My name is Nino Trovato , I am 52 years old born June 28, 1965. I live in a small Beach Community in the southern tip of Rhode Island called Westerly . We border the state of Connecticut.
I’ve been following Queen exactly 40 years now. I originally heard of the band early in 1977 when we found out that my cousin Joe was working with this band called Queen. Joe’s sister Louisa my brother Mark and myself kept hearing about this band that Joe was out on the road with. We didn’t really know much of what he was doing other than he was doing lighting. I had no idea that he was a lighting director and was designing lighting rigs 4 bands back then. He was working for a company called TFA Electro sound. And they were hired out by the queen organization to provide their lighting rigs. Several months later I kept hearing this song on the radio called We Will Rock You and then we are the champions. I originally thought it was Kiss because kiss was huge at the time. Until a friend of mine pointed out that it was a band called Queen. So I went out and bought the news of the World album only because I was hoping to see my cousin’s name in the album. Well that didn’t happen. So I went out and bought all the albums leading up to News of the World hoping to see Joe’s name in an album so I can impress my friends. Well that didn’t happen either but in the meantime I started to fall in love with the music that I was hearing and I played those records to death! But it wasn’t until the following year when they released the Jazz album that I finally got to see Joe’s name in the credits. And then the following year his name was in the live Killers album as well. And in numerous tour programs.
I saw Queen the first time on November 14th 1978. It was a Tuesday and I’ll never forget it! My father had gotten four tickets and back then tickets in the United States were under $10 yes. So my dad took myself my friend Richard and my aunt to the Providence Civic Center to see the show. When we first walked in I saw the lighting rig was down low on the stage and I had no idea how they were supposed to play on that. And I remember looking up above the stage there was a smaller stage with a tiny drum kit on it and being so young I had no idea what it was doing up there. I thought the band was going to be playing from that tiny stage up above little did I know it was to be part of the acoustic set that they would do at the middle of the show. So we get our seats which are pretty close to Brian’s side of the stage and we actually saw my cousin Joe standing by Brian’s microphone talking to another crew member. I would have 14,000 people my father yells the name Joe and Joe looks in our Direction and sees us from the stage and he gave a big smile and a wave. But obviously because he was working he could not come over and chat with us. Shortly after the Lights Went Down, the stage was filled with smoke and then the loud thunder clap came roaring over the PA system. The lights started to flicker the drum Riser started to Flicker and the side platform lights started to flicker in unison. Then the rig start to rise above the stage to reveal the band. It was the most amazing experience I had ever experienced at that point in my life!!!
I was so excited to be going to that show I’ll never forget it! My friend Richard had seen Queen before on the news of the world tour the year before. So he was experienced and going to concerts. I had no idea what to expect. My father drove us to Providence which is only about 45 minutes from my town and the adrenaline was just pumping! I remember when we got our seats that back then in the 70s before the show people would toss Frisbees and there were also glow sticks being tossed around as well. I remember seeing a policeman getting hit in the head with a roll of toilet paper. LOL! Once the Lights Went Down I started to notice that the people in front of us we’re passing these funny smelling cigarettes around. LOL
We were practically sitting underneath the PA system which was flown above the stage. And it was so loud that my ears were ringing for at least the next two days because I wasn’t used to that kind of volume. Now I’m used to it because I play drums in a band and have been playing drums with this particular band for the last 32 years. So I’m used to having my ears ring now but back then it was just something that you just didn’t get used to right away. I remember I bought a t-shirt which was a light blue color with pink girls on bicycles that circled the shirt. This was the Jazz tour T-Shirts and they were promoting Fat Bottom Girls and bicycle race for the store.It was just amazing to see the four guys who were hanging in posters on my bedroom wall to be now in front of me singing all these songs that I would normally play on my record player. It was a night that changed my life forever because I then knew that I wanted to play drums in a band.
The word that I would use to describe that day would have to be inspirational! Because it definitely inspired me to become a musician, a drummer and a performer!
Well, I grew up hearing stories from my cousin Joe of being on the road with the band and first and foremost he never called Freddie Freddie, more often than not he would call him Fred like a lot of the road crew did and still do actually. But even though Freddie could be somewhat difficult on the road at times, at least with a couple of experiences that my cousin had with him, neither he or any crew member that I’ve come in contact with over the years has ever said anything nasty about Freddie! They still have the utmost respect and it’s as if Freddie was their brother because they all still protect him when other people or basically outsiders will write untruths about him. Those crew members still protect and speak very highly of the man! For me, he has left a legacy that I will cherish forever! Because I grew up with the band and each of those guys gave me the gift of music!
•Do you consider Queen still alive as a group today? Or do you think they are no longer a band after that November 1991?
Ooo… tough question! I’ve been a fan of Queen for 40 years now so for me when Freddie died to me the band kind of ended at that point in time. Even though Rodger and Brian still go out to this day with Adam in a lot of ways it’s a good thing because they still fill Arenas no matter where they go, but they’re also bringing Queen music to A Whole New Generation which I think is fantastic! But they’ve also become a queen cover band as far as I’m concerned and they’ve come around my area a couple of times and I’ve passed on it both times because it’s just not the same without Freddy and John. And that’s just my opinion other people may view what they’re doing differently and I have no problem with that and I have no problem with what Rodger and Brian are doing because they’ve been doing this since they were both in school together so they’re still friends from their college days and it’s what they’ve always done. But with Fred and Deacy gone it’s just not Queen as I know it.
My first Queen concert : 11/14/78. I lost the original negatives but I did the best over the years to clean thse up. The ad is an original ad from the Providence Journal.
3 night later Queen were at Madison Square Garden where my cousin Joe had gotten tickets for most of his brother and sisters. My cousin Angela went both night and shot these two photos of Joe at his lighting desk
And she took some great photos from the front of the stage even though her seats were back about 20 rows…
The next 2 photos were from Joe and they were taken in Japan in ’79. In it you can see from left to right, Paul Prenter, Mary Austin, Fred is behind Brian’s hair, then you see Joe Fanelli and then my cousin Joe in the yellow shirt, which was actually a Robin Trower shirt. Joe worked with Trower prior to Queen. He took the shirt off and turned it inside out. Brian asked him why he did that and Joe said that it was a Queen party, not Robin Trower, To which Brian replied that he liked Robin Trower. LOL. And then we have Brian May in a lobster bib. Here we have this guitar hero, genius and we have him in a lobster bib!
Here are some autographs Joe brought back from the News of the World tour. After the European dates he came home and then visited us here in Rhode Island with 2 tour programs with autographs in both. One set for me and one for my brother. I still have both programs so I’m VERY lucky!!! Here they come…
These were for my brother Mark but Roger spelled his name with a “C” and not a “K”
My cousin’s lighting rig with Fred, Brian and John’s autographs… I’ll send you some close-ups…
My cousin Luisa got a set also but Freddie put two tiny “X’s” in the “y” in Mercury… I think that means hugs…
And then Roger signed his on a different page…
Then I made friends with all 3 belly dancers from the 12/22/77 LA Forum gig. I sent my program out to California twice. Stasha signed it first then sent it back then I sent it to Jane where she AND Denise signed the program for me and sent it back…
Now, I’m going to take you to August 26th 1980. I was 15 and saw Queen a second time… this time with my cousin Luisa who was in love with Roger.
R
Photo by Nino Trovato
Interview – October 8th, 2017
Queen 1970-1991 