QUEEN HISTORY - 1968 to 1992
-----------------------------


In 1968 Brian May and Tim Staffel, both students at Imperial College,
decided they wanted to form a group. Brian placed an advertisement on
the college notice board for 'Ginger Baker type' drummer, and a young
medical student called Roger 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 in Trident
Studios that year. Tim Staffel was at ealing College of Art with
Freddie Bulsara, and introduced him to the band. Freddie soon became a
keen fan. Sadly, in 1970 'Smile' decided to 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 Briand
and Roger - it had all begun.

Freddie changed his name by deed poll to Mercury, changed the band's
name to Queen and John Deacon was asked to audition as their bass
player (they had three temporary ones so far in their short history).
In February 1971, John Deacon 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 the new equipment, they could also
make freee demo tapes. They did. No one was interested! They had
signed a recording contract and publishing and management agreements
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 there was a minor printing error
on the sleeve that Queen insisted on having corrected! The band
embarked on their first headlining tour of Britain, starting in
Blackpool in March 1974. In April 1974 the band embarked on their
first ever USA 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
studios to record his guitar parts, although he was still 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 certainly a
force to be reckoned with!

In January 1975 Queen left for the USA on their very 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 a Music Business 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 of '75
saw Queen set to pay their first ever visit to Japan.

When they arrived at the airport there were over three thousand fans
there to greet them, as Sheer Heart Attack was Number One in Japan at
the time. It was a scene reminiscent of Beatlemania in the Sixties,
and the band were quite surprised at their 'pop star' welcome! 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 band's great
relief, severed in August, an 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 and 55 seconds. But Freddie gave
a copy of the single to friend and London DJ Kenny Everett, informing
him that 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, and not edited versions
as was at first thought. It was a colossa 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 considered to
be the one that began the whole video craze - they just didn't know
what they were starting. The single stayed at Number One for an
amazing NINE weeks !

The album was, at the time, one of the most expensive ever recorded,
but when "A NIGHT AT THE OPERA" was released in November 1975, it was
a massive hit, and gave them their first platinum album. Freddie had
designed a Queen logo for the "Queen" album, which was re-worked and
used as the cover for "Night At The Opera". The now famous "Crest"
features the band's star signs; two Fairies for Virgo, a crab for
Cancer and two lions for the two Leos. The launch party for the album
was held in the exclusive Opera Bar at the London Colosseum Theatre.

In January 1976, Freddie was presented with another Ivor Novello
Award, for Bohemian Rhapsody. Also in January the band set off on
their third American tour, which took them all over America and
continued until the end of March. They then flew directly to Japan,
arriving yet again to a riotous reception. By this time all four Queen
albums were in the UK Top Twenty, which was an unheard of feat. They
undertook an extensive tour of Japan, and then flew into Australia.
Their tour 'down under' began at the Perth Entertainment Centre.

They flew back into the UK to begin work on their next album, 'A Day
At The Races'. But recording was halted while the band took off on a
short UK tour. On September 18th, 1976 Queen decided they wanted to
say thanks to their dedicated fans, and so in true extravagant style
they staged a huge, free concert in London's Hyde Park. The crowds
were estimated at between 150 and 200 thousand people, the largest
audience Queen had played toup to that time - and to date still
highest ever attendance record for a concert in Hyde Park.

It was September and the band were hard at work on their new album. "A
DAY AT THE RACES" was released in December 1976. The band all attended
a special horse race at Kempton Park to promote the album, and in the
'Day At The Races Stakes', a special race sponsored by EMI, they all
backed the same horse, without telling each other, and it won ! Five
days before it's release, the advance orders for 'A Day At The Races'
were in excess on half a million, the highest orders EMI had ever
received for any album.

1977 had only been around for four days before Queen jetted off to
America to rehearse for their forthcoming tour. They were on the road
constantly through January, February and most of March, in the USA and
Canada. Roger decided, at the end of all that, ro record a solo
single, which he paid for out on his own pocket. "I Wanna Testify" was
released in August. In May of 1977, Queen flew out to Stockholm to
begin an extensive European tour. Their concert at Earls Court in
London featured the famous 'Crown' lighting rig. It was 54ft wide,
26ft tall and weighed in at 5,000 pounds. It cost the band 50.000.

