Паланачка гимназија

Смедеревска Паланка, Вука Караџића 18

Матурски рад из енглеског језика

Queen – the band that really rocked us

Ментор: Ученик:
Виолета Станковић Кристина Јоковић, IV-3

Смедеревска Паланка, Мај 2022. год.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
1. Introduction.............................................................................................................................3
2. The beginning of their journey................................................................................................4
3. Brian May...............................................................................................................................9
4 Roger Taylor..........................................................................................................................10
5. John Deacon..........................................................................................................................11
6. Freddie Mercury....................................................................................................................12
7. Last tour................................................................................................................................14
8.Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….15
9. Literature…………………………………………………………………………………...16

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 INTRODUCTION

Queen is a British rock band, formed in London in 1970. It was founded by Freddie Mercury,
one of the most famous rock singers in history, Brian May, the guitarist, Roger Taylor, the
drummer, and John Deacon, the bass player. Queen is arguably the best band of all time. It’s
such an iconic band, that even in 2022 we still hear about it or hear their songs on the radio.
They are famous for their unique and creative songwriting and instrumental sound. Queen is
also one of the longest-lasting and most commercially successful bands; their marketing is
super successful since we still hear about it!

Picture: Queen the band

Queen – the band that really rocked us Kristina Joković, IV-3

2. THE BEGINNING OF THEIR JOURNEY

The beginning of the famous rock band Queen, is stated in West London, during the late
1960s. Brian May, the guitarist of this band, firstly formed the group named Smile with Tim
Staffel and Chris Smith. May placed an advertisement on a college notice board for a
drummer, where Roger Taylor auditioned and got the spot.

Later on, in the early 1969 Smith left the group, he was the keyboardist in Smile.

While Staffell was attending Ealing Art College in West London, he became friends with
Freddie Bulsara, who was quite a big fan of Smile. He wanted to be the leading singer of the
band. Later on in 1970, Staffell quit Smile, and formed another group.

Remaining members of Smile, which would at that point be Brian May and Roger Taylor,
accepted Freddie Bulsara as their lead singer, and they recruited Taylor’s friend Mike Grose
as their bassist.

The four played their first gig at a fundraising event in Truro on June 27th 1970. That’s when
Freddie suggested that the band name should be changed to Queen. At the same time as they
changed the band’s name, Freddie changed 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 18th July. They played various rock and roll covers at a bunch
of gigs, and they caught attention of the producer John Anthony. However, John suggested
that the group should change their bass player, and after three live gigs Mike decided to quit.
He was replaced by Barry Mitchell for thirteen gigs and then he quit as well. After that Doug
Bogie joined Queen for two live gigs.

Queen in 1970s – Mike, Roger, Freddie and Brian

And then finally, in February of 1971, John Deacon joined Queen, and the band was finally
whole. He was very skilled in electronics and was a very good bassist and he really
complimented the band. Queen, officially started their career on July 2nd when they played
their first gig at Surrey College, outside of London.
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After that they tried to find where they could record their songs and even maybe get signed.
Thankfully May called Terry Yeadon, an engineer at Pye Studios where Smile recorded, and
they got an invite to try some new equipment and recording rooms, since he couldn’t get a
hold of one another band.

Queen recorded some demos in exchange for the acoustic tests. They recorded five of their
own songs, "Liar", "Keep Yourself Alive", "Great King Rat", "The Night Comes Down" and
"Jesus". Once John Anthony visited the band with Roy Thomas Baker, and he thought that
"Keep Yourself Alive" would be a hit and started trying to interest record companies.

The first time Queen got offered an advance of around £25,000, they actually declined the
offer, since the label would promote another band, Genesis as a priority. Instead, they waited
for a better offer, and Testi entered the discussion with Trident Studios' Norman Sheffield.
They offered the band a management deal under Neptune Productions, a subsidiary of
Trident. They let them use their facilities until they found 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.

