Queen in Cornwall

Queen are the 5th highest selling recording artists of all time. They played their first concert in Truro, Cornwall, and made many visits in the late sixties (as 'Smile') and early 70's (as 'Queen'). Prior to joining 'Smile' and forming 'Queen' Roger Taylor gigged all over Cornwall with his band 'The Reaction'. This blog is an attempt to document these musicians and concerts in preparation for a book and fan club event.

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Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Public launch of 'Queen in Cornwall' book

'Queen in Cornwall' was first made available at the Driftwood event in August - but as that was a ticketed affair I've been wait...

Tuesday, 5 July 2011

August 6th at The Driftwood: Cornish Queen Party!

I've been keeping this a little under wraps because Jacky from the Queen Fan Club was keen that members of the fan club should have the ...

Sunday, 26 June 2011

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 sculptur...

Saturday, 25 June 2011

Denise Craddock postcard

Just after Smile's second recording session - and before the band's breakup - in February 1970 Roger Taylor and John Harris travelle...

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

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...

Monday, 28 March 2011

Queen Convention 2011

Was very excited to attend the Queen Convention on the weekend of the 26th and 27th March. I gave a talk about the Queen in Cornwall project...

Sunday, 13 March 2011

Mike Grose

Mike Grose - Queen's first bassist and still living in Cornwall - was one of the first people I spoke to when I started this project ne...

Roger Taylor new interview for The West Briton

The West Briton is a Cornish local paper that, back in the sixties and seventies, featured articles and ads relating to The Reaction, Smile ...

Friday, 11 March 2011

Stormtroopers in Stillettoes

Went to London for the Queen exhibition in the old brewery buildings off Brick Lane on Wednesday. There was lots of very interesting stuff ...

Thursday, 3 March 2011

Q Magazine Reaction photo

There was a good interview with Brian and Roger in the March 2011 edition of Q magazine. This was the photograph that most interested me bec...

Friday, 18 February 2011

Roger Taylor in Norfolk

Roger spent his earliest years in Kings Lynn. The local paper ran a feature on him about 20 years ago and included this picture of him at a ...

The Count House, Botallack

Those of you who know Cornwall well will probably have heard of the Count House at Botallack near the cliffs at Lands End which was the fir...

Saturday, 12 February 2011

Mr Lucifer: Will Wright and Rufus Manning

Mr Lucifer played with Smile on at least two occasions in Cornwall. Last week Roger Kinsey kindly sent this picture to me by e-mail. Roger w...

Friday, 11 February 2011

Roger Brokenshire in the 70s

This is a video put on line by my friend Richard who runs http://www.kernowbeat.co.uk/ . The Globetrotters was a band popular in Cornwall...

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

The March of the Black Queen

The best ever Queen song?

Pat Johnstone

I spoke with Pat Johnstone on the phone for more than two hours a couple of nights ago. She had some really fascinating memories of the year...

Tuesday, 25 January 2011

Early photos of Roger

Here are a couple of low res images of Roger Taylor which are on the internet. I'd be interested to know where they came from because ...

Batoum Gardens

This fairly well known early picture of Freddie was, according to Denise Craddock, taken in a flat at 6, Batoum Gardens. Denise hasn't ...

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Imperial College Union

Immediately adjacent to The Albert Hall is Beit (pronounced Byatt) Quad: a big courtyard with an entrance from the road. Looking across the...

Kensington Market, The Greyhound, Maria Assumpta

Kensington Market on High Street Kensington is now a PC World. (Actually I went in there to buy a USB hub when I was in London last weekend)...

Friday, 7 January 2011

Map of Kensington Market

Alan Mair, who employed Freddie Mercury to work at his stall upstairs at Kensington Market has drawn this map of the market that gives a re...

Thursday, 6 January 2011

Godolphin Hall

Thanks to Mary and her colleagues in Helston I've got hold of these nice old photos of the Godolphin Hall in the town centre: a fairly ...

Tuesday, 4 January 2011

Dental School...the last piece of the jigsaw

I feel like I'm nearing the end of the Queen in Cornwall project now. I really want to express gratitude for everyone who has given thei...

Wednesday, 22 December 2010

Denise Craddock

Various Queen biographies have mixed up Sinclair Road and Sinclair Gardens...So thanks to Denise, here is some more accurate information. D...

Sunday, 19 December 2010

Keith Harding and Vaughan Hankins

One of the first things I did when I started the 'Queen in Cornwall' research was to visit Park View in Truro where Roger Taylor liv...

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Les Brown and Sinclair Gardens

Les Brown is well known to Queen fans as the man who originally brought Brian May and Roger Taylor together when he saw an advert for a drum...

Sunday, 28 November 2010

Penny North of the Jayfolk

Jill Johnson sent a copy of this photo of The Jayfolk to me a few months ago...and I wondered if there was a story behind it. Penny who join...

Sunday, 21 November 2010

John 'Acker' Snell

I was really glad to finally speak to John Snell on Friday. He was the sax player and one of the founders of Roger Taylor's group in Cor...

Thursday, 18 November 2010

Bert Biscoe and a piece of very important and very rare memorabilia

Bert is well known in Truro as a musician, writer and City councillor. Although he saw quite a lot of them he is at least two years younger ...

Monday, 8 November 2010

Cornishman ads

These old ads from the sixties are so evocative...I've trawled through the West Briton and Cornish Guardian. That only leaves The Corni...

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