In October 1977, the fan club members were asked, for the fist time,
to take part in one of the band's videos. "We Are The Champions" was
filmed at the New London Theatre. After initial filming was finished,
the band remained on stage and played an impromptu gig, to say thanks
to the fans who had turned up and worked so hard ! October '77 also
saw the band presented with a Brittania Award for the Top British
Single, Bohemian Rhapsody, of course !

Queen released "NEWS OF THE WORLD" on October 28th 1977. The cover was
a drawing that Roger had discovered, by Science Fiction artist Kelly
Freas. Roger asked him if he would mind adapting his illustration for
the album cover, and Freas readily agreed.

In November they were off to the USA again for rehearsals for the
forthcoming tour. For the first time, their finances enabled them to
charter a private plane for the tour - it made life on the road that
much more comfortable. The tour began on 11th November, their second
USA tour this year. They all arrived back in the UK just in time to
spend Christmas with their families. That Christmas, "We Will Rock
You" was knocked off the French Number one slot after 12 weeks... by
"We Are The Champions".

In February 1978, Queen decided they should set up their own
management structure. They parted company with John Reid - more
amicably than their split with Trident; this severance agreement was
actually signed in the back of Freddie's Rolls Royce, during a break
in the filming of 'We Will Rock You' in the back garden of Roger's
house in Surrey! A short (by Queen standards!) tour of Europe began in
April 1978 - again in Stockholm,. In July the band started work on
their new album. They recorded it in Montreux and France, the first
time they had ever recorded outside of Great Britain.

As publicity for the forthcoming single "Bicycle Race", the band hired
Wimbledon Stadium, and fifty naked girls had their own bicycle race.
The original cover of the single featured the rear view of one on
those naked girls, but due to public outcry in some countries,
'panties' had to be drawn on! More touring in the USA and Canada began
in October. November 10th saw the release of 'JAZZ', the band's
seventh album. The sleeve was packaged to contain a fold out poster of
the naked bicycle race. The Americans banned it from the actual album
sleeve, and inserted instead an application form, so fans could send
away for their poster. The launch party for 'Jazz' was held in New
Orleans, and has since gone down in history.

The band hosted the party themselves in order to invite both EMI,
their European Record company, and Elektra, their USA representatives.
It was the first time that both companies' executives had met, and
they both ensured that ALL of their directors attended, each to try
and outnumber the other! The party was a completely over the top
affair, featuring mud wrestlers, midgets, topless waitresses and a
host of other weird and wonderfuls characters.

The North American tour finished in late December, and the band flew
back to the UK for Christmas. But they didn't get too much time to
rest, as by January 1979 they were off to Europe yet again. The tour
kicked off in Hamburg. By March they were ensconced in Mountain
Studios in Montreux, working on their 'live album. The band enjoyed
the peace of Montreux, and liked the studio there, so they decided to
buy it (the studio, not the town!). When Freddie was asked by resident
engineer David Richards WHY they had bought it, and what they intended
to do with it, Freddie quipped 'Dump it in the lake dear'!!

The band flew out to Japan for yet MORE touring in April 1979. In June
they approached the All England Lawn Tennis Club and asked if they
could use the Centre Court at Wimbledon (after the tournament of
course) for a concert. Permission was refused. The band's first live
album (and their only double album to date), "LIVE KILLERS", was
released in June 1979. It was an album released by very popular
demand. Queen were approached to write the musical score for science
fiction feature film 'Flash Gordon'. When the idea was first discussed
with producer Dino de Laurentiis, he simply asked 'but who are the
Queens?'!! The band agreed to work on the score, and began work during
June, in Munich.

The end of 1979 found Queen embarking on 'The Crazy Tour'. It included
such illustrious venues as Tiffany's in Purley, the Lewisham Odeon,
Alexandra Palace and finally, the Hammersmith Odeon. They were one of
many bands who performed at the venue to raise money for the starving
people of Kampuchea. During that Crazy Tour the band's tour manager,
Gerry Stickells, collapsed backstage and had to be rushed to hospital.
Gerry had been with Queen on every tour since 1976 (and has done every
one since...)

