Brian May
Encyclopedia
Brian Harold May, CBE
(born 19 July 1947) is an English musician and astrophysicist
most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen
. As a guitarist he uses his home-built guitar, "Red Special
", and has composed hits such as "Tie Your Mother Down
", "We Will Rock You
", and "Fat Bottomed Girls
".
He was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 for "services to the music industry". May earned a PhD in astrophysics
from Imperial College in 2007 and is currently the Chancellor
of Liverpool John Moores University
. May currently resides in Surrey
.
In 2005, a Planet Rock poll saw May voted the 7th greatest guitarist of all time. He was ranked at #26 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
and attended Hampton Grammar School (now Hampton School
). During this time he formed his first band with vocalist and bassist Tim Staffell
, named Nineteen Eighty-Four after George Orwell
's novel of the same name
. He left Hampton Grammar School with ten GCE
Ordinary Levels and three Advanced Levels in Physics, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics. He studied Mathemathics and Physics in Imperial College, London, graduating with a second class upper degree.
as singer and bassist, and later, drummer Roger Taylor, who also went on to play for Queen
. The band lasted for only two years from 1968 to 1970, as Staffell left in 1970, leaving the band with a catalogue of only nine songs. Smile would reunite for several songs on 22 December 1992. Taylor's band The Cross
were headliners and he brought May and Staffell on to play "Earth" and "If I Were a Carpenter". May also performed several other songs that night.
In Queen's three-part vocal harmonies, May's was generally the lower-range backing vocal. On some of his songs he sings the lead vocal, most notably the first verse of "Who Wants to Live Forever
", the bridge on "I Want It All
" and "Flash's Theme", and full lead vocals on "Some Day One Day", "She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettoes)", "'39", "Good Company", "Long Away", "All Dead, All Dead", "Sleeping on the Sidewalk", "Leaving Home Ain't Easy" and "Sail Away Sweet Sister".
Throughout Queen's career May frequently wrote songs for the band and has composed many significant songs such as the worldwide hit "We Will Rock You
", as well as "Tie Your Mother Down
", "Who Wants to Live Forever", "Hammer to Fall
", "Save Me
", "Fat Bottomed Girls
" and "I Want It All". Typically, either Freddie Mercury
or May wrote the most songs on every Queen album.
After the famous Live Aid
concert in summer 1985, Mercury rang his bandmates and proposed writing a song together. The result was "One Vision
", which was basically May on music (the Magic Years documentary shows how he came up with the opening section and the basic guitar riff) and Roger Taylor on lyrics, with Freddie Mercury being more a producer and arranger than a proper co-writer, and John Deacon
mostly absent.
For their 1989 release album, The Miracle, the band had decided that all of the tracks would be credited to the entire band, no matter who had been the main writer. Still, interviews and musical analyses tend to help identify the input of each member on each track.
May composed "I Want It All
" for that album, as well as "Scandal
" (based on his personal problems with the British press). For the rest of the album he did not contribute so much creatively, although he helped in building the basis of "Party" and "Was It All Worth It" (both being predominantly Mercury's pieces) and created the guitar riff of "Chinese Torture".
Queen's subsequent album was Innuendo
, on which May's contributions increased, although more in arrangements than actual writing in most cases; for the title track
he did some of the arrangement for the heavy solo, then he added vocal harmonies to "I'm Going Slightly Mad
" and composed the solo of "These Are the Days of Our Lives
", a song for which the four of them decided the keyboard parts together. He changed the tempo and key of Mercury's song "The Hitman" and took it under his wing, even singing guide vocal in the demo. May also co-wrote some of the guitar lines in "Bijou".
Two songs that May had composed for his first solo album, "Headlong
" and "I Can't Live With You", eventually ended up in the Queen project. His other composition was "The Show Must Go On
", a group effort in which he was the coordinator and primary composer, but in which they all had input, Deacon and Taylor with the famous chord sequence.
In recent years, he has overseen the remastering of Queen albums and various DVD and greatest hits releases. In 2004, he announced that he and drummer Roger Taylor were going on tour for the first time in 18 years as "Queen", along with Free
/Bad Company
vocalist Paul Rodgers
. Billed as "Queen + Paul Rodgers
", the band has played throughout 2005 and 2006 in South Africa, Europe, Aruba, Japan, and North America and released a new album with Paul Rodgers in 2008, entitled The Cosmos Rocks. This album was supported by a major tour.
, on which he collaborated with Eddie Van Halen
.
He worked with his second wife Anita Dobson
on her first album, in which she sang vocals to the EastEnders
theme tune. In this form the tune became the song "Anyone Can Fall in Love
". May himself produced the song, which reached #4 in the UK Singles Chart
in August 1986.
Following the death of Freddie Mercury
in November 1991, May chose to deal with his grief by committing himself as fully as possible to work, first by finishing his solo album, Back to the Light
, and then touring worldwide to promote it. He frequently remarked in press interviews that this was the only form of self-prescribed therapy he could think of.
In late 1992, the Brian May Band was officially formed. An early version of the band was loosely formed for 19 October 1991, when May took part in the Guitar Legends guitar festival in Seville
, Spain. The line-up for his performance was May (Lead Vocals & Lead Guitar), Cozy Powell
(Drums & Percussion), Mike Moran (Keyboards), Rick Wakeman
(Keyboards), Maggie Ryder
(Backing vocals), Miriam Stockley
(Backing vocals) and Chris Thompson (Backing vocals).
The original line-up was Brian May (Lead Vocals and Lead Guitar), Cozy Powell
(Drums and Percussion), Mike Caswell (Guitar), Neil Murray
(Bass), Maggie Ryder (Backing vocals), Miriam Stockley (Backing vocals) and Chris Thompson (Backing vocals). This version of the band lasted only during the South American support tour (supporting The B-52's
and Joe Cocker
) on only five dates. In Spain, a Catalan band called Sweet Sister supported the tour.
Afterwards, May made significant changes, feeling the group never quite gelled. Most significantly, May brought guitarist Jamie Moses
on board to replace Mike Caswell. May considered Moses a perfect fit to the band. The other change made was in the backing vocal department. Ryder, Stockley and Thompson were replaced with Catherine Porter
and Shelley Preston
. On 23 February 1993, this new line-up of The Brian May Band began its world tour in the US, both supporting Guns N' Roses
and headlining a few dates. The tour would take them through North America, Europe (support act: Valentine
) and Japan.
After the tour ended on 18 December 1993, May returned to the studio with fellow surviving Queen band members Roger Taylor
and John Deacon
to work on tracks that became Made in Heaven
, the final Queen studio album. The band took Mercury's solo album demos and last recordings, which he managed to perform in the studio after the album Innuendo
was finished, and completed them with their additions both musically and vocally. Work on the album after Mercury's death originally began in 1992 by Deacon and May, but was left until a later date due to other commitments.
