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BAND BIOS
Formed:
1970 Freddie
Mercury: Piano, Vocals, Guitar, Synthesisers Mike
Grose: Bass
(27.06.1970 - 25.07.1970) Sometime in early 1970, Freddie Bulsara, Roger Taylor and Brian May decided to form a band together. The three of them had known each other for a while: Freddie and Roger were best friends and shared a flat, Brian and Roger had been in a rock group for a while, and the three of them shared the idea of combining Led Zeppelin's heaviness with Yes' vocal harmonies. Inspired by The Beatles, they'd soon start flirting with other styles and genres, and even though live Queen were always a rock band, in the studio there were many songs that aren't rock at all. The first step was to get a bass player: Roger asked his guitarist friend, Mike Grose, to join. He only lasted a month, and was replaced by Barry Mitchell, who played with them for almost half a year before leaving due to musical reasons (he was more blues-oriented, while Queen were gradually deviating from those roots); then Doug Bogie stepped in, but he quit to sit his final exams (he wasn't made redundant as the legend states), and finally they set an audition for a young John Deacon, a skilful bassist and guitarist who was reading electronics. From then on they devoted themselves to get their undergraduate diplomas, rehearse and compose. In late summer 1971, Queen recorded their first demos at De Lane Lea Studios in Wembley. They did two songs by Brian (Keep Yourself Alive, The Night Comes Down) and three of Freddie's (Jesus, Liar, Great King Rat). After finally getting a record contract with Trident in 1972, they were able to lay down their debut album (which wouldn't be released until 13th July 1973) and get some new instruments for each one. Roger improved his drum-set, John changed his Rickenbacker by a Fender Precision, Brian got a Fender Stratocaster as spare for his Red Special, and it's unknown what did Freddie get, probably a guitar too. Queen's debut album was mostly a collection of live takes (bass, drums and guitar), with subsequent overdubs on vocals and guitar (both acoustic and electric). Three songs were quite different, though: Modern Times Rock N' Roll featured Roger singing lead vocals, and both My Fairy King and Seven Seas of Rhye had a different kind of backing track: bass, drums, and Freddie on piano. For most of their early tracks the band would go with either formula (bass+drums+piano or bass+drums+guitar), leaving one of the lads exclusively for overdubs. For their second album (which was recorded in a month at Trident Studios in Soho), Queen went with the plan of doing everything they could, going over the top with percussion overdubs, guitar choirs, classical piano and loads of layered vocals. 'Queen II' included some unusual instruments for them, such as harpsichord, castanets and tubular bells. After its release they went to America to support Mott the Hoople, but had to come back early because Brian contracted hepatitis. In summer 1974 and with May still delicate, the band members were commissioned to write and record a new album right away. Having only two weeks to write the songs, they actually proved their growth by coming up with a record that was more musically complex than 'Queen II', but at the same time, more accessible and varied. 'Sheer Heart Attack' was their first big international success, and after a world tour where they all matured as instrumentalists, they were ready for their fourth album. 'A Night at the Opera' would be their most musically-advanced, most layered and most celebrated record, hitting #1 in the charts at home, and featuring Freddie's magnum opus, Bohemian Rhapsody. In January 1976, Mercury produced and guested on a single by Eddie Howell, The Man from Manhattan, which would be a #1 hit in South Africa. Another world tour followed for Queen and around July they started off doing their fifth album. By the time of 'A Day at the Races', they were better instrumentalists, had a better technology, much more experience and an anxious public waiting. 'Races' is the album that could have outdone 'Opera', and in some ways it did, but in the long run wasn't able to take over the throne. There were several reasons, such as the lack of an epic (the audience wanted another Bohemian Rhapsody and another Prophet's Song) and the gradual rise of the punk movement. In fact, Queen had met the Sex Pistols while working on 'Races', and rotter Johnny Rotten had interrupted Fred's piano playing. 1977 was quite a difficult year, since Freddie had seemed to lose interest due to issues in his personal life (triggered by the break-up with his long-time girlfriend, Mary Austin). The band only toured America, not Japan, and on their next album, 'News of the World', Mercury only composed two tracks and recycled one he'd got from the 'Opera' era: We Are the Champions (which ironically would be a mammoth hit for them). Such situation had a positive outcome, though: John and Roger contributed much more in the songwriting department from then on. 'News' was the first (and only) Queen album where Brian was the dominant creative force, and it had a back-to-basics vibe about it. Loads of changes were in the horizon: Fred bought a concert piano in the States, and after touring, they all left England and located in Nice (France), where they started off a new album, with producer Roy Thomas Baker (who had worked with them from their first album up until 'Opera'). After some weeks there they moved to Mountain Studios in Montreux (Switzerland), where they met a young engineer, David Richards. The band were so pleased with the studio that they'd eventually purchase it. Mercury was again the dominant force, but the balance was still more even-handed now that Roger and John had two songs each. 'Jazz' wasn't the success they wanted, and there were some inner conflicts amongst them as well, so after the world tour and the release of their first live album, John and Roger started looking for new places to work on. Deacy contacted Reinhold Mack, a prestigious producer who'd worked with ELO, and they visited Musicland Studios in Munich. Then, a new era began...
