Roger Taylor tells TIM HUGHES about putting together a group to keep the great band’s songs alive

HE is the driving force behind of one of the world’s biggest bands and responsible for some of the best-loved songs in pop history. But Queen’s Roger Taylor is now passing on the baton.

The legendary drummer, singer and songwriter has teamed up with bandmate Brian May to put together a group to carry the band’s songs into the future – so he doesn’t have to.

Called The Queen Extravaganza, members were handpicked via You Tube auditions and, Roger admits, are almost as good as the real thing.

“It’s been a real voyage for me,” he tells me while relaxing at home in Surrey.

“Brian and I are very close and both have nothing but fond memories of Queen. And while the band is still going, the extravaganza is a means of playing our music using younger, stronger more flexible musicians to represent us.

“It is not easy to represent Queen, though, and we needed high-calibre musicians.”

But, he insists, it is no tribute band. “What I wanted was a band that could represent me and play our music in a brilliant way– but not to look like us or be like us. It is not pantomime like a tribute band. Even so, he says, the likeness is sometimes uncanny “The front guy sounds so much like Freddie Mercury it’s hard to believe it’s not him.”

So would Freddie approve? “Definitely! Brian and I still fly the flag for Queen and we know Freddie would love it. It was all about the music for him. We didn’t make our music in the 70s just for it to be successful. It’s wonderful people still play it though. It would appear to have a lasting appeal.”

For Roger, the aim is not just to preserve the band’s music – but its spirit. “Freddie was at the front but knew every part was essential. It was really democratic, and that’s why I am proud to keep it all going. We made music for people to listen to and enjoy and we were unashamedly good at that. It’s nice a lot of people enjoy our music.

“A lot of people are almost ashamed to be showmen. Perhaps they think it’s uncool. But Fred crossed that boundary. He was so uncool and people were aghast at the awful things he would wear. But he had a great sense of humour. There’s an essential sort of irony and mockery that looked completely ridiculous at the time.”

To Roger’s delight, The Queen Extravaganza has proved an instant hit, playing their enduring classics to fans – many too young to have seen the original line-up.

“We’ve done three tours of the US and Canada so are really flying, “says Roger. “The band were all recruited in North America and the idea was to also put together a British band, but we already have the perfect band. We thought we’d never find another like them.”

Roger’s contribution to Queen is often overlooked. As well as his big drum sound, he provided backing vocals and wrote some of the band’s hits, tunes like Radio Ga Ga, A Kind of Magic, Heaven for Everyone, Breakthru, The Invisible Man and These are the Days of Our Lives. He also co-wrote the number one hits Under Pressure and Innuendo, a track for which he wrote the lyrics, and the top 10 hit One Vision.

So what are his favourite Queen songs? “I don’t get asked that,” he says, picking up on my obvious surprise, over what I thought was the most predictable of questions. “I love Under Pressure, Someone To Love and Bohemian Rhapsody,” he says after a pause. “And, of course, Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

Roger has been busy on a solo album called Fun on Earth. The record is his first since 2008’s The Cosmos Rocks.

He laughs when I mention it. “Yes, it’s taken five years since I had fun in space so I’ve decided to come down to earth,” he says. But it’s the Queen Extravaganza that gets him most excited. “It’s going to be a hell of a night,” he says. “And you’ll get the nearest thing to Freddie Mercury you’ll ever see.”

And how is Roger’s counterpart holding up? “He’s amazing. He doesn’t need tips from me!”

The Queen Extravaganza play the O2 Academy Oxford on Monday.

Tickets from ticketweb.co.uk