We will rock you

Bulsara and his Queenies

The Lantern, Saturday August 25.

So what does a former science teacher and six music graduates have in common? They all love Queen. And what’s more, they sound so like the global superstars they’ve been recognised by the Queen organisation and will perform a two hour set at a huge charity bash in Montreux in early September to celebrate what would have been Freddie Mercury’s 72nd birthday. Not content playing the big hits - in fact some they deliberately shy away from - the first half of their set will be a live rendition of the mega album hit Sheer Heart Attack ..... from start to finish! The band rocks up at The Lantern on August 25 for what is going to be a cracking gig. Bulsara and his Queenies are fronted by Gareth Taylor former head of physics at Buttershaw High School near Shelf. He was a member of indie band Bingo back in the 90s and toured with Pulp. He also reached the final of one series of Stars in their Eyes doing an impression of Jarvis Cocker. The rest of the band, five men and a woman, all in their early to mid 20s are music graduates who studied at Huddersfield University. They got together 18 months ago and recently registered themselves as a business. Gareth’s interest in Freddie Mercury stretches back to 1984 when he was growing up in Castleford and his best pal was a fan.

As time passed he amassed a huge collection of Queen records, taught himself to play guitar and keyboards faithfully learning Brian May’s complicated riffs and Freddie’s unmistakable intonation. “Over the years I have preactised using my voice in different ways and that I guess is what the Freddie thing is really about because it is an impression that I do,” says Gareth.

The band makes no attempt to look like Queen nor Gareth like Freddie, but boy oh boy do they sound like them. Take a listen on YouTube.

For tickets go to www.seetickets.com