MUSIC fans may have felt as though they were going slightly mad when rock band Queen took to the stage in the region tonight, sporting a new-look line-up.
But US singer-songwriter Adam Lambert's turn in the Freddie Mercury frontman role, alongside surviving original members including Brian May, proved that the show must go on for Queen devotees.
The band kicked off their UK tour at the Metro Radio Arena, in Newcastle, on Tuesday evening.
Indianapolis-born Lambert, 32, has a long history of collaborating with Queen, having performed the group's hit We Are the Champions on American Idol in 2009.
A link-up at the MTV European Music Awards followed in 2011, before Lambert performed a series of sold-out shows with the band in London and across Europe.
Queen guitarist May has described Lambert as a "great interpreter" of the work of Mercury, who died in November 1991.
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