Queen (band)
In 1963, Brian May built a guitar with his father that would become the signature sound of Queen. The group Smile formed shortly after with singer Tim Staffell and drummer Roger Taylor. Taylor was a dental student who answered an advertisement on a college notice board for a "Mitch Mitchell/Ginger Baker type" drummer. Staffell left Smile in early 1968 to focus on his degree at Imperial College. He later formed Humpy Bong with former Bee Gees drummer Colin Petersen.
Farrokh Bulsara attended Ealing Art College where he became friends with Staffell. Bulsara studied fashion design before switching to graphic art and design. He asked if he could join Smile as lead singer but was turned down initially. Staffell quit Smile in 1970 feeling his interests clashed with the group's hard rock sound. The remaining members accepted Bulsara as lead singer and recruited Mike Grose as bassist.
The four played their first gig at a fundraising event in Truro on the 27th of June 1970. Bulsara suggested the group should be renamed to "Queen" while others were uncertain. He said it was wonderful because people would love it. At the same time he decided to change his surname to Mercury inspired by a line in the song "My Fairy King". The group played their first London gig on the 18th of July wearing Zandra Rhodes-designed tunics.
Mike Grose decided not to continue after three live gigs and was replaced by Barry Mitchell. Mitchell played thirteen gigs between August 1970 and January 1971. In February 1971 John Deacon joined Queen as an experienced bassist who complemented the band's quiet demeanour. On the 2nd of July Queen played their first show with the classic lineup at a Surrey college outside London.
Queen released their debut album in 1973 which received well from critics but drew little mainstream attention. Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone called it superb while Chicago's Daily Herald described it as above-average. Keep Yourself Alive sold poorly yet became retrospectively cited as the album's highlight. In 2008 Rolling Stone ranked it 31st in the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.
The second album Queen II reached number five on the British album chart in March 1974. It featured Mick Rock's iconic Dietrich-inspired image that later formed the basis for Bohemian Rhapsody music video production. The Mercury-written lead single Seven Seas of Rhye reached number 10 in the UK giving the band their first hit. Critical reaction remained mixed with the Winnipeg Free Press describing Queen II as an over-produced monstrosity.
A Night at the Opera cost £40,000 to produce making it the most expensive album ever created at the time. The album used three different studios and featured diverse musical styles including fantasy-themed lyrics. Bohemian Rhapsody originated from pieces Mercury had written at Ealing College where he played a run-through stopping suddenly to announce the opera section came next.
EMI initially refused to release the single thinking it too long and demanded a radio edit which Queen refused. Capital London radio DJ Kenny Everett played the promotional copy fourteen times over a single weekend despite being told not to play it. Capital's switchboard was overwhelmed with callers inquiring when the song would be released forcing EMI to release it due to public demand.
Bohemian Rhapsody topped the UK singles chart for nine weeks becoming the third-best-selling single of all time in the UK. It is the best-selling commercial single in the UK surpassed only by Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? and Elton John's Candle in the Wind 1997. The music video directed by Bruce Gowers cost £3,500 five times the typical promotional budget and was shot in three hours.
Queen became one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world by the early 1980s. Their performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert held at Wembley on the 13th of July 1985 ranked among the greatest in rock history. The show had an estimated TV audience of 400 million people watching from around the globe.
The sold-out stadium audience numbered 72,000 people who clapped sang and swayed in unison during Queen's set. Organizers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure described Queen as the highlight alongside other musicians like Elton John and Cliff Richard. Journalists writing for BBC CNN Rolling Stone MTV The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph all praised the performance.
Miles Barry noted that everybody's been buzzing about Queen that he'd run into because they had everybody completely spellbound. An industry poll in 2005 ranked it the greatest rock performance of all time. Mercury's powerful sustained note known as The Note Heard Round the World came during a call-and-response a cappella segment.
Roger Taylor called the response to Live Aid a shot in the arm that revitalized their career. From their perspective the fact that Live Aid happened when it did was really lucky according to Mercury. It came out of nowhere to save them marking a turning point in the band's history.
Queen ended 1985 by releasing One Vision and a limited-edition boxed set of albums called The Complete Works. In mid-1986 they went on the Magic Tour which became their final tour with Mercury. They played at Slane Castle Ireland in front of an audience of 95,000 breaking the venue's attendance record.
Hot Space released in 1982 marked a departure from Queen's trademark seventies sound becoming a mixture of pop rock dance disco funk and R&B. Most of the album was recorded in Munich during what proved to be the most turbulent period in the band's history. Mercury and Deacon enjoyed the new soul and funk influences while Taylor and May were less favourable.
