Queen in Edmonton

Our family recently returned from our annual pilgrimage to West Edmonton Mall and the TELUS World of Science up in Edmonton. On these trips, I hold out little hope of finding Queen-related items in Alberta’s capital city these days but was pleasantly surprised this past weekend when I came across four unexpected sightings.

My first find was totally serendipitous. The hotel we were staying at had a tiny games’ room that harboured a single upright arcade game and a table hockey game. (And judging by the uniforms of the miniature players, it was an Oilers-Bruins showdown.) For some reason, whoever used the game before my 11-year-old and I visited the room, had left before their time expired, so the sound effects were still being looped. There was the standard play-by-play commentary and the odd snippet of organ music you’d expect to hear at a real hockey game. Surprisingly, I kept hearing the familiar STOMP-STOMP-CLAP, STOMP-STOMP-CLAP as the sound effects kept looping. Okay, I think there’s my Queen fix for the day.

The next day we headed to Whyte Avenue, a trendy shopping area down the street from the University of Alberta. Our oldest kiddo is trans and wanted to check out a store called the Quiltbag, which focuses on 2SLGBTQI+ merchandise. In my experience, these niche stores usually have a curated book selection and this one was no different. A pink book cover stood out amongst the small collection: Queer Icons: From Gay to Z. Hey, I wonder if Freddie is in there. Sure enough, there he was. So I picked up this title to add to my Queen collection at home. Another Queen sighting I didn’t expect.

The following day, we paid a visit to TELUS World of Science. We have annual passes for the science centre here in Calgary and most science centres in North America have a reciprocal agreement where a membership at one grants them free admission to another, so admission was free. While we were wandering around in the NASA exhibit, my wife caught a sign promoting a Laser Queen event scheduled for the following night, so she suggested I take our youngest to the laser show. Okay, I’m not opposed to that.

For all the times we’ve been to this science centre, I don’t recall attending an event in their dome theatre, so I was eager to check out the venue as much as I was to see a Queen laser show. Upon entering the dome, the first thing I noticed were all of these full-length body pillows piled up on the floor in the centre of the viewing area. My 11-year-old ran to claim one but after lying down and looking up at the screen, he changed his mind and joined me in the front row instead.

I was curious to see what this laser show would look and sound like. I was struggling to imagine how exciting a bunch of random coloured laser beams was going to be, but I’m thinking that, at worst, I’ll get to hear some Queen tunes played really loud. The first song was WATC and sure enough, the corresponding laser show resembled a kinetic sine wave that simply followed the beat of the music. Because the lasers were set against a backdrop of a starry night, the light show at times felt like digital fireworks. 

As the song list moved from one to the other, the imagery generated by the lasers morphed into realistic objects. The Flash Gordon sequence gave us a spaceship and a variety of planetary line drawings. Now I was curious as to how the lasers were controlled and I started to respect the effort it probably took to incorporate realistic imagery into the arbitrary laser patterns usually associated with a laser show.

Fat Bottomed Girls took the animation to a whole new level, in my opinion. Whoever designed this show took a real tongue-in-cheek approach to visualizing the song. To my surprise, there weren’t any naked bike riders in this segment. (I wonder if Queen Productions needs to vet this type of event before it goes public?)

Overall, I really enjoyed the laser treatment of Queen’s music. As a designer myself, I was intrigued by the imagery and how it complemented the music. If I were to produce a Laser Queen show, I’d give serious thought to pitching a song selection that is more deep cuts than greatest hits. What would a Queen II laser show look like? What about The Prophet’s Song or She Makes Me? I get why the organizers went with the popular songs because they have to sell tickets, but I’m pretty sure there’s a market for the more robust Queen fan to enjoy obscure tunes that also have a story to tell.

Although I was still on a high from the laser show the night before, I was totally unprepared for seeing John Deacon on the morning news as he celebrated his 73rd birthday on our last morning in Edmonton. 

Four days in Edmonton. Four Queen sightings. Awesome.

The last time I had a Queen-centric moment in Edmonton was back in 1993 when I drove up to see The Brian May Band open for Guns N’ Roses at the Coliseum. That show was memorable for a couple of reasons: a) it was the first time I had seen any Queen member live, although I’d been a fan since 1975; and b) Brian said “fuck.” Hearing that surprised the hell out of me. I always thought he was pretty buttoned-up with his language. Perhaps he was preparing the crowd for Axl and crew?