Review: Mercury (17/05/25)
Review of ‘Mercury: The Ultimate Queen Tribute’ – Spa Pavilion, Felixstowe – 17th May, 2025
Hayley Clapperton
As published here
As we enter the auditorium there is a lot of equipment on stage, this gives us a feeling of calm – it’s a night of Queen music, there needs to be a lot of equipment on the stage!
We are plunged into darkness and then we have a flash of lights whilst smoke billows out into the audience. The lights are doing a show for us and the music is starting, it’s semi recorded music of a mini medley to grab our attention and prominently includes Flash Gordon with bright lights as accompaniment every time we hear ‘Flash’, it was awesome.
This was only a quick intro as the band join the sounds and we are into ‘Hammer to Fall’ – what an intro to the show! Loud, dramatic and Queen.
We were then into ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’, ‘Under Pressure’, and a slightly funky version of ‘Another One Bites The Dust’. Due to the huge number of tracks an audience might want to hear at a Queen gig, basically all of them, it must be an impossible task to choose the set list, Mercury managed a wonderful mix from across the repertoire and also joined songs together after playing at least half of each track, it was a smart way to get as many songs in as possible into the length of the show.
Other tracks played were ‘Killer Queen’, ‘I Want it All’, ‘I Want to Break Free’, yes with the wig, boobs and vacuum, ‘These Are The Days’, an extended drum intro for ‘We Will Rock You’, as everyone was stomping their feet and clapping in time, and a huge dramatic, almost emotional finale of ‘We Are The Champions’.
Joseph Lee Jackson was the lead singer, playing ‘Freddie’ to the best of his capabilities, yes he could clearly sing and belt out the big notes when it mattered, and quite a few times he did have the ‘tone’ which sent a nostalgic warmth down one’s spine. In addition, Joseph was in character, prancing about the stage, playing with the microphone and just being Freddie, it was great.
Joseph beefed up the audience enjoyment throughout the night, whether it was getting us clapping, (although no encouragement was needed for ‘Radio Ga Ga’), singing along by saying the first line and pointing the microphone towards the audience for us to sing the next, plus and to be expected there were several moments of getting us to repeat the tuneful ‘Yeeeaaaaaah yeah yeaaaaah’ up and down multiple notes.
Glenn Scrimshaw aka Brian May also needs a mention as his intricate guitar work and beautiful harmonies were spot on – he was perfect. Indeed the whole band were excellent musicians and together they made a lot of people happy by recreating the magic of Queen.
The costume changes were thankfully minimal, but the iconic attire for the right song was exact. We have to mention in addition to the impressive sound, the light show was phenomenal, the level of drama, excitement and passion it added to the show was superb, creating a stadium-esqe performance for a seaside theatre. It was epic.
For more shows at The Spa Pavilion, Felixstowe, go here.