In 1995, May began working towards a new solo album of covers tentatively named Heroes, in addition to working on various film and television projects and other collaborations. May subsequently changed the approach of his second album from covers to focus on those collaborations and on new material. The songs recorded for that album, Another World
, would feature mainly Spike Edney
, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray and Jamie Moses, who had become his core support/collaborative team.
On 5 April 1998, Cozy Powell was killed in a car accident on the M4 motorway
near Bristol
, England. This caused a huge, unexpected disruption to the upcoming tour for The Brian May Band, with a new drummer being needed at short notice. Steve Ferrone
was brought on to help May finish recording drums for the title track "Another World" and to join the band for the early stage promotional tour of five dates in Europe before the world tour.
The line-up was then May (lead vocals & lead guitar), Edney (keyboards), Murray (bass), Moses (guitar), Ferrone (drums & percussion), Susie Webb (backing vocals) and Zoe Nicholas (Bbacking vocals). Following the early promotional tour, Eric Singer
replaced Steve Ferrone for the full 1998 world tour.
(former Motörhead guitarist) for the encore song "Overkill
". In the Queen's birthday honours list of 2005, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
"for services to the music industry". May is a friend of singer and musician Phil Collins
and was a special guest at the Genesis
reunion concert at Twickenham Stadium
in 2007. On 17 November 2007, Brian May was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University
, taking over from Cherie Blair
, and installed in 2008. May worked extensively with stage actress and singer Kerry Ellis
after he cast her in the musical We Will Rock You
. He produced and arranged her debut studio album Anthems
(2010), a follow-up to her extended play Wicked in Rock
(2008), as well as appeared with Ellis at many public performances – playing guitar alongside her. He also contributed a guitar solo to Meat Loaf
's Hang Cool, Teddy Bear album in exchange for the use of drummer John Miceli
. Along with Elena Vidal, Brian May released a historical book in 2009 entitled A Village Lost and Found: Scenes in Our Village
. The book is an annotated collection of stereoscopic photographs taken by the Victorian era
photographer T. R. Williams
and it is sold with a focussing stereoscope. May became an enthusiast of stereoscope photographs as a child, and first encountered the work of Williams during the late 1960s. In 2003 May announced a search in order to identify the actual location of the Scenes in Our Village images. In 2004 May reported that he had identified the location as the village of Hinton Waldrist
in Oxfordshire.
In November 2009, May appeared on the popular reality TV show The X Factor
with band mate Roger Taylor
as Queen
mentoring the contestants, then later performing "Bohemian Rhapsody
". In April 2010, May founded the "Save Me" 2010 project to work against any proposed repeal of the British fox-hunting ban, and also to promote animal rights in Britain. In February 2011 it was announced that May would tour with Kerry Ellis
, playing 12 dates across the UK in May 2011. On 18 April 2011 Lady Gaga
confirmed that May would play guitar on her track "You and I" from her latest album Born This Way
, released on 23 May 2011. On 26 August, May performed "We Will Rock You
" and "Welcome To The Black Parade
" with American rock band My Chemical Romance
at the Reading Festival. On 28 August, May performed "You and I" live with Lady Gaga at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards
at the Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles.
At the end of 2004, May and Taylor announced that they would reunite and return to touring in 2005, with Paul Rodgers
(founder and former lead singer of Free
and Bad Company
). Brian May's website also stated that Rodgers would be "featured with" Queen as Queen + Paul Rodgers
, not replacing the late Freddie Mercury. The retired John Deacon would not be participating.
Between 2005 and 2006 Queen and Paul Rodgers embarked on a world tour
, the first leg being Europe and the second, Japan and the US in 2006. On 25 May 2006, Queen received the inaugural VH1 Rock Honors
at the Mandalay Bay Events Center
in Las Vegas
, Nevada, and May and Taylor were joined on stage with the Foo Fighters
to perform a selection of Queen songs. On 15 August 2006, May confirmed through his website and fan club that Queen + Paul Rodgers would begin producing their first studio album beginning in October, to be recorded at a "secret location". The album, titled The Cosmos Rocks
, was released in Europe on 12 September 2008 and in the United States on 28 October 2008. Following the album the band again embarked on a tour through Europe and parts of the US, opening on Kharkov's freedom square
in front of 350,000 Ukrainian fans. The show in Ukraine was later released on DVD
.
Queen and Paul Rodgers officially split up on 12 May 2009. Rodgers does not rule out the possibility of working together again.
", and with Elizabeth Lamers, whose music won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically in 1996. A meticulous arranger, he focuses on multi-part harmonies, often more contrapuntal
than parallel — a relative rarity for rock guitar. Examples are found in Queen's albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, where he arranged a jazz band for guitar mini-orchestra ("Good Company"), a vocal canon ("The Prophet's Song") and guitar and vocal counterpoints ("Teo Torriatte").
May explored a wide variety of styles in guitar, including sweep picking ("Was It All Worth It", "Chinese Torture"), tremolo
("Brighton Rock", "Stone Cold Crazy
", "Death on Two Legs
", "Sweet Lady", "Bohemian Rhapsody
", "Get Down Make Love", "Dragon Attack"), tapping
("Bijou", "It's Late
", "Resurrection
", "Cyborg", "Rain Must Fall", "Business", "China Belle", "I Was Born To Love You"), slide guitar ("Drowse", "Tie Your Mother Down"), Hendrix
sounding licks ("Liar", "Brighton Rock"), tape-delay ("Brighton Rock", "White Man") and melodic sequences ("Bohemian Rhapsody
", "Killer Queen", "These Are the Days of Our Lives
"). Some of his solos and orchestral parts were composed by Freddie Mercury
, who then asked May to bring them to life ("Bicycle Race", "Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon", "Killer Queen", "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy"). May also performed notable acoustic works, including the acoustic guitar live version of "Love of My Life" from 1975's A Night at the Opera, the finger-picked solo of "White Queen" and the skiffle
-influenced "'39".
In January 2007, the readers of Guitar World
voted May's guitar solos "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Brighton Rock" into the top 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time ("Bohemian Rhapsody" was voted #20 and "Brighton Rock" was voted #41).
Aided by the uniqueness of his guitar — the Red Special
— May was often able to create strange and unusual sound effects. For example, he was able to imitate an orchestra in the song "Procession"; in "Get Down, Make Love" he was able to create sound effects with his guitar that were so unusual that many thought a synthesiser was being used; in "Good Company" he used his guitar to mimic a trombone, a piccolo and several other instruments for the song's Dixieland jazz band feel. Queen used a "No synthesizers were used on this album" sleeve note on their early albums to make this clear to the listeners.
