Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on 5th September 1946, Brian May born
19th July 1947, Roger Taylor born on 26th July 1949 and John Deacon born 19th
August 1951, and together they were to become one of Britain's greatest Rock
groups ever. Queen represented rock’s bombastic pinnacle. Melding glam-rock with
hard-rock, the group’s, multi tracked recordings and in your face songs resulted
in worldwide sales of more than 130 million records. Queen took off in the
Seventies, embodying the thrills and excesses of that decade.
The group formed in London in 1971. They came to music from university studies
in such far-ranging disciplines as art, biology and astronomy. Their first
public concert took place in 1973 before an audience of invited guests at a
London college. Eight years later, in March 1981, they would perform in Sao
Paulo, Brazil, on consecutive nights to audiences numbering 131,000 and 120,000
the largest paying crowds ever to hear a single band. In 1985, they played to a
quarter of a million people at the Rock in Rio festival. That same year, they
delivered an electrifying segment at the Live Aid benefit concert, seen by a TV
audience of hundreds of millions.
Queen released 15 studio albums of original music between 1973 and 1995. Their
self titled debut album laid out the fundamentals of Queen’s sound. Their first
hit single was, Killer Queen. A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races
borrowed Marx Brothers movie titles, but it was A Night at the Opera that had
Queen’s grandest moment: Bohemian Rhapsody. This seven-minute magnum opus
cracked the Top Ten on two occasions, on its initial release in 1976 and again
in 1992, when it appeared in a memorable scene from the film comedy Wayne's
World.
Queen’s highest charting album was The Game no.1 for five weeks in the 1980's
which also produced their biggest singles, Crazy Little Thing Called Love and
Another One Bites the Dust. Queen’s performance at the 1985 Live Aid spectacular
is remembered as one of the day’s highlights and gave the band momentum for what
turned out to be their final year of concert performances. Meanwhile, Queen
continued to push the envelope in the studio. As the flamboyant front man
Mercury stated when A Kind of Magic was released in 1986,
The group ended with the death of Freddie Mercury due to AIDS-related causes on
25th November 1991. At the same time, their status as one of rock’s most
legendary bands only continues to grow. Queen's densely layered rock operetta,
Bohemian Rhapsody, is among the most elaborate productions in music history.
They also served up crowd pleasing chants like We Are
the Champions and We Will Rock You, which have both become anthems in the
world of sports. Brian May was also one of the honoured guests who were
invited to play at the party in the palace.
A rock concert held at Buckingham Palace for the Queens Golden Jubilee on
3rd June 2002. Brian actually started the party with his guitar version of
the national anthem while standing on the top of Buckingham Palace.