At the start of 1980 the band were working hard on their new album,
"The Game", it was the first album to use the electronic wizardry of
synthesizers. In June they were off to tour North America again! Roger
also started work on his first solo album in 1980. "THE GAME" was
released in June on this year, and it went FIVE times platinum in
Canada alone! 'Another one Bites The Dust' became the band's biggest
ever, worldwide selling single to date. It became a huge 'crossover'
hit in the  USA, topping the charts in rock, soul and disco. The band
received a 'Dick Clarke' award as best band, a top Billboard award for
'Top Crossover single' and were nominated for various other awards
including Grammy's and Canadian 'Juno' awards.

On December 8th 1980, the soundtrack album for "FLASH GORDON" was
released. At the end of 1980 Queen had sold over 45,000,000 albums
worldwide. In February 1981, after another Far East tour, the band
flew into Rio de Janeiro for the start of their first tour of South
America. Queen were the first rock band to undertake a stadium tour of
South America, paving the way for many more bands to follow. The
band's equipment had to be flown in a privately hired 'Flying Tiger'
747 cargo plane from Tokyo; the flight between Tokyo and Buenos Aires
is the longest air route between capital cities in the world.

Their first South American gig was Buenos Aires, on February 28th
1981. They then filled three more Argentinean World Cup soccer
stadiums, playing 5 sold out stadium gigs in just 8 days. They then
played two nights at the massive Morumbi Stadium in Sao Paulo. On the
first night 131,000 people attended, and Queen created rock and roll
history, as it was the largest paying audience for a single band
anywhere in the World. During those two nights at the Morumbi Stadium,
251,000 people saw the Queen spectacle - that's a bigger audience than
most bands can expect in their whole career!! Every single one of
Queen's albums was in the Top Ten in Argentina during their tour - a
first for any band. Whilst they were in Sao Paulo, the band celebrated
the fact that the single 'Love Of My Life' had been in the Sao Paulo
singles chart for over 12 consecutive months. In April 1981 Roger
release his first solo album, titled 'FUN IN SPACE'. Queen were back
in South America, it was a return trip, being hailed as 'The Gluttons
For Punishment Tour'!. Unfortunately their last two Venezuelan gigs,
in Caracas, had to be cancelled as the ex-president of the Country had
died. So the band moved on to play in Mexico, in Monterrey and Puebla,
just outside Mexico City. Whilst there the band's promoter, Jose Rota,
was arrested and jailed - Jim Beach had to pay over $25,000 bail money
to release him so the tour could continue!

Greatest Hits, Greatest Flix and Greatest Pix were released
simultaneously in October 1981. Greatest Hits, the album, entered the
charts as soon as it was released, and has rarely been out of the
British charts since! Greatest Flix, the video, was the first real
collection of promo videos released commercially by any band. Greatest
Pix, the book, was compiled by Jacques Lowe, who was President
Kennedy's personal photographer during his term of office. It was
Jacques personal selection of the greatest Queen pictures of the
previous decade.

The band's twelfth album, "HOT SPACE", was release on May 21st 1982,
whilst the band were in the middle on an extensive European tour. On
June 5 th of that year, they played the huge, open air Milton Keynes
Bowl. The whole show was filmed by Tyne Tee's television, under the
direction fo Gavin Taylor, to be shown on Channel Four's 'Tube'
programme at a later date. In September 1982 the Japanese company
Mercury Records (nothing to do with Freddie!) released an album called
'Gettin Smile'. It was, at first, thought to be a bootleg, but after
listening to the album, Roger and Brian declared it to be the REAL
Smile, although neither of them recalled having recorded so much with
that band! In December 1982, Queen made it into the Guiness Book Of
Records as Britain's highest paid executives.

In January 1983, Freddie began work on a solo album and Roger began
work on his second solo album. During the early part of the year Brian
had flown out to Loas Angeles, and gathered together a few close
friends in the Record Plant studios there. Brian had some basic ideas
to work on, but it was generally a lengthy jam session. But Brian had
no intention of wasting the talents of Edward Van Halen, Alan Gratzer,
Phil Chen and Fred Mandel - and so kept the tapes rolling throughout
the whole session. The result was the mini album 'STAR FLEET PROJECT',
which was released in October 1983.