, which he then played on Queen's song "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" (live and in the studio). For "Good Company", he used a regular baritone ukelele which he had bought in Hawaii on a holiday. Occasionally, May would also record on other string instruments such as harp (one chord per take, then copied and pasted by the engineer to make it sound like a continuous performance) and bass (on some demos and many songs in his solo career, and the Queen + Paul Rodgers album).
As a child, he was also trained on classical piano. Although Freddie Mercury was the band's main pianist, Brian would occasionally step in (such as on "Save Me
"). From 1979 onwards, he also played synthesisers, organ ("Wedding March") and programmed drum-machines for both Queen and outside projects (such as producing other artists and his own solo records).
May is also an accomplished singer. From Queen's Queen II
to The Game
, May contributed lead vocals to at least one song per album.
May co-composed a mini-opera
with Lee Holdridge
, Il Colosso, for Steve Barron
's 1996 film, The Adventures of Pinocchio. May performed the opera with Jerry Hadley
, Sissel Kyrkjebo, and Just William
. On-screen, it was performed entirely by puppets.
vocalist Sammy Hagar
stated, "I thought Queen were really innovative and made some great sounding records.. I like the rockin' stuff. I think Brian May has one of the great guitar tones on the planet, and I really, really love his guitar work." May has used a range of guitars, most often the "Red Special
", which he designed when he was only 16 years old. It was built with wood from an 18th century fireplace. His comments on this instrument, from Queen In Their Own Words (ed. Mick St. Michael, Omnibus Press, 1992, p. 62) are:
In addition to using his home-made guitar he prefers to use coins (especially a sixpence from the farewell proof set of 1970), instead of a more traditional plastic plectrum
, on the basis that their rigidity gives him more control in playing. He is known to carry coins in his pockets specifically for this purpose.
May's early heroes were Cliff Richard
and The Shadows
, who he says were "the most metallic thing(s) out at the time." Many years later he gained his opportunity to play on separate occasions with both Cliff Richard and Shadows lead guitarist Hank Marvin
. He has collaborated with Cliff Richard on a re-recording of the Cliff Richard and The Shadows (then known as The Drifters) 1958 hit "Move It
" on the Cliff Richard duets album Two's Company which was released on 6 November 2006. On Queen For An Hour 1989 Interview on BBC Radio 1 May listed Jimi Hendrix
, Jeff Beck
and Eric Clapton
as his guitar heroes. In a 1991 interview for Guitar World magazine, May referred to The Who
as "my inspiration", and on seeing Led Zeppelin
stated, "We used to look at those guys and think, "That's the way it should be done."
During the time in which Brian May and his father were building the Red Special
, May also produced plans to build a second guitar. However, so successful was the Red Special, that May simply had no need to build another guitar. These plans were eventually given to guitar luthier
Andrew Guyton in around 2004/05, some slight modifications were made and the guitar was built. It was named "The Spade", as the shape of the body resembled the form shown on playing cards. However the guitar also came to be known as "The Guitar That Time Forgot". As yet, this guitar has not been used in any recordings and remains in May's possession.
Most of May's electric guitar work live and in the studio was done on the Red Special
, which he built with his father during his teenage years. From 1975 onwards, he has also had some replicas made, some of which were also used for live and recording purposes, others were mainly spares. The most famous replicas were made by John Birch (in 1975—May actually smashed it during a concert in the States in 1982), Greco
BM90 (featured in the promo video of "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" in 1977), Guild (back-up from 1984 to 1993) and Fryers (1997–1998, used both live and in the studio). On stage, Brian used to carry at least one back-up guitar (in case he broke a string) and occasionally would use others for certain songs or parts. Currently, May has his own company which makes guitars whose design is modelled after the original Red Special guitar.
Some of the non-RS electric guitars he used in the studio included:
For acoustic, he favoured Ovation, Martin, Tōkai Hummingbird, Godin and Guild. On a couple of videos he also used some different electric guitars: a Stratocaster copy on "Play the Game" (1980) and a Washburn RR2V
on "Princes of the Universe" (1986).
In 1984 Guild
released the first official Red Special replica for mass production, and made some prototypes specifically for May. However the solid body construction (the original RS has hollow cavities in the body) and the pick-ups (DiMarzio) that were not an exact replica of the Burns TriSonic did not make May happy, so the production stopped after just 300 guitars. In 1993 Guild made a second replica of the RS, made in just 1000 copies, of which May has some and used as a backup. At the moment, he uses the two guitars made by Greg Fryer—the luthier who restored the Old Lady in 1998—as backup. They are almost identical to the original, except for the Fryer logo on the headstock (May's original one has a sixpence).
In the studio, May used Yamaha DX7
synths for the opening sequence of "One Vision
" and the backgrounds of "Who Wants to Live Forever
" (also on stage), "Scandal
" and "The Show Must Go On"
. He mostly used Freddie Mercury's 1972 Steinway piano and reportedly now owns the instrument in question.
May was keen on using some toys as instruments as well. He used a Yamaha plastic piano in "Teo Torriatte", a "genuine George Formby Ukulele-Banjo" in "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" and in "Good Company"
, and a toy mini koto
in "The Prophet's Song"
.
May has used Vox AC30
amplifiers almost exclusively since a meeting with his long time hero Rory Gallagher
at a gig in London during the late '60s/early '70s. His choice is the model AC30TBX, the top-boost version with Blue Alnico speakers, and he runs the amp at full volume on the Normal channel. He also customises his amps by removing the circuitry for the Brilliant and Vib-trem channels (leaving only the circuitry for the Normal), and this alters the tone slightly, with a gain addition of 6–7 dB. He always used a treble booster built by John Deacon which, along with the AC30, went a long way in helping to create many of his signature guitar tones. He used the Dallas Rangemaster for the first Queen albums, up to A Day at the Races
. Effects guru Pete Cornish
built for him the TB-83 (32 dB of gain) that was used for all the remaining Queen albums. He switched in 2000 to the Fryer's booster, which actually gives less boost than the TB-83.
Live, he uses banks of Vox AC30 amplifiers keeping some amps with only guitar and others with all effects such as delay, flanger and chorus. He has a rack of 14 AC30s, which are grouped as Normal, Chorus, Delay 1, Delay 2. On his pedal board, May has a custom switch unit made by Cornish and subsequently modified by Fryer that allows him to choose which amps are active. He uses a BOSS
pedal from the '70s, the Chorus Ensemble CE-1, which can be heard in In The Lap of The Gods
(Live at Wembley '86
) or Hammer to Fall
(slow version played live with P. Rodgers). Next in the chain, he uses a Foxx Foot Phaser (We Will Rock You
, We Are the Champions
, Keep Yourself Alive
, etc.), and two delay machines to play his trademark solo in Brighton Rock.
actress Anita Dobson
, whom he met in 1986, and who gained fame in the 1980s as Angie Watts
. After many years together they married on December 18, 2000.
