That time Queen stayed in a cottage in Cornwall together
In July and August 1971, Queen played eleven gigs in Cornwall - their first sort of mini-tour.
Roger Taylor has said that his mother wasn’t keen to have the whole band and their convoy sleeping on her front-room floor in Hurland Road in 1971 - it was getting over-crowded with roadies, girlfriends and hangers-on - so they rented a small three bedroom cottage just outside Truro, in the picturesque village of Devoran. (Queen in Cornwall)
John: “We stuck all the equipment into one van and sailed off. We rented a cottage near Truro and stayed together. It was good, because we got to know each other really well. It settled us as a group. Roger did manage to find us some gigs as well, so we broke even.” (Sutcliffe, Queen Illustrated History, p. 26).
One of the other smaller photos on the back of the first Queen album is an image of Freddie standing in the open countryside, in what looks like the estuary of the Devoran River. The band would have gone walking along the river that leads to Restronguet during their holiday there, and would also have visited Flo’s Bar, one of Roger’s favourite pubs. (Queen in Cornwall - opinions are divided on whether the pic really shows Freddie, or actually Roger.)
And finally, look at this postcard that Freddie wrote home (transcript behind the cut):
John discovers what the others think ‘cooking’ is and what they are all like around cats and ‘this isn’t an argument John this is just friendly bickeri…PUT THE CUSHION DOWN BRIAN’.
And thought ‘these are my people’.
