Roger Taylor in Truro, June 2011

I was lucky to get a grandstand view of proceedings on Saturday 25th, June when Roger Taylor came to Truro to unveil Tim Shaw's sculpture called 'The Drummer'. In fact I had described the 'Queen in Cornwall' project to Tim at the beginning of the year when he was still trying to decide on who should preside over the event. He hadn't previously heard of Roger Taylor's connections to Truro. So this blog played a small but not insignificant part in the evening being such a success...Sorry about the camerawork in the video. I think I was so excited I forgot to point the camera in the right direction!

Denise Craddock postcard

Just after Smile's second recording session - and before the band's breakup - in February 1970 Roger Taylor and John Harris travelled down to Cornwall with Penny North of Jayfolk and Denise Craddock. Denise's postcard, which is mentioned but not reproduced in the book, is a record of this little holiday. It also mentions Pat and Sue Johnstone of the Queen Fan Club, who at that time were living with their father in Cornwall.

John Snell's Reaction Story

Sorry no updates for a while...I 've essentially stopped doing research for the book, and I'm now proofreading the final manuscript and doing some test prints etc. I've decided on the cover art (see above) so you can see what the front cover will look like.

I 've got some interesting material that wasn't used - or was only part-used - in the book that I will put on this website in the next few weeks. The first is The Reaction Story by John Snell (see separate link).

John, who was nick-named Acker by the other members, was the founder of the Cornish group in which Roger Taylor learnt his trade. He managed to describe the early history of the band in remarkable detail - as you will see from the essay.