He has stated in interviews that he suffered from severe depression in the late 1980s and early 1990s, even to the point of contemplating suicide, for reasons having to do with his troubled first marriage, his perceived failure as a husband and a father, his father Harold's death, and Freddie Mercury's illness and eventual death.
May's father Harold worked as a draughtsman at the Ministry of Aviation
and had been a long-time cigarette-smoker. As a result, May dislikes smoking, even to the point where he has prohibited smoking indoors at his more recent concerts.
His father was disappointed that he abandoned his scientific education to become a rock musician. For a while May didn't speak with his father. He reconnected with his dad when he flew both his parents out to New York to attend Queen's first concert in Madison Square Garden
. After the concert his dad said that "he got it".
According to The Sunday Times
Rich List
he is worth £85 million .
, graduating with a BSc (Hons) degree and ARCS
in physics with Upper Second-Class Honours. He then proceeded to study for a PhD degree, also at the Imperial College London
departments of Physics and Mathematics, and was part way through this PhD programme, studying reflected light from interplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. When Queen became successful he abandoned his physics doctorate but did co-author two scientific research papers: MgI Emission in the Night-Sky Spectrum (1972) and An Investigation of the Motion of Zodiacal Dust
Particles (Part I) (1973), which were based on his observations at the Teide Observatory
in Tenerife
. He is the co-author of Bang! – The Complete History of the Universe with Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott
, which was published in October 2006. In October 2007, more than 30 years after he started his research, he completed his PhD thesis in astrophysics
, entitled A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, passed his viva voce, and performed the required corrections. He officially graduated at the postgraduate awards ceremony held in the Royal Albert Hall
, on the afternoon of Wednesday 14 May 2008.
On 17 November 2007, May was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University
, taking over from Cherie Blair
, and installed in 2008.
Asteroid 52665 Brianmay
was named in his honour on 18 June 2008 on the suggestion of Sir Patrick Moore (probably influenced by the asteroid's provisional designation of ).
May appeared on the 700th episode of The Sky at Night
hosted by Sir Patrick Moore, along with Dr. Chris Lintott
, Jon Culshaw
, Prof. Brian Cox
, and the Astronomer Royal
Martin Rees who on leaving the panel told Brian May, who was joining it, "I don't know any scientist who looks as much as like Isaac Newton
as you do". May replied that "that could be my after dinner comment, thank you very much".
voter most of his life, he has stated that their policies on fox hunting
and the culling
of badger
s meant he did not vote for them at the 2010 General Election. His group, Save Me (named after the May-written Queen song
), campaigns for the protection of all animals against unnecessary, cruel and degrading treatment; with a particular emphasis on preventing hunting of foxes and the culling of badgers.
The group's primary concern is to ensure that the Hunting Act 2004
and other laws protecting animals are kept in place.
In a September 2010 interview with Stephen Sackur
for the BBC’s HARDtalk
program, May said that he would rather be remembered for his animal rights work than for his music or science.
, on the work of English stereophotography innovator TR Williams.
Studio albums
Live albums
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
(born 19 July 1947) is an English musician and astrophysicist
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
. As a guitarist he uses his home-built guitar, "Red Special
Red Special
The Red Special is an electric guitar owned by Queen guitarist Brian May and custom-built by May and his father. The Red Special is also sometimes named in reviews as the Fireplace or the Old Lady, both nicknames used by May when referring to the guitar. A guitar that would define May's signature...
", and has composed hits such as "Tie Your Mother Down
Tie Your Mother Down
"Tie Your Mother Down" is a song by the English rock group Queen, written by guitarist Brian May. It is the opening track and the second single from their 1976 album A Day at the Races...
", "We Will Rock You
We Will Rock You
"We Will Rock You" is a song written by Brian May and recorded and performed by Queen for their 1977 album News of the World. Rolling Stone ranked it #330 of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and the RIAA placed it at #146 on its list of Songs of the Century...
", and "Fat Bottomed Girls
Fat Bottomed Girls
"Fat Bottomed Girls" is a song by the English rock band Queen. Written by guitarist Brian May, the track featured on their 1978 album Jazz, and also appears on the band's compilation album, Greatest Hits...
".
He was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 for "services to the music industry". May earned a PhD in astrophysics
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
from Imperial College in 2007 and is currently the Chancellor
Chancellor (education)
A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....
of Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...
. May currently resides in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
.
In 2005, a Planet Rock poll saw May voted the 7th greatest guitarist of all time. He was ranked at #26 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Early life
Brian May, the only child of Harold and Ruth May, was born in Hampton, LondonHampton, London
Hampton is a suburban area, centred on an old village on the north bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in England. Formerly it was in the county of Middlesex, which was formerly also its postal county. The population is about 9,500...
and attended Hampton Grammar School (now Hampton School
Hampton School
Hampton School is an independent boys' day school in Hampton, London, England.-History:In 1556, Robert Hammond, a wealthy brewer who had acquired property in Hampton, left in his will provision for the maintenance of a 'free scole' and to build a small schoolhouse 'with seates in yt' in the...
). During this time he formed his first band with vocalist and bassist Tim Staffell
Tim Staffell
Timothy "Tim" Staffell is an English rock musician and visual artist. He was a member of blues-rock outfit 1984 and later Smile, a band which included guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Upon Staffell's departure, Smile were joined by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon to form the band Queen...
, named Nineteen Eighty-Four after George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's novel of the same name
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
. He left Hampton Grammar School with ten GCE
General Certificate of Education
The General Certificate of Education or GCE is an academic qualification that examination boards in the United Kingdom and a few of the Commonwealth countries, notably Sri Lanka, confer to students. The GCE traditionally comprised two levels: the Ordinary Level and the Advanced Level...
Ordinary Levels and three Advanced Levels in Physics, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics. He studied Mathemathics and Physics in Imperial College, London, graduating with a second class upper degree.
Smile
Brian May formed the band Smile in 1968. The group included Tim StaffellTim Staffell
Timothy "Tim" Staffell is an English rock musician and visual artist. He was a member of blues-rock outfit 1984 and later Smile, a band which included guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Upon Staffell's departure, Smile were joined by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon to form the band Queen...
as singer and bassist, and later, drummer Roger Taylor, who also went on to play for Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
. The band lasted for only two years from 1968 to 1970, as Staffell left in 1970, leaving the band with a catalogue of only nine songs. Smile would reunite for several songs on 22 December 1992. Taylor's band The Cross
The Cross
The Cross were a side project of Queen's Roger Taylor that existed from 1987 to 1993 and released three albums. Although the drummer in Queen, Taylor fronted The Cross as rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist. On its debut release, the classic rock band incorporated dance influences which they...
were headliners and he brought May and Staffell on to play "Earth" and "If I Were a Carpenter". May also performed several other songs that night.
