NORTHERN PLANNER

So I went to see Queen last night. 

Sort of against my will. Campbell dared me to confront my prejudice and I accepted, only to find him putting his money where my mouth was.

It wasn't totally hateful. 

I took my sister and it made her happy. If anything made it worthwhile, it was that. 

But it's hard to not to appreciate 10,000 happy people singing their hearts out. It even made me smile.

The songs, and yes I do unfortunately know most of them, do work in a live setting.

Adam Lambert confounded my expectations. Once he forget to try and impersonate Freddie Mercury and just perform, he's a very good singer, he won the crowd over, not least because he could see they were enjoying themselves. 

But Brian May was the real star of the show. It's uncool to play a guitar that looks like he crafted in a school woodwork class and he always has this squinty frown. But he's a very good guitar player. 

Someone apart from Freddie Mercury was missing. They played Under Pressure, a David Bowie song Queen got involved that in that I do love – and it missed Bowie. 

Overall, I wouldn't go again. The songs just aren't that interesting. Eventually, like listening on record, it just became slightly camp power rock played with a very similar guitar style. It was a bit boring. 

Meatloaf does this kind of thing a lot better in my inconsequential view. 

The one surprise was when they forget to be 'Queen' there were some good bits. They played a very earnest and affecting Days of Our Lives for example. That was OK. 

So I maybe hate Queen a little less. They make a lot of people happy and you can't argue with that.

It's just not for me.

But at least I gave it a go. 

Thankfully I'm seeing Ryan Adams in February and Morrisey in March to cleanse myself.