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173-581: The British band Queen performed their first London gig in the UCH on 18 July 1970, Brian May having been a post-graduate student at Imperial College London. The PRS website quotes May as follows: The first proper gig we did was at Imperial College in the Union Hall. I remember it very distinctly because I’d seen all sorts of people playing in there. I’d been part of the Entertainment Committee and we booked

346-663: A "mesmerising performance". Highlights from both nights were released on VHS as Queen: Live in Rio , which was broadcast on MTV in the US. In April and May 1985, Queen completed the Works Tour with sold-out shows in Australia and Japan. Queen were absolutely the best band of the day ... they just went and smashed one hit after another ... it was the perfect stage for Freddie: the whole world. At Live Aid , held at Wembley on 13 July 1985, in front of

519-545: A British rock band formed in London in 1970 by Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals), later joined by John Deacon (bass). Their earliest works were influenced by progressive rock , hard rock and heavy metal , but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works by incorporating further styles, such as arena rock and pop rock . Before forming Queen, May and Taylor had played together in

692-655: A Queen concert in Los Angeles, Michael Jackson suggested to Mercury backstage that "Another One Bites the Dust" be released as a single, and in October 1980 it spent three weeks at number one. The album topped the Billboard 200 for five weeks, and sold over four million copies in the US. 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

865-535: A college notice board for a " Mitch Mitchell / Ginger Baker type" drummer; Roger Taylor , a young dental student, auditioned and got the job. Smith left the group in early 1969, immediately before a gig at the Royal Albert Hall with Free and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band . While attending Ealing Art College in west London, Staffell became friends with fellow student Farrokh "Freddie" Bulsara , who

1038-450: A four-song set, which was the final time the five original band members publicly performed together until 2003. Their set saw a weak, off-key falsetto note hit by frontman Simon Le Bon during " A View to a Kill ". The error was dubbed "The Bum Note Heard Round the World" by various media outlets, in contrast to Freddie Mercury's "Note Heard Round the World" at Wembley. Le Bon later recalled it

1211-475: A gig at Bedford College , London where only six people turned up. After a few more shows, they stopped live performances for eight months to work on the album with Anthony and Baker. During the sessions at Trident, they saw David Bowie with the Spiders from Mars live and realised they needed to make an impact with the album, otherwise they would be left behind. Co-producers Anthony and Baker initially clashed with

1384-540: A global presence in popular culture for more than half a century. Estimates of their record sales range from 250 million to 300 million, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists . In 1990, Queen received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music . They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, and with each member having composed hit singles, all four were inducted into

1557-575: A government report on payola ), the cross-dressing video for "I Want to Break Free", a spoof of the British soap opera Coronation Street , proved controversial and was banned by MTV . The concept of the video came from Roger Taylor via a suggestion from his girlfriend. He told Q magazine: "We had done some really serious, epic videos in the past, and we just thought we'd have some fun. We wanted people to know that we didn't take ourselves too seriously, that we could still laugh at ourselves." Director of

1730-510: A group every Saturday night in those days. People like Spooky Tooth and Steamhammer! We booked Jimi Hendrix too. So for us it was a dream come true to actually play on that stage. It used to get packed in there so it was a major stepping stone for us. Equipped with key facilities, including Ethernet, fiber optics, and DMX infrastructure, the Union Concert Hall is designed for versatile production needs. Its raised stage extends two stories and

1903-473: A group to test out the equipment and recording rooms. He tried asking the Kinks but couldn't get hold of them. Therefore, he told Queen they could record some demos in exchange for the studio's acoustic tests. They recorded five of their own songs, " Liar ", " Keep Yourself Alive ", " Great King Rat ", " The Night Comes Down " and " Jesus ". During the recording, producers John Anthony and Roy Thomas Baker visited

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2076-505: A guitar string while playing with the Rolling Stones members Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood , Wood took off his guitar and gave it to Dylan. Wood was left standing on stage guitarless. After shrugging to the audience, he played air guitar , even mimicking the Who 's Pete Townshend by swinging his arm in wide circles until a stagehand brought him a replacement. The performance was included in

2249-404: A harp and overdubbed vocal harmonies. He knew exactly what he was doing. It was Freddie's baby. We just helped him bring it to life. We realized we'd look odd trying to mime such a hugely complex thing on TV. It had to be presented in some other way. The best-known song on the album, " Bohemian Rhapsody ", originated from pieces of music that Mercury had written at Ealing College. Mercury played

2422-460: A little mark on the children who got chosen, with Geldof stating of her at the time, "In her was vested the power of life and death. She had become God-like and that is unbearable for anyone." Traumatised by what she experienced she did not speak about it for two decades, recalling in 2005, "I felt like a Nazi sending people to the death camps. Why was I in this situation? Why was it possible in this time of plenty that some have food and some do not? It

2595-454: A mandatory tool in the marketing of music". Radio broadcaster Tommy Vance states, "It became the first record to be pushed into the forefront by virtue of a video. Queen were certainly the first band to create a 'concept' video. The video captured the musical imagery perfectly. You cannot hear that music without seeing the visuals in your mind's eye." A Night at the Opera was very successful in

2768-493: A million Argentinians and Brazilians, starved of appearances of top British or American bands at their peak, gave Queen a heroic welcome which changed the course of pop history in this uncharted territory of the world rock map. The ecstatic young people saw eight Queen concerts at giant stadia, while many more millions saw the shows on TV and heard the radio broadcasts live. The tour included five shows in Argentina, one of which drew

2941-550: A music video directed by Bruce Gowers , who had already shot several of Queen's live concerts. The group wanted a video so they could avoid appearing on the BBC's Top of the Pops , which would clash with tour dates, and it would have looked strange miming to such a complex song. Filmed at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, the video cost £3,500, five times the typical promotional budget, and

3114-566: A nostalgic defence of the radio format, " Hammer to Fall " and " I Want to Break Free ". Rolling Stone hailed the album as "the Led Zeppelin II of the eighties." In the UK The Works went triple platinum and remained in the albums chart for two years. The album failed to do well in the US, where, in addition to issues with their new record label Capitol Records (who had recently severed ties with their independent promotions teams due to

3287-407: A performance by Queen, which he later called "absolutely amazing", Geldof gave an interview in which BBC presenter David Hepworth had attempted to provide a postal address to which potential donations could be sent; Geldof interrupted him in mid-flow and shouted "fuck the address, let's get the numbers". Although the phrase "give us your fucking money" has passed into folklore, Geldof has said that it

3460-618: A philanthropic gesture but were fined by the British Musicians' Union and placed on the United Nations' blacklisted artists. In 2021, Taylor voiced his regret for the decision to perform at Sun City, saying that "we went with the best intentions, but I still think it was kind of a mistake." In January 1985, Queen headlined two nights of the first Rock in Rio festival at Rio de Janeiro , Brazil, and played in front of over 300,000 people each night. The Boston Globe described it as

3633-520: A record contract. In order to attract record company interest, Trident booked a "showcase" gig on 6 November at The Pheasantry , followed by a show at the Marquee Club on 20 December. Queen promoted the unreleased album in February 1973 on BBC Radio 1 , still unsigned. The following month, Trident managed to strike a deal with EMI Records . "Keep Yourself Alive" was released as a single on 6 July, with

