Queen fans will have a chance to celebrate the legacy of the iconic British rock band during the upcoming Queen’s Court show at the Polish Hall on Saturday, April 20, 2024.
Brantford’s own Sean Hauk, Colin Boughton, Marc Girard, and Randy Solski first formed their tribute band back in the summer of 2023 after Hauk, who has been performing 20-to-40-minute shows as Freddie Mercury with Bounty Enterprises in Burlington, wanted to take it a step further.
“I’ve been working with them just doing 20 to 30, sometimes 40 minutes sets at the most and I had been kind of talking about doing a full Queen show because people have been asking for it,” he said. “So, I pitched it to Garry Lichach, who is just a great guy, but he was so busy, and I thought, ‘you know what, I’m just going to put together my own band and then I can present him the finished product and see where it goes.”
After contacting his friend Solski, the two soon began assembling the band and it wasn’t long before they had Boughton playing Roger Taylor, Girard as Brian May, Solski as John Deacon and Hauk as Mercury.
“It kind of all came together and I thought, ‘we’ll just start, get together, see how things are and maybe we’ll do our first show in 2024,’” said Hauk. “When we started rehearsing in September we just jelled, everything was working out really well and I was like, ‘oh, we need to have a show this year.’”
He later got in touch with Brian Grosvold from the Polish Hall, and two the arranged to debut the band at the venue on Wednesday, December 13, 2023.
Despite not knowing if they would even get a 100-person audience, to their delight, it was a sold-out show.
“Between our friends, family and my patients, we sold out and it was just a really great show,” said Hauk. “Later on, I presented some video of the show to Garry, and he loved it and so now he’s already booked us four or five performances and there’s more gigs coming in.”
Hauk said that for audience members thinking of attending their April 20 show, they can expect an overall entertaining and high-energy evening that features Queen’s biggest hits.
“It’s just a rockin’ good time for all ages; There’s a lot of fun jokes that have been written into the show and you’ll learn some things about Queen as a band, and of course… you’re going hear all their hits as well some that you may not know, but that you’ll definitely love,” he said.
The all-ages show will take place at the Polish Hall on Saturday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are being sold for $30 in advance, and $35 at the door. The hall will be running their onsite bar and perogies and sausages will also be available to purchase.
A portion of the proceeds of ticket sales will be going towards the Brantford Food Bank, and the band will also be accepting donations for the organization as well.
Overall, Hauk and his band members are looking forward to bringing their show back to Brantford and having the chance to pay tribute to the iconic British rock band.
“I think the thing about Queen that I love the most is that everyone loves them and their audience spans over generations,” said Hauk. “After Bohemian Rhapsody came out, it had like, a whole other rebirth and it keeps having those rebirth moments because it’s really good music. It’s because all four of them were writers and they just kept coming up with new things and they weren’t afraid to try new things together.”
