Just short of a year ago, the Queen Extravaganza came to Scotland on their first tour of the UK. Now, they were back in the same venue to rock Glasgow again.
Once again, the stage was covered by the large curtain baring the Queen coat of arms. In the build up (and while the audience was still filing into the venue) the instrumentals of Made In Heaven and The Prophet's Song played in the background. It wasn't long until the curtain dropped and it was straight into Tie Your Mother Down and Don't Stop Me Now, the audience joining in with the singing.
Lead singer Marc Martel welcomes the audience on what is a historic night for Scotland...with the Queen Extravaganza returning to Glasgow. Without missing a beat, the band head into a medley of tracks of Save Me, The Seven Seas of Rye, Killer Queen and Hammer to Fall. Marc leaves the stage allowing the remaining members Francois-Olivier Doyon (Bass), Nick Radcliffe (guitar), Tyler Warren (drums) & Brandon Ethridge (keyboards) to perform Dragon Attack with Warren on vocals. 
Marc returns to the stage with guitar in hand for a performance of Crazy Little Thing Called Love before heading into a tale of starting this current UK tour on Freddie Mercury's birthday and how this next track was being dedicated to him. Cue a beautiful rendition of Love of My Life, again with the audience joining in and Martel encouraging it. How do you follow that? With the great A Kind of Magic of course.
Next is tracks from the album A Night At The Opera starting with the beauvaugard track Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon before once again giving the stage to drummer Tyler for the song I'm in Love With My Car. Before the next track, Marc admits that he first heard the next track back in the 90s thanks to a film. That film was Wayne's World and the song of course is Bohemian Rhapsody. After this fan favourite follows another in the guise of Under Pressure which see musical director and keyboardist Brandon Ethridge joining in vocal duties taking on David Bowie's sections of the track and it works well. 
I Want It All & Another One Bites the Dust come up next before Tyler Warren gives one of his drums solo merging seamlessly into Ogre Battle & Stone Cold Crazy. I Want to Break Free is next up after this followed by Radio Ga Ga which involves a little bit of participation from the audience in a vocal challenge. Glasgow's so used to these that they probably have a gold medal in it. Before the next track, Marc pay tribute to Brian May and how he was the deep thinker of the group and that reflected in his song writing...And from there it's into Fat Bottomed Girls. And finally, it's Somebody to Love with more audience participation in the harmonies (and sounding beautiful too!)
Of course that's not the end of the show. No and appropriately, the next track for the show is The Show Must Go On. And to round it off with We Will Rock You & We Are the Champions. 
This time around was different from their last outing in Glasgow. Gone is Jennifer Espinoza and Nick Radcliffe was in place of Brian Gresh so there was a bit of a difference in sound but to no detriment of the show that was offered. It's always a great night out and great tribute to the music that is Queen. And despite what else was happening elsewhere in Scotland, the only mandate being agreed on in the O2 ABC that night was the the Queen Extravaganza rocked.
Photos (c) Vhari Lannigan
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