In 1968 Brian May and Tim Staffell, both students at London's Imperial College, decided they wanted to form a group. Brian placed an advertisement on the college notice board for a "Ginger Baker Type" drummer and a young medical student called Roger Meddows Taylor auditioned, and got the job. They called the group SMILE. Smile were signed to Mercury Records in 1969 and had their first experience of a recording studio - Trident Studios - that year. Tim Staffell was at Ealing College of Art with Freddie Bulsara and introduced him lo the band. Freddie soon became a keen fan. Sadly, in 1970 Smile decided lo call it a day as nothing seemed to be happening for them. Tim went off and joined a band called Humpy Bong. Freddie left his band, Wreckage and joined up with Brian and Roger - it had all begun.
Freddie changed his name by deed poll to Mercury, changed the bands name to QUEEN and John Deacon was asked to audition as their bass player after three temporary bassists had been and gone. In February 1971 John was taken on as the fourth member of Queen. The band rehearsed tirelessly and played several small gigs at Imperial College, where they rehearsed, for close friends. Then they were offered the chance to test a new recording studio called De Lane Lea. In return for trying out new equipment they could make free demo tapes, which they did. They had signed recording, publishing and management contracts with Trident in 1972, and during that year were paid just �60 per week. Queen were given the "down time" or out of hours studio time at Trident Studios, where they began work on their first album.
In 1973 Trident and EMI signed a contract for a recording deal for Queen, and July of that year saw the release of QUEEN, their first album. The band were offered a big break, their first major tour as support band to Mott The Hoople. It began in Leeds in November 1973, and it was said by many people during that tour that Queen were "more than just a support act.. " QUEEN II was finally released in March 1974; it should have been earlier but their was a minor printing error on the sleeve which the band insisted was corrected. They embarked on their first headlining tour of Britain, starting in Blackpool in March 1974. In April 1974 the band undertook their first ever American tour, as guests to Mott The Hoople. But in May of that year whilst on tour, Brian collapsed with hepatitis and the band had to cancel the rest of their dates.
Work on their third album began without Brian and with a lot of help from Roy Thomas Baker. Brian finally felt well enough to go into the studio to record his guitar parts, although he was still quite ill and spent much time between takes in the studio bathroom being very sick! But eventually the album was finished and SHEER HEART ATTACK was released in November 1974. It was a huge hit both sides of the Atlantic as the world came to realise that Queen were a force to be reckoned with.
In January 1975 Queen left for the USA on their first headlining tour. Ticket sales were phenomenal, demand was so high that they had to add more shows, doing two shows in one day at some venues,both shows being sold out. Quite a few shows on that tour had to be cancelled as Freddie had developed a severe throat problem. But he soldiered on and performed as many as possible although doctors had advised him against it. Also in January 1975 Queen engaged the services of lawyer Jim Beach to negotiate them out of their Trident agreements, as Trident were no longer being as supportive as they should have been and the band were unhappy with the situation. Their first Canadian gig was in Edmonton on April 2nd, where they were joined on stage by support act Kansas. April 1975 saw Queen set lo pay their first ever visit to Japan.
When they arrived at the airport there were over three thousand fans their to great them, as Sheer Heart Attack was number one in Japan at the time. In May 1975 Freddie was presented with an Ivor Novello award by the Songwriters Guild for Killer Queen.
Queen began work on their new album in June. Links with Trident were finally, to the bands great relief, severed in August and by September Queen had signed with new management enter John Reid. When the band decided to release Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975 everyone told them it was far too long and just would not be a hit at 5 minutes 55 seconds. But Freddie gave a copy to his friend and London DJ Kenny Everett, telling him it was for him personally and he must not play it on air. But of course he did - fourteen times in two days! From then on every major radio station played the song, in full. It was a colossal hit and really established Queen as THE band of the era. The video for the single, directed by Bruce Gowers using ideas from the band themselves,was attributed as the one that began the whole "video craze". The single stayed at number one in the UK for an amazing nine weeks. |
