People thanked on the Queen début album's liner notes

Mary Lewis: No idea.

Terry Yeadon: Maintenange engineer from Blackburn. Got Queen the gig of testing the Music Centre in exchange for free demos.

Dave Siddle (mis-spelt Siddel on the liner notes): Manager of the Music Centre, allowed Queen to use the studio complex for free.

Louis Austin (mis-spelt Louie): Resident engineer at the Music Centre. Recorded (but NOT produced) the 1971 demos.

Ken Testi: Freddie's Scouser friend who'd managed Ibex and then helped Queen until they got signed. They remained friendly for a while.

Peter Edmunds (mis-spelt Edmonds): Went to secondary school with Brian and Tim, and then became Smile's roadie and driver.

Micky Russell: No idea.

John Anthony: A&R executive, producer and guest backing vocalist.

Ronnie Beck: Managing director at Feldman's, who signed the band and secured them a deal with EMI.

Jack Nelson: Manager. Got the band to sign with both the publishing company and the record company.

Maureen Scully: No idea.

Norman Sheffield: Co-owner of Neptune Productions and managing director at Trident Studios.

Barry Sheffield: Co-owner of Neptune Productions and studio manager at Trident Studios.

Statistics about Song Lengths - Part II

Longest Shortest Tracks:

1. Delilah
2. Princes of the Universe
3. Put Out the Fire
4. Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy
5. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
6. In Only Seven Days
7. Party
8. Is This the World We Created
9. We Will Rock You
10. Seven Seas of Rhye (Queen I)
11. Procession
12. Dear Friends
13. Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon
14. Bridal Chorus

Shortest Longest Tracks:

1. The Hero
2. Fat Bottomed Girls
3. Rock It
4. Back Chat
5. Brighton Rock
6. Who Wants to Live Forever?
7. Was It All Worth It?
8. Radio Ga Ga
9. Teo Torriatte
10. Liar
11. It's Late
12. The March of the Black Queen
13. Innuendo
14. The Prophet's Song

Longest Mean Track Duration:

1. A Kind of Magic
2. Innuendo
3. A Day at the Races
4. The Works
5. Hot Space
6. Queen
7. Queen II
8. A Night at the Opera
9. News of the World
10. The Game
11. The Miracle
12. Jazz
13. Sheer Heart Attack
14. Flash Gordon

Most Varied Durations (i.e., Highest Standard Deviations):

1. A Night at the Opera
2. Queen II
3. Queen
4. Sheer Heart Attack
5. The Works
6. News of the World
7. The Miracle
8. A Day at the Races
9. Flash Gordon
10. Innuendo
11. The Game
12. Jazz
13. A Kind of Magic
14. Hot Space

Statistics about Song Lengths - Part I

Queen:

• Shortest: Seven Seas of Rhye (1.16).
• Longest: Liar (6.25)
• Mean: 3.43
• Mean Track: Jesus (3.44)
• Standard Deviation: 92.99

Queen II:

• Shortest: Procession (1.13).
• Longest: The March of the Black Queen (6.32)
• Mean: 3.42
• Mean Track: The Loser in the End (4.06)
• Standard Deviation: 104.72

Sheer Heart Attack:

• Shortest: Dear Friends (1.08).
• Longest: Brighton Rock (1.44)
• Mean: 3.00
• Mean Track: Killer Queen (3.00)
• Standard Deviation: 69.77

A Night at the Opera:

• Shortest: Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon (1.07).
• Longest: The Prophet's Song (8.20)
• Mean: 3.35
• Mean Track: Love of My Life (3.38)
• Standard Deviation: 117.42

A Day at the Races:

• Shortest: Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy (2.53).
• Longest: Teo Torriatte (5.55)
• Mean: 4.26
• Mean Track: Tie Your Mother Down (4.50)
• Standard Deviation: 57.25

News of the World:

• Shortest: We Will Rock You (2.02).
• Longest: It's Late (6.27)
• Mean: 3.35
• Mean Track: My Melancholy Blues (3.31)
• Standard Deviation: 68.08

Jazz:

• Shortest: In Only Seven Days (2.29).
• Longest: Fat Bottomed Girls (4.17)
• Mean: 3.27
• Mean Track: Don't Stop Me Now (3.29)
• Standard Deviation: 32.44

