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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Queen



Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of the late Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), John Deacon (bass guitar), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals). Queen's earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works, incorporating more diverse and innovative styles in their music.
Before joining Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor had been playing together in a band named Smile with bassist Tim Staffell. Freddie Mercury (then known as Farrokh/Freddie Bulsara) was a fan of Smile, and encouraged them to experiment with more elaborate stage and recording techniques after Staffell's departure in 1970. Mercury himself joined the band shortly thereafter, changed the name of the band to "Queen", and adopted his familiar stage name. John Deacon was recruited prior to recording their eponymous debut album (1973). Queen enjoyed success in the UK with their debut and its follow-up, Queen II (1974), but it was the release of Sheer Heart Attack (1974) and A Night at the Opera (1975) that gained the band international success. The latter featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", which stayed at number one in the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks; it charted at number one in several other territories, and gave the band their first top ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100. Their 1977 album, News of the World, contained two of rock's most recognisable anthems, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions". By the early 1980s, Queen were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world, and their performance at 1985's Live Aid is regarded as one of the greatest in rock history. In 1991, Mercury died of bronchopneumonia, a complication of AIDS, and Deacon retired in 1997. Since then, May and Taylor have infrequently performed together, including a collaboration with Paul Rodgers under the name Queen + Paul Rodgers which ended in May 2009.

Early days (1968–1974)

In 1968, guitarist Brian May, a student at London's Imperial College, and bassist Tim Staffell decided to form a band. May placed an advertisement on the college notice board for a "Mitch Mitchell/Ginger Baker type" drummer; Roger Taylor, a young dental student, auditioned and got the job. The group called themselves Smile.[3]
While attending Ealing Art College, Tim Staffell became friends with Farrokh Bulsara, a fellow student who had assumed the English name of Freddie. Bulsara felt that he and the band had the same tastes and soon became a keen fan of Smile. In late 1970, after Staffell left to join the band Humpy Bong, the remaining Smile members, encouraged by Bulsara, changed their name to "Queen" and continued working together.[4] When asked about the name, Bulsara explained, "I thought up the name Queen. It's just a name, but it's very regal obviously, and it sounds splendid. It's a strong name, very universal and immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations. I was certainly aware of gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it."[4]
The band had a number of bass players during this period who did not fit with the band's chemistry. It was not until February 1971 that they settled on John Deacon and began to rehearse for their first album. They recorded four of their own songs, "Liar", "Keep Yourself Alive", "The Night Comes Down" and "Jesus", for a demo tape; no record companies were interested.[5] It was also around this time Freddie changed his surname to "Mercury", inspired by the line "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me," in the song My Fairy King.[6] On 2 July 1971, Queen played their first show in the classic line-up of Mercury, May, Deacon and Taylor at a Surrey college outside London.[7]
Having attended art college, Mercury also designed Queen's logo, called the Queen crest, shortly before the release of the band's first album.[8] The logo combines the zodiac signs of all four members: two lions for Leo (Deacon and Taylor), a crab for Cancer (May), and two fairies for Virgo (Mercury).[8] The lions embrace a stylised letter Q, the crab rests atop the letter with flames rising directly above it, and the fairies are each sheltering below a lion.[8]There is also a crown inside the Q and the whole logo is over-shadowed by an enormous phoenix. The whole symbol bears a passing resemblance to the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, particularly with the lion supporters.[8] The original logo, as found on the reverse-side of the first album cover, was a simple line drawing but more intricate colour versions were used on later sleeves.[8][9]

Musical style

Brian May playing his custom made Red Special in 1975.
The band drew artistic influence from many other British rock acts at the time, such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, Black Sabbath, Slade, Deep Purpleand David Bowie.[212] Queen composed music that drew inspiration from many different genres of music, often with a tongue-in-cheek attitude.[213] The genres they have been associated with include progressive rock,[212] glam rock,[212] hard rock,[212] heavy metal,[212] pop rock,[212] psychedelic rock,[214] blues rock and dance/disco.[215] Queen also wrote songs that were inspired by genres that are not typically associated with rock, such as ragtime, opera, gospel, vaudeville, and folk.
In 1963, the teenage Brian May and his father custom-built his signature guitar Red Special, which was purposely designed to feedback.[216][217] Sonic experimentation figured heavily in Queen's songs. A distinctive characteristic of Queen's music are the vocal harmonies which are usually composed of the voices of May, Mercury, and Taylor best heard on the studio albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races. Some of the ground work for the development of this sound can be attributed to their former producer Roy Thomas Baker, and their engineer Mike Stone.[218][219] Besides vocal harmonies, Queen were also known for multi-tracking voices to imitate the sound of a large choir through overdubs. For instance, according to Brian May, there are over 180 vocal overdubs in "Bohemian Rhapsody".[220] Many Queen songs were also written with audience participation in mind, such as "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions".[221][222]

Band members

Queen in Argentina in 1981, pictured withDiego Maradona.
Current members
  • Brian May – lead guitar, keyboards, piano, vocals (1970–present)
  • Roger Taylor – drums, guitar percussion, vocals, tambourine (1970–present)
Former members
  • Freddie Mercury – lead vocals, piano, rhythm guitar, tambourine (1970–1991)
  • John Deacon – bass guitar, rhythm guitar, keyboard, backing vocals, triangle (1971–1997)
Touring members
Early members[327][328][329]
  • Mike Grose – bass (1970)
  • Barry Mitchell – bass (1970–1971)
  • Doug Ewood Bogie – bass (1971)



