Queen Official

Queen is a rock band formed in London, England in 1970 consisting of lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, lead guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon. 
==History==
===Formation===
Brian May built his own guitar with his father back in 1963 and focused on his degree in Physics and Infrared Astronomy at Imperial College. He formed a band called Smile with Tim Staffell and Chris Smith. The band needed a drummer, and they hired Roger Taylor, who was a dental student at the time. Smith left the band in early 1969 just before it was set to perform at the Royal Albert Hall.
While attending Ealing Art College in west London, Staffell was friends with Farrokh Bulsara, a successful Sultanate of Zanzibar refugee. Bulsara had studied fashion design for a year before switching to graphic art and design. Bulsara quickly became an avid fan of Smile. Bulsara asked if he could joined the band, but May felt that Staffell was good enough, and Bulsara was turned down. Around the same time, Bulsara worked as a part-time baggage handler at Heathrow Airport.
In 1970, Staffell resigned from Smile, stating that his interests in Soul and R&B clashed with the group's hard rock sound and being unhappy with the lack of success. Shortly after his departure, Smile invited Bulsara to joined the band, and they also recruited bassist Mike Grose. They played their first concert at a fundraising event in Truro on June 27, 1970. Bulsara suggested to rename the band, much to the other members' uncertainty, but later accepted and renamed the band Queen. In addition, Bulsara changed his name to Freddie Mercury. Their first concert at London took place on July 18, 1970. The band was introduced to producer John Anthony, who seemed interested in the band, but seemed to express dislike in the bassist. Grose resigned while Barry Mitchell took over. Mitchell himself would resign in January 1971 and Doug Bogie took over. After two concerts, Bogie also resigned. A month later, John Deacon joined as the new bassist. After 3 failed tries, the final line-up of Queen was assembled and would remain this way until November of 1991.
With the band's notable lineup completed, they performed at Surrey College outside of London. When the band was still billed as Smile at the time, they were recording at Pye Studios, were Terry Yeadon was at the helm of production, who later moved to De Lane Lea Studios. Needing advice of where they should go next to record material, promoter Ken Testi of Charisma Records offered Queen an interest of £25,000 but was turned down. Meanwhile, Norman Sheffield of Trident Studios offered the band a management deal under Neptune Productions, in which the band accepted.
In 1972, Queen performed at Bedford College with just only six people in attendance. After eight months, they stopped live performances to focus on the development for their first album. In March 1973, Queen signed with EMI Records.
===Self-titled album===
Queen released their self-titled album on July 13, 1973. The album included ten tracks. Two of those tracks, "Keep Yourself Alive" and "My Fairy King", were both singles. The album was recorded at De Lane Lea Studios and Trident Studios in London. Recording sessions could take place only during downtime, which was between 3 A.M. and 7 A.M. early in the morning, which proved to be somewhat overwhelming for the band's other scheduling plans in the daytime. The album was produced by Anthony along with Roy Thomas Baker. The album received mixed reviews and was certified gold.
===Queen II===
In August 1973, Queen returned to Trident Studios to begin recording material for their next album. For this stint, the band was allowed to work regular hours during the daytime. Their second studio album, Queen II, was released on March 8, 1974. It included eleven tracks. "Seven Seas of Rhye" became a single. While the album was being mixed and produced, the band went on a global tour for the first time. Their performance at the Sunbury Pop Festival in Australia went awry as fans booed and taunted their performance. In May 1974, May collapsed and was diagnosed with hepatitis, prompting the band to cancel the rest of the tour.
===Sheer Heart Attack===
Shortly after the conclusion of their tour, Queen began recording material for their next album. The development took place at various studios, including Trident Studios in London, Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales, Associated Independent Recording in Westminster, and Wessex Sound Studios in Highbury New Park. May recovered just in time after having hepatitis before development began. Queen released their third studio album, Sheer Heart Attack, on November 8, 1974. The album included thirteen tracks. "Killer Queen" and "Stone Cold Crazy" were successful singles. Two months into the album's release, Queen embarked on another world tour. However, more health problems arose for May as he was diagnosed with laryngitis. Additionally, in February of 1975, Mercury was diagnosed with vocal fold nodules, which would affect his voice for the rest of his life. Queen had to cancel some shows to give May some time to recover, but eventually resumed touring. In April of 1975, Queen toured Japan and proved to be successful, performing two sold out nights at the Nippon Budokan. After the conclusion of the tour, Queen was still tied to the original Trident deal and wages. They were all living in relative poverty in bedsits, while Deacon was refused money for a deposit on a house. The band made contact with lawyer Jim Beach, who tried to work a deal of extracting them from their contract. Trident complained that they had invested £200,000 in Queen and wanted their money back firsthand.
