City:	London, England
Venue:	Marquee Club
Date:	December 21, 1972

Setlist:	Great King Rat, Son And Daughter, Jesus, Doing All Right, Ogre Battle, Keep Yourself Alive, Liar, Jailhouse Rock, Bama Lama Bama Loo
The band were slotted onto this gig supporting Sparks at the Marquee because Ronnie Beck of Feldman was friends with a promoter who booked bands at the venue. The photos were taken by Douglas Puddifoot, the third of which made it to the back cover of Queen's debut album (Brian May confirmed on his blog in 2009 that many of those photos in that collage were shot at the Marquee). A tape of this show is collecting dust in the band's archives after being purchased at an auction in 1996 from Richard Thompson, who recorded it from the audience (Thompson was the drummer of Brian May's mid-'60s band called 1984). There are accounts of a band called Smile performing at the Marquee Club over the next few weeks: opening for Mahatma Kane Jeeves on December 30, part of a "Marquee Special Jam Session" on January 7, 1973, and backing Mahatma Kane Jeeves again on January 20 (thanks to Fabio Minero for finding a forum post about the 1972 date and to Merplot for excavating an obscure 1981 book published in Japan called "Queen and Their Music" that first mentioned the 1973 dates). With their EMI deal pending, it is entirely possible that Queen performed under the radar a few times to get their live chops together. A fascinating nugget of their early history.

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