Brian May praises university marching band for 'amazing' Queen tribute - WATCH
A university marching band has celebrated the music of Freddie Mercury and Queen with an astonishing, perfectly choreographed halftime show.
The Ohio State University Marching Band honoured Queen by performing ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’, ‘Bicycle Race’, ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ during the season opener against Oregon State University on Saturday (1st September).
While the musical performance is impressive enough, it was the marching band’s formations – designed by band director Christopher Hoch – in front of the 100,000 capacity Ohio Stadium crowd that were truly astonishing.
In perfect formation, the band spelled out Queen’s name, recreated one of Freddie Mercury’s iconic poses, paid homage to the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ video, morphed into Brian May’s guitar and even moved across the pitch as two bicycles.
You can watch the entire nine-and-a-half minute routine right here:
After viewing the footage online, Brian May took to social media today to praise the performance, enthusing: “This is truly amazing !!! What an incredible amount of work went into this performance. Respects !!! And THANKS GUYS. Honoured !!”
Queen + Adam Lambert kicked off their three-week, 10-show residency at the Park Theater in Las Vegas on Saturday and Sunday.
With a production called The Crown Jewels, the band performed hits from Queen’s distinguished back catalogue together with a cover of Elvis Presley’s 1956 song ‘Heartbreak Hotel’.