She then left Freddie, Brian and Roger before returning while pushing Groucho, who was “full of life”, in a wheelchair. The carer then announced: “He would like to perform for you.”

The Queen guitarist recounted: “So he did. He kind of propped himself up on the piano and she played and he sang one of his very quirky fantastic little songs.

“And he told a couple of jokes and then he sat back and said, ‘Okay. Now you guys perform!’

“We kind of froze and thought, ‘Oh no! What are we going to do?’”