I Stole Freddie Mercury's Birthday Cake...

Read on to learn how one man and his naked balloon-dancing pals swiped Freddie Mercury's £4,000 birthday cake.

'We Are The Champions' Named The Most Patriotic Pop Song

Rockers Queen have been crowned top of the patriotic pops in a survey of 100,000 music fans.

The band's anthem We Are the Champions was named number one by fans who were asked what song made them proud to be British.

The track, which got to number two in 1977, picked up 13,000 votes in the survey carried out among users of the Lucky Voice karaoke website.

It was followed by the Oasis hit Wonderwall which was nominated by 11,000 karaoke singers and then Let It Be by The Beatles which got 10,000 votes.

Elton John's Candle In The Wind and London Calling by The Clash rounded off the top five.

Lucky Voice boss Nick Thistleton said: "It seems the great British public are quite a sentimental crowd, with so many people opting for solid ballads over rock anthems. But you can't beat the feel good factor of We Are the Champions - especially when sung with your mates at high volume.

"We need all the help we can get this summer to give the UK a massive boost and we urge everyone out there to get into the patriotic spirit, show their support and help by singing our way to success."

Source of original article: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

Finally: Robots Perform "Bohemian Rhapsody"

The Poor Bots, From a Poor Family

No one—not even robots—can resist “Bohemian Rhapsody.” These robotic heads come from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology’s Center for Intelligent Robotics, where they were created to entertain the elderly through song. The performance gets more complex—and more bizarre—as the song goes on, and the bots are surprisingly good at conveying that certain feeling of despair. (Enjoy, elderly!) By far the hardest thing to understand, though, is why four heads would stop at the exact moment when everybody head-bangs to “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Talk about a missed opportunity.

Sheer Heart Attack - The Third Album

In early 1974, Queen had their first hit with ‘The Seven Seas of Rhye,’ ‘ Queen II’ was No.5 in the UK chart and the band were supporting Mott The Hoople on tour in North America. Everything was going swimmingly.  John Deacon finally gave up on his MSc in Electronics, Roger and Freddie packed up their clothes stall at Kensington Market for good and Brian quit teaching believing that Queen’s future was going to be a successful one.

The band were due to record their third album and headline their first American tour, however,  this was not to be as Brian collapsed after a show in New York on May 12th 1974. He had contracted hepatitis from a dirty needle whilst having inoculations. Queen returned to England in turmoil. The tour with Hoople was cut short,  their own tour of America cancelled and their guitarist ordered to bed for six weeks,  told that he ‘may never recover completely.’  Fortunately, he did.

Despite the tribulations, ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ was a major breakthrough for Queen and became another classic. They all agreed that they had dished up a little too much for people to swallow on Queen II so they ditched the progressive themes, the fantasy and decided to make an album that wasn’t so over the top.  As a result, ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ is far more accessible and years later Roger Taylor claimed that it was his personal favourite Queen record.

Brian was still ill when the band began work on their new album at Rockfield Studios in Wales. He would be frequently sick and his stomach was causing him a lot of pain until it was discovered that he had a duodenal ulcer and needed urgent attention.  For almost three months Queen had to carry on recording the album without him, leaving gaps for guitars and harmonies.

Brian May more than made up for his absence with the opening track he penned called ‘Brighton Rock’ which contains a dazzling three minute harmonious guitar solo zooming from left to right speakers like tennis ball plus some fantastic percussion from Roger.

Apart from the title and the setting, it has no connection with the Graham Green novel.  Freddie sings the parts of both Jimmy and Jenny, the young lovers who meet at the seaside.  ‘Oh rock of ages do not crumble love is breathing still.’  The rock certainly hasn’t crumbled, 37 years on, the song is still sounds fantastic.  If you listen very closely to the opening you can hear someone whistling ‘Oh I do like to be beside the seaside’, which was the last song sung at the end of ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ on Queen II, giving both albums a sense of continuity.

