Live Review: Queen & Adam Lambert

Before there were big booty bitches, there were Fat Bottomed Girls, and last night Queen, fronted by Adam Lambert, delivered an epic performance at Allphones Arena, giving a shout out to all the “fat arse bitches out there”.

Lambert twirled, shimmied and sparkled his way around the stage, bringing a lot of his own personality, while doing his best to channel the late frontman. Clad in studded and glittered leather, it was clear that Lambert himself was awestruck to be playing alongside such musical icons.

Although to many the prospect of a Queen without Freddie Mercury is like a Nirvana without Cobain – unforgivable – but Lambert more than rose to the occasion, and dare this reviewer say it, was even better than the late, great Mercury.

Proving he’s come a long way since being shot down by Simon Cowell with his rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody on American Idol, Lambert delivered a pitch-perfect, incredibly camp performance. He displayed a breathtaking falsetto, and breathed new life into the Queen hits we all know and love.

The last two standing members of Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor, proved that musically they’ve still got it. May delivered multiple epic guitar solos, with a show-stopping sound that the crowd lapped up in Stone Cold Crazy and Tie Your Mother Down, while Taylor entered into a drum battle with his son Rufus, where he easily kept up.

Vocally on the other hand, they were no match for Lambert, but cleverly cut to video grabs of younger versions of themselves, or asked the audience to sing along with them, to help them through the high notes in songs like Bohemian Rhapsody.

Mercury was referred to many times on stage through the night, helping May vocally during a solo rendition of Love Of My Life, and again in Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are The Champions. Oddly no reference was made to retired member, John Deacon.