Queen

Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), John Deacon (bass guitar), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals). Queen's earliest works were heavily influenced by progressive rock; in the mid-1970s, the band ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works, bringing them greater commercial success. It also became something of a trademark to incorporate more diverse and innovative styles in their music, exploring the likes of vaudeville, gospel music, electronic music and funk. Brian May and Roger Taylor had been playing together in a band named Smile. Freddie Mercury (then known by his birth name of Farrokh, or Freddie, Bulsara) was a fan of Smile, and encouraged them to experiment with more elaborate stage and recording techniques. Mercury himself joined the band shortly thereafter, changed the name of the band to 'Queen' and adopted his familiar stage name. John Deacon was recruited prior to recording their first album. Queen enjoyed success in the UK during the early 1970s, but it was the release of Sheer Heart Attack (1974) and A Night at the Opera (1975) that gained the band international success. The latter featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", which stayed at number one in the UK charts for nine weeks. In 1991 Mercury died of bronchopneumonia, a complication of AIDS, and Deacon retired in 1997. Since then May and Taylor have infrequently performed together, including a collaboration with Paul Rodgers under the name Queen + Paul Rodgers which ended in May 2009. The band has released a total of 18 number one albums, 18 number one singles and 10 number one DVDs, and have sold over 150 million albums, with some estimates in excess of 300 million albums, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. They have been honoured with seven Ivor Novello awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Early days (1968–74)

In 1968, guitarist Brian May, a student at London's Imperial College, and bassist Tim Staffell decided to form a band. May placed an advertisement on the college notice board for a "Mitch Mitchell/Ginger Baker type" drummer; Roger Taylor, a young dental student, auditioned and got the job. The group called themselves Smile. While attending Ealing Art College Tim Staffell became friends with Farrokh Bulsara, a fellow student who had assumed the English name of Freddie. Bulsara felt that he and the band had the same tastes and soon became a keen fan of Smile. In late 1970, after Staffell left to join the band Humpy Bong, the remaining Smile members, encouraged by Bulsara, changed their name to "Queen" and continued working together. When asked about the name, Bulsara explained, "I thought up the name Queen. It's just a name, but it's very regal obviously, and it sounds splendid. It's a strong name, very universal and immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations. I was certainly aware of gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it." The band had a number of bass players during this period who did not fit with the band's chemistry. It was not until February 1971 that they settled on John Deacon and began to rehearse for their first album. They recorded four of their own songs; "Liar", "Keep Yourself Alive", "The Night Comes Down" and "Jesus" for a demo tape, no record companies were interested. It was also around this time Freddie changed his surname to 'Mercury', inspired by the line "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me," in the song My Fairy King  Having attended art college, Mercury also designed Queen's logo (also called the Queen crest) shortly before the release of the band's first album. The logo combines the zodiac signs of all four members: two lions for Leo (Deacon and Taylor), a crab for Cancer (May), and two fairies for Virgo (Mercury). The lions embrace a stylised letter Q, the crab rests atop the letter with flames rising directly above it, and the fairies are each sheltering below a lion. There is also a crown inside the Q and the whole logo is over-shadowed by an enormous phoenix. The whole symbol bears a passing resemblance to the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, particularly with the lion supporters. The original logo, as found on the reverse-side of the first album cover, was a simple line drawing but more intricate colour versions were used on later sleeves. In 1973, after a series of delays, Queen released their eponymous debut album, an effort influenced by the heavy metal and progressive rock of the day. The album was received well by critics; Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone said "their debut album is superb",and Chicago's Daily Herald called it an "above average debut". It drew little mainstream attention and the lead single "Keep Yourself Alive", a Brian May composition, sold poorly. The album was certified gold in the UK and the U.S.
The group's second LP Queen II was released in 1974, and features Mick Rock's iconic photo of the band on the cover.^[23][24] The album reached number five on the British album charts and became the first Queen album to chart in the UK. The Freddie Mercury-written lead single "Seven Seas of Rhye" reached number ten in the UK, giving the band their first hit. Their heaviest and darkest release, the album features long complex instrumental passages, fantasy-themed lyrics and musical virtuosity. Aside from its only single, the album also included the song "The March of the Black Queen", a six-minute epic which lacks a chorus or song structure, bearing similarity to Queen's later work, "Bohemian Rhapsody". The Daily Vault described the number as "menacing". Critical reaction was mixed, the Winnipeg Free Press describing the record as a "monstrosity". Allmusic has described the album as a favourite among the band's hardcore fans,and it is the first of three Queen albums to feature in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Breakthrough era (1974–76)

