A night at the Opera
Release Date: November 21, 1975
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A day at the Races
Release Date: December 10, 1976
News of the World
Release Date: October 28, 1977
The Game
Release Date: June 30, 1980
Release Date: November 21, 1975
Release Date: December 10, 1976
Release Date: October 28, 1977
Release Date: June 30, 1980
Queen formed in 1971 and in 1973 signed their first recording contract for EMI. That year they released their first album, QUEEN. The same year saw their first major UK tour, and in 1974 they released QUEEN II as well as making their first UK headlining tour. They made their first US tour, and in November released SHEER HEART ATTACK which was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
1975 saw their new release, A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, and – significantly – the single Bohemian Rhapsody. At 5’ 55” it should have been too long for successful radio play but it became one of the greatest singles of all time, staying at No. 1 in the UK chart for nine weeks. The video, directed by Bruce Gowers, is credited with being the first genuine promotional video. The song has regularly featured in all major pop polls and was recently named again as the best single of all time. The success of A NIGHT AT THE OPERA was equally stunning, giving the band their first platinum album.
On 23rd November 1991 Freddie Mercury announced to the world that he had AIDS and the next day he died peacefully at his home, surrounded by family and friends. He remains the most high profile loss from the disease in the entertainment world and the news shocked fans throughout the world. As a tribute Bohemian Rhapsody /These Are The Days Of Our Lives was released as a double A-sided single to raise funds for the Terence Higgins Trust. It entered the UK chart at No. 1, where it stayed for five weeks, raising over £1,000,000 for the charity and Queen became the first band to have the same single top the uK charts twice. In December of that year Queen had 10 albums in the UK Top 100. In 1992 Freddie was awarded posthumously the BRIT’s “Outstanding Contribution to British Music” and Days Of Our Lives won Best Single. On 20th April many of the world’s top stars joined Brian, Roger and John on stage at Wembley for an emotional tribute to Freddie.
In 1995 the tracks that Queen had begun in 1991 were completed by Brian, Roger and John and the long-awaited MADE IN HEAVEN was released worldwide. It was the end of an era. Since then the phenomenon of Queen has remained, however, with continuing sales for their recorded output on CD and video. A ballet of their music by famous French choreographer Maurice Bejart was premiered at the National Theatre in Paris in 1997 and in May 2002 the hit musical We Will Rock You opened to sell-out audiences in London’s West End and continues to play to packed houses and standing ovations every night. Queen’s first DVD Greatest Video Hits Vol.1 was released at the end of October 2002, and yet another piece of Queen product entered the UK charts at number 1. October 2002 also saw Queen receive their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Los Angeles, joining The Beatles as only one of a handful of non-US bands to receive the much coveted honour. In 2004 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Walk of Fame, and in the UK were voted by the public into the first UK Music Hall of Fame.
The Band Members
The life of Frederick Bulsara began on the East African island of Zanzibar on September 5, 1946. 25 years later in London under the name of Freddie Mercury he was fronting the now legendary rock group named Queen. The son of Bomi and Jer Bulsara, Freddie spent the bulk of his childhood in India where he attended St. Peter’s boarding school. He began taking piano lessons at the age of seven. No one could foresee where a love of music would take him. The Bulsara family moved to Middlesex in 1964 and from there Freddie joined up with a blues band called Wreckage while studying graphic design courses at Ealing College of Art. While singing for Wreckage, a fellow student introduced Freddie to Roger Taylor and Brian May, founder members of a band called Smile. Smile metamorphosed into Queen when Freddie joined Roger and Brian as the lead vocalist. The final member of the band, which was to stay together for the next 20 years, was bassist John Deacon, who joined the band on 1st of March 1971.
On November 24th, 1991, Freddie’s struggle against AIDS ended when he passed away just over 24 hours after he had publicly announced he had the disease. Musicians and fans from all over the world paid their highest respects as the passing of rock’s most innovative, flamboyant ambassador signified the end of an era at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium on April 20, 1992 which gave birth to the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the AIDS charity set up in Freddie’s memory by the remaining members of Queen and Freddie’s Executor, Jim Beach.
With a musical career spanning four decades, Queen founding member Brian May is a world-renowned guitarist and songwriter, with production and performance credits on recordings which have sold in excess of 100 million copies worldwide. Brian has penned 22 worldwide hits for Queen; among them the anthems ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘The Show Must Go On’ and ‘I Want It All’, and powerful ballads including ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’, ‘No-One But You (Only the Good Die Young)‘ and ‘Save Me’. As a successful and respected solo artist, Brian’s recordings include the albums Back to the Light (1992), featuring ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ and ‘Driven By You’, both Ivor Novello Award-winners, and 1998’s Another World. His songs continue to influence new generations of performers and have inspired recordings by artists as diverse as Elton John, Def Leppard, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Shirley Bassey and Eminem. Brian has enjoyed collaborations with numerous artists including Robbie Williams, the Foo Fighters, Cliff Richard, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Diana Ross and Luciano Pavarotti. He was also proud to play feature guitar on the Winter Olympics 2002 opening music, ‘The Fire Within’ for his friend and composer, the late Michael Kamen.
On Freddie’s death, the surviving members of Queen set up a charity to support AIDS relief, the Mercury Phoenix Trust. The MPT has to date channelled more than eight million pounds to over 1,000 AIDS projects around the world. An ongoing commitment to AIDS awareness led Queen to become a driving force in the 46664 campaign for the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The first of a series of 46664 concerts, held in Cape Town in November 2003, was broadcast worldwide via TV, Internet and radio, becoming the most widely distributed media event in history, with an audience of over 2 billion in 166 countries. Brian continues in his role as an ambassador and participant in the 46664 international concert series aimed at promoting AIDS awareness worldwide.
