Rooftop Royalty

The KAH Rooftop ‘ Sommergarten’ show was a bit different last Sunday.  For the first time Rock music was on show – and it attracted not only lots of visitors but also lots of glorious sunshine.   With a band called  The Queen Kings onstage you would expect lots of loyal subjects at their Garden Party – but where are the caviar sandwiches?

Status Quo cover bands have it easy:  Simple songs and simple arrangements that sound good in an arena or in a garden tent.  But Queen –  Masters of larger than life performances in mega arenas?  Try playing Bohemian Rhapsody in a tent, or on a roof even.  Queen Kings did.

Crazy?  Maybe not.  All it needs is ‘A kind of Magic’ and they have it.

I could spend a lot of time and computer screen arguing whether Queen Kings succeed in recreating Freddie & co onstage.  To Jan it simply doesn’t matter.  Jan you see is just a small boy.  He ran in front of the stage and danced.  Jan doesn’t know who Freddie Mercury is or was,  Jan doesn’t care.  All Jan knows is that ‘Crazy little thing called love’ makes him want to dance – and so he does.  That’s what really matters.

The original Band were so much larger than life that it’s easy to forget the strength of the music itself.   Mirko Bäumer and his Band put that right.  Here is ‘Rhapsody’ and ‘We are the Champions’ in plain shirts, jeans and sneakers.  Waiting with my Nikon to catch Bäumer striking  Freddie Mercury poses requires a lot of patience and when they do come they seem natural rather than put on.  I mean, how can anyone sing ‘We are the Champions’ without at least the slightest strutting walk and jutting jaw?  The words demand it.

Whilst there’s no doubting the quality of the Band – both Rolf Sander (bass) and Matthi Schmidt (drums) were in demand for Germany’s version of the Queen musical ‘We Will Rock You’ – It’s fair to say that to truly appreciate Queen Kings complete Show visually you need a spotlit stage and enclosed space to manage the sound perfectly.  Sunshine and small children are not quite what Freddie, Brian, Roger and John were about – maybe Jan though would disagree?!

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