Mercury's personal manager Paul Prenter had significant influence over the Hot Space sessions according to producer Mack. Prenter loathed rock music and was in Mercury's ear throughout the recording process. May stated this guy told every record station to fuck off during one tour denying them access to Mercury.
Roadie Peter Hince wrote that none of the band cared for him apart from Freddie regarding Mercury's favouring as an act of misguided loyalty. Q magazine would list Hot Space as one of the top fifteen albums where great rock acts lost the plot though it still reached number 4 in the UK.
Queen toured to promote Hot Space but found some audience unreceptive to the new material. At a gig in Frankfurt Mercury told hecklers if you don't want to listen go home. Shows planned at Arsenal Stadium and Old Trafford were cancelled because Pope John Paul II was touring Britain leading to lack of available outdoor facilities.
The group finished the year with a Japanese tour after performing their last two gigs in the US on 14 and the 15th of September 1982. Their fall in popularity in the US has been partially attributed to homophobia with fans tossing disposable razor blades onstage during American tours.
In October 1986 two months after his final concert Mercury returned to London from holiday confronting tabloid frenzy at Heathrow Airport. British newspapers News of the World and The Sun reported he had his blood tested for HIV/AIDS at a Harley Street clinic though Mercury said he was perfectly fit and healthy.
Fans noticed his increasingly gaunt appearance in 1988 while Mercury insisted he was merely exhausted and too busy to provide interviews. He was now 42 years old having been involved in music for nearly two decades. In fact he had been diagnosed as HIV positive in 1987 but did not make his illness public.
Only his inner circle of colleagues and friends knew about his condition until November 1991 when Queen released The Miracle album continuing the direction of A Kind of Magic using pop-rock sound mixed with heavy numbers. It spawned hit singles including I Want It All which became an anti-apartheid anthem in South Africa.
On the 23rd of November 1991 Mercury confirmed that he had AIDS in a prepared statement made on his deathbed. Within 24 hours of the statement he died of bronchial pneumonia brought on as a complication of the disease. His funeral service on the 27th of November in Kensal Green West London was private held in accordance with Zoroastrian religious faith of his family.
Queen's last album with Mercury titled Made in Heaven released in 1995 four years after his death. It featured tracks such as Too Much Love Will Kill You and Heaven for Everyone constructed from Mercury's final recordings
in 1991 and material left over from previous studio albums.
The album also featured Mother Love the last vocal recording Mercury made using a drum machine over which May Taylor and Deacon later added instrumental track. Both stages of recording before and after Mercury's death completed at the band's studio in Montreux Switzerland reached number one in UK following its release selling 20 million copies worldwide.
On the 25th of November 1996 a statue of Mercury unveiled in Montreux overlooking Lake Geneva almost five years to the day since his death. In January 1997 Queen performed The Show Must Go On live with Elton John and Béjart Ballet in Paris marking the last performance and public appearance of John Deacon who chose to retire.
May and Taylor performed together at several award ceremonies sharing vocals with various guest singers billed as Queen plus followed by guest singer name. They appeared at Luciano Pavarotti's benefit concert in Modena Italy in May 2003 performing Radio Ga Ga We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions with Zucchero.
At end of 2004 May and Taylor announced they would reunite returning to touring in 2005 with Paul Rodgers founder and former lead singer of Free and Bad Company. Between 2005 and 2006 Queen plus Paul Rodgers embarked on world tour first time Queen toured since their last tour with Freddie Mercury in 1986.
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Common questions
When did Queen play their first gig with the classic lineup?
Queen played their first show with the classic lineup on the 2nd of July 1971 at a Surrey college outside London. This performance featured Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon together for the first time.
How much did it cost to produce the album A Night at the Opera?
A Night at the Opera cost £40,000 to produce making it the most expensive album ever created at the time. The project utilized three different studios and included diverse musical styles including fantasy-themed lyrics.
Why was Bohemian Rhapsody released as a single despite initial refusal from EMI?
EMI initially refused to release the single thinking it too long but Capital London radio DJ Kenny Everett played the promotional copy fourteen times over a single weekend. Capital's switchboard was overwhelmed with callers inquiring when the song would be released forcing EMI to release it due to public demand.
What happened during Queen's performance at Live Aid on the 13th of July 1985?
The sold-out stadium audience numbered 72,000 people who clapped sang and swayed in unison during Queen's set at Wembley. Organizers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure described Queen as the highlight alongside other musicians like Elton John and Cliff Richard while journalists writing for BBC CNN Rolling Stone MTV The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph all praised the performance.
When did Freddie Mercury confirm he had AIDS and what caused his death?
On the 23rd of November 1991 Mercury confirmed that he had AIDS in a prepared statement made on his deathbed. Within 24 hours of the statement he died of bronchial pneumonia brought on as a complication of the disease.