The first recording they did with Mack was a new tune Freddie had written in the loo at Munich Hilton: Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Freddie, Roger and John recorded it and were pleased with the way Mack engineered and mixed it. Just before cutting the single, Brian came at last-moment to record a guitar solo and sing back-up vocals. May wanted the solo to sound like a Telecaster, so Mack suggested that he should use an actual Tele instead of emulating the sound with his homemade guitar. The band were slightly puzzled by this new bloke trying to change everything (his approach to backing tracks was very different as well), but since they wanted a new direction, they gave him green light to make suggestions. As a result, Queen started off the new decade by scoring their first #1 hit in the US. Mercury quickly felt at home in Munich, frequenting gay clubs and growing a moustache. After 'The Game' was released, they toured America, and it was after a concert in LA that Michael Jackson suggested Another One Bites the Dust as the next single. They listened to him and scored their second #1 in the States, and as a matter of fact that song is, to date, their greatest hit in terms of sales. During those days they'd been working on a parallel project, music for the upcoming 'Flash Gordon' film. The project was the first dis-banded one, as each band member had picked a scene, written music for it, recorded it with synths and left. Brian put the tracks together and produced the record, but more than a Queen album it was a compilation of individual efforts. Such trend would continue in their next record, 'Hot Space'; using the studios in Switzerland and West Germany and enlisting Mack as the producer again, the formula for backing tracks had radically changed: now instead of having piano, bass and drums and overdubbing the rest, the author of the song recorded a demo himself, using synthesisers, drum-machines and guitar, and later on they replaced synth-bass by John's playing, drum-machines by Roger, demo guitars by Brian, synth-chords by Freddie's piano ... in theory. But actually loads of demo things were left in the finished versions: Body Language and Dancer haven't got John at all (Freddie and Brian, respectively, played keyboard-bass), and there are very few acoustic drums in the album. 'Hot Space' was slammed by the fandom and the band themselves, and it urged them to take a break, so 1983 was mostly a year-off. That allowed all of them to work on separate projects, but when a new film deal was offered ('Hotel New Hampshire'), they gathered 'round at The Record Plant in Los Angeles to work together again. The soundtrack was eventually rejected, but they were happy to work on a new album and came back to Munich to finish it off. 'The Works' was done while Freddie and Roger were working on solo albums too, and turned out to be another big change for them since it issued the huge hits Radio Ga Ga and I Want to Break Free. After a European tour (Fred didn't want to play concerts in America, which was a horribly bad decision), they appeared at the first Rock in Rio and then went to Japan for the last time. Then they made their famous and grossly over-rated appearance at Live Aid and soon went back to the studios to work on new songs, some of which were part of soundtracks, some of which were individual numbers.
For some reason, in the middle of 'Magic' sessions, Freddie decided to live in London again, so the entire band moved there to record at the Townhouse Studios in Goldhawk Road. The album would be another big hit in Europe, and would be followed by a short and mediocre (yet famous) tour, which would happen to be Queen's last. Then they took another break to work on parallel projects: Taylor formed another band (where he wasn't the drummer but the singer and rhythm guitarist), May worked on a solo album, produced other artists and took care of his divorce, and Deacon appeared in some videos by Morris Minor and the Majors. Mercury, by his side, learnt about his disease, and instead of giving up, he decided to work as much and as hard as possible until the very end. He composed a classical album and recorded it in Montreux and London, having virtuoso pianist Mike Moran as co-arranger, opera diva Montserrat Caballé as co-singer and successful writer Sir Tim Rice as co-lyricist. Queen never broke up at that point, in fact Roger and Freddie often run into each other since they were using the same studios. Taylor claimed to have contributed some things to Barcelona, and Mercury had a cameo in The Cross' Heaven for Everyone. Deacon played bass in one of Freddie's numbers and May was enlisted to play guitar in another, which would eventually include the entire band and would be released on 'Innuendo'. The two last albums the band did were 'The Miracle' and 'Innuendo', both done alternating Montreux and London and having all songs credited to the band instead of individual authors. Both albums enjoyed success and had some of the most celebrated songs of their catalogue: I Want it All, Innuendo, The Show Must Go On, These Are the Days of Our Lives. After releasing 'Innuendo', Freddie wrote more material and recorded it. The three new songs were A Winter's Tale, Mother Love (co-written with Brian) and You Don't Fool Me (co-written with Roger). They were left unreleased for some time until in 1995 Roger, Brian and John put together a so-called album titled 'Made in Heaven', which included those three post-Innuendo recordings, plus some recycled numbers from the past and Queen-ised versions of solo songs. |