Of course, at the very start it was very hard for them to have good gigs since not many people
knew about them. They had one gig where only 6 people turned up. They decided to actually
stop performing live and focus on making an album. They made an album that was a mix of
heavy metal and progressive rock. Mike Stone created the final mix for "Keep Yourself
Alive", and he would go on to work on several other Queen albums. In order to attract a
record company’s interest, Trident booked a "showcase" gig on 6th of November at The
Pheasantry, followed by a show at the Marquee Club on 20th of December. Queen promoted
the unreleased album in February 1973 on BBC Radio 1, still unsigned.

Finally, Trident managed to strike a deal with EMI Records. "Keep Yourself Alive" was
released as a single on 6th of July, with the album "Queen" appearing a week later. Even
though the album received good reviews from critics, it still drew little mainstream attention,
and "Keep Yourself Alive" sold poorly.

Queen then started working on their second album "Queen II", in August 1973. 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 rest 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 the Sunbury Pop Festival in Australia, where they were jeered
and taunted by the audience. 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 featured Mick Rock's iconic Dietrich-inspired image of
the band on the cover. This image would later be used as the basis for "Bohemian Rhapsody"
music video production.The album actually reached number 5 on the British album chart and
that was the first Queen album to chart in UK. After that, they also had their first hit, "Seven
Seas of Rhye" that reached number 10 in the UK. The critical reaction was mixed; the
Winnipeg Free Press, while praising the band's debut album, described Queen II as an "over-
produced monstrosity".

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“Bohemian Rhapsody album cover” – Queen II

Consequently Queen started working on the third album, released in 1974, “Sheer Heart
Attack”, that reached number two in the UK. It sold well in Europe as well and it even went
gold in the US.

This was the real start of Queen. The album experimented with a variety of musical genres,
including British music hall, heavy metal, ballads, ragtime, and Caribbean. Then they
published a single “Killer Queen” that Mercury wrote, and it reached number two on the UK
charts and was their first US hit, reaching number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. With Mercury
playing the grand piano, it combined camp, vaudeville, and British music hall with May's
guitar. Then they released the second single “Now I’m here” that reached number eleven.
After that Queen split with Trident over an argument, and they were searching for a new
management. They contacted Elton John’s manager, John Reid and he accepted the position.

Queen then started working on their fourth album “A Night at the Opera”. Mercury played a
run-trough of the track on piano and then added the opera section to it. The band was first
unsure of how those pieces could work together but still recorded it. 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 the original tape wore thin.

EMI initially refused to release the single, thinking it was too long, and demanded a radio
edit, to 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 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,
and is the best-selling commercial single (not for-charity) in 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.

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"Bohemian Rhapsody" was promoted with a music video directed by Bruce Gowers, who had
already shot several of Queen's live concerts. The operatic section featured a reprise of the
Queen II cover, with the band member's heads animated. ”A Night at the Opera“ was very
successful in the UK, and went triple platinum in the United States. Among other accolades, it
was ranked number 16 in Q magazine's "The 50 Best British Albums Ever" in 2004.

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”. 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 number two in the UK, and
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. Queen played a landmark gig on
18th of September 1976, a free concert in Hyde Park, London, organized by the entrepreneur
Richard Branson. It set an attendance record at the park, with 150,000 people confirmed in the
audience

The band's sixth studio album “News of the World” was released in 1977, which went four
times platinum in the United States, and twice in the UK. In 1978, the band released “Jazz”,
which reached number two in the UK and number six on the Billboard 200 in the US. 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.

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 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 tour included five shows in Argentina, one of which
drew 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.

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. The song topped the UK charts. In October, Queen released
their first compilation album, titled “Greatest Hits”, which showcased the group's highlights
from 1974 to 1981. It is the best-selling album in UK chart history, and (as of November
2021) has spent over 950 weeks in the UK Album Chart.

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. While Mercury
and Deacon enjoyed the new soul and funk influences, Taylor and May were less favorable,
with both being critical of the influence Mercury's personal manager Paul Prenter had on the
singer. According to Mack, Queen's producer, Prenter loathed rock music and was in
Mercury’s ear throughout the “Hot Space” sessions. Queen toured to promote “Hot Space”,
but found some audience unreceptive to the new material. On 14th and 15th of September
1982, the band performed their last two gigs in the US with Mercury on lead vocals, playing
at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

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The band stopped touring North America after their “Hot Space Tour”, as their success there
had waned, although they would perform on American television for the only time during the
eighth-season premiere of Saturday Night Live on 2nd of September of the same year; it
became the final public performance of the band in North America before the death of
Mercury.

