| City: | Surrey, England |
| Venue: | College |
| Date: | July 2, 1971 |
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This is bassist John Deacon's first show with the band. Alongside Brian May, Roger Taylor and Freddie Mercury, this would be Queen's lineup for the next 20 years. Before the show, Freddie and John get into an argument over attire. Freddie has his big ideas about appearance, while John wants to wear jeans and a t-shirt. It wouldn't be long before John would give in and the band would start forging an image of their own. It's unknown precisely when in 1971 John came aboard, but the inaugural Queen fan club newsletter in early 1974 states it was in February. Their publicist with Trident, Tony Brainsby, attended this show and spoke about it in the 1976 book on the band by George Tremlett: "They were raw, but it was a good set. You could see that there was something there." But he also makes it clear that it was the type of gig where people were standing around the bar more than they were listening to a band. Deacon recalled the period in a 1974 interview with Music Star: "I met Roger and Brian in a disco. I'd heard they were looking for a bass guitarist so I chatted to them. They'd actually been auditioning for a few weeks before but couldn't find anybody who seemed to fit." As per their enthusiasm for the band: "Possibly Freddie and Roger were the keenest. Brian was a big career man deeply into studying physics and astronomy and had reservations about it, but the other two are the born stars. Freddie's probably the one who's given us the most push to get on, and is the most insistent with people like managers and so on." |