Great story Ray, as have known you since 1965, followed some of your journey, with The Executives, in Oz and the USA..and still communicating on F/B...The good old days till today...
QUEEN:-forget Brisbane! I had a three piece band in the bush (bass, drums, guitar) and my drummer and I drove 300 miles to see what we THOUGHT would be the greatest band alive as we had every LP they had made. We used to play all of the RSL Clubs etc. Well Ray's band was on first. I think he opened up with the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and from then on it was just magic with a capital M. We thought "Gee this is gonna be a GREAT night". Honestly, they blew Queen off the stage. When Queen came on I said "Bloody hell, there is no way they will sound any good" because Queen are basically a studio band...millions of overdubs of instruments and voices and all that stuff so we were subjected to backing tracks. And that is the way it was. They just sounded empty. It was mostly May's brilliant guitar playing that was 'the' show and he drowned out everything. Half way through the gig, my drummer and I left early, disappointed for the long drive home. Freddy could not make the high notes maybe because he wasn't interested so he substituted them with some low harmony vocal licks which often made the song unrecognisable. Waste of money but we raved about Ray's band all the way home. On another occasion I went to see the Troggs...poor. The Australian support band New Breed, which I had never heard of blew them away!.
Wow that's amazing Derek, and I'm so glad you remember. I've told that story before, and people are a bit skeptical. I know they're thinking "upstage Queen"? Seriously? But yes, it happened!
Great story Ray, as have known you since 1965, followed some of your journey, with The Executives, in Oz and the USA..and still communicating on F/B...The good old days till today...
Thank you so much Bob, it's been an amazing life-journey for sure.
Great stuff Scott, I thoroughly enjoyed our chat. 👍 RB
It was great to spend an arvo having a chat … blows me away that I didn’t know so many of the things that you’ve done. ❤
@@ScottWhatman Thanks Scott, it was great having a chat and of course, having a "catchup" with an old mate too. You Rock Scott! 👍
QUEEN:-forget Brisbane! I had a three piece band in the bush (bass, drums, guitar) and my drummer and I drove 300 miles to see what we THOUGHT would be the greatest band alive as we had every LP they had made. We used to play all of the RSL Clubs etc. Well Ray's band was on first. I think he opened up with the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and from then on it was just magic with a capital M. We thought "Gee this is gonna be a GREAT night". Honestly, they blew Queen off the stage. When Queen came on I said "Bloody hell, there is no way they will sound any good" because Queen are basically a studio band...millions of overdubs of instruments and voices and all that stuff so we were subjected to backing tracks. And that is the way it was. They just sounded empty. It was mostly May's brilliant guitar playing that was 'the' show and he drowned out everything. Half way through the gig, my drummer and I left early, disappointed for the long drive home. Freddy could not make the high notes maybe because he wasn't interested so he substituted them with some low harmony vocal licks which often made the song unrecognisable. Waste of money but we raved about Ray's band all the way home. On another occasion I went to see the Troggs...poor. The Australian support band New Breed, which I had never heard of blew them away!.
Wow that's amazing Derek, and I'm so glad you remember. I've told that story before, and people are a bit skeptical. I know they're thinking "upstage Queen"? Seriously? But yes, it happened!
@@rayburton2313 Summerhill Road...that was a GREAT song
@@DerekEvans-j9j Wow! Thanks Derek, you have an amazing memory 😮