Killer Queen Brings Musical Majesty to Scottish Rite on September 27

by Nicole Pensiero

Playing an iconic rock star like Freddie Mercury onstage isn’t easy –but it is fun. Just ask Patrick Myers, who plays that part in the English tribute band Killer Queen.

He’s been “Freddie Mercury” for more than three decades -- far longer than the real band Queen was together. On Friday, September 27, Myers will don his Freddie costumes and wow the audience at Collingswood’s Scottish Rite Auditorium – a venue he and his bandmates have played several times before.

“I feel loyalty to Freddie; he was my hero, all the members Queen were,” Myers said recently from his home in the UK. Recalling the group’s formation, he said, “We were college kids, only two years after Freddie died, singing Queen songs around a piano. It was a love we shared, and it turned into something more.”

The 1,000-seat Scottish Rite Auditorium – thanks to newly installed central air conditioning -- hosted summer shows for the first time this year. The Camden County Freeholders offer the popular concert series there, in conjunction with Collingswood and concert promoter BRE Presents.

The Killer Queen members came together when there wasn’t a “big tribute band scene,” Myers recalled, and he and his friends had “absolutely no idea what they were doing” when they landed a gig doing Queen songs a London University ball. It has turned into a lifelong career for Myers, who’d studied acting, and who says he was initially trying out “a quite innocent vocal impression” of Freddie Mercury.

“The whole thing was like a fairy tale; it took off so quickly,” Myers recalls. “It took us by surprise.”

He and his bandmates tracked down Queen’s London-based costume designer, studied videos to get down the band’s trademark moves, and practiced relentlessly. By 1995, Killer Queen had built a sturdy fan base, and secured a residency in London's famed West End theater district, attracting widespread national press and TV coverage. Since then, the group -- which plays more than 100 shows annually worldwide -- has become the only Queen tribute band to sell out several of the same massive arenas that Queen played.

Myers says it’s great to become Freddie Mercury onstage, and then enjoy complete anonymity offstage: “I get the best of both worlds.” And each time Killer Queen steps onstage, its band members step into a mental space “where we’re presenting the Queen concert, we all missed out on,” he says. As for the real Freddie, Myers says he “likes to imagine what he’d be doing today if he was still with us. Such a talent. I feel very lucky to connect with audiences as we interpret Queen’s music.”

Killer Queen performs at 8 p.m. on Friday, September 27, at the Scottish Rite Auditorium, 315 White Horse Pike, Collingswood. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $39.50 to $65. Go to Etix.com or call 1-800-514-3849 or at the Box Office (856-858-1000).