The band went back into the studios in August of 1983, to start work
on their next album. Work commenced at the Record Plant in LA, the
first time the band had recorded in America. After a number of months,
recording switched from LA to Munich, a city that the band spent so
much time in during that recording session that they almost thought of
it as home!

In February 1984 the band released their thirteenth album - "THE
WORKS". 'Radio Ga Ga', taken from that album, became a worldwide hit,
reaching number One in 19 different countries. The video for the
single, directed by David Mallett, featured fan clum members again.
The handclapping chorus became a favourite with live audiences all
over the world. Another single from 'The Works' was 'I Want To Break
Free', and that had an even more outrageous video, also featuring
members of the fan club. It featured the band dressed as the
characters of a popular British television soap opera, 'Coronation
Street'. When asked 'Why?', Roger said he had become bored with
serious, epic videos and thought it was about time they had some fun,
and proved they could still laugh at themselves. MTV in America
refused to show the video.

In June1984, Roger released his second solo album, 'STRANGE FRONTIER'.
Also in June, a company called Guild Guitars launched a sspecial copy
of Brian's home made Red Special guitar. It was called the BHM1, and
Brian had been closely involved in all the aspects of it's production.
Sadly, about a year later Brian and Guild had some discussions about
the design of the instrument, which resulted in Guild ceasing
production.

In August Queen flew out to Belgium to start 'The Works' tour in that
country. October saw them in Bophuthatswana, South Africa, and a
series of gigs at the famous 'Sun City Superbowl'. The gigs themselves
were fraught with problems, as Freddie had serious voice complications
resulting in cancellations. But the problems were mild compared to
what the band returned to. Their visit caused much public outcry,
although the band defended their actions, saying they were a
non-political band, and that they had gone out to play music for the
people, and no other reason.

Queen's first ever full length video was released in September 1984,
'We Will Rock You' was filmed during the band's 1981 Montreal
concerts. During September, Queen had no fewer than NINE albums in the
UK Top 200.

1985 was the year of 'Rock In Rio'. It was billed as the biggest rock
festival to be held anywhere in the World, and Queen were headlining
the event. (Remember that bit about 'not being a support act for
long...?) The whole festival was recorded for broadcast throughout
South America, but Queen were the only band able to obtain the rights
to release their performance on video - 'Live In Rio' was released in
May 1985.

The band performed their first ever concert in New Zealand on April
13th 1985, in Auckland. The band were met outside their hotel on
arrival by a group of chanting anti-apartheid demonstrators. Tony
Hadley, singer with British band 'Spandau Ballet' flew over from
Australia, where his band were on tour, to see the Queen show, and was
honoured to be asked to join Queen on stage for their encore.

Freddie's first solo album, 'MR BAD GUY', was released on April 29th,
whilst the band were on tour in Australia. The gig in Melbourne had to
be played with no lighting rig at all, as the whole computer system
that controlled the lights had broken down. After an Australian tour
peppered with problems, not least being the incessant rain, the band
flew across to Japan. Their concert at the Tokyo Olympic swimming pool
was filmed by N.H.K. to be shown on network Japanese television.

July 13th 1985 was a day that went down in history, as the Live Aid
Global Jukebox took the World by storm from London's vast Wembley
Stadium and from Philadelphia in the USA. Queen were just one of a
multitude of top bands who all performed a short, 20 minute set. The
World was watching, and Queen were unanimously voted, by press and
public alike, as the band that stole the show. That event was a
turning point for Queen.

They had decided some time previously to take a break from each other,
but that day brought them together with renewed vigour and enthusiasm.
'One Vision' was the first release to come from that new inspiration.

Queen were approached by Russel Mulcahy to record the soundtrack to
his first feature film, a fantasy take about an immortal Scotsman,
called 'Highlander'. In an interview, Mulcahy stated that Queen had
been the first band he had thought of for the score.

In March 1986, John formed a new band, called The Immortals, to write
and record some of the music for a forthcoming film called Biggles.
They recorded just one track - 'No Turning Back' and the band folded.
On June 2nd, Queen release their fourteenth album, the soundtrack to
Highlander, titled "A KIND OF MAGIC". The album entered the  UK chart
at Number One, and remained in the top five for thirteen consecutive
weeks.

