One of the funniest comedy sketches I ever saw concerned the timelessly naff quality of Queen’s sartorial sensibilities. It was on an Armstrong And Miller show about four years ago, and was set in the year 2040. A guide was taking a group of tourists around a stately home, which was putatively an exact replica of Freddie Mercury’s real life abode. The titular comedians were paid actors playing – for “educational purposes”, understand – Brian May and the late singer, with Ben Miller’s skin-tight leather costume being an especially funny tribute to Mercury’s near-heroically outrageous fashion sense.
It ended with Armstrong, as May, advising the crowd, in best patronising Legs Akimbo fashion, that he was off to crank out some tunes on his “axe” (points helpfully to guitar) and Miller excitedly looking forward to a spot of “cruising” in a London bar of dubious reputation.
Well, it’s 2005, and Queen are still looking pretty much like they did twenty years ago. Indeed, May, tonight modelling a particularly fetching ensemble of white shirt, black cotton pants and white Nike trainers, looks as if he’s been transported directly from a gym in 1985, whilst the ever genteel Roger Taylor, resplendent in the elegantly wasted garb of wrinkled white-shirt and waistcoat, looks – and sounds – much as he always did: like an off-duty literature professor a touch merry on the port.
But they’ve got truly extraordinary musical chops, these cerebral academics with a penchant for hard-rock riffs and theatrical pop. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the decade-spanning opening numbers: ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ (driving hard-rock which sees guest vocalist and ex-Free frontman Paul Rodgers belting out the anthemic chorus with considerable gusto); ‘I Want To Break Free’ (supremely stylish synth-pop); ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ (joyfully goofy good-time rockabilly); and ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ (minimalist, Grandmaster Flash-inspired funk with disco guitar and singalong chorus – The Rapture et al would probably kill for a tune like this).
Sure, the mid-part of the set veers uncomfortably close to the Brian ‘n’ Roger show (fortunately, HP studio manager and Queen authority Graham Keogh is seated next to your correspondent, thus rendering the duo’s wanderings down the various side-roads of b-sides and solo-album curios far more negotiable terrain), with tracks like ‘Dance With The Devil’ (late ‘70s instrumental hit for May collaborator Cozy Powell), ‘Say It’s Not True’ (Taylor solo tribute to Nelson Mandela), ‘Last Horizon’ (ridiculously indulgent May guitar solo from his Driven By You album) and ‘I’m In Love With My Car’ (‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ b-side – see, told you he was an authority) delighting the hardcore following, but offering precious little for the more casual observer to latch onto.
But with the full-band back onstage, things really begin to hot-up, with blistering takes on ‘Radio Ga Ga’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (which surely is rivalled only by ‘Stairway To Heaven' for the coveted title of ‘The Ultimate Epic Pomp-Rock Masterpiece’) prompting mass singalongs, before the awesome closing triumvirate of Free’s ‘Alright Now’, ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champions’ bring the house down.
They had the time, they had the power, now they’ve had their finest hour.

To access the photo gallery from the gig, click here