Queen (band)

Queen is a British rock band which came to popularity during the mid-1970s, and have amassed an enormous worldwide fanbase that continues to exist to this day. They have sold an estimated 190 million records around the world and, in their home country of Britain, remain second only to The Beatles in terms of sales and collectability (though in 2005, they actually exceeded the number of weeks spent on the British chart by The Beatles).

Queen Live

Queen's live performances were truly ground-breaking, employing massive lighting rigs, pyrotechnics, and other special effects to make their shows into engaging theatrical events. Along with their contemporaries KISS, they changed live concerts forever from the staid, stodgy events that had prevailed since the time of the Beatles, where performers would merely stand around and play their instruments. The energy with which they performed, the excitement, enthusiasm and pure adrenaline Freddie Mercury brought with his vocal performance, was so natural and so genuine that the audience almost always joined in and sang. Mercury immersed himself in the crowd's adulation and thrived off their excitement, a trait for which many, including Kurt Cobain (in his suicide note), have expressed admiration. Beginning with "News Of The World" in 1977, Queen began to write songs with the specific purpose of involving the crowd, like "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions," and tailored some songs, like "Radio GaGa" to involve claps. This resulted in a stunning moment at Live Aid at which almost 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium clapped their hands over their head in unison to "Radio Ga Ga."

Related Topics:
Pyrotechnics - Special effect - KISS - Kurt Cobain

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Queen embarked upon many popular tours, with memorable shows (including the historic Live Aid concert) held at Wembley Stadium in England, and at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil, although only the group's final tour, in support of the album "A Kind of Magic", ever actually made any money.

Related Topics:
Live Aid - Wembley Stadium - Rock in Rio - Brazil

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The Wembley concert, part of a UK tour in 1986, attracted 150,000 people over two nights. A memorable and prophetic moment occurred when Freddie Mercury told the audience: "There's been a lot of rumours lately about a certain band called Queen... the rumours are that we're gonna split up. What do you think?" Audience: "No!" Freddie: "Forget those rumours, we're gonna stay together 'till we fucking well die, I'm sure!".

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At the Knebworth concert held with some 150,000 in attendance on August 9th that same year, Freddie makes the following statement:

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"...and earlier on, there were rumours of us splitting up, but I mean, fuck 'em! I mean, really, look at this! (cheers). I mean, how can you split up when you have an audience like this, I mean, really! We're not that stupid!"

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Ironically, the band were to hardly meet for another 3 years, during which time Freddie Mercury did some solo work and Roger Taylor did some work with The Cross.

Related Topics:
Freddie Mercury - Roger Taylor

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According to Jim Hutton's book, Mercury and Me, Freddie Mercury was diagnosed HIV positive the following year (1987). Jim Hutton was Mercury's final partner, together from the mid-80s until his death. Hutton now lives quietly in Ireland.

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