On June 7th the Queen machine was in action again, as the band
embarked on their 'Magic Tour of Europe'. The first UK gig was
newcastle's St James Park football stadium The band, and promoter
Harvey Goldsmith, donated  ALL the proceeds from that concert to the
International Save The Children Fund. On July 11th the 'Queen Tornado'
as Freddie had dubbed it, hit London and two sold out shows at the
vast Wembley Stadium. During the set four enormous inflatables,
modelled on the characters from the Kind Of Magic album, were released
from amongst the audience into the night. The following nights show
was filmed by Tyne Tees television, again directed by Gavin Taylor, to
be shown on TV at a later date.

When that concert was finally shown on television, it became the first
ever simulcast between Channel Four and the Independent Radio network
in Britain. This feat has never since been repeated, possibly because
in order to achieve this, a satellite dish had to be delivered to
every single independent radio station in the UK , so that they could
receive the sound by satelliste, whilst receiving the pictures by the
norman land lines.

On 27th July, Queen made history again (something of a habit with this
band!) when they played the beautiful Nepstadion in Budapest, Hungary.
It was the first time a major rock band had played a stadium date in
the Easter n Bloc, and it was completely sold out well in advance. The
concert was filmed by the Hungarian State Film Agency, MAFILM, in
connection with Queen Films; they had to commandeer every 35mm camera
in Hungary to film it!

On August 9th the band flew into Knebworth Park, Hertfordshire, in a
specially repainted helicopter featuring the characters from the Kind
Of Magic album cover. It was the final date on the Magic Tour, and the
biggest audience so far, estimated at well over 120 thousand people.
It caused one of the biggest traffic jams in history as everyone tried
to arrive in plenty of time! Over ONE MILLION people saw Queen on that
European Magic Tour, in exces of 400 thousands in the UK alone.

In November 1986, EMI records relleased the entire Queen catalogue of
albums on the Compact Disc format, the first time any band's complete
collection had been made available simultaneously. In December Queen's
fifteenth album, and their second live album was release. Titled "LIVE
MAGIC" it entered the British chart at Number three. On 13th December,
the band's film 'Live In Budapest' opened in Budapest at 9am - and
proceeded to play to NINE sold out houses in that one day. Seven
completely full screenings were show each day for a week.

During 1986, in the UK alone, Queen sold a staggering 1,774,991
albums. On February 3rd, Freddie released a cover version of the great
old Platters song 'The Great Pretender'. In the video to accompany the
song Freddie recreated many scenes from his own and Queen videos, and
actor Peter Straker, Roger Taylor and Freddie all donned wigs, made up
their faces an 'became' the female backing singers! It was an
expensive video.

One of Freddie's all time heroines was opera Diva Montserrat Caballe,
and in March 1986 he met her in her home City of Barcelona. An
astonishing partnership was forged when Montserrat agreed to record an
album with Freddie. He penned a song about Barcelona for her, and the
two began to write and record that album. Freddie and Montserrat
appeared on stage together for the first time in May 1987, at the
'Ibiza 92' festival, held at the famous Ku Club on the holiday island.
They performed 'Barcelona'.

In August 1987, Roger advertised for, auditioned and chose musicans to
form a new band, 'The Cross'. He wanted a band he could write with
and, more importantly, tour with during Queen's increasingly lengthy
'quiet' periods.

The single 'Barcelona' was released in Spain in September 1987, and
10'000 copies were sold in just three hours. The Spanish Olympic
Committee adopted the song as the theme for the Olympic Games, being
held in the city in 1992, then decided against it, which caused much
anger amongst the fans.

Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher are an Austrian director/producer
team who followed Queen all over Europe during the Magic Tour, filming
them on stage, back stage, resting, playing and generally 'touring'.
They then searched the archives for footage of live shows, interviews
or outtakes from videos. After that they interviewed the band, their
friends, their fans and other 'stars'. Finally, in November 1987, a
trilogy of documentary style videos was released, called "THE MAGIC
YEARS". The trilogy received numerous awards, including the famous
Silver Screen award in the USA (the biggest film and  TV festival in
the Wolrd) and the IMMC award at the Montreux Golden Rose TV festival.
Also during 1987, Queen were presented with the prestigious 'Ivor
Novello' award for their 'Oustanding Contribution to British Music'.

