the university needed a student band to perform.
“Someone said to the organizers, ‘There’s this guy who formed a Queen tribute band,'” Myers said. “So he showed him the photo of me in the laundry room as Freddie Mercury and we did the show. After the show, the guy who put the show on liked us so much that he booked us on a 20-day tour of the United Kingdom.”
By 1995, Killer Queen’s United Kingdom popularity had grown so much that the band got a residency in London’s Strand Theatre (now known as The Novello Theatre). It was the first tribute band to have a show in the West End of London.
Killer Queen is reportedly the longest established Queen tribute band in the world and is the only Queen tribute band to have sold out the exact same venues that Queen used to play. The band has toured all over Europe and has performed in the United States at such venues as Austin City Limits Music Festival in Texas and Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.
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“It all started with me in costume in the laundry room singing songs,” Myers said.
“An Evening with Killer Queen” will be presented at 8 p.m. March 19 at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora.
The original Queen formed in 1971. The group released two albums before hitting it big with the 1975 album “A Night at the Opera.” A single from that album, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” ran five minutes and 55 seconds, which should have been too long for successful radio play. However, it became one of the most successful singles of all time, staying at No. 1 on the United Kingdom charts for nine weeks. The success of “A Night at the Opera” gave the band its first platinum album. Later hits from the group included “Another One Bites the Dust,” “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.”
“Freddie Mercury died in November 1991,” Myers said. “There was not a tribute thing back then. We were one of the first bands to do a tribute band type of thing.
“We create the feel, look and sound of a Queen concert,” Myers continued. “We do a range of hits, a mixture of songs. It is one continuous concert as if the audience has gone back in time.”
The entire band is dressed up and in character like Queen.
“I am trained as an actor, so it’s second nature for me to leap on stage and be that person,” said Myers of his Mercury portrayal.
Myers does acknowledge that his Mercury role is challenging musically. The singer does exercises and training of his vocal cords.
“It takes preparation so that you can go on stage and you can play and have it look fun. It needs to be light and fun,” he said.
Part of Killer Queen’s success could be that once Freddie Mercury died, no one would ever see Queen at their peak.
“We all realized that we had just missed out on seeing Queen,” said Myers of himself and his bandmates. “We want the audience to make believe that they’re doing the thing they’d never thought they’d do — and that’s see Queen in concert.
“The songs are timeless,” Myers continued. “They speak to people. When you hear ‘We Will Rock You’ you think ‘Wow.’ You don’t think, ‘Oh that was recorded in 1977.’ The songs stand on their own merit no matter what time period. It is an extraordinary body of work. It is a massive privilege to dive into these songs.”
And performing the Queen songs is very satisfying for Myers.
“These songs connect to people in a massive way,” he said. “You can feel the energy from the crowd. Something magical happens when you connect with an audience and everyone can feel it.”
‘An Evening with Killer Queen’
When: 8 p.m. March 19
Where: Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora
Tickets: $38-$48
Information: 630-896-6666; paramountaurora.com
Randall G. Mielke is a freelance reporter for the Beacon-News.