~~~~~~~~~~ The Band ~~~~~~~~~~
A History lesson on Queen
Queen was formed in 1971 by Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon. It was in 1973 they signed their first recording contract with EMI a British music recording and publishing company and made their first album self titled ‘Queen’. In 1974 the band released the two albums ‘Queen II’ and ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ and went on their first tours with one in England and one in the US. The next 6 years spelt nothing but success for the band with the release of the albums ‘A Night At The Opera’, ‘A Day At The Races’, ‘News Of The World’, ‘Jazz’, ‘Live Killers’ and ‘The Game’. Queen had started to build up their list of number one hits with the songs ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘We Are The Champions’, ‘Bicycle Race’ and ‘Another One Bites The Dust’.
In 1981 the band toured South America and played to the biggest paying audience in the world in São Paolo, Brazil with 131,000 people. Later that year they released the album ‘Greatest Hits’ and the next year in 1982 they released the album ‘Hot Space’ while on a European Tour. In 1984 the band released the album ‘The Works’ which contained the hits ‘Radio Ga Ga’ and ‘I Want To Break Free’. The next year they made headlines in their arguably best rock concert which some consider the best rock concert of all time at Live Aid, Wembley Stadium in London after the band started to lose traction.
The band for the next 6 years again were very successful with the band’s albums ‘A Kind Of Magic’, ‘Live Magic’, ‘The Miracle’, ‘Innuendo’ and ‘Greatest Hits II’ being released. Though the band encountered a dreadful situation when Freddie Mercury’s life took a turn for the worst on November 24th, 1991 when he lost his battle with AIDS just 24 hours after he had announced to the public that he had the disease.
The band would never be whole again after the death of Freddie. However after Freddie’s death the singles ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’ were released on a double A-sided single and all funds were donated to the Terence Higgins Trust charity which ended up raising over £1,000,000.
Five months later the remainder of the band held a tribute concert at Wembley Stadium which included many bands and artists including Metallica, Extreme, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, Elton John, David Bowie, seal and many more. That day The Mercury Phoenix Trust charity, click here for more, was also founded and has channeled about 16 million pounds towards AIDS charities today. Queen also released an album in 1995 named ‘Made In Heaven’ which finished off recordings made in 1991 by the band before Freddie died.
The Band's Music
Queen's music is in the rock genre, however what made Queen so successful is how they used rock in various ways to produce songs that catered to a wide audience. But don’t just take my word for it! Below are some of Queen’s top hits:
Where are they now?
As of Freddie Mercury and John Deacon, Freddie in death is still helping to raise awareness and funds for AIDS and John has retired from Queen though still remains in touch with Brian and Roger. However Queen still tours to this day currently under the name of 'Queen + Adam Lambert'. The band consists of Brian May on guitar, Roger Taylor on drums and Adam Lambert in the position of lead singer. With the band still providing quality shows and great entertainment to this day to find out more click here.