Brian May was initially absent (due to hepatitis) when the band started work on their third album, but he returned midway through the recording process; Sheer Heart Attack was released in 1974. The album reached number two in the United Kingdom,sold well throughout Europe, and went gold in the United States. It gave the band their first real taste of commercial success. The album experimented with a variety of musical genres, including British music hall, heavy metal, ballads, ragtime and Caribbean. At this point Queen started to move away from the progressive tendencies of their first two releases into a more radio-friendly, song-orientated style. Sheer Heart Attack introduced new sound and melody patterns that would be refined on their next album A Night at the Opera.

The single "Killer Queen" reached number two in the British charts, and became their first US hit, reaching number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. It combines camp, vaudeville, British music hall with May’s guitar virtuosity. The album’s second single, "Now I'm Here", a more traditional hard rock composition, was a number eleven hit in Britain, while the high speed rocker "Stone Cold Crazy" featuring May's uptempo riffs is a precursor to speed metal. In recent years, the album has received acclaim from music publications: In 2006, Classic Rock ranked it number 28 in "The 100 Greatest British Rock Albums Ever", and in 2007, Mojo ranked it #88 in "The 100 Records That Changed the World." It is also the second of three Queen albums to feature in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 1975, the band left for a world tour with each member in Zandra Rhodes-created costumes and accompanied with banks of lights and effects. They toured the U.S. as headliners, and played in Canada for the first time. While the band toured Japan in April, the band's manager Jim Beach successfully negotiated the band out of their Trident contract. Of the options they considered was an offer from Led Zeppelin’s manager, Peter Grant. Grant wanted them to sign with Led Zeppelin’s own production company, Swan Song Records. The band found the contract unacceptable and instead, contacted Elton John’s manager, John Reid, who accepted the position. In late 1975 Queen recorded and released A Night at the Opera, taking its name from the popular Marx Brothers movie. At the time, it was the most expensive album ever produced. Like its predecessor, the album features diverse musical styles and experimentation with stereo sound. In "The Prophet's Song", an eight-minute epic, the middle section is a canon, with simple phrases layered to create a full-choral sound. The album was very successful in Britain, and went triple platinum in the United States. The British public voted it the 13th greatest album of all time in a 2004 Channel 4 poll It has also ranked highly in international polls: in a worldwide Guinness poll, it was voted the 19th greatest all time, while an ABC poll saw the Australian public vote it the 28th greatest of all time. A Night at the Opera has frequently appeared in "greatest albums" lists reflecting the opinions of critics. Among other accolades, it was ranked number 16 in Q Magazine's "The 50 Best British Albums Ever" in 2004, and number 11 in Rolling Stone's "The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time" as featured in their Mexican edition in 2004. It was also featured as one of Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003. A Night at the Opera is the third and final Queen album to be featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The album also featured the hit single "Bohemian Rhapsody" which was number one in the UK for nine weeks, and is the third-best-selling single of all time in the UK; beaten only by Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997"—making it the best selling commercial single in the UK. It also reached number nine in the United States (a 1992 re-release reached number two on Billboard for five weeks). It is the only single ever to sell a million copies on two separate occasions, and became the Christmas number one twice in the UK; the only single ever to do so. Bohemian Rhapsody has been voted numerous times the greatest song of all time. The band decided to make a video to go with the single; the result is generally considered to have been the first "true" music video ever produced. (Although other bands, including The Beatles, had made short promotional films or videos of songs prior to this, generally those were specifically made to be aired on specific television shows). The second single from the album, "You're My Best Friend", the second song composed by John Deacon, and his first single, peaked at number sixteen in the United States and went on to become a worldwide Top Ten hit.The band's A Night at the Opera Tour began in November 1975, and covered Europe, the United States, Japan, and Australia.

