At the Beeb

At the Beeb collects Queen's early radio sessions for the BBC, recorded for Radio 1's Sound of the 70s programme. The first four tracks were taped on 5 February 1973, with the rest following on 3 December 1973. It came out on 4 December 1989 on the Band of Joy label, on vinyl, cassette and CD.

It catches the band right at the start of their story, around the time of their debut album, Queen. Every track but one comes from that record; the exception is "Ogre Battle", which would turn up on Queen II. Hearing these songs in their radio versions is a nice way to see how they sounded before the studio polish of later years. In 1995 it was reissued in the United States and Canada as At the BBC, on Hollywood Records, including a limited edition picture disc. The same tracks were later gathered, with further session recordings, on the 2016 album On Air.