Queen – movie vs reality

Queen was a British rock band formed in London in 1970. Their classic line-up was Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), John Deacon (bass guitar), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals). Their earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, hard rock and heavy metal, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works by incorporating further styles, such as arena rock and pop rock.

I liked listening to Queen before. Since as a child, and as a teenager, I was very interested in music (mostly popular music of all times) Queen is a band I was familiar with, even though it was not from my time.
A special song for me that always brings memories is “We Are The Champions”. Since age 6 I was practicing rhythmic gymnastics, and I remember they used to play that song on every medal ceremony on important competitions. When I hear this song today it brings me back all the emotions and all the excitement I was feeling at the ceremonies.

Last year I saw “Bohemian Rhapsody” the movie. At the time I knew a little about Queen’s story, but not too much, and the movie, which was amazing in my opinion, brought me back the excitement about the band, and I started listening to their songs again after a long time.

The Band’s Formation

In 1968, guitarist Brian May, and bassist Tim Staffell decided to form a band, May then looked for a drummer, and Roger Taylor, a young dental student, auditioned and got the job. The group called themselves Smile. In the film, Freddie Mercury stumbles into a 1970 performance by Brian May and Roger Taylor’s band Smile, which preceded Queen. Mercury meets up with May and Taylor after the show, coincidentally right after their bassist/singer Tim Staffell quits. They’re skeptical of Mercury at first, but he wins them over when he delivers an impromptu rendition of their song “Doing Alright”.

Unlike in the movie, Mercury became a fan of the band Smile and got to know May and Taylor. Brian May recalls Mercury hassling them to let him become a member, but they resisted until Tim Staffell left the band in 1970.

In 1970, the band changed the name from “Smile” to “Queen”. They performed their first gig on 18 July. It wasn’t until March 1971 that John Deacon joined the band, and they began rehearsing 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, but no record companies were interested.

In 1972, Queen entered discussions with Trident Studios after being spotted at De Lane Lea Studios by John Anthony (John Anthony is an English music producer. He has worked with Van der Graaf Generator, Genesis, Queen, Roxy Music, and Peter Hammill.) After these discussions, Norman Sheffield offered the band a management deal under Neptune Productions, a subsidiary of Trident, to manage the band and enable them to use hi-tech recording facilities used by other musicians such as the Beatles and Elton John to produce new material, whilst the management searched for a record label to sign Queen.

In 1973, Queen signed to a deal with Trident/EMI. By July of that year, they released their eponymous debut album Queen. The album was received well by critics, but the sells were poor.

The group’s second LP, Queen II, was released in 1974. It reached number five on the British album chart and became the first Queen album to chart in the UK. The Freddie Mercury-written lead single “Seven Seas of Rhye” reached number ten in the UK, giving the band their first hit.

 Bohemian Rhapsody

Released as part of their fourth studio album, “A Night at the Opera” (1975), Freddie Mercury’s vision for “Bohemian Rhapsody” was an equally risky endeavor in real life, just as in the movie. At 5 minutes 55 seconds in length, the unconventional rock song was long and risked being rejected by radio stations. In order to reach the most people possible, they recorded a flashy, kaleidoscopic video to accompany the song. It proved to be a genius promotional strategy, well before the days it was done regularly on MTV. The Bohemian Rhapsody music video helped to make them overnight global superstars and the song remained at number one on the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks.

On the impact of the “Bohemian Rhapsody” promotional video, Rolling Stone states: “Its influence cannot be overstated, practically inventing the music video seven years before MTV went on the air.” Ranking it number 31 on their list of the 50 key events in rock music history, The Guardian stated it ensured “videos would henceforth be a mandatory tool in the marketing of music”.

The Band’s Splitting Up

Actually, the group never split up. The movie veers the furthest from reality in the build-up to their 1985 performance at Live Aid. There’s a dramatic scene where Freddie reveals that he’s signed a solo deal behind their back for $4 million and that he wants to take a long break from the band. The others are absolutely livid and they all go their separate ways. The truth is much less dramatic. The band was burned out by 1983, having been on tour for a decade. The movie makes it seem like the group was very offended and they refused to talk to Freddie. In reality, they all agreed on taking a break to focus on their solo careers but they stayed in touch.

Live Aid

In the movie, the group isn’t even on speaking terms when they get the offer to play Live Aid in 1985, and they hadn’t done a gig in years. Truth is Live Aid wasn’t a reunion for the band. They had actually just released their album The Works in early 1984 and had been on tour all over the world. They were well-rehearsed by the time they were set to perform at Live Aid. The movie never mentions the release of the album, and shows them having to make peace with each other and get back into playing shape, while actually the last show of the tour was just eight weeks before Live Aid.

Despite the band’s personal story being less dramatic in real life, their performance at Live Aid was just as impressive as in the movie, if not more so. Queen’s 20-minute set at the July 13, 1985 Live Aid concert held at Wembley Stadium in London, England is considered by many notable music publications to be one of the greatest rock performances of all time.

Journalists for Rolling Stone, the BBC, The Telegraph, MTV and CNN all stated that Queen stole the show, which was viewed by a crowd of 72,000 and a TV audience of 1.9 billion, the largest ever at that point. Freddie Mercury controlled the captivated audience, who clapped along to hits like “Radio Ga Ga”.

Here is a scene comparisons video. I watched it all as soon as I came back home from the movie theater after watching “Bohemian Rhapsody” and the similarity is insane, so although it is a little long I recommend watching it.

Freddie’s Illness

After fans noticed Mercury’s increasingly gaunt appearance in 1988, the media reported that Mercury was seriously ill, with AIDS. Mercury denied this, insisting he was merely “exhausted” and too busy to provide interviews.

The film has him telling the band during rehearsals for Live Aid in 1985. This was added for dramatic effect. Mercury had in fact been diagnosed as HIV positive in 1987, but did not make his illness public

He revealed the truth to his family and close friends in 1989. He didn’t publicly acknowledge he had the sexually transmitted disease until he released an official statement on November 23, 1991, the day before his death.