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Van Halen



Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Its 1978 debut album, Van Halen—featuring guitarist Eddie Van Halen, vocalist David Lee Roth, drummer Alex Van Halen, and bassist Michael Anthony—is widely considered to be among the most "original" and "revolutionary" albums to "change rock and roll."[1]
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Van Halen is the 19th best-selling band/artist in United States history, with sales of over 56 million albums in the U.S. and over 86 million albums worldwide, (with the band's former record company, Warner Bros. Records, last certifying Van Halen's albums in 2004.)[2][3] Van Halen is one of only five rock bands that have had two albums sell more than 10 million copies in the U.S.[4] Additionally, Van Halen has had the most #1 hits in the history of Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart.[5]
Born in Nijmegen, Netherlands, Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen are the sons of musician Jan Van Halen, who arranged for them to have music lessons. The Van Halen brothers started playing music together in the 1960s when Eddie played classical piano and later drums, and Alex played the guitar. While Eddie was delivering newspapers on his paper route, Alex would sneak over and play on Eddie's drumset. Eventually Eddie found out about Alex playing his drum set and was so frustrated that he told Alex, "OK, I'll go play your guitar."[8]
In 1972 the Van Halen brothers formed a band called "Genesis" featuring Eddie as lead vocalist/guitarist, Alex on drums, and Mark Stone on bass. They initially rented a sound system from David Lee Roth but decided to save money by letting him join as lead vocalist even though his previous audition(s) had been unsuccessful.[9] By 1974 the band decided to replace Stone, so Michael Anthony, bassist and lead vocalist from local band "Snake" was auditioned. Following an all-night jam session, he was hired for bass and backing vocals.[9]
The band later changed its name to Mammoth when they discovered the name "Genesis" was already being used. In 1974, Mammoth officially changed its name to Van Halen. According to Roth,[10] this was his brainchild. He felt it was a name that had power, like Santana. They played backyard parties and on a flatbed truck at Hamilton Park. Van Halen played clubs in Pasadena and Hollywood to growing audiences, increasing their popularity through self-promotion: before each gig they would pass out fliers at local high schools. This soon built them a major following.[9] Later that year, the band got its first break when it was hired to play at Gazzarri's, a formerly famous but down-at-the-heels night club on the Sunset Strip which closed in 1996.
In mid-1977 Mo Ostin and Ted Templeman of Warner Bros. Records saw Van Halen perform at the Starwood in Hollywood. Although the audience was small, the two were so impressed with Van Halen that within a week they offered the band a recording contract.[14] The group recorded their debut album at Sunset Sound Recorders studio in mid September to early October 1977, recording guitar parts for one week and then recording vocals for two additional weeks. All of the tracks were laid down with little over-dubbing or double tracking. Minor mistakes were purposely left on the record and a simple musical set-up was used to give the record a live feel. During this time they continued to play various venues in Southern California, including some notable concerts at the Pasadena Convention Center produced by their promoter and impresario, Steve Tortomasi, himself a fixture in the local rock and roll scene.
Upon its release, Van Halen reached No. 19 on the Billboard pop music charts, one of rock's most commercially successful debuts.[15] It was highly regarded as both a heavy metal and hard rock album.[16] The album included songs now regarded as Van Halen classics, like "Runnin' with the Devil" and the guitar solo "Eruption", which showcased Eddie's use of a technique known as 'finger-tapping'. The band toured for nearly a year, opening for Black Sabbath and establishing a reputation for their performances. The band's chemistry owed much to Eddie Van Halen's technical guitar wizardry and David Lee Roth's flamboyant antics, strong points which later made them rivals. The band returned to the studio in 1978 for Van Halen II, an album similar in style to their debut. This record yielded the band's first hit single, "Dance the Night Away".
The album, however, was also a breaking point for the band. In the midst of the 1984 Tour the artistic and personal tensions among the musicians reached a fever pitch. Reasons for the breakup vary based on the band member interviewed, but were rooted in control of the band's sound and image. Roth was upset about Eddie playing music outside of Van Halen without checking with the band, and his alleged drug abuse that allegedly prevented the band from viable practices. Eddie was sick of Roth's flamboyant behavior and stage persona. Roth was also having a successful solo career with a hit song and EP (a remake of The Beach Boys classic "California Girls" (#3 U.S.) and the old standard "Just a Gigolo" (#12 U.S.). Roth was also offered a $20-million film deal for a script entitled Crazy For The Heat. Roth hoped Van Halen would contribute the soundtrack; however, the film deal fell through when MGM Pictures was sold in 1986.
Eddie invited Patty Smyth of Scandal to replace Roth but she refused. Eddie was then introduced by way of a mutual auto mechanic to Sammy Hagar, formerly of 1970s band Montrose, and at that time a solo artist coming off a very successful year. His hit single I Can't Drive 55 came from his 1984 album VOA, produced by Ted Templeman who had also produced Hagar's first album Montrose, as well as all of Van Halen's albums up to that point. Hagar agreed to join and also serve as a rhythm guitarist on stage to add to the Van Halen sound. The 1986 Van Halen album 5150 was a hit, becoming the band's first No. 1 album on the Billboard charts, driven by the keyboard-dominated singles "Why Can't This Be Love" (#3 U.S.), "Dreams", and "Love Walks In" (Top 30 U.S.). To further introduce the new era for the band, a new Van Halen logo was put on the cover. The new logo retained elements of the original, but now the lines extending from either side of 'VH' wrapped around and formed a ring.

Band members

Current members
Former members



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