City:	London, England
Venue:	Imperial College
Date:	August 23, 1970

Setlist:	Stone Cold Crazy, Now That I'm Here, Father To Son, Hangman, Doin' Alright, Son And Daughter, See What A Fool I've Been, She Makes Me, Jesus, Please Don't Tease, Jailhouse Rock, I'm A Man
The advertisement of this show, their first in London, was drawn up by Roger Taylor. It was played to about fifty people, during which the band announced to the small crowd that Tim Staffell had left the band and that Freddie Mercury (who now no longer goes by the name Freddie Bulsara) is their new frontman. After a stint of reading Roman mythology around this time, he would change his last name to Mercury, meaning "messenger of the gods." However, when he made the change legally is another matter. This cue sheet from Queen's first BBC session reveals him still using his birth name in 1973. Brian May later reflected on this night: "The first proper gig we did was at Imperial College in the Union Hall. I remember it very distinctly because I'd seen all sorts of people playing in there. I'd been part of the Entertainment Committee [as a student] and we booked a group every Saturday night in those days. People like Spooky Tooth and Steamhammer! We booked Jimi Hendrix too. So for us it was a dream come true to actually play on that stage. It used to get packed in there, so it was a major stepping stone for us." Roger Taylor added: "Imperial College was effectively our positional and spiritual base and so means a lot to Queen. Many good memories, without it... who knows?" Their debut album is already beginning to take shape in this period, and pieces that would end up on Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack are being conceived as well (the setlist handwritten by Freddie may well indicate that Jesus was the first song he composed for the band). Doin' Alright and See What A Fool I've Been go back to the Smile days. Please Don't Tease and I'm A Man are cover tunes by Cliff Richard and Bo Diddley respectively (the latter of which would be briefly revived in 1977), and Elvis Presley's Jailhouse Rock would be a regular in their set through 1978 and sporadically after that. This gig was recorded, which may well be the earliest surviving recording of Queen. Two songs from the reasonably good-sounding tape were released on the "Queen I" box set in 2024 - Jesus and I'm A Man (gems like Stone Cold Crazy, Father To Son and She Makes Me will remain unheard until further notice, all of which would undoubtedly provide much insight into the band's early creative process). Now That I'm Here isn't an early version of Now I'm Here, but instead a song that would be retitled as Feelings Feelings and revisited during the News of the World sessions (a studio outtake of it would be released on a box set for that album in 2017). This is also notably Barry Mitchell's first of a dozen plus gigs as Queen's bassist - the longest-serving of their bass players before John Deacon. All these years later, Barry has happily given interviews about his short stint with the band. One one occasion he recalled his audition about three before this show, and how they ran through a couple Smile numbers that would end up on Queen's debut album, as well as a few Hendrix songs. He also recalls how the band rehearsed "quite fervently" for the gig, and how they were very nervous as they were playing for lots of friends. The band provided all the refreshments, including orange juice and popcorn (the popcorn was made in Brian May's flat, which Freddie later quipped was "bursting with popcorn"). Clearly Barry's memory is pretty intact, as he was able to instantly recall specific details of many of the shows he played with the band. Mitchell recalls the band playing these songs at shows around this time period: Stone Cold Crazy, Liar, Keep Yourself Alive, Doin' Alright, Great King Rat, Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll, Hangman, and a Rock 'n' Roll medley of cover songs. When asked about other songs that were rehearsed but didn't make it to the shows or albums, he replied, "I don’t remember any songs that we worked on not making it. I do remember a song that was not ready for performance by the time I left, My Fairy King." Doin' Alright was performed like the guitar-oriented Smile version. Mitchell recalls, "It was probably the first song that I worked on with the guys, and we did it much the same way that Smile did it. Any development of it came after my departure." And when asked about his contributions to Liar's bass lines, he said, "Liar sounds much the same as when I played it." He also stated that Stone Cold Crazy, despite some stories that early live versions of the song were much slower in tempo, was played no slower in 1970 and '71 than what was eventually heard on Sheer Heart Attack in 1974. Hangman was an original piece by Queen, but never appeared on one of their albums. It would be performed on stage sporadically until 1976. According to numerous sources close to the band, a proper studio version of the song was never recorded. But there apparently is an acetate of the band doing a quick run-through the song in the studio, but its recording date is unclear. Over the years, the Rock 'n' Roll medley always included Jailhouse Rock, and would often include (or at least have references to) many other covers, including Tutti Frutti, Bama Lama Bama Loo, Shake Rattle and Roll, Stupid Cupid, Be-Bop-A-Lula, and Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On. These bits would usually be sung by Freddie over a continuing 12-bar blues, giving him the freedom to jump into whatever he'd like. The medley would feature in the show through 1977, and later versions of Jailhouse Rock in the 80s would often result in similar band jams. Big Spender would usually precede the medley in the earlier years, and Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting would feature in it a few times in 1977.

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