Queen
Who Wants to Live Forever
"Who Wants to Live Forever" is a song by the English rock band Queen. The song is the sixth track on the album A Kind of Magic, released in June 1986, and was written by guitarist Brian May for the soundtrack to the film Highlander, directed by Russell Mulcahy...
", the bridge on "I Want It All
I Want It All
"I Want It All" is a song by English rock band Queen, featured on their 1989 twelfth studio album The Miracle. Written by guitarist and backing vocalist Brian May and produced by David Richards, the song was released as the lead single from the album on 2 May 1989...
" and "Flash's Theme", and full lead vocals on "Some Day One Day", "She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettoes)", "'39", "Good Company", "Long Away", "All Dead, All Dead", "Sleeping on the Sidewalk", "Leaving Home Ain't Easy" and "Sail Away Sweet Sister".
Throughout Queen's career May frequently wrote songs for the band and has composed many significant songs such as the worldwide hit "We Will Rock You
We Will Rock You
"We Will Rock You" is a song written by Brian May and recorded and performed by Queen for their 1977 album News of the World. Rolling Stone ranked it #330 of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and the RIAA placed it at #146 on its list of Songs of the Century...
", as well as "Tie Your Mother Down
Tie Your Mother Down
"Tie Your Mother Down" is a song by the English rock group Queen, written by guitarist Brian May. It is the opening track and the second single from their 1976 album A Day at the Races...
", "Who Wants to Live Forever", "Hammer to Fall
Hammer to Fall
"Hammer to Fall" is a 1984 song by the British rock group Queen. Written by guitarist Brian May, the song is the eighth track on their 1984 album The Works....
", "Save Me
Save Me (Queen song)
"Save Me" is a rock ballad by English rock band Queen from their 1980 album The Game. Written by guitarist Brian May, it was recorded in 1979, and released in the UK on January 25, 1980, nearly six months prior to the release of the album. "Save Me" spent six weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking...
", "Fat Bottomed Girls
Fat Bottomed Girls
"Fat Bottomed Girls" is a song by the English rock band Queen. Written by guitarist Brian May, the track featured on their 1978 album Jazz, and also appears on the band's compilation album, Greatest Hits...
" and "I Want It All". Typically, either Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...
or May wrote the most songs on every Queen album.
After the famous Live Aid
Live Aid
Live Aid was a dual-venue concert that was held on 13 July 1985. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom ...
concert in summer 1985, Mercury rang his bandmates and proposed writing a song together. The result was "One Vision
One Vision
"One Vision" is a song written and recorded by the rock band Queen, first released as a single in November 1985 and then included on their 1986 album A Kind of Magic...
", which was basically May on music (the Magic Years documentary shows how he came up with the opening section and the basic guitar riff) and Roger Taylor on lyrics, with Freddie Mercury being more a producer and arranger than a proper co-writer, and John Deacon
John Deacon
John Richard Deacon is a retired English multi-instrumentalist and song writer, best known as the bassist for the rock band Queen. Of the four members of the band, he was the last to join and also the youngest, being only 19 years old when he was recruited by the other members of the band...
mostly absent.
For their 1989 release album, The Miracle, the band had decided that all of the tracks would be credited to the entire band, no matter who had been the main writer. Still, interviews and musical analyses tend to help identify the input of each member on each track.
May composed "I Want It All
I Want It All
"I Want It All" is a song by English rock band Queen, featured on their 1989 twelfth studio album The Miracle. Written by guitarist and backing vocalist Brian May and produced by David Richards, the song was released as the lead single from the album on 2 May 1989...
" for that album, as well as "Scandal
Scandal (song)
"Scandal" is a song by the British rock group Queen. It was released as the fourth single from their 1989 album The Miracle and peaked at #25 in the UK...
" (based on his personal problems with the British press). For the rest of the album he did not contribute so much creatively, although he helped in building the basis of "Party" and "Was It All Worth It" (both being predominantly Mercury's pieces) and created the guitar riff of "Chinese Torture".
Queen's subsequent album was Innuendo
Innuendo (album)
Innuendo is the fourteenth studio album by British rock band Queen. Released in February 1991, it was the final studio album to be released in Freddie Mercury's lifetime and is the last to be composed entirely of new material...
, on which May's contributions increased, although more in arrangements than actual writing in most cases; for the title track
Innuendo (song)
"Innuendo" is a 1991 song by the English rock band Queen. It is the opening track on the album of the same name, and was released as the first single from the album. At six and a half minutes, it is one of Queen's longest songs, and their longest ever released as a single, exceeding "Bohemian...
he did some of the arrangement for the heavy solo, then he added vocal harmonies to "I'm Going Slightly Mad
I'm Going Slightly Mad
"I'm Going Slightly Mad" is a song by the British rock band Queen. Written by Freddie Mercury, it was released as the second single from the band's 1991 album Innuendo...
" and composed the solo of "These Are the Days of Our Lives
These Are the Days of Our Lives
"These Are the Days of Our Lives" is a song by English rock band Queen. It was written largely by their drummer Roger Taylor, and is the eighth track on the band's 1991 album Innuendo. It is harmonically and structurally one of the simplest songs of the band's catalogue...
", a song for which the four of them decided the keyboard parts together. He changed the tempo and key of Mercury's song "The Hitman" and took it under his wing, even singing guide vocal in the demo. May also co-wrote some of the guitar lines in "Bijou".
Two songs that May had composed for his first solo album, "Headlong
Headlong (song)
"Headlong" is a song by the British rock band Queen. Written by guitarist Brian May, but credited to Queen, it was released as the third single from their 1991 album Innuendo....
" and "I Can't Live With You", eventually ended up in the Queen project. His other composition was "The Show Must Go On
The Show Must Go On (Queen song)
"The Show Must Go On" is a song by English rock band Queen, featured as the twelfth and final track on their 1991 album Innuendo. It is credited to Queen, but written primarily by Brian May. The song chronicles the effort of Freddie Mercury continuing to perform despite approaching the end of his...
", a group effort in which he was the coordinator and primary composer, but in which they all had input, Deacon and Taylor with the famous chord sequence.
In recent years, he has overseen the remastering of Queen albums and various DVD and greatest hits releases. In 2004, he announced that he and drummer Roger Taylor were going on tour for the first time in 18 years as "Queen", along with Free
Free (band)
Free were an English rock band, formed in London in 1968, best known for their 1970 signature song "All Right Now". They disbanded in 1973 and lead singer Paul Rodgers went on to become a frontman of the band Bad Company along with Simon Kirke on drums; lead guitarist Paul Kossoff died from a...