In January 1988 Queen went into the studios to start work on their
next album. On January 25th, The Cross released their debut album,
called "SHOVE IT". The Cross also embarked on their first European
tour, playing club and University dates throughout the UK, then clubs
in Germany.

Freddie and Montserrat appeared together again on October 8th, at the
huge 'La Nit' event staged in Barcelona, which was held to celebrate
the arrival of the Olympic Flag from Seoul. Freddie and Montserrat
closed the event, held in the presence of the King and Queen of Spain,
with Barcelona, The Golden Boy and How Can I Go On, tracks taken from
their forthcoming album.

"BARCELONA", the duest album from Freddie and Montserrat, was released
on October 10th 1988. The launch party was a typically extravagant
affair held in the Crush Bar of the beautiful Covent Garden Opera
House, a fitting venue!

On December 4th The Cross played a one off
gig at London's Hammersmith Palais, at a party held exclusively for
fan club members. Special guests on stage were Brian and John.

Queen released their sixteenth album on May 22nd 1989, titled "THE
MIRACLE". It entered the UK chart at Number One and went on to become
a massive worldwide success, reaching number one in most European
countries. To promote the release, the four members of the band
gathered in a Radio One studio and allowed themselves to be
interviewed by DJ Mike Reid - ascoop for him as the band had not given
a joint interwiew in many years.

As it was the end of a decade, there were numerous 'Best of the
Eighties' style programmes on television, especially in the UK, and
Queen were voted for, by the viewers of Independent Television and
readers of it's magazine TV Times, as the 'Best Band Of The Eighties';
it was an accolade they were immensely pleased by, and they all
appeared together on the show to collect it.

In late November 1989, Queen was already back in studios working on
their NEXT album, they had felt so inspired by the huge success of The
Miracle.

On February 18th 1990, Queen were honoured yet again when they were
recognised by the British Phonographic Industry (at last) and
presented with an award for their 'Outstanding Contribution to British
Music'. They all collected the award, and went on to host a huge,
starstudded party at London's Groucho Club.

The Cross released their second album on March 26th, called "MAD, BAD
AND DANGEROUS TO KNOW", atitled taken from a quote used to describe
the eccentric Lord Byron! The Cross also undertook a short German
tour.

Brian, meanwhile, wrote and produced the haunting music for a version
of Shakespeare's Macbeth, performed at London's Riverside Theatre.

In November 1990, Queen signed a major new recording deal in North
America with the Disney financed 'Hollywood Records'. Hollywood
immediately began the task of pushing Queen back up the popularity
ladder, and plans were laid to remaster and re-release the entire back
catalogue on CD; so far, the collection had not been available on CD
in North America.

On December 7th, The Cross played their only UK date for some time, at
London's Astoria Theatre, at yet another Queen Fan Club party. Brian
joined them on stage for the encore.

On January 14th 1991, the band released the six and a half minute long
epic "INNUENDO" as a single. It was a massive success, giving the band
their third UK number one single, and unsuring them the Number One
slot throughout Europe. The album of the same name was released on
February 4th, and crashed straight into the UK chart at number One,
hitting the high spot, again, throughout Europe - and it even charted
thirty in America.

In March 1991, The Cross went into studios to start work on their
third album and Brian flew out to Montreux in July to continue work on
his long (long) awaited solo album. The Cross album was completed in
July, and release was scheduled for early September for a great third
album, entitled "BLUE ROCK". Queen went into the studios in London to
begin work on their next album in late April. The album was only ever
released in Germany, on Electrola Records.

On May 30th 1991 Freddie filmed what was to become his final video for
Queen with the haunting 'Days Of Our Lives'. A version featuring
Disney animation was made for USA.

Brian organised the Rock section of the Seville 'Guitar Legends'
festival, and amongst those chosen by Brian to perform their music
were Nuno Bettencourt, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Joe Walsh, to name
but a few. The concerts were performed live in October on the site of
the Seville Expo 92 exhibition.

