Queen The Greatest: A Celebration Of 50 Of The Greatest Moments
From The Queen Story So Far
A 50-week YouTube series celebrating key moments in Queen’s history, reminding us why Queen and their music continue to be loved across the world.
Episode 11: “Queen : 1977 We Will Rock You (Part 1) Rocking the World”
An exclusive interview with Brian May revealing the inspiration behind not just one of Queen‘s greatest hits, but one of the most recognizable and loved songs in the history of rock music.
Watch HERE
Click HERE for Queen The Greatest – Episodes 1-10
Queen The Greatest, a year-long Queen Official YouTube celebration of the most extraordinary songs, performances and achievements from Queen’s story so far, this week revisits a song that would become not just one of Queen’s greatest hits, but also one of the most recognizable tracks in rock history, “We Will Rock You.”
In an exclusive and brand-new interview with Brian May, the legendary guitarist and songwriter shares how this iconic song written for the band’s 1977 News Of The World album came to life, the specific gig that inspired its creation, and what it has come to mean to him.
“Bingley Hall. This great hall in the Midlands. It was heaving. It’s all sweaty and hot, the atmosphere is great. Everybody’s jumping up and down, making a noise, and what they were doing was singing along. In those days, it was really new I have to tell you. You just didn’t go to concerts where people sang to rock bands. But on this particular occasion they didn’t stop. I think I’d gone to sleep thinking what could an audience do, what could you ask them to do?’ They’re all crammed in there, they can’t do much, but they can stamp their feet they can clap their hands, and they can sing.”
“It just kind of came to me that we were all part of this scenario where we’re all young, and full of enthusiasm, we think we can change the world, and we get out there, we will rock you! We Will Rock You means we will change the world, and we feel like we can do it when we’re young.
“And then looking ahead to when you get old, what happens when you get old and all this stuff has kind of blown over, and you stand there and you think what happened, did I change the world? What happened, who am I and what is the world to me now?
“I would like to leave the planet knowing that I just made a little bit of difference to the amount of decency that there is in the world. Not sure I can do that, but I’m still trying. So that in a nutshell is what We Will Rock You is about.” – Brian May.
Queen The Greatest’s Latest Episode and YouTube Playlist Link
Next week: Queen 1977 We Will Rock You (Part 2) – Rocking the World
Queen The Greatest: Episode 17: “Queen – Independence Day” – Watch HERE
Queen The Greatest : Episodes 1-16 – Watch HERE
After seven years together, Queen’s dream of creative and financial independence would finally come true. A look behind the scenes at that pivotal moment, featuring archive footage of Freddie, John and Roger, as well as a rare interview with the band’s long term manager, Jim Beach.
“There’s a million sharks out there.” – Roger Taylor
This week’s Queen The Greatest takes a look behind the scenes at one of the most significant moments in Queen’s history – the moment where one of their ultimate goals was realized: Queen’s Independence Day.
Last week’s episode focused on bassist John Deacon and the hits he provided for Queen. Deacon again features prominently in this week’s episode, in which the band reveals the dire straits they were in– even after three hit albums. The episode also explains how John’s steady hand and acumen brought Queen to one of the most significant points in its career: the moment they finally achieved their goal of financial and creative independence.
John reveals: “We didn’t get a penny of record royalties from the first three albums. What we were looking at in that point in time was basically to just look after ourselves and do it completely on our own.”
Roger Taylor: “It’s the long road to artistic, financial freedom which is so hard to find if you’re successful to any degree cos there’s a million sharks out there.”
In early 1978, just before they embarked on recording their Jazz album, Queen finally took full control of their business affairs :setting up three entities to operate and manage their creative endeavors: Queen Productions Limited, Queen Music Limited and Queen Films Limited. This was at the time a highly unusual move for a band, but testament to their belief in their forward musical journey.
For the day-to-day running of the business, Queen turned to Jim Beach, who they had first met in 1975 when the band’s quest for financial independence truly began. It was a meeting that left a lasting impression on Jim.
He recalls that first meeting: “I first met Queen when I was a solicitor at Harbottle and Lewis in London. I was a partner, and I was running what was then a very fledgling music department. It was a show-business firm, and we were used to fairly bizarre clients, but I remember when Queen arrived, the receptionist telephoned me and said, ‘Mr. Beach, Queen are here,’ and I said.’Yes, fine, would you like to send them up.’ And she whispered down the phone, she said, ‘have you seen them?’”
“And I said, ‘well yes,’ she said, ‘well one of them’s got nail varnish on.’ And I said, ‘well really?’ ‘Yes, black nail varnish.’ And I said, ‘well fine,’ ‘yes, but it’s only on one hand.’ And I said, ‘don’t be silly, come on, send them up’. I always remember Freddie walked in first, they sat down, and Freddie kicked straight off by saying, we’ve recorded three albums, our manager’s just bought his second Rolls Royce, and we’re on sixty quid a week, so something’s wrong.’”
But it wasn’t just the business side where Queen wanted to be masters of their own destiny; their News of The World album had proved that in the studio they were also ready to take full control.
John Deacon: ”It comes to a stage where all you really need is an engineer, because the idea of balancing and sounds you want, an artist or musician should really know what they want. And the only person needed to implement that is an engineer. And when you’re doing a mix, when you’re mixing down the track from the tapes, I mean it’s setting it up and then we actually sit down and work the controls as well.”
On that occasion, long-time Queen Engineer Mike Stone had become the invaluable assistant that enabled the band to enjoy the creative freedom they craved in the studio.
This independence had been hard fought for, and after seven years together, when most bands might be coming to their natural end, Queen had finally successfully maneuvered themselves into a position where they could go from strength to strength.
And it’s fair to say, the best was yet to come.
Jim Beach continues to manage Queen.
Watch HERE
*Credit: Photography by Neal Preston, Queen Productions Ltd.