/Bad Company
Bad Company
Bad Company were an English rock supergroup founded in 1973, consisting of two former Free band members — singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke — as well as Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs and King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell. Peter Grant, who, in years prior, was a key component of...
vocalist Paul Rodgers
Paul Rodgers
Paul Bernard Rodgers is an English rock singer-songwriter, best known for his success in the 1970s as a member of Free and Bad Company. After stints in two less successful bands in the 1980s and early 1990s, The Firm and The Law, he became a solo artist. He has recently toured and recorded with...
. Billed as "Queen + Paul Rodgers
Queen + Paul Rodgers
Queen + Paul Rodgers was a supergroup collaboration between Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen and Paul Rodgers...
", the band has played throughout 2005 and 2006 in South Africa, Europe, Aruba, Japan, and North America and released a new album with Paul Rodgers in 2008, entitled The Cosmos Rocks. This album was supported by a major tour.
Solo work and The Brian May Band
During 1983, several members of Queen explored side projects. On 21 and 22 April in Los Angeles, May recorded his first solo work, a mini-album entitled Star Fleet ProjectStar Fleet Project
Star Fleet Project is a project of Brian May, most famous as the guitarist from Queen, which resulted in an album with the same name. The project was released as the work of "Brian May + Friends", consisting of May, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alan Gratzer , Phil Chen , and Fred Mandel Star...
, on which he collaborated with Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
.
He worked with his second wife Anita Dobson
Anita Dobson
Anita Dobson is an English television actress and singer. She gained her highest profile while playing Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders...
on her first album, in which she sang vocals to the EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
theme tune. In this form the tune became the song "Anyone Can Fall in Love
Anyone Can Fall in Love
"Anyone Can Fall in Love" is a song, released in 1986, by EastEnders actress Anita Dobson, who played the character of Angie Watts. The song was released as a single, reaching #4 in the UK Singles Chart....
". May himself produced the song, which reached #4 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in August 1986.
Following the death of Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...
in November 1991, May chose to deal with his grief by committing himself as fully as possible to work, first by finishing his solo album, Back to the Light
Back to the Light
Back to the Light is the first solo effort of Queen's guitarist Brian May and his second non-Queen album. It was recorded between 1988 and 1992 at the Allerton Hill Studios, mixed at the Metropolis Studios and then released on September 28, 1992 in the UK...
, and then touring worldwide to promote it. He frequently remarked in press interviews that this was the only form of self-prescribed therapy he could think of.
In late 1992, the Brian May Band was officially formed. An early version of the band was loosely formed for 19 October 1991, when May took part in the Guitar Legends guitar festival in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, Spain. The line-up for his performance was May (Lead Vocals & Lead Guitar), Cozy Powell
Cozy Powell
Colin Flooks , better known as Cozy Powell, was an English rock drummer who made his name with many major rock bands.-Early history:...
(Drums & Percussion), Mike Moran (Keyboards), Rick Wakeman
Rick Wakeman
Richard Christopher Wakeman is an English keyboard player, composer and songwriter best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes...
(Keyboards), Maggie Ryder
Maggie Ryder
Maggie Ryder is an English singer, principally known as a backing singer for bands such as Eurythmics and Queen.Ryder had a solo record deal with Polydor Records in the 1970s and released a self-titled album in 1978. She worked as a backing singer and songwriter through the Eighties...
(Backing vocals), Miriam Stockley
Miriam Stockley
Miriam Stockley is a British singer. She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and her work is influenced by the African music in her home country. Her unique vocalese style gained international acclaim when Karl Jenkins' launched the "Adiemus" project with "Songs of Sanctuary", featuring...
(Backing vocals) and Chris Thompson (Backing vocals).
The original line-up was Brian May (Lead Vocals and Lead Guitar), Cozy Powell
Cozy Powell
Colin Flooks , better known as Cozy Powell, was an English rock drummer who made his name with many major rock bands.-Early history:...
(Drums and Percussion), Mike Caswell (Guitar), Neil Murray
Neil Murray (British musician)
Philip Neil Murray is a Scottish bass player, best known for his work in Whitesnake and Black Sabbath.-Early days:Originally a drummer, Murray formed his first band with school friends in 1967 and his musical tastes were heavily influenced by the mid-1960s 'blues boom' bands and musicians,...
(Bass), Maggie Ryder (Backing vocals), Miriam Stockley (Backing vocals) and Chris Thompson (Backing vocals). This version of the band lasted only during the South American support tour (supporting The B-52's
The B-52's
The B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...
and Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
) on only five dates. In Spain, a Catalan band called Sweet Sister supported the tour.
Afterwards, May made significant changes, feeling the group never quite gelled. Most significantly, May brought guitarist Jamie Moses
Jamie Moses
Jamie Moses is an Anglo-American rock guitarist who joined, in mid-1990s, the Tex-Mex band Los Pacaminos, led by Paul Young and, between 2005 and 2008, was rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist for Queen + Paul Rodgers....
on board to replace Mike Caswell. May considered Moses a perfect fit to the band. The other change made was in the backing vocal department. Ryder, Stockley and Thompson were replaced with Catherine Porter
Catherine Porter
Catherine Porter is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She is a former member of The Brian May Band and has appeared in several musicals and films...
and Shelley Preston
Shelley Preston
Shelley Preston , is a singer who is most famous for being the new girl when she joined pop group Bucks Fizz in June 1985.- Career :...
. On 23 February 1993, this new line-up of The Brian May Band began its world tour in the US, both supporting Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
and headlining a few dates. The tour would take them through North America, Europe (support act: Valentine
Robby Valentine
Robby Valentine is a Dutch singer and multi-instrumentalist who started his professional career in the eighties, and is the frontman of his band Valentine.-Biography:...
) and Japan.
After the tour ended on 18 December 1993, May returned to the studio with fellow surviving Queen band members Roger Taylor
Roger Meddows-Taylor
Roger Meddows Taylor , known as Roger Taylor, is a British musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the drummer, backing vocalist and occasional lead vocalist of British rock band Queen. As a drummer he is known for his "big" unique sound and is considered one of...
and John Deacon
John Deacon
John Richard Deacon is a retired English multi-instrumentalist and song writer, best known as the bassist for the rock band Queen. Of the four members of the band, he was the last to join and also the youngest, being only 19 years old when he was recruited by the other members of the band...
to work on tracks that became Made in Heaven
Made in Heaven
Made in Heaven is the fifteenth studio album by British rock group Queen and the final one to feature lead singer Freddie Mercury and bassist John Deacon, released on 6 November 1995...
, the final Queen studio album. The band took Mercury's solo album demos and last recordings, which he managed to perform in the studio after the album Innuendo
Innuendo (album)
Innuendo is the fourteenth studio album by British rock band Queen. Released in February 1991, it was the final studio album to be released in Freddie Mercury's lifetime and is the last to be composed entirely of new material...
was finished, and completed them with their additions both musically and vocally. Work on the album after Mercury's death originally began in 1992 by Deacon and May, but was left until a later date due to other commitments.
