Brian May of Queen has said that the band's late frontman Freddie Mercury will appear as an 'optical illusion' in a special 10th anniversary performance of the band's own musical We Will Rock You.

Speaking to the BBC, May said the anniversary performance of the popular West End show, on May 14 at the Dominion Theatre, will be celebrated with an "an optical illusion of sorts" that will leave the audience saying "'did we actually see Freddie?'"

He added that the effect would be similar to the one created for the late rapper Tupac, who 'appeared' onstage at last month's Coachella Festival in California as a hologram.

May explained: "It's a little unfortunate they did that thing with Tupac as we've been trying to make Freddie appear on the stage for quite a while."

May went on to say that they would not, however, be using the same technique to bring back Mercury, who passed away in 1991, saying the hologram technology "is something we've looked at ourselves but I think probably for a show that runs eight shows a week it's not really quite practical."

The guitarist confirmed that the special performance will be attended by Robert De Niro, who is one of the show's producers.