Queen's jubilee is a real royal celebration

David Smyth
25 Feb 2011

Never mind the Royal Wedding - 2011 is a jubilee year for Queen. In November it will be 20 years since Freddie Mercury died but torch bearers Brian May and Roger Taylor are in a much more celebratory mood, concentrating instead on March 1 as the 40th anniversary of bassist John Deacon passing his audition and completing the line-up of what would become one of Britain's most successful bands.

The statistics are staggering, most notably the status of their 1981 Greatest Hits as the biggest-selling album ever in the UK, at around 5.5 million copies. A touring exhibition, opening in London today, looks at the years before Mercury stole the show at Live Aid and May's became the most famous shaggy barnet since Charles II's.

The story of the band's first five albums is told through recordings, videos and Mick Rock's photographs, as well as artefacts that gain far greater significance given all that has happened since. On the facing page, right, are a few of the key exhibits, kicking off a year of Queenliness that should send us all Radio Ga Ga by December.

Queen: Stormtroopers in Stilettos runs from today until March 12, 11am-9pm, at The Old Truman Brewery, E1; admission free.

Best in Show

DANCING QUEEN
In 1979, Mercury was enlisted by the Royal Ballet at a charity gala at the Coliseum Theatre. Not many other pop stars could have pulled it off. He sang Bohemian Rhapsody and Crazy Little Thing Called Love while being carried around and held upside down by the dancers. Beside the case at the Old Truman Brewery containing Mercury's ballet shoes, the story of an encounter between the Sex Pistols and Queen is told. "Ullo, Fred, I see you've brought ballet to the masses then," said Sid Vicious. "Oh yes, Mr Ferocious, trying my best, dear," Freddie replied.

WHERE'S THE BOTTOM?
Mercury's unique sawn-off mic stand, was there from the very beginning of Queen. The story goes that it was at a gig in Widnes by his previous band, Wreckage, that he accidentally made the discovery - simply by picking up the stand and not bothering to fix it when the bottom fell off. As he later said: "It's my gimmick, dear. You must have a gimmick." It became as much a part of the iconography as the moustache.

GUITAR ON FIRE
The exhibition features a replica of May's signature guitar in the early stages of its manufacture - the Red Special, propped beside a fire in a recreation of the guitarist's lounge. It's positioned there because that's partly what it's made from: the neck was cut from a salvaged mahogany fireplace. May and his father built the guitar over a period of 18 months from 1963, also using his mum's mother-of-pearl buttons as fret markers and part of her knitting needle as the cap of a tremelo arm made from a bike saddle. It's this one-of-a-kind instrument that makes May's solos recognisable immediately.

BATMAN
Well before she would create dresses for Princess Diana, in 1974 Zandra Rhodes became the first professional designer to make stage outfits for Mercury. With significant input from the singer himself, she created a series of Greek-style tunics. As she describes them in an accompanying video, they had "wonderful fan pleating, so he could lift his wings". Based in her shop on Fulham Road, Rhodes had previously made stage outfits for T Rex. "Freddie fits in with glam rock and definitely not punk," she says of his flamboyant style.

THE SHOW STOPPER
The first pressing of Queen's most enduring song, Bohemian Rhapsody, is on display. This little piece of vinyl contains a world of music - piano balladry, heavy metal and, of course, opera. A chorus of voices in the industry decreed that the band were wrong to insist it should be the first single from A Night at the Opera. At six minutes it was way too long, never mind the outlandish content. But a copy sneaked to DJ Kenny Everett, then at Capital Radio, proved the doubters wrong - he played it 14 times in one show. Demand has increased exponentially ever since and it has been number one twice, in 1975 and 1991.

Royal celebrations QUEEN'S 40TH YEAR

Queen's albums are being reissued in groups of five by Island Records on March 14, June 13 and September 5, each with a bonus CD of extra recordings. There will also be three Deep Cuts albums, compilations of less familiar tracks to complement the Greatest Hits. Highlights of the first Deep Cuts compilation album include Roger Taylor's weighty composition, I'm in Love With My Car, which he even sings and was so proud of that he supposedly locked himself into a cupboard until his band members agreed to put it on the B-side to Bohemian Rhapsody. Another unmissable rarity on it is You're my Best Friend, a folky acoustic number with a sci-fi theme, sung by May. George Michael reprised the tune at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium in 1992.
 
