Mullen lived up to the magic of Freddie

Gary Mullen gave an explosive performance for the Bermuda Festival’s closing show One Night Of Queen.

He was on fire living up to Freddie’s reputation as ‘Mr Fahrenheit’ belting out hit after hit with that iconic Queen majesty.

The show kicked off with the well deserving and apt We Will Rock You and Mullen and his band The Works certainly lived up to the promise.

Physically, Mullen lived up to the real deal, he pranced and danced just like Freddie working up a heavy sweat in the first few minutes of the show.

One of the highlights of the show was when he took a giant Bermuda flag and draped it over himself like a cape which the audience loved.

The stage at the Fairmont Southampton was clearly too small for this performer who ran circles around it. It only served as a reminder that this show has been performed at some major venues including the BBC’s Proms in the Park in front of some 40,000 people.

Tie Your Mother Down, Radio GaGa, Somebody To Love, Another One Bites The Dust, and It’s A Kind of Magic were all among the greats included in his line up.

Mullen had a great rapport with the audience and managed to get a good crowd up to dance just a few songs into the gig.

His voice was powerful but on the opening night it was not flawless. He didn’t hit all the notes which is hardly surprising with such a demanding repertoire, and his voice would occasionally break but on the whole he did Queen justice.

And while Mullen was the star of the show the band members pulled off a tight and polished performance. Each took centre stage and kudos has to go to David Brockett for his fiery renditions of Brian May magic on guitar.

The Mid Ocean Amphitheatre was a good enough venue for the group aside from the small stage, but the seating arrangements made this concert a little awkward.

Some of the elder members of the audience were happy to sit through the entire show despite Mullen beckoning everyone up to the dance floor. So when the livelier members of the crowd did get up to dance — those seated could barely see the stage.

There were seats they could have moved to as a large group danced in front of centre stage at the front but I heard one annoyed member of the audience complaining that he didn’t want to move as that was his seat. Needless to say he was stuck with his obstructed view.

The Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts can be commended for, yet again, gracing Bermuda with a fantastic and eclectic line up of shows.