===A Night at the Opera===
In August 1975, Queen parted ways with Trident and negotiated themselves out of their contract to search for new management. Peter Grant, who was managing Led Zeppelin, offered Queen a contract from Swan Song Records, but was turned down. Queen began developing material for their next album, which took place at six different studios. As sound technology improved within recent years, the upcoming release would focus on diverse musical styles and experimentation with stereo sound.
Queen released their fourth studio album, A Night at the Opera, on November 21, 1975. The album included twelve tracks. The album's most notable track, "Bohemian Rhapsody", was turned in to EMI Records. The label refused to release the track as a single, out of fear that it would not sell well, and requested a single edit (usually of around 3 minutes in length). Queen refused to make such an edit. Freddie met with one of his friends, Capital London radio DJ Kenny Everett, and offered a promotional copy of the track to him. Spinning the song fourteen times in a single weekend, the song was a hit among the public, who wondered how they could get this single that didn't exist. EMI begrudgingly released "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a single by accords of public demand, and it sold well for the band.
Development for the entire album had a budget worth £40,000, becoming one of the most expensive albums to produce in England back then. In addition, a music video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" was directed by Bruce Gowers, who had also filmed several of Queen's live concerts. The music video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" costed £3,500 and took three hours to film, and it was premiered on MTV seven years later. A Night at the Opera turned out to be hugely successful and eventually was certified triple platinum. Shortly after the album's release, Queen toured extensively worldwide. On December 24, 1975, Queen played a special concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, which was broadcasted live on the BBC show, The Old Grey Whistle Test, with the audio being later broadcasted on BBC Radio 1.
===A Day at the Races===
After a six-month tour, Queen began developing new material for their next album. Development took place at three different studios across England. The band's fifth studio album, A Day at the Races, was released on December 10, 1976. The album included ten tracks. "Somebody to Love" turned out to be a hugely successful single. In addition, another single, "Tie Your Mother Down", would become a staple track at the band's live performances, being performed at almost every show since.
On September 18, 1976, Queen performed at Hyde Park, a free concert assembled by entrepreneur Richard Branson. An estimated 150,000 individuals in attendance were at the concert. Queen showed up late for the concert and did not have time to do an encore, which was to include their forthcoming single "Tie Your Mother Down". The police informed the band that they would be arrested if he went on stage again. On December 1, 1976, Queen was intended to perform at London's early evening Today program, but they pulled out at the eleventh hour. Queen would later perform at Madison Square Garden in New York City on February 5, 1977 and at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London on the 6th and 7th of June 1977.
===News of the World===
Shortly after the conclusion of their latest tour, Queen began developing new material for their next album, which took place at SARM West Studios and Wessex Sound Studios in London. Queen released their sixth studio album, News of the World, on October 28, 1977. The album included eleven tracks. "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" became smash-hit singles, and were somewhat enduring sports anthems. Shortly after the release of the album, another global tour kicked off. Two concerts at Madison Square Garden were easily sold out, and Queen received the Madison Square Garden Gold Ticket Award for passing more than 100,000 unit ticket sales at the venue.
===Jazz===
After the tour, Queen began to develop new material for their next album. Development took place at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland and Super Bear Studios in Berre-les-Alpes, France. The band's seventh studio album, Jazz, was released on November 10, 1978. It featured thirteen tracks. "Fat Bottomed Girls" became a successful single, despite controversy that it deeply offended overweight women. 
Soon after, Queen went on tour once again, starting touring within the same month Jazz's recording sessions wrapped. While Mercury starts the tour off strong, he weakens slightly on the European leg, and drastically in the middle of the Japanese leg, leading to what is seen as his worst vocal performances by fans and critics alike. On June 22, 1979, Queen released their first live album, Live Killers. The live album included 22 total tracks, all of which were live performances. The album is noted for having poor mixing and various vocal overdubs.
===The Game===
During preliminary work on the next upcoming album, the band worked on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and released it in late 1979. This ended up being their first Number One hit in the US. Queen again went on tour, incorporating "Crazy Little Thing" and another of the band's songs from next album, "Save Me" into their setlist. Arguably one of their most notable performances took place at the Concert for the People of Kampuchea on the 26th of December, 1979.
Queen released their eighth studio album, The Game on June 24, 1980. Recording for the album took place at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany. The album included ten tracks. "Another One Bites the Dust" turned out to be a smash-hit single due to the part of Deacon's upbeat bass riff, while May blended his guitar with a Eventide Harmonizer to get a fast-paced sound. The album sold four million copies in the United States. In addition, Queen released a soundtrack album titled Flash Gordon on December 8, 1980, which contained eighteen tracks. "Flash" was a single and became the theme song for the 1980 film of the same name of the soundtrack album. These songs were incorporated into the band's setlist on the European leg of The Game Tour, with songs like Flash's Theme, The Hero and Vultan's Theme being inserted into the setlist in December of 1980 for the former two and February of 1981 for the latter.