Greatest Hits Two was released in October 1991, a double album
featuring 17 tracks. They also repeated their earlier success by
releasing Greatest Flix II and Greatest Pix II, this time compiled by
Richard Gray. A special box was also released called Box of Flix,
featuring Flix One and Two plus four bonus tracks. Needless to say
both Hits II and Flix II were number one!

On November 23rd, Freddie announced to the World that he had AIDS.
Just the next day, his fight was over, and he died peacefully at his
home, surrounded by friends and family. The World was in shock.
Freddie had kept his illness very private, and only those closest to
him had been aware of just how close to the end he really was. Fans
from all over the World sent flowers and cards an many even travelled
to London to be at Freddie's house. A quiet family cremation service
was held three days after his death, conducted in the Zoroastrian
faith that Freddie's parents followed so strictly.

In April, Brian had been commisioned by a London advertising agency to
write a piece of music for an advertising campaign for FORD cars. The
resulting track "Driven By You", was so good (and proved so popular)
that Brian released it as his first solo single on November 25th. It
made the top ten in the UK charts.

As a tribute to Freddie, and to raise funds for the Terence Higgins
Trust to continue the fight against AIDS, as Freddie's last wishes
requested, Bohemian Rhapsody/These Are The Days Of Our Lives was
released as a double A sided single. It entered the UK chart at number
one, where it remained for five weeks, raising over one MILLION pounds
for the AIDS charity.

In December 1991, Queen had no fewer than 10 albums in the UK top 100.

In February 1992, the annual BRIT awards recognised Freddie with a
special posthumous award for 'Outstanding Contribution To British
Music' and, out of three Queen nominations, 'Days Of Our Lives' won
the 'Best Single of 1991' award. At that awards ceremony, Roger and
Brian announced plans for a massive, open air concert at London's
Wembley Stadium to celebrate Freddie's live and give him a send off to
remember.

The tickets went on sale the next day, with no announcement of who was
going to play apart from Brian, Roger and John, and all 72,000 tickets
sold out in just  SIX hours.

On Easter Monday, April 20tth 1992, many of the Worlds top stars
joined Roger, John and Brian on stage at Wembley Stadium to pay an
emotional tribute to Freddie. The stadium was packed to capacity, and
it was televised live to over one billion people.

In April 1992 Queen were awarded an Ivor Novello award for Best Single
with 'Days Of Our Lives', and Brian also won an award for 'Driven By
You' for Best TV Commercial Music.

September 1992 saw the release of the long awaited Brian May solo
album, called 'Back To The Light' - and Brian planning a serie of solo
concerts throughout Europe in the summer of 1993.

Prior to Christmas 1992 a double video of the Freddie Tribute Concert
was released, with all proceeds being donated to the Mercury Phoenix
Trust, a charity set up specifically to deal with the proceeds from
the concert and any subsequent spin-offs. The money raised was to be
used to help those with HIV and AIDS.

Plans are afoot for a third Roger Taylor solo album, and a final Queen
album, using tracks that Freddie had begun way back in April 1991. EMI
and Hollywood Records both have mny future plans for Queen products,
including boxed sets and videos. So, for the foreseeable future at
least, Queen are still very much in evidence.

to be continued...

For the QUEEN story in full, see the books below:

TITLE       As it Began
AUTHOR(S)   Jacky Gunn/Jim Jenkins
PUBLISHER   Sidgewick and Jackson
ISBN        0 330 33259 7



TITLE        Queen & I
AUTHOR       Laura Jackson
PUBLISHER    Smith Gryphon
ISBN         1 85685 062 5



TITLE        Mercury & Me
AUTHOR       Jim Hutton
PUBLISHER    Bloomsbury Publishing plc
ISBN         0 7475 1922 6


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Typing credits:
-----------------------------
Brian Trubshaw  - UK
Sophie Crittin  - Switzerland


As you can see, this history file is by no means 'up to date'.
If you would like to continue from where this version leaves off, then
please send your contribution on a disc (as an Edit file ONLY) to the QFN
address - see HELP file for details.

All contributors to this file (or indeed ANY 'QFN' file) will receive an
update of this appliacation, plus another application of their choice.
Please inform 'QFN' which 'other' application you would like when submitting
anything. Today is 1/2/95.

Don't lose Your Head!

Dave Parr
****************************************************************************