The Game:

• Shortest: Crazy Little Thing Called Love (2.48).
• Longest: Rock It (4.33)
• Mean: 3.34
• Mean Track: Another One Bites the Dust (3.34)
• Standard Deviation: 36.59

Flash Gordon:

• Shortest: Bridal Chorus (0.56).
• Longest: The Hero (3.33)
• Mean: 1.57
• Mean Track: Marriage of Dale and Ming (1.28)
• Standard Deviation: 50.18

Hot Space:

• Shortest: Put Out the Fire (3.20).
• Longest: Back Chat (4.35)
• Mean: 3.58
• Mean Track: Calling All Girls (3.52)
• Standard Deviation: 27.30

The Works:

• Shortest: Is This the World We Created? (2.14).
• Longest: Radio Ga Ga (5.50)
• Mean: 4.10
• Mean Track: It's a Hard Life (4.08)
• Standard Deviation: 69.22

A Kind of Magic:

• Shortest: Princes of the Universe (3.33).
• Longest: Who Wants to Live Forever? (5.16)
• Mean: 4.30
• Mean Track: Gimme the Prize (4.34)
• Standard Deviation: 30.73

The Miracle:

• Shortest: Party (2.24).
• Longest: Was It All Worth It? (5.47)
• Mean: 3.28
• Mean Track: Breakthru' (3.28)
• Standard Deviation: 61.96

Innuendo:

• Shortest: Delilah (3.35).
• Longest: Innuendo (6.33)
• Mean: 4.29
• Mean Track: I Can't Live with You (4.29)
• Standard Deviation: 47.64

Interaction between Freddie and Brian, part 1 (until Hot Space).

There's a really nice thread on the QOL forum at the moment which started off as a comment on the John/Freddie (or 'Jeddie') interaction, which then turned into an analysis on John/Brian (Maycon? Deacrian? Brohn?), so I thought I'd start some posts here depicting the (very little) I've gathered about Queen's inner pairings. I'll start off with Freddie and Brian (Freian? Breddie? Maycury?).

• First met: Late 60's, when Tim introduced Freddie Bulsara to the other Smile members.
• First impression: AFAIK, Freddie was impressed by Brian's guitar playing (who wouldn't?), Brian seems to have been more shocked by his personality, not particularly by his voice at that time.
• First time working together: Probably at an Ibex gig that Brian and Roger guested.
• Songs they wrote together:
• Hangman (1970)
• Is This the World We Created (1984)
• Hang on in There (1988)
• Was It All Worth It (1988)
• Don't Try So Hard (1989)
• The Hitman (1989)
• Innuendo (1989, lyrics by Freddie and Roger)
• Bijou (1989 or 1990)
• Mother Love (1991)
• Interestingly, Freddie met Mary Austin through Brian, and Brian met Anita Dobson through Freddie.
• Last time they saw each other: Shortly before Freddie's death, Brian and Anita went to visit him and he was pleased to see them. Brian tried to make some conversation to ease off the pain but Freddie told him he didn't need to do that, just being there was enough.

In the early days, it seems to me that their interaction was basically a by-product of Freddie's and Roger's close friendship. They obviously became closer when the three of them decided to form a band together, and a lot of work as well as competition ensued.

Queen always promoted themselves as a democracy, and probably they were for some aspects, but it was obvious for many people who witnessed their labour (e.g., Louis Austin, Peter Hince, Reinhold Mack) that Freddie was on the driver's seat quite often. He got away with choosing the name of the band and designed the logo; he also coerced the others into putting on a 'glam' show with all the make-up and the lights and so on.

Brian seems to have identified Freddie's dominance (at least in visual terms) and actually embraced it: it was Brian who designed the first album cover, and what he did was putting a picture of Freddie in 'Jesus' pose. Tony Brainsby, the band's first PR, was far more interested in Brian, and the first few years of the band were more Brian-centred when it came to the media: Queen's earliest press announcements and adverts basically described them as 'the band where the guitarist made his own instrument'. Brian and his homemade instrument were the main focus, and he also got to write both sides of the band's début single.