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.
Several members of 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, which included the
successful singles “Radio Ga Ga”, “Hammer to Fall” and “I Want to Break Free”.

In the UK The Works went triple platinum and remained in the albums chart for two years.
Queen donated to a school for the deaf and blind as a philanthropic gesture but were fined by
the British Musicians' Union and placed on the United Nations' blacklisted artists.

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 a "mesmerizing performance". Highlights from both nights were released on
VHS as “Queen: Live in Rio”, which was broadcast on MTV in the US.

At Live Aid, held at Wembley on 13 July 1985, in front of the biggest-ever TV audience of an
estimated 1.9 billion, 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 the highlight.

Queen ended 1985 by releasing 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. In mid-1986, Queen went on the Magic Tour, their final tour
with Mercury.

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 the Iron Curtain when they performed to a
crowd of 80,000 at the Népstadion 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 the live double album Queen at Wembley, released on CD and as a live
concert VHS/DVD, which went five times platinum in the US and four times platinum in the
UK. Queen could not book Wembley for a third night, but played at Knebworth Park on the
9th of August. The show sold out within two hours and over 120,000 fans packed the park for
what was Queen's final performance with Mercury.

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3. BRIAN MAY
Brian May was born on 19th of July 1947 in a nursing home at
Hampton Hill, which is near Twickenham, Middlesex. He is the only
child of Ruth Irving and Harold May. While he was on a scholarship
to Hampton Grammar School he formed his first ever band, named
1984 after Gorge Orwell’s novel of the same name. Later on he
studied Mathematics and Physics at Imperal College London, and he
graduated with BSc degree in Physics in 1968. That year he formed a
band Smile.

Smile was a group that included Tim Staffell as the lead singer and
bassist. The band lasted only for two years though, since Staffell
departed in 1970. Smile reunited for couple of songs on 22nd of
December 1992. When Roger Taylor’s band The Cross were headliners, Taylor brought Smile
to play couple of their songs. Later on, though, Taylor joined Brian’s band Smile. And then
later Queen was formed. Brian’s place in Queen was the lead guitarist; however, he was in
Queen’s three-part vocal harmonies, where he was generally the lower-range backing vocalist.
On some of the songs he wrote he was the lead vocal, most noticeable was in the first verse of
"Who Wants to Live Forever”. May frequently wrote songs for the band and has composed
many hits such as "We Will Rock You", "Tie Your Mother Down", "I Want It All", "Fat
Bottomed Girls", "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "The Show Must Go On" and many
more…

During 1983, several members of Queen explored side projects. He once recorder a mini
album called “Star Fleet Project”, which was not originally going to be released. He also
contributed to former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett’s album Feedback 86, playing guitar on
the track “Cassandra” and providing some guitar and vocals for “Slot Machine”, which he co-
wrote. May worked with actress Anita Dobson on her first album, most noted for the song
"Anyone Can Fall in Love", and he later got married to her, in 2000.

After the death of Freddie Mercury he committed himself completely to finishing his solo
album Back to the Light, in November 1991. Back to the Light featured the single "Too Much
Love Will Kill You", on which he collaborated as a songwriter with Frank Musker and
Elizabeth Lamers. A version with Freddie Mercury's vocals was later released on the Queen
album Made in Heaven and won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically
in 1996. In late 1992 Brian formed the Brian May Band. Then later in 1995 he began working
on a new solo album of covers called Heroes.

May has been performing as a solo artist, as part of an ensemble, and infrequently as Queen
with Roger Taylor. May has been referred to as a virtuoso guitarist by many publications and
musicians. Most of May's electric guitar work live and in the studio is done on the Red
Special, which he built with his father, an electronics engineer, when he was sixteen years old.

