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Many moons ago, sometime during the year 2000, guitarist Luke Mullens drummer David George were looking to put a band to together to play at the 7th Annual Australian Queen Convention, which was being held in Melbourne that year. Luke e-mailed a few of his contacts who were Queen fans and he received a response from a fellow named Jason Hess saying he was interested in being the singer. Luke and Jason had met a year or so previously while lining up at the crack of dawn for Brian May tickets and exchanged e-mail addresses. And so it was decided the three should get together for an informal jam to see if was possible to do something together. After the jam session Luke, Dave and Jason all agreed that there was enough potential to go ahead with the convention gig. Only problem was there was no bass player. Jason asked his mate Martin Boult, who actually didn't even own a single Queen album, if he would join the band. Marty agreed and so Q-ROCK was born. The intention was to only play the convention gig and leave it at that but such was the response they received that they decided to do another show - this time in a pub. Jason sent the following e-mail to the Queen Message Service (QMS) mailing list announcing the pub show:
Q-ROCK managed to attract go good sized crowd to ET's and all looked well for the continuation of the band. For their first two shows Q-ROCK were without a keyboard player and so the repertoire of Queen material they could play was limited. Fortunateley for the band a chap by the name of Brendan Grabau was in the audience at ET's. A long time Queen fan and accomplished pianist, Brendan offered his services to the group. It took some time for the group to reform for more rehearsals but eventually a regular schedule was achieved during 2002. In preparartion for their third show Q-ROCK decided it was time for a name change. Fat Bottomed Girls was eventually chosen and reflects the band's stage show with an emphasis quality entertainment, fun and a hint of irreverence. Fast forward a couple of years. Jason decided that FBG had run its course, and opted to retire from the band. This left a gaping hole out the front of the band, which after a series of auditions was filled by Mike Reed, an equally extroverted and capable vocalist with a theatrical background. An ideal candidate to fill the role of the flambuoyant Queen frontman, plus he was by no means coy about donning the ballet tights for the occasion! To reflect the new look and feel of the band, a name change was in order. The name QueenEssential was chosen, a snappy self-referencial title reflecting how the band captures the quintessence of the original Queen. This lineup persisted for a couple of years until Brendan ran into some personal issues and was unable to continue his commitment to the band. Rehearsals continued as a four piece, with a major festival at Hallam approaching. Unfortunately, it transpired that Luke was unable to commit to this date, so he called upon an old QMS email buddy and guitarist Anthony Fernando to fill in for this particular gig. Anthony had even rehearsed with the band at its inception, with the idea of a two-pronged axe-attack to better capture the multi-layered brilliance of Brian May in the studio, but this hadn't eventuated. The gig at the Hallam Festival went off successfully as four-piece, but the hunt for a replacement keyboardist was still on. At the same time, Luke decided that he had lost his motivation for QueenEssential, expressing a desire to explore the "back catalogue" of Queen, while the others felt that Greatest Hits was called that for a reason. This opened the door for Anthony to step in permanently for the role of the Curly-Haired One. As luck would have it, one of his musical acquaintances, a talented classical pianist Greg Linwood, was interested in filling in the keyboardist role when he heard it was available. One rehearsal later, the job was his, and the current incarnation of QueenEssential was born. They are (in order of length of service to the band):
Dave George - Drums |