Continued success (1976–1979)

By 1976, Queen were back in the studio recording A Day at the Races, which is often regarded as a sequel album to A Night at the Opera.^[49][50] It again borrowed the name of a Marx Brothers movie, and its cover was similar to that of A Night at the Opera, a variation on the same Queen Crest.^[51] Musically, the album was by both fans’ and critics’ standards a strong effort, reaching number one in the UK, Japan and number five in the U.S.^[21][51] The major hit on the album was "Somebody to Love", a gospel-inspired song in which Mercury, May, and Taylor multi-tracked their voices to create a 100-voice gospel choir. The song went to number two in the United Kingdom,^[21] and number thirteen on the U.S. singles chart.^[32] The album also featured one of the band's heaviest songs, Brian May’s "Tie Your Mother Down", which became a staple of their live shows.^[52]
During the same year Queen played one of their most famous gigs, a 1976 free concert in Hyde Park, London. It set an attendance record, with 150,000 people confirmed in the audience.^[53] During A Day at the Races Tour in 1977, Queen performed sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden, New York in February, and Earls Court, London in June.^[24][54]
The band's sixth studio album News of the World was released in 1977, which has gone four times platinum in the United States, and twice in the UK.^[22] The album contained many songs tailor-made for live performance, including two of rock's most recognizable anthems, "We Will Rock You" and the rock ballad "We Are the Champions", both of which became enduring international sports anthems, and the latter reached number four in the United States.^[32][55] Queen commenced the News of the World Tour in October 1977, and Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times called this concert tour the band's "most spectacularly staged and finely honed show yet".^[56]

Queen in New Haven, Connecticut in 1978.

In 1978 the band released Jazz, which included the hit single double a side single "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Bicycle Race". The album reached number two in the UK, and number six on the Billboard 200 in the U.S.^[  This album was "the target of a bizarre marketing campaign, in which sixty-five naked women were perched atop bicycles rented from Halford's Cycles and sent racing around Wimbledon Stadium." The word "jazz" was not used in a strict sense, and the album was noted by critics for its collection of different styles, jazz not being one of them. Rolling Stone Magazine criticised it for being "dull", saying "Queen hasn't the imagination to play jazz – Queen hasn't the imagination, for that matter, to play rock & roll." Reviews of the album in recent years have been more favourable. Other notable tracks from Jazz include "Dead on Time", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Let Me Entertain You", and "Mustapha", in which Arabesque music is combined with heavy rock guitar. In 1978 Queen toured the U.S. and Canada, and spent much of 1979 touring in Europe and Japan. They released their first live album, Live Killers, in 1979; it went platinum twice in the United States. Queen also released the very successful single "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", a rockabilly song done in the style of Elvis Presley. The song made the top 10 in many countries, and was the band’s first number one single in the United States where it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks.

New sound and synthesisers (1980–84)

Queen began the 1980s with The Game. It featured the singles "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Another One Bites the Dust", both of which reached number one in the United States.^[32] The album topped the Billboard 200 for five weeks,^[63] and sold over four million copies in the U.S.^[22] It was also the first appearance of a synthesiser on a Queen album. Heretofore, their albums featured a distinctive "No Synthesisers!" sleeve note. The note is widely assumed to reflect an anti-synth, pro-"hard"-rock stance by the band,^[64] but was later revealed by producer Roy Thomas Baker to be an attempt to clarify that those albums' multi-layered solos were created with guitars, not synths, as record company executives kept assuming at the time.^[65] In September 1980 Queen performed three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden.^[24] 1980 also saw the release of the soundtrack Queen had recorded for Flash Gordon.^[66]
In 1981, Queen embarked on the South American leg of The Game Tour, and became the first major rock band to play in Latin American stadiums.^[61] The tour included five shows in Argentina, one of which drew the largest single concert crowd in Argentine history with an audience of 300,000 in Buenos Aires,^[67] and two in Brazil where they played to an audience of more than 130,000 people in the first night and more than 120,000 people the following night at Morumbi Stadium (São Paulo).^[68] In October of the same year, Queen performed for more than 150,000 fans on 9 October at Monterrey (Estadio Universitario) and 17 and 18 at Puebla (Estadio Zaragoza), Mexico.^[69]
Queen worked with David Bowie on the single "Under Pressure". The first-time collaboration with another artist was spontaneous, as Bowie happened to drop by the studio while Queen were recording.^[70] Upon its release, the song was extremely successful, reaching number one in the UK, and featured at number 31 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '80s.^[71]
Later in 1981, Queen released their first compilation album, entitled Greatest Hits, which showcased the group's highlights from 1974–1981.^[72] It is the best-selling album in UK Chart history, and has spent 450 weeks in the UK Album Chart.^[73][74] The album is certified eight times platinum in the United States, and has sold over 25 million copies worldwide.^[22][75] Taylor became the first member of the band to release his own solo album in 1981, entitled Fun in Space.

Queen live in Frankfurt on 26 September 1984. Compatible with his performance and compositions, Freddie Mercury was also a multi-instrumentalist.