In October 2006, May re-registered for his doctorate at Imperial College, where he studied
and got his diploma, and he also submitted his thesis in August 2007.

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4. ROGER TAYLOR
Roger Taylor was born on 26th of July 1949 at West Norfolk & Lynn Hospital in King’s Lynn,
Norfolk. He is a child of Winifred Taylor and Michael and
he has a younger sister Clare. He attended Truro Cathedral
School, and at the age of 15 he became a member of
Reaction, a semi-professional rock band formed mainly of
boys from Truro School. Taylor had originally learned
guitar, but became a drummer when he realised he had a
more natural aptitude for it. In 1967, Taylor went to London
to study dentistry at the London Hospital Medical College,
but he became bored with it and changed to biology
obtaining a BSc at East London Polytechnic.

Taylor met Brian and Tim Staffell in 1968 after he saw an advertisement on a noticeboard at
Imperal College for a drummer. Taylor was first in a band with them, Smile, however in
1970 after Smile had split, Taylor also could’ve been a drummer for Genesis but he turned it
down.

In 1969, Taylor was working with Freddie Mercury at Kensington Market in London, they
were actually in the same flat. Smile was formed again when Freddie asked Taylor and May
to stay in Smile. After a while they renamed it to Queen, and in 1971 they recruited bassist
John Deacon. Taylor is the third most credited songwriter for the band, he would usually
make one or two tracks per album.

When it comes to his solo career he had a productive one since he released six albums. His
first single was "I Wanna Testify" in 1977, recorded during Queen's sessions for the News of
the World album. Taylor's first solo album, released in 1981, was “Fun in Space”, on which
he performed all vocals and played all instruments aside from about half of the keyboards,
which were contributed by engineer David Richards. With Queen still touring heavily and
recording at the time of Kensington Market, London release, Taylor was unable to promote
the album to its fullest extent, only appearing on some European TV shows to promote the
single, "Future Management", including Top of the Pops. His second solo venture, “Strange
Frontier”, came in June 1984. No attempts to promote the singles were made since Queen was
touring to promote “The Works”, with Taylor not even performing on any TV shows. In
1986, Taylor co-produced Vigilante, the sixth studio album by rock band Magnum.

After Queen had finished their 1986 Magic Tour, Taylor started a new band, the Cross. The
Cross were a side project of Taylor's that existed from 1987 to 1993 and released three
albums. While still the drummer for Queen, Taylor fronted the Cross as the rhythm guitarist
and the lead vocalist. They produced couple of albums, but the band broke up in 1993 after
performing a final show. Taylor continued working with Queen and produced solo albums.

After all of that he continued his career by performing as Queen with May. They appeared
three times on American singing contest American Idol. November 2009, Taylor appeared on
the reality TV show The X Factor with May as Queen mentoring the contestants and
performing "Bohemian Rhapsody". At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards on 6 November,
Queen received the Global Icon Award, and Taylor and May closed the awards ceremony,
with Adam Lambert on vocals, performing "The Show Must Go On", "We Will Rock You",
and "We Are the Champions".

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5. JOHN DEACON
John Deacon was born on 19th of August 1951 at St Francis Private Hospital, London Road,
Leicester, father Arthur Henry and mother Lilian Molly Deacon.
Deacon took an interest in electronics at an early age; he loved
building small devices and also modifying music. He also loved
soul music.

In 1965 he formed his first school band, Opposition, and he was

only fourteen at the time. His band went through many name
changes and eventually Deacon left the band to pursue studies in
electronics at Chelsea College in London.

He was first playing rhythm guitar, but then later he switched to bass. After a year of him
studying in London he decided he wanted to join a band again. Deacon saw Queen in October
in 1970 but he wasn’t immediately impressed by them. Later on in early 1971 he was
introduced to Taylor and May by a friend at a disco who told him that they were a band and
were in a need of a bassist. Couple of days later he auditioned and joined Queen. He was the
youngest member of the band. Deacon played his first show with Queen at the College of
Estate Management in Kensington in June.

