Fred-A-Thon 2013

On Freddie's birthday, Taylor Abrahamse put on a hell of a show to raise money for The Mercury Phoenix Trust! From 1pm-8pm, he planned on playing every Queen song, plus Freddie's solo material.

He tried to video record the show, but that didn't pan out, unfortunately. But it was fun to watch online, even when the web broadcast crapped out a couple times. It reminded me a lot of Queen's 1985 show(s?) where every technical thing went wrong, and I really admired his ability to keep his cool. Because I would have been absolutely furious at my inability to control that sort of situation.

And also, it was nice getting to discuss Queen with other people who were watching online as well!I wish Taylor hadn't been busy rocking out, because I could see us having a fun and spirited debate over some of Roger's tracks from the 70's (no disrespect, but I can't wrap my head around someone not liking Drowse :-P). But then he might not have raised $150 for MPT, so...

My only complaint (that I think is petty, but I'll say it anyway) about the performance was close to the end when another guy got up to perform Fat Bottomed Girls, Love Of My Life, and Crazy Little Thing Called Love. I think part of it was my attention span starting to give out, and the fact that Taylor had played them earlier, so I was “over it” by that point.

I took the liberty of writing down the setlist as it was happening, because I figured it would help me remember what to write about, and now I'm going to paste it here, because maybe you're curious, too. Some tracks were skipped due to time constraints, technical difficulties, and probably just plain not wanting to play them, in some cases.

Goin' Back
Keep Yourself Alive
Doin' Alright
My Fairy King
Great King Rat
Liar
The Night Comes Down
Modern Times Rock N Roll
Son And Daughter
Jesus
Mad The Swine
Father To Son
White Queen (As It Began)
Someday One Day
The Loser In The End
Ogre Battle
The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
Nevermore
The March Of The Black Queen
Funny How Love Is
Seven Seas Of Rhye
Brighton Rock
Killer Queen
Tenement Funster
Flick Of The Wrist
Lily Of The Valley
Now I'm Here
In The Lap Of The Gods
Stone Cold Crazy
Dear Friends
Misfire
Bring Back That Leroy Brown
She Makes Me (Stormtroopers In Stilettos)
In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited
Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to..)
Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon
I'm In Love With My Car
You're My Best Friend
Sweet Lady
'39
Seaside Rendezvous
The Prophet's Song
Love Of My Life
Good Company
Bohemian Rhapsody
God Save The Queen (humming)
Tie Your Mother Down
You Take My Breath Away
Long Away

Leslie

We Will Rock You

Taylor (again)

The Millionaire Waltz
You And I
Somebody To Love
White Man
Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy
Teo Torriate (Let Us Cling Together)
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions
Sheer Heart Attack
All Dead, All Dead
Spread Your Wings
Fight From The Inside
Get Down, Make Love
Sleeping On The Sidewalk
Who Needs You
It's Late
My Melancholy Blues
Mustapha
Fat Bottomed Girls
Jealousy
Bicycle Race
Let Me Entertain You
Dead On Time
In Only Seven Days
Dreamers Ball
Leaving Home Ain't Easy
Don't Stop Me Now
Play The Game
Dragon Attack
Another One Bites The Dust
Need Your Loving Tonight
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Rock It (Prime Jive)
Don't Try Suicide
Sail Away Sweet Sister
Coming Soon
Save Me
Flash's Theme
The Hero
Under Pressure
Staying Power
Dancer
Back Chat
Body Language
Action This Day
Put Out The Fire
Life Is Real (Song For Lennon)
Calling All Girls
Las Palabras De Amor (The Words Of Love)
Cool Cat
Radio Ga Ga
Tear It Up
It's A Hard Life
Man On The Prowl
I Want To Break Free
Keep Passing The Open Windows
Hammer To Fall
Is This The World We Created...?
I Go Crazy

Love Kills
Let's Turn It On
Mr Bad Guy
Your Kind Of Lover
There Must Be More To Life Than This
Living On My Own
Time
In My Defence

One Vision
A Kind Of Magic
One Year Of Love
Pain Is So Close To Pleasure
Friends Will Be Friends
Who Wants To Live Forever
Gimme The Prize (Kurgan's Theme)
Don't Lose Your Head
Princes Of The Universe

The Great Pretender
Barcelona
Exercises In Free Love
Guide Me Home
How Can I Go On

Josh

Fat Bottomed Girls
Love Of My Life
Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Taylor (again)

Party
Khashoggi's Ship
The Miracle
I Want It All
The Invisible Man
The Show Must Go On
Mother Love
Goin' Back (opening line)

For selfish reasons, I hope Taylor can do this next year, hopefully with someone assisting on the tech aspects. If you want some idea of just how talented he is, here's a video of him performing In My Defence.