A Night at the Sunrise With One Night Of Queen

Gary Mullen: Ascended fan. Mullen won the British TV show Stars In Their Eyes with the most votes in the show's history through his recreation of legendary Queen singer Freddie Mercury. Now he tours with his band The Works as the “One Night of Queen” tribute show, which stopped by the Sunrise last Friday.

Mullen hits all the Mercury mannerisms. He comes out in the classic white pants and a jacket he removes as the concert goes on. He wields a microphone with half the stand still attached, holding it upside down while singing and miming the guitarists during instrumentals. He roams the stage, using every square foot to his advantage.

Big deal. Anyone can imitate a performer’s mannerisms, and Mercury is a once-in-a-lifetime performer. So what makes Mullen more than "The Great Pretender"?

After a few songs Mullen does the bit in Live Aid and other concerts where Mercury shows his vocal range while the audience tries to mimic it. Mullen goes low and high, coming close to the tonal range that made Mercury famous. Eventually he reaches for his highest pitch and hits it perfectly. For half a minute.

A tribute singer has two challenges. Aside from just being a good singer, Mullen has to sing as close as the original as possible – to create the illusion that it is the real Queen on stage. Mullen does right on both tests, and doesn’t shy away from a variety of songs.

Of course Mullen can do classics like “Another One Bites the Dust,” where the 48 lights hanging over the band flashed to the song’s beat. But he can also sing ballads like “Love of My Life” and “Too Much Love Will Kill You” that few would attempt. Just as Mercury had done, Mullen also stepped out of the regular Queen set for a rendition of Elvis’s “Jailhouse Rock.”

His bandmates were also excellent. David Brockett’s guitar solos capped off several songs, while Jonathon Evans alternated between cymbals as purple and green lights danced in the background. Mullen played with his bandmates, messing around with keyboardist Malcolm Gentles and swiping a cowboy hat off of bassist Billy Moffat.

The playfulness extended to the audience. Mullen slapped his fanny in the middle of songs and spotted himself a front-row drink during interludes. He took pictures with an audience member’s camera and let a young fan onstage for the “We Are the Champions” encore (yeah yeah - it isn’t hard to predict which songs would be in a Queen encore.) Mullen is the ascended fan, singing so hard his eyes bulge out, commanding the audience to rise and sit to his whim, and having fun doing what he did in British karaoke bars years ago.

As Mullen said after commanding the crowd to rise for another fast-paced song – “That is how you change a theater audience to a rock and roll audience.”

Chris Hoadley
Blog Editor