On Queen's first album (1973) he was credited as "Deacon John", to make him "sound more
interesting". Deacon's first writing credit came on Queen's third album, “Sheer Heart Attack”
(1974). His second song – written for his wife-to-be Veronica – "You're My Best Friend" was
featured on the group's fourth album, “A Night at the Opera” (1975), and went on to be an
international hit. He wrote the hit "Another One Bites The Dust" (1980) as a dance song based
on his early love of soul. Deacon's collaboration with Mercury would culminate with the
release of the band's 1982 album “Hot Space”.

Deacon played bass on Mercury's single with Montserrat Caballe "How Can I Go On" and
also worked with Elton John and Hot Chocolate's Errol Brown. Deacon considered his
songwriting to be of equal importance to his musical skills in Queen.

After the death of Mercury, Deacon took a break from music. He said that there was no point
in carrying on because it’s impossible to replace Freddie. After playing live with Queen three
more times: at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness on 20 April 1992,
in a charity concert with Roger Taylor at Cowdray House in Midhurst on 18 September 1993,
and at the opening of the Bejart Ballet in Paris on 17 January 1997, he decided to retire from
music, re-appearing only briefly by joining his former bandmates in October 1997 for the
recording of the final Queen song "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)", included
on the Queen Rocks album released a month later.

During rehearsals for his final performance in 1997, Deacon appeared very detached and
downcast. Deacon has stayed out of the public eye since retiring. He chose not to be present at
Queen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

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6. FREDDIE MERCURY
Farrokh Bulsara (later changed to Freddie Mercury) was born in Stone Town in the British
protectorate of Zanzibar on 5th of September 1946. His parents were
Bomi and Jer Bulsara, and he had a younger sister Kashmira. Mercury
was born with four supernumerary incisors, to which he attributed his
enhanced vocal range. His family is originally from India, and he
spent most of his childhood there, and that’s where he started taking
piano lessons at the age of seven.

In 1954, when he was eight he went to study at St. Peter’s School, a

British-style boarding school for boys. When he was twelve he
formed a school band named the Hectics, and covered rock and roll
artists such as Cliff Richard and Little Richard. He also started calling
himself Freddie in that school.

He first studied art at Isleworth Polytechnic in West London, then he studied graphic art and
design at Ealing Art College, graduating in 1969. Later he used these skills to design heraldic
arms for his band Queen. After graduating he joined a series of bands. In 1969, he joined
Liverpool-based band Ibex, later renamed Wreckage. After that band had failed, he joined an
Oxford-based band, Sour Milk Sea, but that group also broke up in 1970.

In April 1970, he met Brian and Taylor and joined Smile ( Queen ) as the lead singer. He
changed his name legally to Mercury. He was inspired by the line "Mother Mercury, look
what they've done to me" from his song "My Fairy King".

Shortly before the release of Queen's self-titled first album, Mercury designed the band's logo,
known as the "Queen crest". The logo combines the zodiac signs of the four band members:
two lions for Deacon and Taylor (sign Leo), a crab for May (Cancer), and two fairies for
Mercury (Virgo).

Mercury is very famous for his amazing voice, he was naturally at baritone range, but he
delivered songs in tenor range. The Who lead singer Roger Daltrey described Mercury as “the
best virtuoso rock 'n' roll singer of all time. He could sing anything in any style.”

He wrote 10 of the 17 songs on Queen’s Greatest Hits album: "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Seven
Seas of Rhye", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy", "We
Are the Champions", "Bicycle Race", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called
Love", and "Play the Game". In 2003 Mercury was posthumously inducted into the
Songwriters Hall of Fame with the rest of Queen, and in 2005 all four band members were
awarded an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy
of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors.

He was also very famous and unique for his songwriting. The most notable aspect of his
songwriting involved the wide range of genres that he used, which included, among other
styles, rockabilly, progressive rock, heavy metal, gospel, and disco. He loved writing
musically complex material. He wrote most of the songs on the piano and he used a lot of key
signatures. He was amazing when it came to live performances as well, he dressed
theatrically, he had amazing style.

