Queen in 250 words (ish)
Queen are a British rock band formed in 1970. The original line up remained intact until 1991; Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon. Initially they were influenced by The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and The Kinks but soon began experimenting with other genres including heavy rock, opera, pop, disco and jazz.
Queen released 15 studio albums, 10 live albums and 72 singles. Their Greatest Hits compilation (1981) is the best-selling UK album of all time with 6.3 million copies sold to date.
The song Bohemian Rhapsody is regarded as their most popular song featuring heavily layered vocals and production techniques. At almost 6 minutes long and without a chorus it was initially dismissed as a single but gained popularity after UK DJ Kenny Everett began championing it. It has since won numerous awards and made number one twice in the UK. In 2018 it officially became the most streamed song of the 20th century.
Queen’s 1981 collaboration with David Bowie, ‘Under Pressure’ was their second UK number one single, controversially sampled by Vanilla Ice in 1990.
Queen’s performance at 1985’s Live Aid concert (see above) is regarded as one of the best live performances ever.
In 1992, following Freddie’s death from an AIDS related illness, a benefit concert was attended by 72,000 people and launched The Mercury Phoenix Trust AIDS charity.
Following John Deacon’s departure from the group, the remaining two members have toured and recorded with Paul Rogers (Free, Bad Company) and Adam Lambert.
In 2002 a musical ‘We Will Rock You’ featuring Queen songs was launched and in 2018, 20th Century Fox released the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ movie based around Freddie’s life.