Rock review

8
ROCK REVIEW
As a young man Roger Taylor formed 
a band called Johnny Quale and the 
Reaction. The future Queen drummer 
travelled the length and breadth of the 
country with his band, competing in 
various talent contests. Eventually they 
downsized their name to Reaction, and 
became a constant on the music scene 
throughout the mid-1960s.
At the same time, Brian May had 
taken inspiration from author George 
Orwell, and was playing in a band named 
after one of Orwell’s most famous novels 
– 1984. They enjoyed even more success 
than Taylor’s Reaction, played sold out 
gigs across the country, and even picked 
up a support slot with Jimi Hendrix in 
1967. Unfortunately this success was 
short lived as conflicts within the band 
meant they split soon after.
Queen’s soon-to-be bassist John 
Deacon, was also in a mildly successful 
band at the time, and with Deacon’s 
group getting booked most weekends in 
The New Opposition, it was clear that all 
three artists were on the rise.
In 1966, Brian May was busy studying 
for a degree in astronomy at Imperial 
College in London. As well as performing 
with 1984, May was playing in a band 
called Smile with singer and bassist Tim 
Staffell; a band that Taylor also joined 
after answering an advert on a notice 
board at the Imperial College.
Freddie Bulsara was Staffell’s 
roommate at the time, and followed 
Smile closely – turning up to rehearsals 
as well as most of the band’s gigs. At 
the time, Freddie was also big on the 
scene in his own right, singing with the 
likes of Ibex and Wreckage. Freddie 
was becoming closer and closer with the 
Smile boys – as Staffell drifted further 
and further apart from them – and it 
wasn’t long before Staffell decided that 
Smile was not for him, and Freddie was 
brought in as lead singer in his place. 
Smile also began the long search for 
a new bass player, initially settling on 
Barry Mitchell. Freddie quickly stamped 
his authority on the band, changing 
the band’s name from Smile to Queen, 
stating, ‘Years ago I thought up the name 
Queen… it’s just a name, but it’s very 
regal 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 the gay connotations, 
but that was just one facet of it.’ Deciding 
his own name also needed a makeover, 
Freddie Bulsara found inspiration for 
a new one when writing the song My 
Fairy King, which contains a verse with 
the lyrics ‘Mother Mercury, look what 
they’ve done to me.’ Bulsara was quick 
to latch on to Mercury as a name, and 
subsequently took the stage name Freddie 
Mercury; a name better suiting the stage 
persona that Freddie described as an 
‘extroverted monster’.
When bassist John Deacon joined 
the group in 1972, the band was finally 
complete. Queen began to rehearse 
for their first full-length release – the 
eponymously titled Queen – but struggled 
to find a label to market the finished 
product. Roger Taylor later recalled the 
trying time reflecting, ‘We had quite a 
difficult genesis. It was very difficult for 
us to get a contract, to be accepted in any 
way. But many groups went through that, 
and it does engineer a kind of “backs to 
the wall” feeling in a band. So we felt 
very strong together.’
When they were eventually picked up 
by EMI, it had been eight months since 
Queen had completed their debut album; 
by which point the group had almost 
grown out of it. Years later, Brian May 
talked about the lengthy process, stating, 
‘The album took ages and ages – two 
years in total, in the preparation, making 
and then trying to get the thing released.’
The press barely paid any attention to 
Queen at first, yet the album did succeed 
in giving the band their first radio hit 
through Keep Yourself Alive, which, as 
Mercury himself remarked ‘… was a very 
good way of telling people what Queen 
was about in those days.’
A mixture of mostly Led Zeppelin 
inspired rocking numbers, as well as a 
hint of glam rock, Queen slowly bubbled