Barry Mitchell, who played bass for Queen between August 1970 and January 1971, has died. The news was confirmed on Friday by the band's official archivist, Greg Brooks.
Mitchell reportedly played the original bass lines for songs such as Liar and Son And Daughter. His influence is said to have continued during the band's rise to fame.
Archivist's tribute
Posting a black and white photo of a young Barry taken around the time he played in the band as their second bassist, Greg Brooks wrote: "Terribly sad news just received that early Queen bass player (circa 1970), Barry Mitchell, has passed away. His anecdotes at the convention were fascinating and offered rare insight. He will be greatly missed."
Tributes poured in on social media. Friend Gary Taylor shared a recent photo of him playing bass, writing: "RIP Barry Mitchell, Queen's second bass player, who sadly passed away on August 17th. He was a great guy, and a friend, and we had some very interesting chats over the years on the phone and in person. Here is one of the last photos I took of Barry playing live on stage at the Edinburgh Queen Day in 2018. X."
Another friend, Mark Cotterill, said: "Farewell to a genuinely lovely man. A pleasure to call him friend. He had time for everyone at the Queen conventions. He had some great stories to tell re his music career. A man who could make any hat look cool. RIP Barry."
Fans remember Mitchell
A third fan recalled meeting Barry and said: "Aw, sad to hear this. We met him once at the UK Convention in 2009. He was an interesting speaker that day, and we closed the pub down that night. I've been missing him here on Facebook. Condolences Gary, and RIP Barry."
"I met him often at the conventions and personally in London when I've played there. Don't need to say he was a very nice person," wrote one fan. While another added: "So very sad. Another piece of living history gone."
Barry is said to have been recommended to Queen's drummer Roger Taylor after previously performing with a band called Conviction. In total, he is thought to have played 13 gigs with the band, which were mostly in the UK.
Early Queen days
He was one of a number of bassists, including Mike Grose and Doug Bogie, who played with Queen before the band eventually settled on John Deacon, who joined the late Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor to create their most famous line-up.
The band later became huge following the release of their 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack - their third - featuring their hit song Killer Queen, which reached Number 2 in the UK singles charts.
In a 2018 interview with French Rolling Stone magazine, Barry spoke about his time with Queen fondly and said: "It was a long time ago, in 1970. At that time, I was playing in several blues bands in London, in Soho clubs. A friend of mine, while travelling in Cornwall, met Roger Taylor. He was looking for a bassist for his band in London, and my friend recommended me - nice, right? (laughs)."
"I called Roger when I got back, and he suggested I meet the band, which consisted of Roger, Brian, and Freddie. We went to a lecture hall at Imperial College for my audition. From the very first song, everything went well. They showed me the chords, and I just picked it up. Then we had a jam session of blues tunes that everyone knew, and at the end, they said, 'That's it, we'll take you.'"
While Barry was impressed with Roger and Brian, who he called "very talented", he said Freddie "wasn't a great singer" in the beginning as he hadn't developed a method for controlling his voice yet. Though he's now gone down in history as one of the greatest frontmen that ever lived, Barry said when he first knew him he "had no stage presence".
He said of Freddie: "He was extremely shy. He wasn't at all the man the public knows today. It's hard to imagine how shy and insecure he was back then. Roger even described Freddie's voice at the time as sounding like a 'strangling lamb'. That might sound very offensive, but I understand what he meant. It wasn't that Freddie sang off-key, but just that he had no control."
Barry started rehearsing with the band and said they played quite a few gigs in England for a year, but in the end he was 'fired' "because they thought I was useless (laughs)."
Though he may have regretted it later on, Barry admitted it was him who wasn't enthusiastic enough about the music Queen were making at that time. He said: "It wasn't necessarily going in the direction I wanted. At the time, they weren't the cult band you all know. I didn't see the potential. It's crazy to say that now, but it's the truth."