Now we all know and love ‘Killer Queen.’ Written by Freddie it’s the tale of a high class call girl, ‘I’m trying to say that classy people can be whores as well’, said Freddie in 1974.  Queen were on the whole, considered a heavy rock band, ‘Killer Queen’ showed another side to their capabilities and their sensibilities which had more of a mainstream appeal.

“People are used to hard rock, energy music from Queen, yet with this single, you almost expect Noel Coward to sing it.  It’s one of those bowler hat, black suspender numbers – not that Noel Coward would wear that.” Freddie Mercury, 1974.

According to May, the original backing vocals were more abrasive, which he disliked so they all went back into the studio again to give them a sweeter touch and the guitar solo in ‘Killer Queen’ is the one which he would most like to be remembered for.

‘Killer Queen’ was released as a single whilst the band were working on the rest of the album and reached No. 2 in the UK and No 12 in the USA, their first hit across the Atlantic.  Sadly another classic performance on Top of the Pops and rave reviews couldn’t knock  cheeky cockney David Essex off the top slot and give them their first number one.

‘Tenement Funster’ is another excellent song by Roger Taylor. As usual it contains themes of youth and rebellion and is perhaps semi-biographical.  Roger’s hair was a disgrace, he liked cars and up until recently he and Freddie had been sharing a flat, maybe their rock and roll 45s enraged the neighbours next door.

Although it can be interpreted in many ways,   ‘Flick of the Wrist’ is Freddie’s first pop at Queen’s then manager, Norman Sheffield.  Tensions were mounting at the time of recording between the band and Trident.  Queen were only getting paid sixty pounds per week (that’s £334.20 in today’s money, split four ways) despite the fact they were selling out concerts and had a hit single across the world.   ‘It’s a rip off’, ‘baby you’ve been had’ , ‘sacrifice your leisure days, let me squeeze you til you’ve dried’ When Queen finally parted company with Trident the following year, Freddie would write an even more explicit and vicious ‘sequel’  dedicated to his old manager called ‘Death On Two Legs.’   ‘Flick of the Wrist’  was picked as the Double A side to ‘Killer Queen.’  Queen performed both songs exclusively for a BBC Session in 1974, included on this Deluxe Edition.

‘Lily of the Valley,’ also written by Freddie, takes us back to Rhye and worlds he created on ‘Queen’ and ‘Queen II’  for the very last time.  As the King of Rhye loses his throne, never ending war spreads across the land,  this is the closing chapter of the story and farewell Mercury’s fantasy influenced lyrics.

Side one closes with ‘Now I’m Here’ which was recorded in the last weeks of the album – written by Brian May whilst in hospital.  It reflects upon the experiences of Queen’s American tour supporting Mott The Hoople.  ‘It blew me away – I was bowled over by the amazing aura which surrounds rock music in America.’   The song was their third top twenty hit, peaking at No. 12 in the UK with ‘Lily of the Valley’ on the ‘B’ side.

‘In The Lap Of The Gods’ opens what was then Side Two with Queen throwing everything they had in their power at the listening ear -  operatic grand harmonies, screams, rolling timpani plus piano and guitar arpeggios which then change direction and settles into a dreamy, love song sung with Freddie’s distorted vocals and Roger Taylor’s famously feminine screams.   In an interview in 1977,  Mercury described the song as  Cecil B DeMille meets Walt Disney and stated that the song was the prelude to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ with its changes of tempo and different styles.

‘Stone Cold Crazy’ was originally a song that Freddie performed in his band Wreckage in the late Sixties, but the rest of the Queen took it over, reshaped it and all share writing credits for the first time.  The result is quite phenomenal, two minutes of frenetic, unstoppable rock, that simply doesn’t let you up for air.  Queen’s heaviest rock song of all.   It was also a Grammy Award winning hit for Metallica in 1992 as the Double A Side of ‘Enter Sandman.’  Naturally their version included a few ‘F words’ and it wasn’t until I saw James Hetfield’s appearance at ‘The Freddie Mercury Tribute’ with Queen that it dawned on me what ‘playing on my slide trombone on a rainy afternoon’ actually meant and it’s not a pretty sight, especially the thought of that hairy monster Hetfield playing on his!