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3806-552: A result, organiser and performer Bob Geldof, accompanied by earlier performers David Bowie, Alison Moyet and Pete Townshend , returned to the stage to sing with him and back him up (as did the stadium audience despite not being able to hear much), by which time McCartney's microphone had been repaired. At the conclusion of the Wembley performances, Geldof was raised onto the shoulders of the Who's guitarist Pete Townshend and Paul McCartney. Geldof stated that he hadn't slept "in weeks" in

3979-399: A run-through of the track on piano in his flat to Baker, stopping suddenly to announce, "This is where the opera section comes in". When the rest of the band started recording the song they were unsure as to how it would be pieced together. After recording the backing track, Baker left a 30-second section of tape to add the operatic vocals. Reportedly, 180 overdubs were used, to the extent that

4152-479: A single member. With The Miracle , their songwriting became more collaborative, and they vowed to credit the final product only to Queen as a group. In 1990, Queen ended their contract with Capitol and signed with Hollywood Records ; through the deal, Disney acquired the North American distribution rights to Queen's catalogue for $ 10 million, and remains the group's music catalogue owner and distributor in

4325-528: A string of hits including " A Kind of Magic ", " Friends Will Be Friends ", " Princes of the Universe " and " Who Wants to Live Forever "; the latter featuring an orchestra conducted by Michael Kamen . The album was less successful in North America, reaching 46 in the US, and was described by biographer Mark Blake as "a so-so album" and "a somewhat uneven listening experience". In 2007, Classic Rock ranked it

4498-537: A trade-off. Geldof mentioned during the concert that the Republic of Ireland gave the most donations per capita, despite being in the midst of a serious economic recession. The largest donation came from Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum , who was part of the ruling family of Dubai, who donated £1m in a phone conversation with Geldof. The next day, news reports stated that between £40 and £50 million had been raised. It

4671-500: Is cited as the album's highlight, and in 2008 Rolling Stone ranked it 31st in the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time", describing it as "an entire album's worth of riffs crammed into a single song". The album was certified gold in the UK and the US. The group began to record their second album, Queen II in August 1973. Now able to use regular studio time, they decided to make full use of

4844-476: Is complemented by a fly gallery with multiple fly bars and motorized lighting bars, providing comprehensive technical support. Retractable raked seating further enhances its adaptability, making it suitable for a broad range of events and performances. Additionally, a large amount of equipment is owned and hired out by the Imperial College Dramatic Society which is available to people who book

5017-515: Is how to die" to loud applause. According to Gary Kemp , "Dare I say it, it was evangelical, that moment when Geldof stopped 'I Don't Like Mondays' and raised his fist in the air. He was a sort of statesman. A link between punk and the New Romantics and the Eighties. You would follow him. He just has a huge charisma; he'd make a frightening politician." He finished the song and left the crowd to sing

5190-504: Is not right." "There are thousands of people outside. I have counted 10 rows, and each row has more than 100 people in, and I can only take 60-70 children today, but they all need to come in." Shocked by the report, the British public inundated relief agencies, such as Save the Children , with donations, with the report also bringing the world's attention to the crisis in Ethiopia. Such was

5363-509: Is now estimated that around £150 million in total has been raised for famine relief as a direct result of the concerts. Bob Dylan 's performance generated controversy; prior to performing "When the Ship Comes In," he said: "I hope that some of the money that's raised for the people in Africa, maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe one or two million, maybe, and use it, say, to pay

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5536-481: Is probably the last time." There was all that time when we knew Freddie was on the way out, we kept our heads down. In October 1986, two months after his final concert, Mercury, on his return to London from holiday, was confronted by a tabloid frenzy at Heathrow Airport with the British newspapers the News of the World and The Sun reporting he had his blood tested for HIV/AIDS at a Harley Street clinic, but Mercury

5709-409: Is widely assumed to reflect an anti-synth, pro-"hard"-rock stance by the band, 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. In September 1980, Queen performed three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden. In 1980, Queen also released

5882-562: The Billboard Hot 100 . The song was partly recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales. With Mercury playing the grand piano, it combines camp, vaudeville , and British music hall with May's guitar. "Now I'm Here" was released as the second single, reached number eleven. In 2006, Classic Rock ranked Sheer Heart Attack number 28 in "The 100 Greatest British Rock Albums Ever", and in 2007, Mojo ranked it No.88 in "The 100 Records That Changed

6055-678: The Iron Curtain when they performed to a crowd of 80,000 at the Népstadion in Budapest (released in the concert film Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest ), in what was one of the biggest rock concerts ever held in Eastern Europe. More than one million people saw Queen on the tour—400,000 in the UK alone, a record at the time. The Magic Tour's highlight was at Wembley Stadium and resulted in

6228-665: The Madison Square Garden Gold Ticket Award for passing more than 100,000 unit ticket sales at the venue. In 1978, Queen released Jazz , which reached number two in the UK and number six on the Billboard 200 in the US. The album included the hit singles " Fat Bottomed Girls " and " Bicycle Race " on a double-sided record. Critical reviews of the album in the years since its release have been more favourable than initial reviews. Another notable track from Jazz , " Don't Stop Me Now ", provides another example of

6401-489: The Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II , and at the cost of £50,000 the band used a lighting rig in the shape of a crown for the first time. The band's sixth studio album News of the World was released in 1977, which has gone four times platinum in the US, and twice in the UK. The album contained many songs tailor-made for live performance, including two of rock's most recognisable anthems, " We Will Rock You " and

6574-663: The Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2005, they received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors , and in 2018 were presented the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award . The founding members of Queen met in west London during the late 1960s. Guitarist Brian May had built his own guitar with his father in 1963, and formed

6747-522: The Sunbury Pop Festival in Australia. They arrived late, and were jeered and taunted by the audience who expected to see home grown acts. Before leaving, Mercury announced, "when we come back to Australia, Queen will be the biggest band in the world!" Queen II was released in March, and features Mick Rock 's iconic Dietrich -inspired image of the band on the cover. This image would later be used as

6920-474: The VH1 10th Anniversary re-broadcast in 1995). Teddy Pendergrass made his first public appearance since his near-fatal car accident in 1982, which paralysed him. Pendergrass, along with Ashford & Simpson , performed "Reach Out and Touch". Bryan Adams (who came on after Judas Priest ), recalled "it was bedlam backstage", before performing a four-song set, including " Summer of '69 ". Duran Duran performed

7093-451: The "Royal Salute", a brief version of the national anthem " God Save the Queen ". Status Quo were the first act to appear and started their set with " Rockin' All Over the World ", also playing " Caroline " and fan favourite "Don't Waste My Time". "Bob told me, 'It doesn't matter a fuck what you sound like, just so long as you're there,'" recalled guitarist and singer Francis Rossi . "Thanks for

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7266-560: The 28th greatest soundtrack album of all time. In mid-1986, Queen went on the Magic Tour , their final tour with Mercury. They once again hired Spike Edney. Queen began the tour at the Råsunda Stadium in Stockholm, Sweden, and later performed a concert at Slane Castle , Ireland, in front of an audience of 95,000, which broke the venue's attendance record. The band also played behind

7439-458: The Atlantic. The album experimented with a variety of musical genres, including British music hall , heavy metal , ballads, ragtime, and Caribbean . May's " Now I'm Here " documented the group's curtailed American tour, and "Brighton Rock" served as a vehicle for his regular on-stage solo guitar spot. Deacon wrote his first song for the group, "Misfire", while the live favourite " Stone Cold Crazy "

7612-459: The Atlantic. Tony Verna , one of the inventors of instant replay , was able to secure John F. Kennedy Stadium through his friendship with Philadelphia Mayor Goode and was able to procure, through his connections with ABC 's prime time chief, John Hamlin, a three-hour prime time slot on the ABC Network and, in addition, was able to supplement the lengthy program through meetings that resulted in

