queen

Queen was a British rock band of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Their biggest hit was Bohemian Rhapsody, first released in 1975, and promoted by one of the earliest successful music videos.

The beginnings of Queen can be traced to 1968, when Brian May and Roger Taylor formed Smile, a psychedelic trio, at Imperial College, London, where they were both students. After their bassist lead singer's departure in spring 1970, they formed a new band - Queen - with Freddie Mercury as lead vocalist in April 1970. In 1971 John Deacon as bassist joined. Queen never actually disbanded, although their last album (not including compilations) was released in 1995, four years after Freddie Mercury's death from AIDS. The band is still active from time to time, making 'Queen+' projects with various singers.
In the 1970s Queen enforced a strict no-synthesizer policy, as evidenced by the famous "No Synthesizers were used on this Album" sleevenote included on their early LPs. The first album to feature a synthesizer was The Game, although the change in policy came about during the earlier recording of the music for the movie Flash Gordon which was released as an album after The Game.

They lost many fans with the Hot Space album, which used Funk and Dance music rather than the Glam or Hard Rock of earlier albums. Despite this, the song Under Pressure, co-written and sung together with David Bowie, was an enormous world-wide hit.

They also embarked upon many successful tours, and were one of the first bands to play in stadiums, with memorable shows held at Wembley Stadium in England, and Brazil.

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 rumors lately about a certain band called Queen... the rumors are that we're gonna split up. What do you think?" Audience: "No!". Freddie: "Forget those rumors, we're gonna stay together till we fucking well die, I'm sure!".