‘Dear Friends’, written by Brian, is the perfect antidote to its manic predecessor.  This is a moving, yet uplifting sort of lullaby which deals with the death of a loved one. ‘She Makes Me (Storm trooper in Stilettos), another Brian composition  features an altogether more paranoid, nightmarish vision of America at its climax, unlike the raucous ‘Now I’m Here.’   The subtitle was Roger’s suggestion.  May’s songs on this album are up and down, much like his spirits whilst sitting in hospital not knowing what his future may hold with hepatitis and a stomach ulcer.  

‘Sheer Heart Attack’ is the album where John Deacon finally wrote a song by himself.  Hoorey! ‘Misfire.’ Actively encouraged by the rest of the band to write more as early as Queen II, John came up with this simple little song and played most of the guitars on the track.   John was always more of a Motown kind of guy which reflected in his own compositions.  ‘Misfire’ is a catchy first attempt at a pop song.   As time went on and John’s writing skills improved, he would go on to compose some of Queen’s biggest hits – ‘Another One Bites the Dust,’ ‘You’re My Best Friend’ and ‘I Want To Break Free’ – but it all started here with ‘Misfire.’

‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’ is Freddie’s homage to vaudeville with a bit of ragtime thrown in, complete with double bass, jangle piano and ukulele.

‘In The Lap Of The God’s Revisited’ is Queen’s first anthem and again influenced by Freddie’s love of musicals. It’s the last song of the show, the one that gets you off your seat, waving your hands in time.

‘In the Lap of the Gods’ is sung from the perspective of a failure, ‘It’s so easy, but I can’t do it.’ It’s an uncertain anthem. By contrast, Freddie’s subsequent showstopper, ‘We Are The Champions’ is triumphant. Yet without the lessons they learnt on ‘Sheer Heart Attack,’ (the change of direction, the maturity of their writing and the chart success) Queen might not have become Champions at all, just another band who had a few hits in the early 1970’s then disappeared into the ether or rock and roll.

Queen were still bubbling under. They had one more crack at the whip to make it really big. The next album would be make or break.

‘Sheer Heart Attack’ was released on 8th November 1974 and reached Number 2 in the UK Charts and features more classic artwork.  The striking picture on the cover was taken by Mick Rock who happily rubbed the band in Vaseline then drenched them with water to get the sweaty look.   It also looks as if they’d got through gallons of fake tan – did fake tan exist in 1974?

(Oh and incidentally,  the song “Sheer Heart Attack’ doesn’t actually appear on this album.  It was recorded, but felt incomplete so the song went, but the name stayed.  It finally appeared on NEWS OF THE WORLD in 1977. )

Album review written by Rhys Thomas

They all Want to Break Free...

It's a pretty memorable image isn't it? Freddie Mercury with his vacuum cleaner & heels, the other members of Queen dressed in women's clothes for the I Want to Break Free video (1984). A concept that was reportedly proposed by drummer Roger Taylor, the video parodied the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street.

It's a look that's often imitated, with varying levels of success. Sometimes in public, sometimes in the safety of people's homes. Through the wonder of social networking, many people have shared these images or been cruelly exposed by their "friends". Here follows some of my favourites...

Brilliant Bohemian Rhapsody Cover

The Braid's 1996 cover of Bohemian Rhapsody is one of my personal favourites. It's sung in a vocal style from the other end of the spectrum to Freddie Mercury's, but that's the beauty of cover versions...

Top Ten Most Played Queen Songs Revealed

As Great Britain celebrates 60 years of Her Majesty’s reign, the music licensing company PPL has revealed which of her namesake band’s hits are the most played by the British public.

The band Queen are almost as universally loved as Queen Elizabeth herself, formed in 1971, their style of glam stadium rock has influenced the work of many. They have had 18 number one albums and 18 number one singles making them one of the world's biggest selling bands.

Despite lead singer Freddie Mercury's untimely death in 1991, Queen have continued to perform with various guest vocalists including Paul Rogers and more recently, Adam Lambert. For the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, lead guitarist Brian May famously played the National Anthem from the rooftop of Buckingham Palace.