7785-528: The BBC producers Only Broadcast two songs from the reunion of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young after 10 pm; the same applied to Rick Springfield and REO Speedwagon. BBC only broadcast one song from the BLACK SABBATH set around 3 am. Ashford & Simpson - Solid was not broadcast on the BBC. The BBC, however, did supply a 'clean feed' to various television channels in Europe. ABC was largely responsible for

7958-454: The DVD, including the guitar switch and Wood talking to stagehands, but much of the footage used was close-ups of either Dylan or Richards. During their duet on the reprise of "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll", Mick Jagger ripped away part of Tina Turner 's dress, leaving her to finish the song in what was, effectively, a leotard . The JFK portion included reunions of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ,

8131-779: The Ethiopian government of Mengistu Haile Mariam – a regime the UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opposed – and it is also alleged some funds were spent on guns. Although the BBC World Service programme Assignment reported in March 2010 that the funds had been diverted, the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit later found "that there was no evidence to support such statements". Brian Barder , British Ambassador to Ethiopia from 1982 to 1986, wrote on his website that "the diversion of aid related only to

8304-537: The Hammersmith Odeon which was broadcast live on the BBC show The Old Grey Whistle Test , with the audio being later broadcast on BBC Radio 1. It became one of the band's most popular bootleg recordings for decades before being officially released in 2015. 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 . It again borrowed

8477-549: The London/Wembley finale was taking place at 22:00 (10:00 pm) London time, syndicated viewers saw segments that had been recorded earlier so that ABC could show the UK finale during its prime-time portion. In 1995, VH1 and MuchMusic aired a re-edited ten-hour re-broadcast of the concert for its 10th anniversary. The Live Aid concert in London was also the first time that the BBC outside broadcast sound equipment had been used for an event of such scale. In stark contrast to

8650-518: The Opera in 1975 brought them international success. The latter featured " Bohemian Rhapsody ", which topped the UK singles chart for nine weeks and helped popularise the music video format. The band's 1977 album News of the World contained " We Will Rock You " and " We Are the Champions ", which have become anthems at sporting events. By the early 1980s, Queen were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in

8823-494: The Races was by both fans' and critics' standards a strong effort, reaching number one in the UK and Japan, and number five in the US. Queen played a landmark gig on 18 September 1976, a free concert in Hyde Park , London, organised by the entrepreneur Richard Branson . It set an attendance record at the park, with 150,000 people confirmed in the audience. Queen were late arriving onstage and ran out of time to play an encore;

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8996-470: The UK charts. In October, Queen released their first compilation album, titled Greatest Hits , which showcased the group's highlights from 1974 to 1981. The best-selling album in UK chart history, it is the only album to sell over seven million copies in the UK. As of July 2022, it has spent over 1000 weeks in the UK Album Chart . According to The Telegraph , approximately one in three families in

9169-451: The UK concert, and USA for Africa 's " We Are the World " closing the US concert (and thus the entire event itself). Concert organisers have subsequently said they were particularly keen to ensure at least one surviving member of the Beatles , ideally Paul McCartney , took part in the concert as they felt that having an 'elder statesman' from British music would give it greater legitimacy in

9342-510: The UK own a copy. The album is certified nine times platinum in the US. As of August 2024, it has spent over 600 weeks on the US Billboard 200 . Greatest Hits has sold over 25 million copies worldwide. We moved out to Munich to isolate ourselves from normal life so we could focus on the music. We all ended up in a place that was rather unhealthy. A difficult period. We weren't getting along together. We all had different agendas. It

9515-558: The UK, 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 of 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

9688-522: The UK. It also reached number nine in the US (a 1992 re-release reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 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. It has also been voted the greatest song of all time in three different polls. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was promoted with

9861-416: The US broadcast (although ABC themselves only telecast the final three hours of the concert from Philadelphia, hosted by Dick Clark , with the rest shown in syndication through Orbis Communications , acting on behalf of ABC). An entirely separate and simultaneous US feed was provided for cable viewers by MTV , whose broadcast was presented in stereo and accessible as such for those with stereo televisions. At

10034-530: The United States and Canada; the band retained ownership of the global rights through the UK-based Queen Productions Ltd. In February that year, Mercury made what would prove to be his final public appearance when he joined the rest of Queen onstage at the Dominion Theatre in London to collect the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. Live Aid Live Aid

10207-597: The Wembley stage could be made ready for the next British act like the Thompsons or whoever. In that way, lots of acts could be featured, and the television rights, tickets, and so on could raise a phenomenal amount of money. It's not an impossible idea, and certainly one worth exploiting. Live Aid production manager Andy Zweck said, "Bob (Geldof) had to play some tricks to get artists involved. He had to call Elton and say Queen are in and Bowie's in, and of course they weren't. Then he'd call Bowie and say Elton and Queen are in. It

10380-561: 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 January 1975, Queen left for a world tour with an upgraded light show. They toured the US as headliners, and played in Canada for the first time. Several dates were cancelled after Mercury contracted laryngitis . The band then toured Japan from mid-April to the beginning of May. They were greeted by thousands of screaming fans, and played eight times in seven cities. Despite

10553-560: The addition of an ad-hoc network within the US, which covered 85 per cent of TVs there. Verna designed the needed satellite schematic and became the Executive Director as well as the Co-Executive Producer along with Hal Uplinger . Uplinger, the co-inventor of instant replay, came up with the idea to produce a four-hour video edit of Live Aid to distribute to those countries without the necessary satellite equipment to rebroadcast

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10726-507: The album Queen appearing a week later. The front cover showed a shot of Mercury live on stage taken by Taylor's friend Douglass Puddifoot. Deacon was credited as "Deacon John" while Taylor used his full name, Roger Meddows-Taylor. The album was received well by critics; Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone called it "superb", and Chicago's Daily Herald called it an "above-average debut". However, it drew little mainstream attention, and "Keep Yourself Alive" sold poorly. Retrospectively, it

10899-514: The album also included the song " The March of the Black Queen ", a six-minute epic which lacks a chorus. Critical reaction was mixed; the Winnipeg Free Press , while praising the band's debut album, described Queen II as an "over-produced 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

11072-552: The attention of producer John Anthony , who was interested in the group's sound but thought they had the wrong bass player. After three live gigs, Mike Grose decided not to continue with the band and was replaced by Barry Mitchell (ex Crushed Butler ). Mitchell played thirteen gigs with Queen between August 1970 and January 1971. In turn, Mitchell left in January 1971 and was replaced by Doug Bogie for two live gigs. In February 1971, John Deacon joined Queen. In addition to being an experienced bassist, his quiet demeanour complemented

11245-412: The backing vocals. 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 gospel choir. The song went to number two in the UK, and number thirteen in the US. The album also featured one of the band's heaviest songs, May's " Tie Your Mother Down ", which became a staple of their live shows. Musically, A Day at

11418-419: The band Smile . Mercury was a fan of Smile and encouraged them to experiment with more elaborate stage and recording techniques. He joined in 1970 and suggested the name "Queen". Deacon was recruited in February 1971, before the band released their self-titled debut album in 1973. Queen first charted in the UK with their second album, Queen II , in 1974. Sheer Heart Attack later that year and A Night at