In 1982 the band released the album Hot Space, a departure from their trademark seventies sound, this time being a mixture of rock, pop rock, funk and R&B. The band had stopped touring North America after their Hot Space Tour, as their success there had waned, although they would perform on American television for the only time during the eighth season premiere of Saturday Night Live. Queen left Elektra Records, their label in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and signed onto EMI/Capitol Records. After working steadily for over ten years, Queen decided that they would not perform any live shows in 1983. During this time, they recorded a new album, and several members of the band explored side projects and solo work. May released a mini-album entitled Star Fleet Project, on which he collaborated with Eddie Van Halen. In 1984, Queen released the album The Works, which included the successful singles "Radio Ga Ga" and "I Want to Break Free". Despite these hit singles, the album failed to do well in the United States, while in the UK it went triple platinum and remained in the album chart for two years. Queen embarked that year on The Works Tour, the first tour to feature keyboardist Spike Edney as an extra live musician. The tour featured several dates in Bophuthatswana, South Africa, at the arena at Sun City. Upon returning to England, they were the subject of outrage, having played there during the height of apartheid and in violation of worldwide divestment efforts. The band responded to the critics by stating that they were playing music for fans in that country, and they also stressed that the concerts were played before integrated audiences.

 Live Aid and later years (1985–90)

 In January 1985, the band headlined two nights of the first Rock in Rio festival at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On January 11 and 18, they played in front of over 300,000 people, and a selection of highlights of both performances was released on VHS on May with the title Queen Live in Rio.

At Live Aid, held at Wembley on 13 July 1985, Queen performed some of their greatest hits, during which the sold-out stadium audience of 72,000 people clapped, sang and swayed in unison. The shows organiser Bob Geldof, other musicians such as Elton John and Dave Grohl, and various music journalists commented that Queen stole the show. An industry poll in 2005 named it the greatest rock performance of all time. The band, now revitalised by the response to Live Aid and the ensuing increase in record sales, ended 1985 by releasing the single "One Vision". The song was used in the film Iron Eagle. Also, a limited-edition boxed set containing all Queen albums to date was released under the title of The Complete Works. The package included previously unreleased material, most notably Queen's non-album single of Christmas 1984, titled "Thank God It's Christmas". In early 1986, Queen recorded the album A Kind of Magic, containing several reworkings of songs written for the Russell Mulcahy film Highlander. The album was very successful, producing a string of hits, including the title track, "A Kind of Magic". Also charting from the album were "Friends Will Be Friends", "Who Wants to Live Forever?", and the de facto theme from Highlander, "Princes of the Universe". Later that year, Queen went on a sold-out tour in support of A Kind of Magic, once again they hired Spike Edney, leading to him being dubbed the unofficial fifth member. The Magic Tour's highlight was at Wembley Stadium in London and resulted in the live double album, Queen at Wembley, released on CD, and as a live concert DVD which has gone five times platinum in the U.S. and four times platinum in the UK.  Queen could not book Wembley for a third night, but they did play at Knebworth Park. The show sold out within two hours and over 120,000 fans packed the park for what proved to be Queen's final live performance with Mercury. Queen also played behind the Iron Curtain when they performed to a crowd of 80,000 in Budapest, in what was one of the biggest rock concerts ever held in Eastern Europe. More than 1 million people saw Queen on the tour—400,000 in the United Kingdom alone, a record at the time. After working on various solo projects during 1988 (including Mercury's collaboration with Montserrat Caballé, Barcelona) the band released The Miracle in 1989. The album continued the direction of A Kind of Magic, using a pop-rock sound mixed with a few heavy numbers. It spawned the European hits "I Want It All", "Breakthru", "The Invisible Man", "Scandal", and "The Miracle". The Miracle also began a change in direction of Queen's songwriting philosophy. Since the band's beginning, nearly all songs had been written by and credited to a single member, with other members adding minimally. With The Miracle the band's songwriting became more collaborative, and they vowed to credit the final product only to Queen as a group.