In 1995, May began working towards a new solo album of covers tentatively named Heroes, in addition to working on various film and television projects and other collaborations. May subsequently changed the approach of his second album from covers to focus on those collaborations and on new material. The songs recorded for that album, Another World
Another World (Brian May album)
Another World is the second full studio album delivered by Queen guitarist, Brian May. Recorded at his home studio after the completion of the last Queen album, Made in Heaven, the album was released in the UK on 1 June 1998 and on 15 September of that year in the US. The album itself started life...
, would feature mainly Spike Edney
Spike Edney
Philip 'Spike' Edney is a British musician who, since early 1970s, has performed with a number of bands, most notably, Queen, where his participation, starting in 1984, has been so extensive that some writers have described him as the "fifth member of Queen". In the earlier phase of his career,...
, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray and Jamie Moses, who had become his core support/collaborative team.
On 5 April 1998, Cozy Powell was killed in a car accident on the M4 motorway
M4 motorway
The M4 motorway links London with South Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea...
near Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, England. This caused a huge, unexpected disruption to the upcoming tour for The Brian May Band, with a new drummer being needed at short notice. Steve Ferrone
Steve Ferrone
Steven "Steve" Ferrone is a British drummer.He was a member of the Average White Band, and has recorded and performed with numerous other high-profile acts, including Slash, Chaka Khan, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Scritti Politti...
was brought on to help May finish recording drums for the title track "Another World" and to join the band for the early stage promotional tour of five dates in Europe before the world tour.
The line-up was then May (lead vocals & lead guitar), Edney (keyboards), Murray (bass), Moses (guitar), Ferrone (drums & percussion), Susie Webb (backing vocals) and Zoe Nicholas (Bbacking vocals). Following the early promotional tour, Eric Singer
Eric Singer
Eric Doyle Mensinger , better known as Eric Singer, is a hard rock and heavy metal drummer for the rock band Kiss and formerly for singer Alice Cooper...
replaced Steve Ferrone for the full 1998 world tour.
Later solo work
From his last solo release in 1998 May has been performing as a solo artist, as part of an ensemble, and infrequently as Queen with Roger Taylor. On 22 October 2000, Brian May made a guest appearance at the Motörhead 25th Anniversary show at Brixton Academy along with Eddie ClarkeEddie Clarke
Edward Allan Clarke better known as "Fast" Eddie Clarke, is a guitarist who was a member of British heavy metal bands Fastway and Motörhead.-Early days:...
(former Motörhead guitarist) for the encore song "Overkill
Overkill (song)
"Overkill" is a song by the band Motörhead. It was released in 7" and 12" vinyl pressings in 1979. It is backed with B-side "Too Late Too Late" which appears on the CD re-issues of the Overkill album. Early copies came with a free "Overkill" badge...
". In the Queen's birthday honours list of 2005, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
"for services to the music industry". May is a friend of singer and musician Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
and was a special guest at the Genesis
Genesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...
reunion concert at Twickenham Stadium
Twickenham Stadium
Twickenham Stadium is a stadium located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is the largest rugby union stadium in the United Kingdom and has recently been enlarged to seat 82,000...
in 2007. On 17 November 2007, Brian May was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...
, taking over from Cherie Blair
Cherie Blair
Cherie Blair , known professionally as Cherie Booth QC, is a British barrister working in the legal system of England and Wales. She is married to the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair; the couple have three sons and one daughter...
, and installed in 2008. May worked extensively with stage actress and singer Kerry Ellis
Kerry Ellis
Kerry Jane Ellis is an English stage actress and singer who is best known for her work in musical theatre and subsequent crossover into music...
after he cast her in the musical We Will Rock You
We Will Rock You (musical)
We Will Rock You is a jukebox musical, based on the songs of Queen and named after their hit single of the same name. The musical was written by British comedian and author Ben Elton in collaboration with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor...
. He produced and arranged her debut studio album Anthems
Anthems (Kerry Ellis album)
-Notes:* Tracks that were specifically written for this album.* Tracks that were originally songs by Queen.* Tracks 4, 5 and 10 were originally featured on Ellis' teaser album, Wicked in Rock....
(2010), a follow-up to her extended play Wicked in Rock
Wicked in Rock
- Credits and personnel :*Kerry Ellis - lead vocals, backing vocals*Brian May - arrangement, bass, guitars, keys, production, programming*Steve Sidwell - orchestral arranger, conductor*Taylor Hawkins - drums...
(2008), as well as appeared with Ellis at many public performances – playing guitar alongside her. He also contributed a guitar solo to Meat Loaf
Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...
's Hang Cool, Teddy Bear album in exchange for the use of drummer John Miceli
John Miceli
John Miceli is the current drummer for Meat Loaf's backing band, the Neverland Express.-Meat Loaf:Miceli began touring with Meat Loaf in 1991, and was a part of the Neverland Express when Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell took off, launching a major industry comeback for Meat Loaf...
. Along with Elena Vidal, Brian May released a historical book in 2009 entitled A Village Lost and Found: Scenes in Our Village
A Village Lost and Found
A Village Lost and Found: Scenes in Our Village by T. R. Williams is the full title of a book released in 2009 by Brian May and Elena Vidal. The book is an annotated collection of stereoscopic photographs taken by the Victorian era photographer T. R. Williams. It is sold with a focussing...
. The book is an annotated collection of stereoscopic photographs taken by the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
photographer T. R. Williams
Thomas Richard Williams
Thomas Richard Williams was a British professional photographer and one of the pioneers of stereoscopy.Williams's first business was in London around 1850. He is known for his celebrated stereographic daguerreotypes of the Crystal Palace...
and it is sold with a focussing stereoscope. May became an enthusiast of stereoscope photographs as a child, and first encountered the work of Williams during the late 1960s. In 2003 May announced a search in order to identify the actual location of the Scenes in Our Village images. In 2004 May reported that he had identified the location as the village of Hinton Waldrist
Hinton Waldrist
Hinton Waldrist is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse, England. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The village is between Oxford and Faringdon, southwest of Oxford. The parish includes the hamlet of Duxford.-History:In 1086...
in Oxfordshire.
In November 2009, May appeared on the popular reality TV show The X Factor
The X Factor (TV series)
The X Factor is a television talent show franchise originating in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for Pop Idol. It is a singing competition, now held in various countries, which pits contestants against each other. These contestants are aspiring pop singers drawn from...
with band mate Roger Taylor
Roger Meddows-Taylor
Roger Meddows Taylor , known as Roger Taylor, is a British musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the drummer, backing vocalist and occasional lead vocalist of British rock band Queen. As a drummer he is known for his "big" unique sound and is considered one of...
as Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
mentoring the contestants, then later performing "Bohemian Rhapsody
Bohemian Rhapsody
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 album A Night at the Opera...