11591-408: The band (May in particular) on the direction of the album, bringing the band's inexperience in the studio to bear. The band's fighting centered around their efforts to integrate technical perfection with the reality of live performances, leading to what Baker referred to as "kitchen sink overproduction". The resulting album was a mix of heavy metal and progressive rock . The group were unhappy with

11764-458: The band a management deal under Neptune Productions, a subsidiary of Trident, to manage the band and enable them to use their facilities, while the management searched for a deal. This suited both parties, as Trident were expanding into management, and under the deal, Queen were able to make use of the hi-tech recording facilities used by signed musicians. Taylor later described these early off-peak studio hours as "gold dust". Queen began 1972 with

11937-470: The band also explored side projects and solo work. Taylor released his second solo album, Strange Frontier . May released the mini-album Star Fleet Project , collaborating with Eddie Van Halen . Queen left Elektra Records , their label in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and signed onto EMI / Capitol Records . In February 1984, Queen released their eleventh studio album, The Works . Hit singles included " Radio Ga Ga ", which makes

12110-453: The band negotiated themselves out of their contract and searched for new management. One of the options they considered was an offer from Led Zeppelin 's manager, Peter Grant , who wanted them to sign with Led Zeppelin's own production company, Swan Song Records . The band were concerned about being a lower priority than Zeppelin and Bad Company (also signed to Swan Song) and instead contacted Elton John 's manager, John Reid , who accepted

12283-435: 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 hit singles " I Want It All "—which became an anti-apartheid anthem in South Africa—" Scandal ", and " The Miracle ". The Miracle also began a change in direction of Queen's songwriting philosophy. Beforehand, nearly all songs had been written by and credited to

12456-599: The band were greeted with scenes of fan-fever, and the promoter of their first shows at the Vélez Sarsfield Stadium in Buenos Aires was moved to say: "For music in Argentina, this has been a case of before the war and after the war. Queen have liberated this country, musically speaking." The group's second show at Vélez Sarsfield was broadcast on national television and watched by over 30 million. Backstage, they were introduced to footballer Diego Maradona . Topping

12629-404: The band's exuberant vocal harmonies. In 1978, Queen toured the US 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 US. Queen also released the very successful single " Crazy Little Thing Called Love ", a rockabilly inspired song done in the style of Elvis Presley . The song made

12802-451: The band, and he was skilled in electronics. On 2 July, Queen played their first show with the classic line-up of Mercury, May, Taylor and Deacon at a Surrey college outside London. May called Terry Yeadon, an engineer at Pye Studios where Smile had recorded, to see if he knew anywhere where Queen could go. Yeadon had since moved to De Lane Lea Studios ' new premises in Wembley , and they needed

12975-422: The band. The two were taken with "Keep Yourself Alive" and began promoting the band to several record companies. Promoter Ken Testi managed to attract the interest of Charisma Records , who offered Queen an advance of around £25,000, but the group turned them down as they realised the label would promote Genesis as a priority. Testi then entered discussions with Trident Studios ' Norman Sheffield , who offered

13148-542: The basis for "Bohemian Rhapsody" music video production. The album reached number five on the British album chart and became the first Queen album to chart in the UK. The Mercury-written lead single " Seven Seas of Rhye " reached number 10 in the UK, giving the band their first hit. The album featured a 'layered' sound which would become their signature, and features long complex instrumental passages, fantasy-themed lyrics, and instrumental virtuosity. Aside from its only single,

13321-503: The biggest-ever TV audience of an estimated 400 million, Queen performed some of their greatest hits. Many of the sold-out stadium audience of 72,000 people clapped, sang, and swayed in unison. The show's organisers, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure ; other musicians such as Elton John and Cliff Richard ; and journalists writing for the BBC , CNN , Rolling Stone , MTV , The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph , among others, described Queen as

13494-520: The book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . The group ended their early 1974 UK tour with a show at the Rainbow Theatre on 31 March. Mercury chose to a wear a Zandra Rhodes -designed tunic for the gig, changing into a slashed black top midway through the show. In May 1974, a month into the band's first US tour opening for Mott the Hoople, May collapsed and was diagnosed with hepatitis, forcing

13667-575: The book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . The second single from the album was Deacon's " You're My Best Friend ", which peaked at number sixteen on the US Billboard Hot 100, 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. On 24 December, Queen played a special concert at

13840-421: The cancellation of their remaining dates. While recuperating, May was initially absent when the band started work on their third album, but he returned midway through the recording process. Released in 1974, Sheer Heart Attack reached number two in the UK, sold well throughout Europe, and went gold in the US. It gave the band their first real experience of international success, and was a hit on both sides of

14013-565: The charts in Brazil and Argentina, the ballad " Love of My Life " stole the show in South American concerts. Mercury would stop singing and would then conduct the audience as they took over, with Lesley-Ann Jones writing "the fans knew the song by heart. Their English was word-perfect." Later that year Queen performed for more than 150,000 on 9 October at Monterrey ( Estadio Universitario ) and 17 and 18 at Puebla ( Estadio Zaragoza ), Mexico. Though

14186-504: The concept for the system in detail. Actor Jack Nicholson hosted the televised portion of the Philadelphia concert. The opening artist Joan Baez announced to the crowd, "This is your Woodstock , and it's long overdue", before leading the crowd in singing " Amazing Grace " and "We Are the World". Despite the 95 °F (35 °C) ambient temperature, Madonna proclaimed "I ain't taking shit off today!" during her set, referring to

14359-521: The concert continued for just over 16 hours, but since many artists' performances were conducted simultaneously in Wembley and JFK, the total concert length was much longer. Mick Jagger and David Bowie intended to perform a transatlantic duet, with Bowie in London and Jagger in Philadelphia. Problems of synchronisation meant the only practical solution was to have one artist, likely Bowie at Wembley, mime along to prerecorded vocals broadcast as part of

14532-408: The concert is recorded in the live album, Queen Rock Montreal . Queen worked with David Bowie on the 1981 single " Under Pressure ". The first-time collaboration with another artist was spontaneous, as Bowie happened to drop by the studio while Queen were recording. Mercury and Bowie recorded their vocals on the track separately to each other, each coming up with individual ideas. The song topped

14705-474: The concerts, Classic Rock magazine states, "They were under the spotlight from all quarters, as the entire music industry waited to see if their ambitious plans would bear fruit". Tom Pinnock in the March 1981 issue of Melody Maker wrote, Queen chalked up a major international "first" by becoming the band to do for popular music in South America what The Beatles did for North America 17 years ago. Half

14878-459: The course of one tour, told every record station to fuck off". Queen roadie Peter Hince wrote "None of the band cared for him [Prenter], apart from Freddie", with Hince regarding Mercury's favouring of Prenter as an act of "misguided loyalty". During the Munich sessions, Mercury spent time with Mack and his family, becoming godfather to Mack's first child. Q magazine would list Hot Space as one of

15051-400: The crowd in unison refrains, and his sustained note—"Aaaaaay-o"—during the a cappella section came to be known as "The Note Heard Round the World". The band's six-song set opened with a shortened version of " Bohemian Rhapsody " and closed with " We Are the Champions ". According to the BBC's presenter David Hepworth , their performance produced "the greatest display of community singing

15224-529: The day, began his solo set with the quip, "I was in England this afternoon. Funny old world, innit?" to cheers from the Philadelphia crowd. Collins played the drums during Eric Clapton 's 17-minute set, which included well-received performances of " Layla " and " White Room ". Throughout the concerts, viewers were urged to donate money to the Live Aid cause. The BBC operated three hundred phone lines so that members of