Mercury's death and beyond (1991–2003)

After fans noticed Mercury's increasingly gaunt appearance in 1988, rumours began to spread that Mercury was suffering from AIDS. Mercury flatly denied this, insisting he was merely "exhausted" and too busy to provide interviews. The band decided to continue making albums, starting with The Miracle in 1989 and continuing with Innuendo in 1991. Despite his, indeed, deteriorating health, the lead singer continued to contribute. For the last two albums made while Mercury was still alive, the band credited all songs to Queen, rather than specific members of the group, freeing them of internal conflict and differences. In 1990, Mercury made his final public appearance when he joined the rest of Queen to collect the BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.^[100][101] Innuendo was released in early 1991 with an eponymous number 1 UK hit and three other charting singles, "I’m Going Slightly Mad", "Headlong", and the poignant "The Show Must Go On". The band's second greatest hits compilation, Greatest Hits II, followed in October of the same year.

The statue of Freddie Mercury in Montreux that is also featured on the cover of the album Made in Heaven (1995).

On 23 November 1991, in a prepared statement made on his deathbed, Mercury confirmed that he had AIDS. Within 24 hours of that statement, he died of bronchial pneumonia, which was brought on as a complication of AIDS. His funeral service on 27 November in Kensal Green, West London was private, and held in accordance with the Zoroastrian religious faith of his family. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was re-released as a single shortly after Mercury's death, with "These Are the Days of Our Lives" as the double A-side. The single went to number one for the second time in the UK, holding the top spot for five weeks through Christmas, making it the only single in the UK to ever get Christmas Number 1 twice with the same version. Initial proceeds from the single – approximately £1,000,000 – were donated to the Terrence Higgins Trust. Queen's popularity was stimulated in the United States when "Bohemian Rhapsody" was featured in the 1992 comedy film Wayne's World. Its inclusion helped the song reach number two in the U.S. charts for five weeks in 1992, and won the band an MTV Award at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. Wayne's World footage was used to make a new music video for the song, with which the band and management were delighted. On 20 April 1992, The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was held at London's Wembley Stadium to a 72,000-strong crowd. Performers, including Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, Elton John, David Bowie, Annie Lennox and Metallica performed various Queen songs along with the three remaining Queen members. The concert is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as "The largest rock star benefit concert", as it was televised to over 1.2 billion viewers worldwide, and raised over £20,000,000 for AIDS charities. Queen's last album featuring Mercury, titled Made in Heaven, was finally released in 1995, four years after his death. It was constructed from Mercury's final recordings in 1991, featuring tracks such as "Too Much Love Will Kill You" and "Heaven for Everyone", plus material left over from their previous studio albums. In addition, re-worked material from May, Taylor and Mercury's solo albums were included. The album reached #1 on the UK charts immediately following its release, and has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. In 1997, Queen returned to the studio to record "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)". It was released as a bonus track on the Queen Rocks compilation album later that year. The song was later released as a single reaching number 13 in the UK chart. In 1997 Queen performed "The Show Must Go On" with Elton John and the Berjart Ballet marking the last performance and public appearance of John Deacon, who chose to retire. Brian May and Roger Taylor performed together at several award ceremonies and charity concerts sharing vocals with various guest singers. During this time they were billed as Queen + followed by the name of the guest singer. In 1998 the duo appeared at Luciano Pavarotti's benefit concert with Brian performing "Too Much Love Will Kill You" with Pavarotti, later playing "Radio Ga Ga", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" with Zucchero. They again attended and performed in 2003. Several of the guest singers recorded new versions of Queen’s hits under the Queen + name, including Robbie Williams and Britney Spears. In 1999, a Greatest Hits III album was released. This featured, among others, "Queen + Wyclef Jean" on a rap version of "Another One Bites the Dust". A live version of "Somebody to Love" by George Michael; and a live version of "The Show Must Go On" with Elton John. By this point, Queen's vast amount of record sales made them the second best selling artist in the UK of all time, behind The Beatles. In 2002, Queen were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which is located at 6358 Hollywood Blvd.

Queen + Paul Rodgers (2004–09)

 

Main article: Queen + Paul Rodgers

At the end of 2004, May and Taylor announced that they would reunite and return to touring in 2005, with Paul Rodgers (founder and former lead singer of Free and Bad Company). Brian May's website also stated that Rodgers would be 'featured with' Queen as 'Queen + Paul Rodgers', not replacing Mercury. The retired John Deacon would not be participating. Between 2005 and 2006 Queen + Paul Rodgers embarked on a world tour, the first leg in Europe and the second, Japan and then the US in 2006. On 15 August 2006, Brian May confirmed through his website and fan club that Queen + Paul Rodgers would begin producing their first studio album beginning in October, to be recorded at a "secret location".The album, titled The Cosmos Rocks, was released in Europe on 12 September 2008 and in the United States on 28 October 2008. Following the album the band again embarked on a tour through Europe, opening on Kharkiv's Freedom Square in front of 350,000 Ukrainian fans. The show in Ukraine was later released on DVD. Queen and Paul Rodgers officially split up without animosity on 12 May 2009. Rodgers did not rule out the possibility of working together again.