The top ten most played Queen songs are:

1) A Kind Of Magic
2) Don't Stop Me Now
3) Under Pressure
4) I Want To Break Free
5) Bohemian Rhapsody
6) Killer Queen
7) Somebody To Love
8) Radio Ga Ga
9) We Will Rock You
10) You're My Best Friend

"Queen are undeniably one of the greatest bands Britain has ever produced," said Jonathan Morrish, Director of PR and Corporate Communications at PPL. "These really are classics and show how their music has been such a part of people's lives. These songs make the perfect soundtrack to a Jubilee party this week."

A Kind Of Magic was released in 1986 for the film Highlander and reached number three in the UK singles chart. The top ten tracks are compiled from PPL's exclusive data which includes TV, radio and online usage as well as songs played in bars, shops, restaurants, gyms and other public places that use music.

Freddie Mercury Cupcakes

May I tempt you with a Freddie Fondant Fancy...?

Can Anybody Find me Graffiti to Love?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Graffiti is is writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place. Some of it is truly Bohemian!

Freddie Mercury Birthday Cakes

We all like a nice birthday cake on our special day, don't we? Being a Queen fan, I was interested to find some examples of Freddie Mercury themed cakes. Some appear to have turned out better than others...

This one seems to be nspired by Freddie's Live Aid performance...

This one is my personal favourite, too good to eat?

Another Live Aid outfit, but with slightly longer legs...

Nice effort, but if I was Janet, I would have been scared by Freddie's Banana fingers and Rabbit teeth...

Hmmm, more like a crime scene than a celebration. Even the mustache appears disappointed with the results...

What exactly is a Bohemian Rhapsody?

BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs listeners recently chose Bohemian Rhapsody as their favourite pop song. It's the only number one about a murder trial to feature both opera and head-banging. But just who is Bismillah?

Freddie Mercury used a piano as the headboard of his bed. The double-jointed Mercury would awake with inspiration, reach up and back behind his head and play what he'd heard in his dreams. This was how Bohemian Rhapsody began.

Some 20,000 people bought the single every day in its first three weeks of release in 1975, it's been number one twice so far and it's played on a radio somewhere in the world about once an hour. It's also now been chosen as the favourite pop song of Desert Island Discs listeners.

It was no critics' favourite though - the Melody Maker dismissed it on release as "Balham Amateur Operatic Society performing The Pirates Of Penzance"

So what's going on?

The essential story is not pop's greatest enigma: a man confesses a murder to his mother, vainly pleads poverty in a trial and ends up resigned to his fate. But questions remain: who did he kill and why? And why does the judge talk funny?

Indeed, it's the language in the court scene that arouses most curiosity. There's a touch of Italian culture: Scaramouche is a buffoonish stock character in commedia dell'arte; Galileo was a Florentine astronomer found guilty of heresy by the Inquisition and Figaro is the title character of Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville, in which he helps true love to prevail.

Sticking with Spain, the fandango is a flamenco dance, which had appeared at number one eight years previously in A Whiter Shade Of Pale.

"Mamma mia", of course, means "my mother" in Italian - and was the title of the chart-topper which followed Bohemian Rhapsody - but it's also an exclamation in a moment of high drama. And that's how much of the song works. We don't need to be familiar with 16th-Century Italian theatre to know the "poor boy" is in some pretty serious trouble. The counsel for the defence tries to match the prosecution's ornate flourishes - "spare him his life from this monstrosity" - but it doesn't do much good.

Freddie Mercury, of course, enjoyed ornate language as much as spandex unitards and there's a sense of revelling in sound and phrase.

Senior Lecturer in English at UCL and Queen fan Matthew Beaumont says: "The architecture of Bohemian Rhapsody - and it is an architecture - is self-consciously, ostentatiously baroque. It is rich in ornate, curious details, occasionally Moorish in provenance. Also in soaring, sometimes dizzy-making, shifts of register and in a lachrymose emotiveness that is almost impossible to resist."