In 2010 Brian founded Save-Me, a campaign devoted to preventing cruelty to wild animals. His work fighting the abuse of foxes and badgers led to him recently being awarded the honour of “Campaigner of the Year” by IFAW, the International fund for Animal Welfare. This work continues through the Save-Me website … www.Save-Me.org.uk.
Although best known for his powerhouse role in Queen, Roger Taylor is anything but a drummer confined to his kit.. With rock n’roll in his veins all through his schooldays, he has always been a highly active, vocal member of Queen. He famously wrote Queen’s landmark hits "Radio Ga Ga" and "A Kind Of Magic", and was also the first to make a solo album, 1981’s Fun In Space. To date he has released four solo albums, which, aside from his work with Queen, further highlighted Taylor as an musician and writer with a strong sense of identity, a wide musical perspective, and - not least of all - a man not without a sense of irony. Just consider, for instance, the lyrics to “I’m In Love With My Car”, his B side to “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and a firm audience favourite in the Queen live set.
After the tragic death of Freddie Mercury, Roger returned to his solo career with 1994's "Happiness?", an album on which he explored the theme of "dealing with life and looking for happiness". The success of the album prompted further tours of the UK and Italy. Then came perhaps his most potent album, “Electric Fire”, which clearly showed Taylor as an acute observational songwriter. Rich in contemporary reflections on life, the album was full of attention-grabbing songs tackling thought-provoking and sometimes challenging issues — national obsolescence, domestic violence, and poverty, among them. One track, “People On Streets”, was inspired by visits Roger made to India and the inequalities he witnessed in the fortunes of that country's vast population. Never shy to express himself, several super-rich and powerful world figures get name checked in the song. That the Queen musical We Will Rock You came into being could be seen as something of a surprise taking into account Roger’s openly expressed view that “musicals are completely foreign to me. It’s a genre I don’t particularly like.” But after working closely with Brian and writer Ben Elton on shaping the musical, Taylor found himself deeply entrenched in developing the show , breaking the rules of musical theatre and taking on the role – along with Brian - as musical supervisor, not only for the first production in London, but for each of the subsequent productions throughout the world. To date, local productions of the show have reached 8 further countries. At the same time as setting up We Will Rock You, Roger and Brian played a central part in the formation of the Nelson Mandela 46664 charity, performing at the first two South Africa concerts, and providing several new songs to the 46664 album which saw them collaborate with the likes of Bono, Anastacia, Dave Stewart and Beyonce. Roger penned two new songs for the project, “Say It’s Not True”, a song about finding out you’re HIV positive, and “Invincible Hope”, based on the writings of Nelson Mandela and actually featuring the voice of Mandela reading phases from his autobiography.
But side by side with his interest in electronics, John's interest in music was also growing, particularly triggered when he bought The Beatles first two albums. Becoming a huge fan of the band, John took the decision to learn how to play the guitar. Diligently saving the money from his early morning paper round, John was able to buy a ‘proper’ guitar. He then threw himself into practising, and was soon jamming in a friend's garage. By the age of fourteen John was well practised enough to form his first band, The Opposition. Over the next few years, The Opposition went through numerous line-up changes and played many gigs. By the end of 1966, the band had a strong following throughout John’s home turf of Leicester. But when, later that year, the Opposition's bassist left the band, it fell to John to fill the gap. So, he bought his first bass guitar, an Eko, for £22, and with the change of line-up, the band changed their name to The New Opposition, with John now playing the bass. Several band name changes later (they were now called Art), 1969 saw John leaving the band for London, taking up studies in electronics at Chelsea College, University of London. For the moment, music took second place to electronics, but John had of course brought along his old acoustic guitar just in case an opportunity came up. John went on to achieve a First Class Honours Degree in Electronics that same year. In October of 1970, John went to see a performance by a new band called Queen. He recalls, "They were all dressed in black, and the lights were very dim too, so all I could see were four shadowy figures. They didn't make a lasting impression on me at the time.”
It wasn’t until the band’s third album, Sheer Heart Attack, that John’s first composition for Queen appeared, with the rather catchy ‘Misfire’. More of a Pop/Motown kind of guy - strangely at odds with Brian and Roger’s rock roots and Freddie’s grand musical landscapes - John’s writing skills flourished in the recording sessions which followed. He would go on to compose some of Queen’s biggest and most popular hits including ‘You’re My Best Friend’, ‘I Want To Break Free’ and ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, propelling Queen’s career to new heights in the US, topping the charts for three weeks and being voted the Favourite Single in the Pop/Rock category at the American Music Awards in 1981. The Another One Bites the Dust single was such a hit right across the board that it even found an audience on the black audience radio stations, reaching No. 2 in the national R & B charts. Along with ‘We Are The Champions’ and ‘We Will Rock You’, the song has passed into legend by becoming Queen’s third major sports anthem. John took a brief foray into solo work when in 1986 he formed The Immortals, and released one single, ‘No Turning Back’, and contributing to the original soundtrack of the film Biggles, based on the Royal Flying Corps pilot character in the series of novels written by Captain W.E. Johns. Today John lives a life retired from Queen but still takes an interest in the continuance of the legacy of the band, and remains in contact with former bandmates, Roger Taylor and Brian May.