Queen’s Brian May helps reunite English schoolboy with his lost guitar

Queen guitarist Brian May has helped reunite an 8-year-old schoolboy with his lost guitar, via social media.

The feel-good story began when West End musical star Mazz Murray, who’s currently starring as ’Donna’ in ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, found a guitar in its case outside a London Underground station and copied May into a social media post to help reunite the instrument with its owner, to spare the unfortunate child getting “royally bollocked.”

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May then took up the quest, posting about the lost guitar on Instagram, and writing “We’d like to reunite this with its owner…”

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The appeal was spotted by Christopher Ravie at Alhambra Guitars, who contacted his London supplier, and suggested that the shop manager keep an eye out for a customer seeking to purchase a replacement guitar. And when the parents of 8-year-old Emerson Liu Bancroft from Borehamwood contacted the shop for that exact reason, they were informed that the lost guitar had, in fact, been found, and were re-directed towards London’s Novello Theatre, where young Emerson was reunited with his instrument by Murray, with May watching on via a video call.

The guitar legend then posted about the story’s happy ending on Instagram, and everyone lived happily ever after.

The End.

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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.