It's also impossible to resist seeking something autobiographical in the lyric. Paul Gambaccini told Kirsty Young: "Tim Rice has this theory that it's to do with [Mercury] coming to terms with being gay, and I think there's a lot in that - the resignation, the abandonment of a previous role." The allusions to persecution and secret love in Galileo, Figaro and the rest don't hurt this theory, but not everyone agrees.

In 2004, Queen's Greatest Hits became the first rock album allowed on sale in Iran. The cassette came with an explanatory leaflet which insisted the hero "killed a man" by accident, then sold his soul to the devil. On the night before his execution he calls God in Arabic - "Bismillah" - and so regains his soul from Satan.

Ben Elton has offered a re-interpretation in the musical We Will Rock You, where Scaramouche and Galileo become singing rebels in a future society where rock music has been banned by baddies.

For many listeners, though, Bohemian Rhapsody is "about" sheer sonic bombast, as captured on film in Wayne's World. But its ambition - and its length - were nearly its undoing. Record company EMI was reluctant to release it as a single until the band slipped a copy to DJ Kenny Everett, who played it on Capital Radio 14 times over the following weekend, persuading EMI, the BBC and other sceptics that the listening public could handle it.

Queen also regarded the song as a mini-showcase of their technical skill. "We felt that Bohemian Rhapsody probably captured more or less all the types of moods that we were doing," Mercury told Phonograph Record magazine in 1976. "So we thought: OK, this is what we want to present to the public and let's see what they do with it."

The public's choice of "Bo Rap" as a desert-island favourite is also, perhaps, a vote for kitsch. It's a song about love, loss and death that's undoubtedly silly. "We viewed it quite tongue-in-cheek," Mercury insisted, but that lets you take it to heart as seriously as you like. "It's fairly self-explanatory," drummer Roger Taylor told the BBC, "there's just a bit of nonsense in the middle."

It was also Taylor who made possibly the most inspired decision during the recording sessions. He locked himself in a cupboard until everyone agreed the b-side would be his song I'm In Love With My Car.

Though less celebrated, Taylor's track automatically sold a copy every time someone bought Bohemian Rhapsody - with according royalties.

Article originally published at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13761091

Rock Music History....in Zanzibar?

In the midst of the tropical island paradise of Zanzibar, lies a significant piece of pop music history.

A walk through the narrow alleyways of the Stone Town, leads you to Mercury House No. 39, the building where the late rock star, Freddie Mercury spent most of his childhood.

Man plays Bohemian Rhapsody - with his bare hands

I'd like to shake this fella by the hand (after he's washed them thoroughly of course)....

Belgian Navy sings Don't Stop Me Now

I think I'm going to change nationality and sign up for the Belgian Navy! Mind you, I didn't even know that Belgium had a Navy...

Freddie Mercury Vs Justin Bieber

It's Wrestlemania 28 this weekend and to celebrate, here's a dream match for you...Freddie vs Bieber...I wonder who is the champion...?

Photo of the Week...

Everybody's Mr Bad Guy...in the sunshine.

Queen Russian Nesting Dolls

A matryoshka doll is a Russian nesting doll, a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. The first Russian nested doll set was reportedly carved in 1890. Traditionally the outer layer is a woman, The figures inside may be of either gender; the smallest, innermost doll is typically a baby crafted from a single piece of wood. Much of the artistry is in the painting of each doll, which can be very elaborate.

Feast your eyes if you will on these examples that I have found, themed around Freddie and the boys. Is it just me or are they a little bit...creepy?

Brian May & Dappy perform in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge

Adam Lambert On Working With Queen...

Singer Adam Lambert says he's not taking over as the frontman for Queen, but adds “there's more stuff coming up this year.”

Brian meets Chickenfoot

Rock band Chickenfoot recently undertook a short jaunt round Europe to promote their really quite brilliant Chickenfoot III album. Brian May recently met up with them and commented: "I had a great time with these guys last weekend. And boy - what an encyclopedia of how to play great rock music. Chickenfoot rock - all real, all brilliant musicianship … all power and passion." (brianmay.com).

