City:	London, England
Venue:	King's College Medical School
Date:	March 10, 1972

Apparent setlist:	Son And Daughter, Great King Rat, Jesus, The Night Comes Down, Liar, Keep Yourself Alive, See What A Fool I've Been, Stone Cold Crazy, Hangman, Jailhouse Rock, Bama Lama Bama Loo
Seen above is a setlist apparently hand-written by Freddie Mercury, which some trusting person purchased on eBay for $1500. Note the inclusion of Jesus and The Night Comes Down from Queen's not-yet-finished debut album. It's unknown how often these songs were played, but the former was reportedly played as early as 1970. One of the few people who saw Queen's potential in this period was John Anthony, after he and Roy Thomas Baker visited the band while they were recording their demo at De Lane Lea studios last December. Anthony attended many of their early shows and would end up helping them get signed with Trident Audio Productions in the spring (some accounts say it was as late as May), and soon co-produced their eponymous debut album. The deal with Trident was a recording and management arrangement whereby the band were granted free studio time, but the contract stipulated that Trident would receive all future royalties with the band members only receiving weekly allowances, which would become a problem down the line. But for now the band would enjoy the privilege of recording at Trident Studios, a place normally inhabited by major artists like Elton John and David Bowie, and by April they got to work making their first album. Once it was recorded, the plan was for Trident to seek distribution and publishing deals for the band. Decades later Brian May recalled in a conversation with Rick Wakeman how he wanted to stay away from playing in pubs, because back when Smile played them, nobody actually listened to the band. Instead, Queen would rehearse for a few months and then play a gig at a university lecture theatre like this one. They'd invite a hundred friends, and a few people from record companies - most of whom would never show up, and if they did, they didn't think much of the band. In a 1977 interview Roger Taylor said much of 1972 was spent "giving free concerts for our friends, playing the odd gig that we could scratch," as their debut album had been completed part way through the year. "The money was very small, and it was very much just subsistence level." And more recently he stated that many record company reps came to this gig, which led to much "wheeling and dealing" on their way to securing that coveted record deal. But that wouldn't come to fruition until the following year. Indeed the band's musical activity for the rest of the year consisted of recording their album mostly at odd hours of the night (finishing on or around July 30, save for Keep Yourself Alive which would later be re-recorded) and playing only five more gigs. The band members otherwise spent their time studying or working their respective jobs (or both).

Previous Concert

Next Concert

Back to 1970-1972 Concerts

Home