Queen

Smile to Queen

Queen grew out of Smile, the band that guitarist Brian May formed with Tim Staffell. Roger Taylor, a dental student, answered May's notice-board advertisement for a drummer. Farrokh Bulsara, a graphic art student at Ealing Art College and a fan of Smile, took over as singer when Staffell left in 1970. He proposed the name Queen and began calling himself Freddie Mercury. The first gig was at Truro on 27 June 1970. Three bass players came and went before John Deacon joined in February 1971.

Demos made at De Lane Lea studios in Wembley, in exchange for testing the new equipment, drew in producers John Anthony and Roy Thomas Baker. Trident Studios then took the band on, offering management and recording time, mostly in the hours when paying artists had gone home. The first album, Queen, was finished in 1972 but only came out in July 1973, after Trident spent months looking for a label.

Three albums in eighteen months

Queen II followed in March 1974, split into a White Side and a Black Side and wrapped in a Mick Rock photograph of the band in black. It reached number five in Britain, the first Queen album to chart, and its single Seven Seas of Rhye gave them their first hit after a Top of the Pops slot. The reviews were mixed, though the album later gained a following of its own.

Sheer Heart Attack came out in November 1974, recorded while May was recovering from hepatitis and a duodenal ulcer. Its single Killer Queen went to number two in Britain and number 12 in the United States, and the album became their first to reach the American top 20.

A Night at the Opera

By 1975 the band were still living on small wages from Trident. They bought their way out of the contract, signed with John Reid, Elton John's manager, and went into the studio on his advice to make the best record they could. A Night at the Opera was recorded at seven studios and reportedly cost about 40,000 pounds, a record at the time. Its lead single, Bohemian Rhapsody, ran 5:55, and EMI thought it too long to be a hit. Kenny Everett played it on Capital Radio, the label gave way, and it stayed at number one for nine weeks. The album was their first UK number one, and Deacon's You're My Best Friend followed as the second single. On 18 September 1976 the band played a free concert in Hyde Park, organised by Richard Branson, to a confirmed audience of 150,000, a record for the park.

Stadiums and afterward

News of the World arrived in October 1977 with a leaner sound, and opened with We Will Rock You, followed by We Are the Champions. Both became sports anthems. The Game (1980) brought Another One Bites the Dust, which spent three weeks at number one in the United States. In February 1981 Queen became the first rock band from outside the Americas to play stadiums in Latin America, including a Buenos Aires show that drew 300,000, the largest single concert crowd in Argentine history. Mercury later called Live Aid, on 13 July 1985, a turning point for the band, and their last concert with Mercury was at Knebworth on 9 August 1986. Mercury confirmed in a statement on 23 November 1991 that he had AIDS and died the next day of bronchial pneumonia, a complication of the disease. Deacon retired after a Paris performance in January 1997.

Brian May and Roger Taylor have since toured as Queen + Paul Rodgers and, from 2011, Queen + Adam Lambert. The band entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, and the 1981 compilation Greatest Hits is the best-selling album in British chart history.