Queen [ K w i ː n ] .mw-parser-output .pronunciation> a {background: url (" // upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Loudspeaker. svg / 11px-Loudspeaker.svg.png ") center left no-repeat; padding-left: 15px; font-size: smaller}> is a British rock band from London, England. It was formed in 1970 by Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor, the latter two from the Smile group. The following year, bassist John Deacon completed the training. The four members of Queen are all songwriters.
Due to its success and influence, Queen is considered to be one of the largest British rock bands in history. The band sold more than 300 million albums worldwide in 2009, including 32.5 million in the United States.
Queen is also one of the pioneers of video, having exploited this mode of communication since 1975. In 1991, the group faces the premature death of Freddie Mercury (suffering from the virus of AIDS), singer and icon of the formation. Despite this, Queen continues to exist through various projects and collaborations and has retained popularity as well as many unconditional admirers around the world. According to a British BBC Two poll commissioned in 2007, Queen is considered "the best British band of all time", ahead of the Beatles and Rolling Stones.
In the late 1960s, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor were members of a semi-professional band in the London area named Smile, with Tim Staffell as bassist-singer. Freddie Mercury, who at that time still bears his real name, Farrokh "Freddie" Bulsara, is Tim Staffell's friend and roommate at Ealing Art College and closely follows the band's career. As a leader and singer of other academic groups, such as Ibex in 1969 and Sour Milk Sea in 1970, Mercury is eager to share his musical and artistic aspirations so that Smile can go further. Finally, Tim Staffell leaves Smile for another group, Humpy Bong, and Mercury must push Brian May and Roger Taylor to continue the adventure. Incidentally, he ended up imposing their new name, Queen, which meets several criteria dear to Freddie Mercury: short and therefore easy to remember, quite pompous and irreverent at the same time - queen meaning" queen ", but also" homosexual "in British slang. The group has been experimenting with several bass players during this period, with little success. Among the unsung bassists who auditioned and played with the band, we can note Mike Grose (until August 1970), Barry Mitchell (until January 1971) or Doug Bogie (until the arrival of John Deacon in February 1971)>.