The very first fan club newsletter included a letter from Brian, as it was Brian who addressed the public more often and that wouldn't change: early concerts feature both Brian and Freddie talking to the audience between songs. Freddie started to gain more popularity as both his voice, his songwriting and his stage persona kept growing... by spring 1974 he'd written the band's then first and only top ten hit and by the end of the year he'd scored the first No 2 (and first with international success).

Media-wise, Queen became Freddie's band by 1975. Papers and magazines started to interview Freddie more often and their new manager, John Reid, gravitated towards him (as Brian pointed out in the recent 2011 documentary), which changed the balanced completely. Freddie would then get the lead single for the band's fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth albums (in one case compromised to a double-A with a song by Brian) and would dominate (creatively, at least) all but three of the band's records from 1973 to 1982, including the 'Greatest Hits' compilation, of which he wrote more than half.

They were both very fond of each other's musicality and often praised each other's songs: Freddie spoke quite highly of The Prophet's Song, Dear Friends, White Man, '39, Sweet Lady and loved what Brian played on his (Freddie's) own Millionaire Waltz, and he also recruited him to play guitar on Eddie Howell's 'Man from Manhattan', which Freddie produced. Brian, by his side, was quite appreciative of songs like Killer Queen, Love of My Life and Bicycle Race. Don't Stop Me Now was, reportedly, one they did have some problems about.

Note how much they compromised when it came to singles and songwriting:

• First single, Brian gets both sides.
• Second single, Freddie writes the A side, Brian writes the B side.
• Third one, Freddie gets both sides (so far it's 50-50 overall).
• Fourth one (Now I'm Here), Brian wrote the A-side and Freddie wrote the B-side.
• Fifth one, Freddie wrote it, Roger got the B side.
• Sixth, John wrote the A side and Brian the B side (they continue 50-50 so far).
• Seventh (STL), Freddie and Brian on A- and B-sides respectively.
• Eighth, Brian wrote the A side and the B one was John's in Europe and Roger's in America and Australia.
• Ninth (the EP), Freddie wrote two tracks, Brian one and Roger one. So far, they're 50-50 again in terms of material included on the singles either on the A- or B-side.
• Tenth, Freddie wrote the A-Side and Brian wrote the B-Side.
• Eleventh single (released in February 1978, almost a decade after the band's formation and nearly half a decade after their commercial début): First time neither Freddie nor Brian wrote either side... John and Roger were finally getting more attention.
• Twelfth single: Double-A, one side by Freddie and one by Brian.
• Thirteenth single: Freddie wrote the A-Side, B-Side by John in Europe and by Roger in America, Canada, NZ, Oz, Japan... no Brian this time, and the balance is shifted to Freddie's side from then on.
• Fourteenth single: A- by Fred, B- by Brian.
• Fifteenth single: A- by Fred, B- by Brian in Europe, by John elsewhere.
• Sixteenth single: A- by Brian, B- by Freddie.
• Seventeenth single: A- by Freddie, B- by Roger.
• Eighteenth single: A- by John, B- by Brian in Europe, Freddie elsewhere.
• Nineteenth single: A- by Brian, B- by Freddie.
• Twentieth single: Credited to all of them (plus Bowie on the A-).
• Twenty-first single: Freddie wrote both sides.
• Twenty-second single: A- by Brian, B- by Freddie/John.

So, in terms of songwriting for their singles, they were almost entirely equal but there was some more input from Freddie from 'Don't Stop Me Now' onwards. Also check how much they wrote for each album:

• Queen: 3.5 by Brian, 5 by Freddie.
• Queen II: 4 by Brian, 6 by Freddie (and there's the whole debate about SSOR).
• SHA: 4 by Brian, 6 by Freddie (and SCC credited to all four).
• ANATO: 4 by Brian, 5 by Freddie.
• ADATR: 4 by each.
• NOTW: 4 by Brian, 3 by Freddie.
• Jazz: 4 by Brian, 5 by Freddie.
• The Game: 3 each.
• Flash Gordon: 6.5 by Brian (though they're actually just 3 themes, 2 of which are reprised several times), 5 by Freddie.
• Hot Space: 3 by Brian, 3.5 by Freddie (UP credited to five people).