In February 1981, Queen embarked on yet another global tour, thus also visiting South America. They were also the first band to perform at Latin American venues. A performance in Buenos Aires, Argentina featured an audience of an estimated 300,000 people in attendance, the biggest ever in Argentine history. Two concerts at Estádio Cícero Pompeu de Toledo in São Paulo, Brazil featured 130,000 in attendance the first night and 120,000 the next night. In October 1981, a performance at Estadio Universitario in Monterrey, Mexico drew a crowd of 150,000 in attendance. The same number of those in audience would also occur at Estadio Olímpico Ignacio Zaragoza in Pueba, Mexico the next night. On November 24, 1981, Queen performed at the Montreal Forum, with the show sold out for two nights.
Queen worked together with David Bowie to release his song "Under Pressure" as a single. Later, Queen released their first compilation album, Greatest Hits, on October 26, 1981. The compilation included eighteen tracks and was certified 22x platinum with over 25 million copies being sold worldwide.
===Hot Space===
Queen released their tenth studio album, Hot Space, on May 21, 1982. Recording for the album took place at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland and Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany. The album included eleven tracks, especially "Under Pressure" with David Bowie. Prior to this release, Queen had never used synthesizers to record before. They used a Oberheim OB-X as their primary synthesizer and a drum machine for the first time. Despite the new usage, May and Taylor seemed to dislike the new sound, and were feeling somewhat critical of the influence that Paul Prenter, who was Mercury's personal manager back then, and seen to have had a bad influence on him. On the Hot Space Tour, Queen recruited Mott the Hoople musician Morgan Fisher as their hired gun on keyboards and piano, giving Mercury more room to move around on stage. On the North American and Japanese legs of the tour, Fred Mandel takes his place.
On September 14, 1982, Queen would go on to perform just two more concerts with Mercury at vocals. Those two concerts took place at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Queen decided to stop touring North America as their popularity began to wane. However, ten days after their performance at The Forum, Queen performed on Saturday Night Live. This would turn out to be their final live performance in North America.
===The Works===
Queen began developing new material for their next album. Around the same time, Queen switched their record label over to Capitol Records. Development for the album took place at The Record Plant in Los Angeles and Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany. Queen released their eleventh studio album, The Works, on February 27, 1984. The album included nine tracks. "I Want to Break Free" became a somewhat successful single, but the music video proved to be somewhat controversial due to excessive cross-dressing and was eventually banned from MTV. Despite not selling very well in the United States, the album went triple platinum.
During their next tour, Queen hired Spike Edney as a touring musician for the keyboards. The tour featured nine sold-out concerts at Sun City in Bophuthatswana, South Africa. Despite their efforts, returning to England sparked outrage as their recent concerts in South Africa took place during the height of apartheid was in violation of worldwide divestment efforts and a United Nations cultural boycott. Queen was eventually fined an undisclosed amount by the British Musicians' Union and placed on the United Nations' blacklisted artists. In January 1985, Queen headlined two nights of the first Rock in Rio festival at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, playing in front of an estimated 300,000 in attendance each night.
==Death of Freddie Mercury==
In 1987, Mercury learned that he had contracted HIV, or AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). In 1989, when the band released their twelfth studio album The Miracle, they didn’t notice the reality of his health until 1990 and 1991. During the 1990 Brit Awards, everybody noticed that Freddie looked stoic and terribly frail due to the fact that his health had worsened. In 1991, the band released their thirteenth and final studio album Innuendo. In the music video for "These Are The Days Of Our Lives", the background was shown black and white because marks on Freddie’s face had formed, and he didn’t want them to show. The final song on the album, "The Show Must Go On", the music video captured old memories of the band, including a performance where a helicopter was seen flying near the crowd. On November 24, 1991, Mercury died of bronchopneumonia caused by AIDS related complications. His funeral was held three days after his death.
== Discography ==
* (1973)
* (1974)
* (1974)
* (1975)
* (1976)
* (1977)
* (1978)
* (1980)
* (1980)
* (1982)
* (1984)
* (1986)
* (1989)
* (1991)
* (1995)
== Concert tours ==
* Sheer Heart Attack Tour (1974–1975)
* A Night at the Opera Tour (1975–1976)
* (1977)
* (1977–1978)
* (1978–1979)
* (1979)
* (1980–1981)
* (1982)
* (1984–1985)
* (1986)
* (2005–2006)
* (2008)
* (2012)
* (2014–2015)
* (2016)
* (2017–2018)
* (2019–2024)
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