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One of Mercury's most notable performances with Queen took place at Live Aid in 1985.
Queen's performance at the event had since been voted by a group of music executives as the
greatest live performance in the history of rock music. Mercury's powerful, sustained note
during the a cappella section came to be known as "The Note Heard Round the World".

When it comes to the instruments he knew how to play, he was very talented. Aside from
piano, he also knew how to play guitar. He was amazing on piano, he could play what came
from inside him like nobody else could, with so much rhythm and passion and feeling. He
often played piano in Queen’s songs.

As well as his work with Queen, Mercury put out two solo albums and several singles.
Although his solo work was not as commercially successful as most Queen albums, the two
off-Queen albums and several of the singles debuted in the top 10 of the UK Music Charts.
Mercury's two full albums outside the band were “Mr. Bad Guy” (1985) and “Barcelona”
(1988). His first album, “Mr. Bad Guy”, debuted in the top ten of the UK Album Charts. In
particular, the album is heavily synthesizer-driven; that is not characteristic of previous Queen
albums.

His second album, Barcelona, recorded with Spanish soprano vocalist Montserrat Caballé,
combined elements of popular music and opera. The album was a commercial success. In
addition to the two solo albums, Mercury released several singles, including his own version
of the hit "The Great Pretender" by the Platters. In 1981–1983 Mercury recorded several
tracks with Michael Jackson, including a demo of "State of Shock", "Victory", and "There
Must Be More to Life Than This".

In the early 1970s Mercury had a long-term relationship with Mary Austin. In the mid-1970s
he began to have an affair with David Minns. Mercury told Austin about his sexuality which,
of course, ended their relationship. However, they remained friends. He loved her and referred
to her as his only true friend.

While some commentators claimed Mercury hid his sexual orientation from the public, others
claimed he was "openly gay". Homosexual acts between adult males over the age of 21 had
been decriminalized in the United Kingdom in 1967, seven years earlier, because of that,
during public events in the 1980s, Mercury often kept a distance from his partner, Jim Hutton.
Mercury's flamboyant stage performances sometimes led journalists to allude to his sexuality.

By 1985, he began another long-term relationship with Irish-born hairdresser Jim Hutton
(1949–2010), whom he referred to as his husband. Mercury described their relationship as one
built on solace and understanding, and said that he "honestly couldn't ask for better". Hutton
lived with Mercury for the last seven years of his live. Hutton had tested HIV-positive in
1990, and afterwards so did Mercury. He treated Mercury during his illness and was present at
his bedside when he died. Mercury was also diagnosed with AIDS in late April 1987.,
however he kept his condition private to protect those closest to him, but he did tell his
bandmates.

Mercury chose to hasten his death by refusing medication and took only painkillers. On the
22nd of November 1991, Mercury called Queen's manager Jim Beach to his Kensington home
to prepare a public statement in which he admitted to having AIDS. On the evening of the 24 th
of November 1991, about 24 hours after issuing the statement, Mercury died at the age of 45
at his home in Kensington. The cause of death was bronchial pneumonia resulting from
AIDS.

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Queen – the band that really rocked us Kristina Joković, IV-3

7. LAST TOUR

During Mercury’s final years, in 1988 his fans noticed his increasingly gaunt appearance. The
media later reported that he was really ill, with AIDS.

After working on various solo projects during 1988, 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 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 February 1990, Mercury made his final public appearance, at the Dominion Theatre. Their
fourteenth studio album, Innuendo, was released in early 1991 with "Innuendo" and other
charting singles released later in the year. The single "The Show Must Go On", released as a
forerunner to Greatest Hits II, featured archive footage of Queen's performances between
1981 and 1989, and along with the manner of its lyrics, fuelled reports that Mercury was
dying.

Mercury was increasingly ill and could barely walk when the band recorded "The Show Must
Go On" in 1990. Because of this, May had concerns about whether he was physically capable
of singing it, but May recalled that he "completely killed it".

His funeral service on 27th of November in Kensal Green, West London was private, and held
in accordance with the Zoroastrian religious faith of his family.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was re-released as a single shortly after Mercury's death, with "These
Are the Days of Our Lives" as the double A-side. The music video for the latter contains
Mercury's final scenes in front of the camera.