Freddie dominated the songwriting aspect at first, peaking on SHA. On ANATO he was still dominant but by a narrower margin, then ADATR was a toss-up and then Brian dominated on NOTW; Fred regained control for Jazz and then they compromised and had equal input on The Game. Brian had more input on Flash and Fred had more input on Hot Space.

To be continued...

Bohemian Rhapsody / A Night at the Opera Timelines

The thing about Bo Rhap is that there are so many different and often contradicting stories. The 1995 SOS article, which seems to be regarded as *the* holy grail when it comes to info about it, claims (IIRC) that sessions began on the 24th of August 1975 at Rockfield.

I strongly suspect that's not the case: they had some rehearsals at the Ridge Farm (around June/July, most likely), which would mean they just had a month of literally doing 'nothing' from rehearsals to recordings.

Freddie's then-boyfriend said in his book that he witnessed a rough mix of Bo Rhap being played to him and a friend on a Friday before a bank holiday weekend in late August ... the only bank holiday around that time was summer bank holiday, which that year was on the 25th of August ... which means their encounter (which took place at Roundhouse Studios) was on Friday the 22nd and, by then, a lot of the song had already been done (to the point he was ready to play it to other people).

A recent Fred biography (Laura Jackson's IIRC) claims Jill Sinclair interrupted the mixing sessions for Bo Rhap (at SARM) by turning the power off to sing Happy Birthday to Freddie, which puts the date on or around the 5th of September. It makes sense if they were mixing it roughly a month and a half before the single was released, as it'd give EMI and Elektra time to master, press, pack and distribute the vinyl.

There's no way around it: either the SOS article's wrong/inaccurate about that, or Minn's recollection is wrong, or the birthday story's a lie, or a combination of some/all/none of the above.

As much as SOS's a respected source, the article's got several mistakes already: 'Scorpion Studios' anyone? It also claims the first three Queen albums were recorded on 16-track (SHA wasn't), it claims Kenny Everett played the song fourteen times on his programme (he did it four times, no teen), it claims NOTW was a Marx Brothers' title (it wasn't) and it claims part of Bo Rhap was done at Wessex (it wasn't - the studio was undergoing refurbishment), so one more inaccurate claim wouldn't be a big surprise.

My theory, and there's still a lot I need in order to make it a serious claim, is that sessions began either in late July or in early August, giving them more than enough time to deliver the mixed single to EMI in early September and secure a late October release.

BTW, about that Kenny Everett thing ... does anybody know the exact date of Kenny first broadcasting Bo Rhap? If it really was before the single was released and if it really was a rough mix, then there's a collectors' holy grail that some people *should* have, unless of course nobody bothered recording from the radio.

Tape Recorders until 1977

1971 Demos: Scully 16-Track.

Queen & Queen II: 3M 16-Track.

Sheer Heart Attack: Studer A-80 24-Track at Rockfield and AIR, Ampex MM-1000 24-Track, 3M 16-Track at Trident.

A Night at the Opera: Studer A-80 24 Track at Rockfield, Lansdowne and Roundhouse; 3M at Olympic, 3M and MCI at SARM, Telefunken, 3M M-79 and Struder at Scorpio.

A Day at the Races: Ampex 24-Track at The Manor, 3M M-79 24-Track at Wessex, Studer A-80 at SARM, Scully (possibly) at Advision.

News of the World: 3M M-79 24-Track at both Basing Street and Wessex.

Mixing Consoles

1971 Demos: Sound Techniques.

Queen - Sheer Heart Attack: Sound Techniques and Trident.

Opera - Races: Trident B.

News of the World: Cadac at Wessex, Helios at Basing Street.

Jazz: Neve at Mountain, MCI at Super Bear.

The Game & Hot Space: Helios.

Flash Gordon: Helios and SSL B at The Town House.

The Works: Harrison.

A Kind of Magic: Neve at Mountain, SSL E at The Town House, Harrison at Musicland.

The Miracle: SSL G at Olympic, SSL E at The Town House and Neve at Mountain.

Innuendo & Made in Heaven: Neve at Mountain, SSL E at The Town House, SSL and Neve at Metropolis.