As the lights went down, the auditorium fell silent. And then, after a brief moment, broke into raucous; with good reason. The opening night of a show at the O2 was always going to be glorious… But this was not any old show: this was Queen + Adam Lambert. Returning to London with new stage production and awe-inspiring energy Adam Lambert & Co truly rocked us! With the legendary guitarist and original member Brian May doing as only he can (magnificent string-work) and fellow original Rodger Taylor keeping an ever present rocking beat, Adam Lambert, who has been with the two remaining members since 2011, sung is in with a teaser of ‘We Will Rock You’, suitably setting the mood, and continuing into the renowned ‘Hammer To Fall’, the set list never had a dull moment — Lambert did the songs justice, despite the odds he was able to hold a candle up to the irreplaceable superstar Freddie Mercury.

It would have been easy for Q+AL to ignore the fact that Adam Lambert will never be Freddie Mercury but you get the sense that the band would never do that and the fans wouldn’t have that! Lambert himself made reference to the fact that "There will only ever be one Freddie Mercury", and Brian May enlisted the help of the audience (equipped with torches in a cliché but still emotional swaying tribute) to sing ‘Love of my Life’. Mercury even appeared on stage with May at the end of the song and, solo, late in the show via the big screens — he was ‘projected’ onto the stage and it felt as real as if he were there.

With serious moments, emotional moments, awesome moments and downright rocking moments, I reckon that Freddie would have been proud of Queen + Adam Lambert’s renditions of the classics!