15397-403: The death of their frontman. Their fall in popularity in the US has been partially attributed to a homophobia : Mikal Gilmore for Rolling Stone writes, "At some shows on the band's 1980 American tour, fans tossed disposable razor blades onstage: They didn't like this identity of Mercury—what they perceived as a brazenly gay rock & roll hero—and they wanted him to shed it." The group finished

15570-524: The drums for Sting in London, then for Eric Clapton , and played with the reuniting surviving members of Led Zeppelin at JFK. On the Concorde flight, Collins encountered actress and singer Cher , who was unaware of the concerts. Upon reaching the US, she attended the Philadelphia concert and can be seen performing as part of the concert's " We Are the World " finale. In a 1985 interview, singer-songwriter Billy Joel stated that he had considered performing at

15743-487: The event that made stars of U2. The band played a 12-minute rendition of " Bad ". The length of "Bad" limited them to two songs; a third, " Pride (In the Name of Love) ", had to be dropped. During "Bad", vocalist Bono jumped off the stage to join the crowd and dance with a teenage girl. In July 2005, the woman said that he had saved her life. She was being crushed by people pushing forward; Bono saw this and gestured frantically at

15916-422: The event, but ultimately chose not to because he had difficulties getting his band together and did not want to perform by himself. Broadcaster Richard Skinner opened the Live Aid concert with the words: It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid. The concert was the most ambitious international satellite television venture that had ever been attempted at

16089-564: The eyes of the political leaders whose opinions the performers were trying to shape. McCartney agreed to perform and has said it was "the management" – his children – who persuaded him to take part. In the event, he was the last performer (aside from the Band Aid finale) to take to the stage and one of the few to be beset by technical difficulties; his microphone failed for the first two minutes of his piano performance of " Let It Be ", making it difficult for television viewers and impossible for those in

16262-514: The facilities available. May created a multi-layer guitar introduction "Procession", while Mercury wrote "The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke" based on the painting of the same name by Richard Dadd . The group spent the remainder of the year touring the UK, supporting Mott The Hoople , and began to attract an audience. The tour ended with two shows at the Hammersmith Odeon on 14 December, playing to 7,000 people. In January 1974, Queen played

16435-464: The fastest-selling single ever in Britain and raised £8 million, rather than the £70,000 Geldof and Ure had initially expected. Geldof then set his sights on staging a huge concert to raise further funds. The idea to stage a charity concert to raise more funds for Ethiopia originally came from Boy George , the lead singer of Culture Club . George and Culture Club drummer Jon Moss had taken part in

16608-452: The final words. Elvis Costello sang a version of the Beatles' " All You Need Is Love ", which he introduced by asking the audience to "help [him] sing this old northern English folk song". Queen 's twenty-one-minute performance, which began at 6:41 pm, was voted the greatest live performance in the history of rock in a 2005 industry poll of more than 60 artists, journalists and music industry executives. Freddie Mercury at times led

16781-451: The first to document the famine, with Buerk's report on 23 October describing it as "a biblical famine in the 20th century" and "the closest thing to hell on Earth". The reports featured a young nurse, Claire Bertschinger , who, surrounded by 85,000 starving people, told of her sorrow of having to decide which children would be allowed access to the limited food supplies in the feeding station and which were too sick to be saved. She would put

16954-565: The first two minutes of the song, making it difficult for television viewers and the stadium audience to hear him. During this performance, the TV audience were better off, audio-wise, than the stadium audience, as the TV sound was picked up from other microphones near McCartney. The stadium audience, who could obviously not hear the electronic sound feed from these mics unless they had portable TV sets and radios, drowned out what little sound from McCartney could be heard during this part of his performance. As

17127-459: The fucking honesty, Sir Bob." This would be the band's last appearance with bassist and founding member Alan Lancaster and drummer Pete Kircher . Princess Diana and Prince Charles were among those in attendance as the concert commenced. Bob Geldof performed with the rest of the Boomtown Rats, singing " I Don't Like Mondays ". He and the band paused just after the line "The lesson today

17300-526: The gigs were successful, they were marred by a lack of planning and suitable facilities, with audiences throwing projectiles on stage. Mercury finished the final gig saying, "Adios, amigos, you motherfuckers!" On 24 and 25 November, Queen played two nights at the Montreal Forum , Quebec, Canada. One of Mercury's most notable performances of The Game 's final track, " Save Me ", took place in Montreal, and

17473-456: The group 1984 (named after Orwell's novel ) the following year with singer Tim Staffell . May left the group in early 1968 to focus on his degree in Physics and Infrared Astronomy at Imperial College and find a group that could write original material. He formed the group Smile with Staffell (now playing bass) and keyboardist Chris Smith. To complete the line-up, May placed an advertisement on

17646-599: The group's hard rock sound and being fed up with the lack of success. He formed the group Humpy Bong with former Bee Gees drummer Colin Petersen . The remaining members accepted Bulsara as lead singer, and recruited Taylor's friend Mike Grose as bassist. The four played their first gig at a fundraising event in Truro on 27 June 1970. Bulsara suggested the group should be renamed to "Queen". The others were uncertain at first, but he said, "it's wonderful, dear, people will love it". At

17819-447: The hall, with or without staffing. The Hall also contains a large cinema screen which can be raised and lowered for the purpose of screening films. This is used by Imperial Cinema . 51°30′00″N 0°10′41″W  /  51.5000°N 0.1780°W  / 51.5000; -0.1780 This article relating to Imperial College London is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Queen (band) Queen are

17992-429: The highlight. Interviewed backstage, Roger Waters stated: "Everybody's been buzzing about Queen that I've run into. They had everybody completely spellbound." An industry poll in 2005 ranked it the greatest rock performance of all time. Mercury's powerful, sustained note—"Aaaaaay-o"—during the call-and-response a cappella segment came to be known as "The Note Heard Round the World". The band were revitalised by

18165-454: The hope of raising money for famine relief. Geldof then contacted colleagues in the music industry and persuaded them to record the single under the title ' Band Aid ' for free. On 25 November 1984, the song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill , London, and was released four days later. It stayed at number one for five weeks in the UK, was Christmas number one , and became

18338-554: The influence Mercury's personal manager Paul Prenter had on him. According to Mack , Queen's producer, Prenter loathed rock music and was in Mercury's ear throughout the Hot Space sessions. May was also scathing of Prenter—Mercury's manager from 1977 to 1984—for being dismissive of the importance of radio stations and their vital connection between the artist and the community, and for denying them access to Mercury. May states, "this guy, in

18511-626: The largest single concert crowd in Argentine history with an audience of 300,000 in Buenos Aires and two concerts at the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo, Brazil, where they played to more than 131,000 people in the first night (then the largest paying audience for a single band anywhere in the world) and more than 120,000 people the following night. A region then largely ruled by military dictatorships,

18684-569: The lead-up to the concert, and when asked what his plans were post-Live Aid, he told an interviewer, "I'm going to go home and sleep." The Wembley speaker system was provided by Hill Pro Audio. It consisted primarily of the Hill J-Series Mixing Consoles and Hill M3 Speaker System powered by the Hill 3000 amplifiers. In an interview with Studio Sound in December 1985, Malcolm Hill described

18857-420: The live broadcast, nearly 40 percent of the world population. The impact of Live Aid on famine relief has been debated for years. One aid relief worker stated that following the publicity generated by the concert, "humanitarian concern is now at the centre of foreign policy" for Western governments. Geldof has said, "We took an issue that was nowhere on the political agenda and, through the lingua franca of

