WE WANT IT ALL, AND WE WANT IT NOW
Classic Rock|Summer 2023
One minute they were taking the bus and watching their Top Of The Pops performance in a shop window, the next they had the world at their feet. With Queen’s debut album turning 50 this year, we look at the birth of the band that went from stars in their eyes and fierce ambition to rock royalty
Mark Blake
WE WANT IT ALL, AND WE WANT IT NOW

“Sir, are you married?” asked Marianne, a pupil in Mr May’s mathematics class. “Sir, if you’re married, why doesn’t your wife iron your shirts?” she added, giggling.

Marianne Elliott-Said attended Stockwell Manor School in Brixton. It was spring 1972. Queen were making slow progress, so Brian May took a student teacher’s job while he worked on his PhD.

Marianne and her friends liked Mr May. He looked a bit like Mick Robertson from children’s TV show Magpie, and sometimes brought his guitar to class. He lived with his future wife, Chrissie, in a bedsit with limited space for ironing clothes.

“Brian was a very good teacher,” Marianne recalled, decades later. “But he used to come in with his long hair and holes in his shoes, and we used to tease him.” And so “Sir, are you married?” was often heard while May tried to teach some complex long division or geometry.

The joke ended in September that year when Queen’s management put the band members on £20-a-week wages and Mr May handed in his notice. One of the senior staff took him aside. ”You’ve got a proper job here, Brian,” he said incredulously. “You’re giving it up for a pop group?” But Mr May wouldn’t be swayed. Queen were hungry, desperate even, for success.

Today, Queen + Adam Lambert are still basking in the box-office glow of the film Bohemian Rhapsody and rehearsing for another US stadium tour. It’s easy to forget that Queen’s global conquest was a long time coming.

Esta historia es de la edición Summer 2023 de Classic Rock.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición Summer 2023 de Classic Rock.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE CLASSIC ROCKVer todo
Dream Theater
Classic Rock

Dream Theater

With friends (and bandmates) reunited for the band's 40th anniversary, it'll be a special night for fans at Wembley Arena.

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 2024
Royal Republic
Classic Rock

Royal Republic

Livewire, turbo-harmonised, disco-rocking Swedes get ready for upgraded UK and Europe dates.

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 2024
GOTTA KEEP MOVIN'
Classic Rock

GOTTA KEEP MOVIN'

In 1968 the MC5's Kick Out The Jams album was a grenade thrown into the music scene. In the decades since, Wayne Kramer acted as guardian of the band's legacy until he died earlier this year, after making one final album.

time-read
9 minutos  |
November 2024
THE KILLING FLOOR
Classic Rock

THE KILLING FLOOR

Now revered as a linchpin moment in the history of the blues, Howlin' Wolf's London sessions in 1970, with a superstar cast that included some of England's rock royalty, came out of a chance encounter several months earlier at a gig in San Francisco.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
November 2024
ROGUE TRADER
Classic Rock

ROGUE TRADER

Recording almost everything on his latest album himself and putting it out on his own label, Tuk Smith followed the adage that if you want something doing properly, do it yourself.

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 2024
BILL WYMAN
Classic Rock

BILL WYMAN

WW2 evacuee, RAF airman, Rolling Stone, hit solo artist, bandleader, author, restaurateur, archaeologist, cricketer... Even just his time in The Greatest Rock'N'Roll Band In The World is storied, but there's been much, much more to his life than that.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
November 2024
LIFE IS A JOURNEY
Classic Rock

LIFE IS A JOURNEY

For some people, travelling life's road is easy. For lifelong worrier Myles Kennedy it's anything but. But with his brand new solo album The Art Of Letting Go he's learning just what that title says.

time-read
9 minutos  |
November 2024
ALL ABOUT BEING LOUD
Classic Rock

ALL ABOUT BEING LOUD

In an exclusive extract from his Fast Eddie biography Make My Day, long-time Motörhead associate Kris Needs looks back at the making of their game-changing Overkill album and the subsequent killing-it UK tour.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
November 2024
Nikki Sixx
Classic Rock

Nikki Sixx

The Mötley Crüe bassist on making new music, replacing Mick Mars, work-life balance, learning when to say no...

time-read
5 minutos  |
November 2024
Bobbie Dazzle
Classic Rock

Bobbie Dazzle

Meet the West Midlands singer bringing back upbeat music, fun and fashion of the 70s.

time-read
2 minutos  |
November 2024