AT THE BEEB

A nice release for fans of Queen's early music! All of the songs on this disc were recorded in 1973, the first half were recorded before the release of the band's debut album, the second half before the release of their second. This is a great way to hear Queen as they were without the studio embellishments, just basically playing live! These songs are very raw and almost give a garage band sound, although the sound quality is quite clean! "Son & Daughter" is probably one of the greatest tracks here, as Brian May introduces almost the entire solo for a song later recorded entitled "Brighton Rock." The band is in fine form and the tracks sound amazing, having not aged quite as poorly as the final studio takes of the same songs!! Also here is a great rendition of "Ogre Battle", recorded some months before it was released on Queen's second album.

To clear up any misconceptions, this was NOT Queen's second album and it was not released in 1973. This remained in the vaults until released on an independant label in 1989. It was re-issued as "At The BBC" by Hollywood Records around 1995 with new cover art and slightly upgraded sound. The original may be a bit hard to find these days anyway, especially on CD, but hell, eBay probably has dozens of them. It's well worth the price to get this great disc!