Absolute Greatest, Leaving EMI and 40th Anniversary (2009–present)

On 20 May 2009, May and Taylor performed "We Are the Champions" live on the season finale of American Idol with winner Kris Allen and runner up Adam Lambert providing a vocal duet. In mid-2009 after the split of Queen + Paul Rodgers, the Queen online website announced a new Greatest Hits compilation named Absolute Greatest. It was released on 16 November and peaked at #3 in the official UK chart. The album contains 20 of Queen's biggest hits spanning their entire career and was released in four different formats: single disc, double disc (with commentary), double disc with feature book and a vinyl record. Prior to its release, a competition was run by Queen Online to guess the track listing, as a promotion for the album.

On 30 October 2009, May wrote a fanclub letter on his website stating that Queen had no intentions to tour in 2010 but that there was a possibility of a performance. He was quoted as saying "The greatest debate, though, is always about when we will next play together as Queen. At the moment, in spite of the many rumours that are out there, we do not have plans to tour in 2010. The good news, though, is that Roger and I have a much closer mutual understanding these days—privately and professionally ... and all ideas are carefully considered. Music is never far away from us. As I write, there is an important one-off performance on offer, in the USA, and it remains to be decided whether we will take up this particular challenge. Every day, doors seem to open, and every day, we interact, perhaps more than ever before, with the world outside. It is a time of exciting transition in Rock music and in “The Business”. It’s good that the pulse still beats." On 15 November 2009, May and Taylor performed "Bohemian Rhapsody" live on the British TV show The X Factor alongside the finalists. On 7 May 2010, May and Taylor announced that they were quitting their record label, EMI, after almost 40 years. On 20 August Jim Beach, Queen's Manager, put out the following Newsletter:

"Many of you will have read bits and pieces on the internet about Queen changing record companies and so I wanted to confirm to you that the band have signed a new contract with Universal Music. More to follow on this in the months to come.

In the meantime, we would like to thank the EMI team for all their hard work over the years, the many successes and the fond memories, and of course we look forward to continuing to work with EMI Music Publishing who take care of our songwriting affairs.

Next year we start working with our new record company to celebrate Queen's 40th anniversary and we will be announcing full details of the plans over the next 3 months.

As Brian has already said Queen's next moves will involve 'studio work, computers and live work'.

During an interview for Hardtalk on 22 September 2010 Brian confirmed that the band's new deal was with Island Records, a subsidiary of Universal. For the first time since the late 1980s, Queen's catalogue will have the same distributor worldwide, as their US home, Hollywood Records, is currently distributed by Universal (for a time in the late 1980s, Queen was on EMI-owned Capitol Records in the US). On 14 March 2011, during the year which was the band's 40th anniversary, the official website announced that all albums are being remastered and will be released as a deluxe edition. The first part was released on 17 May and the second part will be released on 27 June. In May 2011, Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell noted that Queen are currently scouting their once former and current live bassist Chris Chaney to join the band. Farrell stated: "I have to keep Chris away from Queen, who want him and they're not gonna get him unless we're not doing anything. Then they can have him."

Musical style

The band drew artistic influence from many other British rock acts at the time such as Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, David Bowie and Led Zeppelin. Queen composed music that drew inspiration from many different genres of music, often with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. Among the genres they have been associated with are: progressive rock, hard rock, glam rock, heavy metal, pop rock, dance/disco, blues-rock and psychedelic rock.Queen also wrote songs that were inspired by genres that are not typically associated with rock, such as ragtime, opera, gospel, vaudeville and folk. Sonic experimentation figured heavily in Queen's songs. A distinctive characteristic of Queen's music are the vocal harmonies which are usually composed of the voices of May, Mercury and Taylor best heard on the studio albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races. Some of the ground work for the development of this sound can be attributed to their former producer Roy Thomas Baker as well as their engineer Mike Stone. Besides vocal harmonies, Queen were also known for multi-tracking voices to imitate the sound of a large choir through overdubs. For instance, according to Brian May, there are over 180 vocal overdubs in "Bohemian Rhapsody". Many Queen songs were also written with audience participation in mind, such as "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions"

 

 

 

 

 

 

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