This year filming begins on a biopic of Freddie Mercury with Sacha Baron Cohen, left, donning the dentures. It's written by Peter Morgan, who hopefully won't confuse it with his previous film The Queen, and will tell Queen's story up to the Live Aid performance.

A two-part BBC2 documentary airs in June featuring new interviews with Brian May and Roger Taylor.

Q and Mojo writer Mark Blake's book Is This the Real Life? The Untold Story of Queen is the latest biography of the band, published by Aurum last October. It's a thoroughly researched tome that covers everything from Mercury's schooldays in India to May and Taylor's recent appearances on The X Factor and American Idol.
 
Ben Elton's jukebox musical We Will Rock You continues to pack them in at the Dominion and has played in productions as far afield as Cape Town and Osaka. It has now sold more than 12 million tickets across the world and in 2012 will mark its 10th year in London. Dominion Theatre, W1 (0844 847 1775, wewillrockyou.co.uk)

DEEP CUTS TO DOWNLOAD

The first Deep Cuts album, 1973-1976, is released on 14 March on Island but it's also possible to download its tracks individually now and make your own Queen rarities compilation. It contains:

1 Ogre Battle (Queen II, 1974)
Starts with a familiar wail and some backwards noises before becoming a furious, chugging rocker with Tolkienesque lyrics that are pure heavy metal.

2 Stone Cold Crazy (Sheer Heart Attack, 1974)
Super fast, super loud, with a tongue-twisting vocal from Mercury, hearing this it's easy to understand why hard rock band the Foo Fighters were chosen to induct Queen into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

3 My Fairy King (Queen, 1973)
A dramatic piano number, this is where Freddie got his stage name from: "Mother mercury/Look what they've done to me".

4 I'm in Love with my Car (A Night at the Opera, 1975)
A weighty Roger Taylor composition which he even sings, supposedly he locked himself into a cupboard until it was allowed to be the B-side to Bohemian Rhapsody.

5 Keep Yourself Alive (Queen)
Queen's debut single and the only one that failed to chart in Britain, even at this early stage it boasts a guitar solo that could only be May.

6 Long Away (A Day at the Races, 1976)
This one barely sounds like Queen with its lead vocals by May and jangly, Byrds-style guitar.

7 The Millionaire Waltz (A Day at the Races)
A piano waltz with those trademark multitracked vocals, it starts gently but also includes a fearsome rock bit, not unlike Bohemian Rhapsody.

8 '39 (A Night at the Opera)
The B-side to the top 10 hit You're my Best Friend is a folky acoustic number with a sci-fi theme, sung by May. George Michael sang it at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium in 1992.

9 Tenement Funster (Sheer Heart Attack) <
Another song with lead vocals by Taylor, it's a slow, heavy rocker about a rebel: "My new purple shoes been amazing the people next door"[CORRECT].

10 Flick of the Wrist (Sheer Heart Attack)
A hard, menacing track overloaded with guitar solos but also a very catchy chorus.

11 Lily of the Valley (Sheer Heart Attack)
Ending a trilogy of songs that fade into each other on Sheer Heart Attack, this is a short, moody piano ballad.

12 Good Company (A Night at the Opera)
May does his best George Formby impression on this ukelele number, which also includes the bizarre sound of a swing band played entirely on multilayed guitars.

13 The March of the Black Queen (Queen II)
A six-and-a-half minute epic that shows the band's ambition and complexity was already there in the early days. It's all over the place.

14 In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited (Sheer Heart Attack)
A statuesque, arm-swaying conclusion to the Sheer Heart Attack album, with massed vocals in the wordless chorus that could be sung by the stadium crowds they would soon be entertaining.