19030-491: The live double album Queen at Wembley , released on CD and as a live concert VHS/DVD, which has gone five times platinum in the US and four times platinum in the UK. The demand for tickets saw extra dates added to the tour, with concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith stating "they seem to have an endless market." Queen could not book Wembley for a third night, but played at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire on 9 August. The show sold out within two hours and over 120,000 fans packed

19203-474: The live feed. The concert began at noon British Summer Time (BST) (7:00 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)) at Wembley Stadium in the United Kingdom. It continued at John F. Kennedy Stadium (JFK) in the United States, starting at 13:51 BST (8:51 EDT). The UK's Wembley performances ended at 22:00 BST (17:00 EDT). The JFK performances and the whole concert in the US ended at 04:05 BST on 14 July (23:05 EDT). Thus,

19376-471: The live sound mix for Jagger's performance from Philadelphia. Veteran music engineer David Richards ( Pink Floyd and Queen ) was brought in to create footage and sound mixes Jagger and Bowie could perform to in their respective venues. The BBC would then have had to ensure those footage and sound mixes were in sync while also performing a live vision mix of the footage from both venues. The combined footage would then have had to be bounced back by satellite to

19549-538: The magnitude of Buerk's report it was also broadcast in its entirety on a major US news channel—almost unheard of at the time. From his home in London Geldof also saw the report and called Ure from Ultravox (Geldof and Ure had previously worked together for charity when they appeared at the 1981 benefit show The Secret Policeman's Ball in London) and together they quickly co-wrote the song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in

19722-433: The mirrored sound systems commonly used by the rock band touring engineers, with two 40–48-channel mixing consoles at the front of house and another pair for monitors, the BBC sound engineers had to use multiple 12-channel desks. Some credit this as the point where the mainstream entertainment industry realised that the rock concert industry had overtaken them in technical expertise. The Coldstream Guards band opened with

19895-521: The mortgages on some of the farms that the farmers here owe to the banks." He is often misquoted, as on the Farm Aid website, as saying: "Wouldn't it be great if we did something for our own farmers right here in America?" In his autobiography, Is That It? (published in 1986), Geldof was critical of the remark, saying, "He displayed a complete lack of understanding of the issues raised by Live Aid. ... Live Aid

20068-523: 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 logo. The most recognisable of the Marx Brothers, Groucho Marx , invited Queen to visit him in his Los Angeles home in March 1977; there the band thanked him in person, and performed " '39 " a cappella . Baker did not return to produce the album; instead the band self-produced with assistance from Mike Stone, who performed several of

20241-438: The occasion he told Geldof that they should consider organising a benefit concert. Speaking to the UK music magazine Melody Maker at the beginning of January 1985, Geldof revealed his enthusiasm for George's idea, saying, "If George is organising it, you can tell him he can call me at any time, and I'll do it. It's a logical progression from the record, but the point is you don't just talk about it, you go ahead and do it!" It

20414-480: The old stadium had seen and cemented Queen's position as the most-loved British group since the Beatles". Later in the evening, Mercury and guitarist Brian May performed the first song of the three-part Wembley event finale, " Is This the World We Created...? " Other well-received performances on the day included those by U2 and David Bowie . Both The Guardian and Rolling Stone have cited Live Aid as

20587-512: The opening night at the Concert for the People of Kampuchea in London, having accepted a request by the event's organiser, Paul McCartney . The concert was the last date of their Crazy Tour of London. Queen began their 1980s career 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 US. After attending

20760-408: The opening song " Death on Two Legs ", a savage dig at perceived wrongdoers (and later dedicated to Trident in concert) and the camp vaudeville "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" and "Seaside Rendezvous". May's " The Prophet's Song " was an eight-minute epic; the middle section is a canon , with simple phrases layered to create a full-choral sound. The Mercury penned ballad, " Love of My Life ", featured

20933-414: The opinions of critics. Among other accolades, it was ranked number 16 in Q magazine's "The 50 Best British Albums Ever" in 2004, a poll done in collaboration with British music and entertainment retailer HMV . It was also placed at number 230 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of " 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

21106-514: The original Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne , the Beach Boys with Brian Wilson , and surviving members of Led Zeppelin , with Phil Collins and the Power Station (and former Chic ) member Tony Thompson sharing duties on drums in place of the band's late drummer John Bonham (although they were not officially announced by their group name from the stage but were announced as Led Zeppelin on

21279-427: The original tape wore thin. EMI initially refused to release the single, thinking it too long, and demanded a radio edit which Queen refused. Mercury's close friend and advisor, Capital London radio DJ Kenny Everett , played a pivotal role in giving the single exposure. He was given a promotional copy on the condition he didn't play it, but ended up doing so fourteen times over a single weekend. Capital's switchboard

21452-446: The park for what was Queen's final performance with Mercury. At the end of the concert the band appeared on stage for the final time to an encore of "God Save the Queen", with Mercury, in his crown and gown, bidding the crowd "goodnight and sweet dreams". Roadie Peter Hince states, "At Knebworth, I somehow felt it was going to be the last for all of us", while Brian May recalled Mercury saying "I'm not going to be doing this forever. This

21625-534: The planet – which is not English but rock 'n' roll – we were able to address the intellectual absurdity and the moral repulsion of people dying of want in a world of surplus." In another interview he stated that Live Aid "created something permanent and self-sustaining" but also asked why Africa is getting poorer. The organisers of Live Aid tried to run aid efforts directly, channelling millions of pounds to NGOs in Ethiopia . It has been alleged that much of this went to

21798-446: The police informed Mercury that he would be arrested if he attempted to go on stage again. May enjoyed the gig particularly, as he had been to see previous concerts at the park, such as the first one organised by Blackhill Enterprises in 1968, featuring Pink Floyd . On 1 December 1976, Queen were the intended guests on London's early evening Today programme, but they pulled out at the last-minute, which saw their late replacement on

21971-479: The position. Reid's first instruction to the band was "I'll take care of the business; you make the best record you can". Queen started work on their fourth album 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, costing £40,000 and using three different studios. Like its predecessor, the album features diverse musical styles and experimentation with stereo sound. Mercury wrote

22144-429: The public could make donations using their credit cards. The phone number and an address to which viewers could send cheques were repeated every twenty minutes. Nearly seven hours into the concert in London, Bob Geldof enquired how much money had been raised so far; he was told about £1.2 million. He is said to have been sorely disappointed by the amount and marched to the BBC commentary position. Pumped up further by

22317-517: The re-recording of "The Night Comes Down", so the finished album uses the De Lane Lea demo. Another track, " Mad the Swine " was dropped from the running order after the band and Baker could not agree on a mix. Mike Stone created the final mix for "Keep Yourself Alive", and he went on to work on several other Queen albums. By January 1972, the band finished recording their debut album, but had yet to secure

22490-575: The recent release of early nude photos of her in Playboy and Penthouse magazines. During his opening number, " American Girl ", Tom Petty flipped the middle finger to somebody off stage about one minute into the song. Petty stated the song was a last-minute addition when the band realised that they would be the first act to play the American side of the concert after the London finale and "since this is, after all, JFK Stadium". When Bob Dylan broke

22663-413: The recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and in the same month, the band were undertaking a tour of the UK, which culminated in six nights at Wembley Arena . On the final night at Wembley, 22 December 1984, an impromptu gathering of some of the other artists from "Band Aid" joined Culture Club on stage at the end of the concert for an encore of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" George was so overcome by

