One of the world’s leading Queen tribute bands, Killer Queen, will return to Long Island this month, bringing the theatrical magic and soaring anthems of Freddie Mercury to the stage. The British group, fronted by Patrick Myers, will perform Sunday, Sept. 21, at the Flagstar at Westbury Music Fair.
Formed in London in 1993, Killer Queen has built an international reputation for delivering faithful recreations of Queen’s legendary live shows. The group has played stadiums across Europe, earned the title of “Worldwide Best Tribute Band,” and even headlined at iconic venues such as Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.
For Myers, who has embodied Mercury for more than 30 years, the show is more than just music.
“We’re not just a cover band; we put on a whole show,” Myers said in an interview. “We want to look and sound like Queen, so all of us are in character, so to speak. It’s a fully immersive thing, with a massive stage set, fantastic lights, pyrotechnics and a show that really involves the audience from the start.”
The concerts, he added, are built around both the biggest hits and deeper tracks for devoted fans. “There are so many songs people love, but we also like to throw in some deep cuts,” Myers said.
Killer Queen first performed at London University in 1993, following in the footsteps of the real Queen, which had launched its career at the same venue two decades earlier. Within two years, the tribute band was headlining in London’s West End — an unprecedented feat at the time. Their popularity has only grown, propelled by the timeless appeal of Queen’s music.
“The music is evergreen,” Myers said. “It just seems to find new generations over and over again. Most recently, after the film [“Bohemian Rhapsody”] with Rami Malek, we saw so many kids in the audience — and they all knew the words. The kids were bringing their parents to see the show. It’s been wonderful.”
For Myers, the journey began not with a calculated plan but with a chance discovery in the mirror. As a student, he found himself experimenting with costumes and makeup when Freddie Mercury’s death in 1991 sparked an outpouring of grief among his peers.
“I don’t look like Freddie Mercury, but I discovered I could look a lot like him,” Myers recalled. “I pulled a Freddie face in the mirror, just being silly and suddenly my face looked extraordinarily like him. It was weird — I didn’t know I could do that. Combined with singing the songs in his vocal style, it felt like something I had to do.”
That decision led to Killer Queen’s first show in 1993, which Myers still remembers as life-changing. “There was such a cathartic release to have this music played and the audience’s collective grief but also their collective joy was palpable,” he said. “The atmosphere when you combine an audience with these songs is just magic and that magic hit me like a brick on that first show.”
Since then, Myers has continued to approach each concert with the same sense of gratitude and purpose. Every performance, he said, includes a tribute to Mercury through one of the singer’s most poignant late-career songs.
“We always play ‘These Are the Days of Our Lives,’” Myers said. “It was the last video Freddie did and even though he was very ill, he looked radiant and beautiful. The last thing he said to the camera was, ‘I still love you.’ For me, playing that song feels like saying thank you to Fred all over again. It means a lot.”
Killer Queen made its U.S. debut in 2016 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre and the band has returned there almost annually since. The venue remains a touchstone for Myers and his bandmates, who are booked again through 2026.
“We were staggeringly lucky that Red Rocks wanted us,” Myers said. “We didn’t want to just turn up in America and play a few small towns — we wanted to arrive with a splash. That first show there was magic and it’s become a regular fixture for us.”
As Killer Queen prepares for its Long Island date, Myers said audiences can expect a night that blends spectacle with intimacy — and plenty of opportunities to sing along.
“The beauty of this music is that it’s so positive, so unifying,” he said. “Every night, it feels like we’re all part of something bigger than ourselves. That’s what keeps us coming back.”
