Shinko Music Entertainment held its annual Queen Day In Autumn earlier in the month. Many thanks to Sakurako Takagi and the team for their write-up below.

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QUEEN DAY IN AUTUMN HELD IN TOKYO held by SHINKO MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT CO. LTD.

The commemorative event of the life of Freddie and the music of Queen, QUEEN DAY IN AUTUMN took place in Tokyo on Sunday, November 5th this year, and consisted of two parts; the first part introduced Queen Day producer and Queen historian Mr. Takayuki Ishizumi and Ms. Keiko Imaizumi, who is a radio DJ and music critic.  Ms. Imaizumi talked about her precious memories of interviewing Queen members,
and she brought and played a tape recording of her radio show, which contained audio of Freddie
when he was a guest on her show. The whole audience was excited to hear Freddie's real voice there and then in the room.

In the second part, a Queen tribute band called Gueen gave the audience a superb show
and paid tribute to Freddie, Brian, Roger and John's music. Gueen is well-known for their great live performance, they once even played before Sir Paul McCartney at a private party when he visited Japan. Gueen played 21 Queen songs and commemorated Freddie when they performed the songs 'Made In Heaven' and 'I Was Born To Love You'. GUEEN's vocalist, Mr. Freddie Hatae changed his stage costumes five times during the show, from Zandra Rhodes' egret-sleeve blouse to a police cap and leather shorts of the Live Killers era. When he wore an embroidered vest of cats which Freddie wore in the 'These Are The Days Of Our Lives' made the audience cry.

In the lobby of the venue, Mr. Ryutaro Takahara created a gorgeous flower arrangement just for this special day. He had previously worked as a gardener of the Japanese landscape garden at Freddie's Garden Lodge home in London. A flower stand was also set and the audience were able to place bouquets of flowers around a photo of Freddie.

Donations from the event will be sent to The Mercury Phoenix Trust shortly.

Sakurako Takagi - Shinko Entertainment