22836-408: The response to Live Aid—a "shot in the arm" Roger Taylor called it—and the ensuing increase in record sales. In 1986 Mercury commented: "From our perspective, the fact that Live Aid happened when it did was really lucky. It came out of nowhere to save us. For sure that was a turning point. Maybe you could say that in the history of Queen, it was a really special moment." Queen ended 1985 by releasing

23009-591: The rock ballad " We Are the Champions ", both of which became enduring international sports anthems , and the latter reached number four in the US. Queen commenced the News of the World Tour in November 1977, and Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times called this concert tour the band's "most spectacularly staged and finely honed show". During the tour they sold out another two shows at MSG, and in 1978 they received

23182-468: The same time, he decided to change his surname to Mercury, inspired by the line "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me" in the song " My Fairy King ". The group played their first London gig on 18 July. The early set consisted of material that later appeared on the first two albums, along with various rock and roll covers, such as Cliff Richard and the Shadows ' " Please Don't Tease ". They attracted

23355-634: The show, EMI labelmate the Sex Pistols , give their infamous expletive-strewn interview with Bill Grundy . During the A Day at the Races Tour in 1977, Queen performed sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden , New York, in February, supported by Thin Lizzy , and Mercury and Taylor socialised with that group's leader Phil Lynott . They ended the tour with two concerts at Earls Court , London, in June, which commemorated

23528-408: The show, it's the most dramatic thing I've ever seen.' That was probably one of the most evocative things in the whole show and really got the money rolling in." The transatlantic broadcast from Wembley suffered technical problems and failed during the Who 's performance of their opening song " My Generation ", immediately after Roger Daltrey sang "Why don't you all fade ..." (the last word "away"

23701-452: The single " One Vision " and a limited-edition boxed set of Queen albums, The Complete Works . The package included the 1984 Christmas single " Thank God It's Christmas " and previously unreleased material. In early 1986, Queen recorded the album A Kind of Magic , containing several reworkings of songs written for the fantasy action film Highlander . The album was successful in the UK, West Germany and several other countries, producing

23874-512: The soundtrack they had recorded for Flash Gordon . At the 1981 American Music Awards in January, "Another One Bites the Dust" won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Single, and Queen were nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Band, Duo, or Group. In February 1981, Queen travelled to South America as part of The Game Tour , and became the first rock band to play stadiums in Latin America. On playing

24047-482: The stadium to hear him. He later joked by saying he had thought about changing the lyrics to "There will be some feedback, let it be". Phil Collins performed at both Wembley Stadium and JFK, travelling from Wembley by helicopter (piloted by UK TV personality Noel Edmonds ) to London Heathrow Airport , then took a British Airways Concorde flight to New York City, before taking another helicopter to Philadelphia. As well as his own set at both venues, he also played

24220-466: The subject of outrage, having played in South Africa during the height of apartheid and in violation of worldwide divestment efforts and a United Nations cultural boycott. The band responded to the critics by stating that they were playing music for fans in South Africa, and they also stressed that the concerts were played before integrated audiences. Queen donated to a school for the deaf and blind as

24393-430: The success, Queen were 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. EMI contacted lawyer Jim Beach , who tried to find a way of extracting them from their contract. Trident complained that they had invested £200,000 in Queen and wanted their money back first. In August, after an acrimonious split with Trident,

24566-419: The syndicated/ABC coverage is that the network had wanted to reserve some of the biggest acts that had played earlier in the day for certain points in the entire broadcast, particularly in the final three hours in prime time; thus, Orbis Communications had some sequences replaced by others, especially those portions of the concert that had acts from London and Philadelphia playing simultaneously. For example, while

24739-506: The time, before multichannel television sound was enacted nationwide, very few televisions reproduced stereo signals, and few television stations were able to broadcast in stereo. While the telecast was run advertisement-free by the BBC, both the MTV and syndicated/ABC broadcasts included advertisements and interviews. As a result, many songs were omitted due to the commercial breaks, as these songs were played during these slots. The biggest issue of

24912-402: The time. In Europe, the TV feed was supplied by the BBC , whose broadcast was presented by Richard Skinner , Andy Kershaw , Mark Ellen , David Hepworth , Andy Batten-Foster , Steve Blacknell, Paul Gambaccini , Janice Long and Mike Smith and included numerous interviews and chats in between the various acts. The BBC's television sound feed was mono, as was all UK TV audio before NICAM

25085-492: The tiny proportion that was supplied by some NGOs to rebel-held areas". The 1985 Live Aid concert was conceived as a follow-on to the successful charity single " Do They Know It's Christmas? " which was also the idea of Geldof and Ure. In October 1984, images of hundreds of thousands of people starving to death in Ethiopia were shown in the UK in Michael Buerk 's BBC News reports on the 1984 famine . The BBC News crew were

25258-503: The top 10 in many countries, topped the Australian ARIA Charts for seven consecutive weeks, and was the band's first number one single in the United States where it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks. Having written the song on guitar and played rhythm on the record, Mercury played rhythm guitar while performing the song live, which was the first time he ever played guitar in concert. On 26 December 1979, Queen played

25431-642: The top fifteen albums where great rock acts lost the plot. Though the album confused some fans with the change of musical direction, it still reached number 4 in the UK. Queen toured to promote Hot Space , but found some audience unreceptive to the new material. At a gig in Frankfurt , Mercury told some people heckling the new material, "If you don't want to listen to it, go home!" Former Mott The Hoople keyboardist Morgan Fisher joined as an additional touring member. Shows were planned at Arsenal Stadium and Old Trafford , but these were cancelled as Pope John Paul II

25604-550: The ushers to help her. They did not understand what he was saying, and so he jumped down to help her himself. Rolling Stone described David Bowie's performance as "arguably Bowie's last triumph of the 1980s", observing that "as approximately two billion people sang along to 'Heroes' [...], he still seemed like one of the biggest and most vital rock stars in the world". According to Ultimate Classic Rock , Phil Collins also "performed an especially crowd-pleasing selection of songs", and John Illsley of Dire Straits recalled, "It

25777-458: The various broadcasters worldwide. Due to the time lag (the signal would take several seconds to be broadcast twice across the Atlantic Ocean), Richards concluded there was no way for Jagger to hear or see Bowie's performance, meaning there could be no interaction between the artists, essentially defeating the whole point of the exercise. On top of this, both artists objected to miming during what

25950-514: The video David Mallet said Mercury was reluctant to do it, commenting "it was a hell of a job to get him out of the dressing room". That year, Queen began The Works Tour , the first tour to feature keyboardist Spike Edney as an extra live musician. The tour featured nine sold-out dates in October in Bophuthatswana , South Africa, at the arena in Sun City . Upon returning to England, they were

26123-539: The world (though neither US feed showed the film), showing starving and diseased Ethiopian children set to " Drive " by the Cars (this would also be shown at the London Live 8 concert in 2005). The rate of donations became faster in the aftermath of the video. Geldof had previously refused to allow the video to be shown due to time constraints and had only relented when Bowie offered to drop the song " Five Years " from his set as

26296-624: The world. " Another One Bites the Dust " from The Game (1980) became their best-selling single, while their 1981 compilation album Greatest Hits is the best-selling album in the UK and is certified nine times platinum in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Their performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert is ranked among the greatest in rock history by various publications. In August 1986, Mercury gave his last performance with Queen at Knebworth , England. Though he kept his condition private, Mercury

