Queen legends Brian May and Roger Taylor enjoy a supersonic tour of Aerospace Bristol

On Friday 20 May, rock royalty Brian May and Roger Taylor visited Bristol’s aerospace museum and home of the last Concorde ever to fly, Aerospace Bristol, where they visited the iconic supersonic passenger jet ahead of their “top secret” performance at the Brabazon Hangars, future home of YTL Arena Bristol. 

Image: Brian May & Roger Taylor visit Concorde at Aerospace Bristol.

Lead guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor watched the Concorde show that Aerospace Bristol visitors see projected on to the side of the aircraft, before going on board to visit the Concorde flight deck and passenger cabin. 

Appropriately, Queen even had the chance to sit in the Queen’s seat: window seat 1A, located at the front left of the passenger cabin was Her Majesty’s choice whenever she flew onboard Concorde. 

Sally Cordwell, CEO of Aerospace Bristol, said; “It was a pleasure to welcome Brian May and Roger Taylor to Aerospace Bristol, and to give them a taste of the Concorde experience that makes the museum one of our region’s top days out. It was perfect timing - and really quite surreal! - to see Queen guitarist Brian May sit in the Queen’s Concorde seat, ahead of the Platinum Jubilee weekend, when visitors will also have the chance to sit in seat 1A.” 

Queen + Adam Lambert have been in Bristol rehearsing for their upcoming UK and European Tour which kicks off in Belfast on Friday 27 May. The band have been making use of the vast space in the Brabazon Hangars, where every British Concorde was built, with 40 artic lorries parking on site and more than 200 production crew in attendance. 

Andrew Billingham, CEO of YTL Arena Bristol, said; “It was great that Brian and Roger had the opportunity to visit Aerospace Bristol in between their rehearsals here at the Brabazon Hangars. Having previously flown on Concorde when touring, it think it was a really powerful moment for them to see it again. We want to continue to tell story of this historic site, the future home to supersonic live music and entertainment.”

On Monday 23 May, the band performed part of their final dress rehearsal to an invited audience, marking a key milestone in the Hangars journey to becoming a 17,000-capacity arena. 

The band said: “We’ve been made to feel very welcome by YTL, and the Rhapsody Tour would have loved the opportunity to include a Bristol show if this fantastic venue was open. Hopefully we can come back and play here again, to a packed house, when YTL Arena Bristol is ready to welcome the public.”