On 20 April 1992, The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was held at London's Wembley
Stadium to a crowd of 72,000. The concert is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as "The
largest rock star benefit concert", as it was televised to over 1.2 billion viewers worldwide,
and raised over £20,000,000 for AIDS charities.

Queen's last album with Mercury, titled Made in Heaven, was released in 1995, four years
after his death. In 1997, Queen returned to the studio to record "No-One but You (Only the
Good Die Young)", a song dedicated to Mercury and all those who die too soon.

In January 1997, Queen performed "The Show Must Go On" live with Elton John and the
Béjart Ballet in Paris on a night Mercury was remembered, and it marked the last performance
and public appearance of John Deacon, who chose to retire. Brian May and Roger Taylor
performed together at several award ceremonies and charity concerts, sharing vocals with
various guest singers.

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Queen – the band that really rocked us Kristina Joković, IV-3

8. CONCLUSION
Many of us can agree that Queen is one of the best bands of all time! Personally, I’d say they
had an amazing story, and such great potential to be so much more, but due to Mercury’s
death it wasn’t possible. They still had an amazing story (ponavljas se!!!) and amazing
journey, sadly with a sad ending.

Many people talked about Freddie’s ego, saying it was too big, but in reality it wasn’t
whatsoever, it was all a persona (?) He wasn’t necessarily the prima donna that everybody
thought he was. As a front man he was amazing, not just as a singer who had an amazing
voice, but also great in terms of showmanship and presence. He would interact with the
audience and he gave his whole heart into Queen’s performances.

Mercury was very adored by his close friends and bandmates and romantic interests. He
wasn’t only a great singer and the front man but also a good friend and bandmate.

Personally, I really love Queen and their story. It’s really heartwarming to see them rise from
such a small band once named Smile, to becoming such an iconic and famous band Queen.
Their story on how they made it and how they became as famous as they are is interesting and
unique. They all had their own stories to tell as well, but somehow Freddie’s story (again
“story”!!!) made me really drawn to Queen and drawn to write about them.

Freddie was such a unique and interesting person. He is a known rock icon, from his voice to
his style and performance and his personality and life, it’s all unique. Honestly, Freddie gave
Queen that big spark and made Queen the band it was. All four of them worked really well
together, and it’s impossible to imagine someone else forming and being in Queen.

Freddie’s story is also really interesting since he was a gay man in such a specific period of
time. He was very comfortable with himself and his sexuality and I’ve found that quite
inspiring. He wasn’t afraid to be who he is and even with all of the rules and obstacles, he still
stayed true to himself and in the end was with a man.

Also, I find it interesting how he changed his full first and last name. At first I didn’t
understand why exactly to change that about yourself, but I realized it made him feel more
comfortable in his own skin, he found his true self and just decided to show the world who
real Freddie Mercury was.

I also watched the movie about Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, named after their greatest
song. The movie just took Queen’s story and made it into reality, and it made me even more
interested in writing about them. It’s such a unique movie, the same as the band; it really
captures their ups and downs and explains how they all worked as a band and how much love
there was between all of them. I experienced their life as a band through it, and knowing so
much about them already made me love the movie even more.

In conclusion, I connected to Queen and Freddie on a big level, somehow their music and
story really makes my heart warm. Freddie’s story just made me more open minded and
acceptive and it made me fall in love with the band even more. Queen generally is a band that
will go down in history forever and will be remembered. Freddie’s death was and still is one
of the saddest and most heartbreaking things in music history, since he was so loved by so
many people and will always be remembered as the rock legend that he was.

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Queen – the band that really rocked us Kristina Joković, IV-3

LITERATURE

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_(band) Maj 2022.

2. https://shanemcdonald.ie/queen/about-queen/ Maj 2022.

3. http://www.queenpedia.com/index.php?title=Band_History Maj 2022.

4. https://history-biography.com/history-of-queen/ Maj 2022.

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Queen – the band that really rocked us Kristina Joković, IV-3

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