Queen are gearing up for their first tour of Australia in 30 years, with a string of must-see concerts this August. The British rock supergroup will be joined by Adam Lambert for the concert, who first worked with the band when they joined him on American Idol in 2009.
Lambert’s vocal range has often been compared to the late, great Freddie Mercury, who died in November 1991. Queen and Adam Lambert will kick-start their Australian tour at the Allphones Arena in Sydney on August 26, before playing the Rod Laver Arena in the city of Melbourne on August 29, and the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Brisbane on September 1.
With tickets availables for the series of concerts right now, Australian audiences are expecting to be wowed this summer.
However, Queen have hinted that this tour could be their last. Promoter Paul Dainty encouraged fans to see one of the best rock bands in music history.
Queen started their current tour with Adam Lambert by playing shows across the United States in June. Lambert described sharing the stage with the group as “surreal”.
“[Freddie] is a personal hero of mine,” Adam Lambert said. “I am grateful for the chance to sing such powerful music for fans”.
Lambert went onto say that the tour will be a “huge milestone” for him as an artist, and that “magic” will be on display on-stage when he joins Roger Taylor, Brian May and the rest of Queen.
It was both Taylor and May who relaunched Queen as a touring tour-de-force back in 2005, with vocalist Paul Rodgers joining the band to perform their biggest classics such as Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, It’s A Kind of Magic, Killer Queen, Another One Bites The Dust, and Who Wants To Live Forever. Queen have won a legion of new fans after the musical theatre show We Will Rock You made its premier in London’s dazzling West End.
Queen recorded an album with Rodgers, called The Cosmos Rocks, which peaked in the UK Top 5 albums chart, and at number 49 in Australia when it was released in 2008.
Adam Lambert first delighted audiences when he appeared on the Fox music competition series American Idol. He is currently working on a brand new album after leaving record label Sony. He auditioned for the show – which included performing in front of judge Simon Cowell – with the Queen classic Bohemian Rhapsody, making it through to the next round of auditions.
However, it’s not the first time a new vocalist has joined a group after a previous singer has passed away. Jon Stevens, JD Fortune and Ciarin Gribbin have all joined INXS on-stage after Michael Hutchence died in 1997. The band stopped touring back in 2012, but fans are hoping that they will perform again in the future. Brian Johnson replaced Bon Scott in the band AC/DC when he passed away in 1980, and despite performing with the rock group for over 30 years, is still sometimes referred to as the “new guy”. Finally, Brett Scallons replaced Ian Astbury as the front an of the Doors, joining Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek for live performances around the world.
