HISTORY OF QUEEN (PART 1)

Queen formed in 1971 and in 1973 signed their first recording contract forEMI. That year they released their first album,QUEEN. The same year saw their first major UK tour, and in 1974 they releasedQUEENII as well as making their first UK headlining tour. They made their first US tour, and in November releasedSHEERHEARTATTACKwhich was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.


1975 saw their new release, ANIGHTATTHEOPERA, and – significantly – the single Bohemian Rhapsody. At 5’ 55” it should have been too long for successful radio play but it became one of the greatest singles of all time, staying at No. 1 in the UK chart for nine weeks. The video, directed by Bruce Gowers, is credited with being the first genuine promotional video. The song has regularly featured in all major pop polls and was recently named again as the best single of all time. The success of ANIGHTATTHEOPERAwas equally stunning, giving the band their first platinum album.


In 1976 they toured the US and Japan and by spring all four albums resided in the UK Top Twenty. Later that year they released ADAYATTHERACES, and gave a free concert in Hyde Park to an estimated crowd of 200,000 fans. The album was a huge success, advance orders aloneamounting to over 500,000. The following year saw two major US tours, the band’s sixth album,NEWSOFTHEWORLDand the legendary double A side single, WEWILLROCKYOUand WEARETHECHAMPIONS.


1978’sJAZZ, included another huge hit single in Bicycle Race and Queen toured the US and Canada. They spent much of 1979 touring in Europeand Japan, as well as releasing their first live album,LIVEKILLERS. They were also approached to write the score for a forthcoming feature film,FLASHGORDON. Before that they releasedTHEGAMEin 1980 which went five times platinum in Canada alone! Another One Bites The Dust became the band’s biggest selling American single. Later that year the soundtrack forFLASHGORDONwas released and by the end of the year Queen had sold over 45,000,000 albums worldwide.


In 1981 they toured the Far East and were the first band to make a stadium tour of South America. They played to 131,000 people in Sao Paolo, the largest paying audience for any band anywhere in the world.GREATESTHITS,GREATESTFLIXandGREATESTPIXwere released simultaneously later in the year and Greatest Hits has rarely been out of the UK album charts since. Greatest Flixwas the first collection of promo-videos released commercially by any band. Next year saw the release of the band’s twelfth album,HOTSPACEwhilst they were in the middle of a European tour.