Freddie Tribute 2001

We set off at 7:35am on Saturday morning and boarded the National Express coach and after a very boring and tiring journey we eventually arrived at 2:30pm, we decided to head straight for Freddie's house. We arrived to see lots of people from all over the world, paying their respects.

After consulting Katie (Rizzo) via sms we met up at the train station near Logan Place and after saying hi to James and Katie's mum Jane, we set off for the hotel! We then arrived to be told there was no reservation, after freaking out a little, we decided to book into a hotel down the road which happened to be the worst hotel l have ever seen in my life!! It was called "The Lions Court" Avoid this place at all costs!

After getting a taxi all the way across London to Hackney we finally arrived at 5:35pm and were very shocked to see such a long queue! But we got in very quickly and managed to squeeze our way to three rows from the front! Rumours were already doing the rounds that someone had seen Roger and Brian!! Soon the show started and the champions were excellent and in fine voice! Using different singers, they sang:

 “The Great Pretender”, “Another One Bites the Dust”, “In My Defence”, “Dragon Attack”, “Great King Rat”, "Fat Bottomed Girls", “Love of My Life”, “Somebody to Love”, “Spread Your Wings” “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

Then we were treated to Treanna Morris, l didn't recognise here as she has dyed her hair since the electric fire tour, but as soon as she sang l knew who it was, she sang some of her own material and also "Sleeping on the sidewalk" (does anyone know where l can get her album?)

After a short break, the SAS band came on stage and whipped us into a frenzy! They played:

“Blinded by the Light”-Chris Thompson, Paul Young came on and sang, but for the life of me l can't remember what! Maybe l was too excited about seeing Bri and Ro? The Fabba Girls sang "Waterloo" and "Dancing Queen". Chris Thompson then returned to sing "The Mighty Quinn" which had all the crowd singing along!.  Spike then left the stage but promised he'd be back with "some shit you're really gonna like"

The SAS band returned to the stage and Chris Thompson returned to lead vocals. Jamie Moses kicked into the intro for “Now I’m Here”, and everyone went mental thinking it was time for the surprise but Spike and the band, those buggers made us nearly die of suspense while they played “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Hammer to Fall”, which had everyone singing!

After these three storming numbers, Spike introduced a man who had never played with the SAS Band before , Bruce Dickinson, ex lead-singer of Iron Maiden. He sang "I want to break free" from a piece of paper and it made me think why he actually bothered to come at all!

Then the thing everyone had been waiting for...........The band kicked into "Radio Gaga", but there was no singer and the Spike said the immortal words "Mr Brian May and Mr Roger Taylor" and the whole place just went mental, there was a huge surge forward and l suffered from a bruised rib! Brian came on rather shyly, while Roger strolled on in his shades and suit ("You're so fucking cool") looking very laid back.

They then went through the most amazing set list of my life, l have no idea how long they were on cos l just had no concept of time, l was crying and singing so much (along with every person there it seemed)

Radio Ga Ga (RT),Since You've Been Gone (BM),Under Pressure (RT and Treanna Morris),Strange Frontier (RT),No One But You (BM + RT) ,Tie Your Mother Down (BM)

After they both left to a huge cheer, Spike and the band closed the show with "The show must go on" and "We are the champions". After that amazing night, most people were walking around in a daze! I finally got to meet up with Nico from Germany, who l had met at last years' convention (hiya!!), who was gonna try and get into backstage when we headed back to the hotel!

When we arrived back at Fawlty towers aka Lion's court hotel, we were told we didn't have a room could we share with 5 foreign people we had never seen before?! Yeah right ! this meant we spent two hours walking around London at 1am but we found a nice hotel and got some well deserved sleep!

I sit here now in pain from my bruised rib, with a sore throat and lack of sleep, my mum asks me was it worth it? Of course it was ! i'd do it all again at the drop of a hat!

Thanks Jacky, Val, Spike, SAS Band, The Champions, Brian and Roger....but most especially thanks Freddie for being our inspiration!

Sam xx

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