Origami Queen

Check out these insanely detailed and highly stylized, paper versions of Queen by People Too...

23 Queen songs in 9 minutes...

Musician Gregg M was invited as a guest in a ‘Queen evening’ and felt that a simple cover version was not the way to go. Therefore he decided to create something new and challenging, in order to entertain the audience, Gregg says it was “Like a Human Jukebox, actually …. It took a while for me  to figure out how to begin the monster and I worked it bit by bit. I separated it in several parts, each including 4 or more songs and then put the pieces together, just like a giant musical jigsaw puzzle. Two days later, and something like 20 hours of musical work of writing, rehearsing and demoing, I sent a draft to my singer (who’s with me in my band, The Sunchase, as well as my ‘twisted covers concept’, the Guest-Sessions) and we rehearsed it bits by bits some days later. We decided it would be more fun if we did not have any chart on stage so we worked really hard to remember everything and went onstage at ‘Le Zèbre’ in Paris the week after that.”

I hope you enjoy the Queen Mashup!

Further details for Gregg M and his music are available at ;
http://www.thesunchase.net/
http://www.onemonthonesong.com/

Why Queen's Hot Space Has Sadly Always Been Luke Warm

Are you sitting down? It really hurts me to say this, but in my opinion, this is Queen's worst album. In summary 1980's disco music never really suited Queen at all...

Out of Africa...

This is a guest post by LESLEY-ANN JONES, an award-winning journalist and author with over 20 years' experience in London, New York and Hollywood. Please, please check out her book FREDDIE MERCURY: THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY which was revised and updated in 2011.http://lajwriter.blogspot.com

10 Things You May Not Know About Queen

Perhaps the thing that gets lost in the noise about Queen, behind all the flashy stories of Freddie Mercury's personal life and the band's hit singles, is their recording and artistic prowess. 


So, here are ten facts that you may not know about Queen, from their recording techniques to the secrets behind the band's famous crest logo...

When Black Sabbath star Tony Iommi met Queen axe legend Brian May

ELO drummer Bev Bevan says that BLACK Sabbath guitar hero Tony Iommi is one of his best mates, and they love to meet up.

He also happens to be one of the greatest guitarists on the planet, the man who invented heavy metal.

There are few musicians who get even close to Tony’s level of skill, but Queen’s Brian May is one.

So it was a real pleasure to chat with the two of them backstage after Sabbath’s NEC gig in 1999.

And who’s that between the two guitar gods? Yes, that’s right, it’s Sharon Osbourne! I first met Sharon long before she married Ozzy because she is the daughter of our late manager Don Arden. You never know just who you’re going to bump into backstage at a Sabath show!

(Source: Bev Bevan's column in the Sunday Mercury Newspaper)

Freddie's Google Doodle voted amongst the top of 2011

The Google Doodle celebrating what would have been Freddie Mercury’s 65th birthday was voted at number 19 in the list of 30 best Doodles of 2011. In a very rare and extraordinary tribute to Freddie, Google celebrated his 65th birthday by running a very special doodle on its homepage. The animated clip sought to capture the dynamism and diversity of Freddie’s career through an animation that was as colourful and playful as his stage performances.

The quirky tribute was created by Google’s in-house team of illustrators, animators and engineers. It was available for users outside of the US on September 5th, what would have been Freddie’s 65th birthday, and was on Google.com in the US on September 6th as a belated “Happy Birthday” to Freddie since his actual birthday fell on Labor Day.

You can still watch the full Freddie Mercury Google Doodle here...

Learn more about Google Doodles here: http://mashable.com/2011/08/03/google-doodles/

(some of this post uses some content first posted on BrianMay.com)

An Oak Table, Knitting Needle & Bicycle saddle bag - All found in Brian May's Guitar

The Red Special, - Brian May's famed and much-nicknamed guitar ranks as one of the most fabled tools in rock history.

The Red Special was born in 1963, the result of 18 months hard work and development between Brian and his electrical engineer father, Harold. Unable to afford the coveted Fenders and Les Pauls of the day, the pair set about designing and building their own interpretation of the perfect electric guitar.