26469-615: The year with a Japanese tour. After the Hot Space Tour concluded with a concert at Seibu Lions Stadium in Tokorozawa , Japan in November 1982, Queen decided they would take a significant amount of time off. May later said at that point, "we hated each other for a while". The band reconvened nine months later to begin recording a new album at the Record Plant Studios , Los Angeles and Musicland Studios , Munich. Several members of

26642-516: Was a difficult time for me, personally – some dark moments. In 1982, the band released the album Hot Space , a departure from their trademark seventies sound, this time being a mixture of pop rock , dance, disco, funk , and R&B . Most of the album was recorded in Munich during the most turbulent period in the band's history. While Mercury and Deacon enjoyed the new soul and funk influences, Taylor and May were less favourable, and were critical of

26815-510: Was a game of bluff." Among those involved in organising Live Aid were Harvey Goldsmith , who was responsible for the Wembley Stadium concert, and Bill Graham , who put together the American leg. On promoting the event, Goldsmith states, "I didn't really get a chance to say no. Bob [Geldof] arrived in my office and basically said, 'We're doing this.' It started from there." The concert grew in scope as more acts were added on both sides of

26988-410: Was a multi-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday, 13 July 1985. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia , a movement that started with the release of the successful charity single " Do They Know It's Christmas? " in December 1984. Billed as the "global jukebox", Live Aid

27161-526: Was a very special feeling to be part of something so unique. Live Aid was a unique privilege for all of us. It's become a fabulous memory." "One afternoon before the concert, Bowie was up in the office and we started looking through some videos of news footage, and we watched the CBC piece [footage from the Ethiopian famine , cut to the Cars' song " Drive "]. Everyone just stopped. Bowie said, 'You've got to put that in

27334-518: Was clear from the interview that Geldof had already had the idea to hold a dual venue concert and how the concerts should be structured: The show should be as big as is humanly possible. There's no point [in] just 5,000 fans turning up at Wembley ; we need to have Wembley linked with Madison Square Gardens , and the whole show to be televised worldwide. It would be great for Duran to play three or four numbers at Wembley and then flick to Madison Square, where Springsteen would be playing. While he's on,

27507-547: Was credited to the whole band. Mercury wrote the closing number, "In the Lap of the Gods", with the intention that the audience could sing along to the chorus when played live. This would be repeated later on, more successfully, in songs such as "We Are the Champions. The single " Killer Queen " was written by Mercury about a high-class prostitute. It reached number two on the British charts, and became their first US hit, reaching number 12 on

27680-437: Was cut off when a blown fuse caused the Wembley stage TV feed to temporarily fail). The broadcast returned as the last verse of " Pinball Wizard " was played. John Entwistle 's bass wouldn't work at the start, causing an awkward delay of over a minute before they could start playing. The band played with Kenney Jones on drums, and it was their first performance since disbanding after a 1982 'farewell' tour. The Who's performance

27853-471: Was described as "rough but right" by Rolling Stone , but they would not perform together again for another three years. At 32 minutes Elton John had the longest set on the day; his setlist included the first performance of " Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me " with George Michael . While performing " Let It Be " near the end of the Wembley show, the microphone mounted to Paul McCartney 's piano failed for

28026-592: Was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987. The band released two more albums, The Miracle in 1989 and Innuendo in 1991. On 23 November 1991, Mercury publicly revealed that he had AIDS, and the next day died of bronchopneumonia , a complication of AIDS. One more album was released featuring Mercury's vocals, 1995's Made in Heaven . Deacon retired in 1997, while May and Taylor continued to make sporadic appearances together. Since 2004, they have toured as "Queen +", with vocalists Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert . Queen have been

28199-493: Was from Zanzibar and of Indian Parsi descent. Bulsara had studied fashion design for a year before switching to graphic art and design, and soon became a keen fan of Smile. He asked if he could join the group as lead singer , but May felt Staffell would not give up that role. He also ran a stall in Kensington Market with Taylor. In 1970, Staffell quit Smile, feeling his interests in soul and R&B clashed with

28372-537: Was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London , and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia . On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative were held in other countries, such as the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia, and West Germany. It was one of the largest satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time; an estimated audience of 1.9 billion, in 150 nations watched

28545-466: Was introduced, but the BBC Radio 1 feed was stereo and was simulcast in sync with the TV pictures. Unfortunately, in the rush to set up the transatlantic feeds, the sound feed from Philadelphia was sent to London via transatlantic cable, while the video feed was via satellite, which meant a lack of synchronisation on British television receivers. Due to the constant activities in both London and Philadelphia,

28718-525: Was never uttered. Private Eye magazine made great humorous capital out of this outburst, emphasising Geldof's Irish accent, which meant the profanities were heard as "fock" or "focking". After the outburst, donations increased to £300 per second. Later in the evening, following David Bowie's set, a video shot by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was shown to the audiences in London and Philadelphia, as well as on televisions around

28891-489: Was overwhelmed with callers inquiring when the song would be released. With EMI forced to release "Bohemian Rhapsody" due to public demand, the single reached number one in the UK for nine weeks. It is the third-best-selling single of all time in the UK, surpassed only by Band Aid 's " Do They Know It's Christmas? " and Elton John 's " Candle in the Wind 1997 ", and is the best-selling commercial single (i.e. not for charity) in

29064-500: Was perceived as a historic event. Instead, Jagger and Bowie worked with Richards to create a video of the song they would have performed, a cover of " Dancing in the Street ", which was shown on the screens of both stadiums and broadcast as part of many TV networks' coverage. Each of the two main parts of the concert ended with their particular continental all-star anti-hunger anthems, with Band Aid 's " Do They Know It's Christmas? " closing

29237-579: Was quoted as saying he was "perfectly fit and healthy". Fans noticed his increasingly gaunt appearance in 1988, with Mercury insisting he was merely "exhausted" and too busy to provide interviews; he was now 42 years old and had been involved in music for nearly two decades. He had in fact been diagnosed as HIV positive in 1987, but did not make his illness public, with only his inner circle of colleagues and friends aware of his condition. After working on various solo projects during 1988 (including Mercury's collaboration with Montserrat Caballé , Barcelona ),

29410-420: Was replaced as touring keyboardist by Fred Mandel for the North American shows. The band stopped touring North America after their Hot Space Tour, as their success there had waned, although they performed on American television for the only time during the eighth-season premiere of Saturday Night Live on 25 September of the same year; it became the final public performance of the band in North America before

29583-525: Was shot in three hours. The operatic section featured a reprise of the Queen II cover, with the band member's heads animated. On the impact of the "Bohemian Rhapsody" promotional video, Rolling Stone states: "Its influence cannot be overstated, practically inventing the music video seven years before MTV went on the air." Ranking it number 31 on their list of the 50 key events in rock music history, The Guardian stated it "ensured videos would henceforth be

29756-426: Was the most embarrassing moment of his career. The UK TV feed from Philadelphia was dogged by intermittent buzzing on the sound during Bryan Adams' turn on stage. This continued less frequently throughout the rest of the UK reception of the American concert, and the audio and video feed failed entirely during that performance and during Simple Minds ' performance. Phil Collins, who had performed in London earlier in

29929-538: Was touring Britain, leading to a lack of available outdoor facilities such as toilets. The gigs were moved to the Milton Keynes Bowl and Elland Road , Leeds instead. The Milton Keynes concert was filmed by Tyne Tees Television and later released on DVD. On 14 and 15 September 1982, the band performed their last two gigs in the US with Mercury on lead vocals, playing at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Fisher

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