". In April 2010, May founded the "Save Me" 2010 project to work against any proposed repeal of the British fox-hunting ban, and also to promote animal rights in Britain. In February 2011 it was announced that May would tour with Kerry Ellis
Kerry Ellis
Kerry Jane Ellis is an English stage actress and singer who is best known for her work in musical theatre and subsequent crossover into music...
, playing 12 dates across the UK in May 2011. On 18 April 2011 Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
confirmed that May would play guitar on her track "You and I" from her latest album Born This Way
Born This Way
Born This Way is the second studio album by American recording artist Lady Gaga that was released on May 23, 2011, by Interscope Records. The album is a follow-up to her internationally-successful albums The Fame and The Fame Monster...
, released on 23 May 2011. On 26 August, May performed "We Will Rock You
We Will Rock You
"We Will Rock You" is a song written by Brian May and recorded and performed by Queen for their 1977 album News of the World. Rolling Stone ranked it #330 of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and the RIAA placed it at #146 on its list of Songs of the Century...
" and "Welcome To The Black Parade
Welcome to the Black Parade
"Welcome to the Black Parade" is the first single and fifth track from My Chemical Romance's third studio album, The Black Parade. It was released on September 11, 2006 on iTunes and October 9, 2006 on CD. It is the band's eighth single...
" with American rock band My Chemical Romance
My Chemical Romance
My Chemical Romance is an American alternative rock band from New Jersey, formed in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way and have a diverse sound incorporating elements of punk, emo, glam metal, and progressive rock...
at the Reading Festival. On 28 August, May performed "You and I" live with Lady Gaga at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards
2011 MTV Video Music Awards
The 2011 MTV Video Music Awards took place on August 28, at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, honoring the best music videos from the previous year. On July 20, the nominees were announced...
at the Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles.
Queen + Paul Rodgers
Paul Rodgers
Paul Bernard Rodgers is an English rock singer-songwriter, best known for his success in the 1970s as a member of Free and Bad Company. After stints in two less successful bands in the 1980s and early 1990s, The Firm and The Law, he became a solo artist. He has recently toured and recorded with...
(founder and former lead singer of Free
Free (band)
Free were an English rock band, formed in London in 1968, best known for their 1970 signature song "All Right Now". They disbanded in 1973 and lead singer Paul Rodgers went on to become a frontman of the band Bad Company along with Simon Kirke on drums; lead guitarist Paul Kossoff died from a...
and Bad Company
Bad Company
Bad Company were an English rock supergroup founded in 1973, consisting of two former Free band members — singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke — as well as Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs and King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell. Peter Grant, who, in years prior, was a key component of...
). Brian May's website also stated that Rodgers would be "featured with" Queen as Queen + Paul Rodgers
Queen + Paul Rodgers
Queen + Paul Rodgers was a supergroup collaboration between Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen and Paul Rodgers...
, not replacing the late Freddie Mercury. The retired John Deacon would not be participating.
Between 2005 and 2006 Queen and Paul Rodgers embarked on a world tour
Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour
Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour was a world concert tour by Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, joined by singer Paul Rodgers under the moniker of Queen + Paul Rodgers. The tour was Queen's first since the Magic Tour in 1986, and the death of lead singer Freddie Mercury in November 1991...
, the first leg being Europe and the second, Japan and the US in 2006. On 25 May 2006, Queen received the inaugural VH1 Rock Honors
VH1 Rock Honors
The VH1 Rock Honors were an annual ceremony paying homage to bands who influenced the sound of rock music. The events began in 2006, and the final event took place in 2008. The general format of each show is for modern bands to "pay tribute" to classic greats of the rock/metal world , after which...
at the Mandalay Bay Events Center
Mandalay Bay Events Center
Mandalay Bay Events Center is a 12,000 seat indoor arena, at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, on the Las Vegas Strip, in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned by MGM Resorts International.It has hosted many music, boxing and mixed martial arts events....
in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, Nevada, and May and Taylor were joined on stage with the Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...
to perform a selection of Queen songs. On 15 August 2006, May confirmed through his website and fan club that Queen + Paul Rodgers would begin producing their first studio album beginning in October, to be recorded at a "secret location". The album, titled The Cosmos Rocks
The Cosmos Rocks
The Cosmos Rocks is the debut studio album by Queen + Paul Rodgers released on 15 September 2008 in Europe and 28 October 2008 in North America. It contains 14 new tracks written by Brian May, Paul Rodgers and Roger Taylor...
, was released in Europe on 12 September 2008 and in the United States on 28 October 2008. Following the album the band again embarked on a tour through Europe and parts of the US, opening on Kharkov's freedom square
Freedom Square, Kharkiv
Freedom Square in Kharkiv is the 6-th largest city-centre square in Europe.Originally named Dzerzhinsky Square after Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Bolshevik secret police , it was renamed after Ukraine became independent in 1991.A monumental statue of Lenin was erected in 1964 and...
in front of 350,000 Ukrainian fans. The show in Ukraine was later released on DVD
Live in Ukraine
Live in Ukraine is a double live album and also last release by British rock band Queen + Paul Rodgers. It was recorded in September 2008 during the Rock the Cosmos Tour at Freedom Square in Kharkiv, Ukraine and was released on June 15, 2009...
.
Queen and Paul Rodgers officially split up on 12 May 2009. Rodgers does not rule out the possibility of working together again.
Highlights
Brian May began composing in 1968/1969, and through the years he has collaborated with other songwriters, including Frank Musker, with whom he wrote "Too Much Love Will Kill YouToo Much Love Will Kill You
"Too Much Love Will Kill You" is a song written by Queen guitarist Brian May, Frank Musker, and Elizabeth Lamers. The song was recorded by Queen around 1988 or before, and was intended to be on the band's The Miracle album in 1989, but did not make the cut...
", and with Elizabeth Lamers, whose music won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically in 1996. A meticulous arranger, he focuses on multi-part harmonies, often more contrapuntal
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
than parallel — a relative rarity for rock guitar. Examples are found in Queen's albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, where he arranged a jazz band for guitar mini-orchestra ("Good Company"), a vocal canon ("The Prophet's Song") and guitar and vocal counterpoints ("Teo Torriatte").
May explored a wide variety of styles in guitar, including sweep picking ("Was It All Worth It", "Chinese Torture"), tremolo
Tremolo
Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration...
("Brighton Rock", "Stone Cold Crazy
Stone Cold Crazy
"Stone Cold Crazy" is a song by English rock band Queen from their successful 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack. The song is the eighth track on the album. Although the song was never released as a single, it was played live at almost every Queen concert between 1974-1978...
", "Death on Two Legs
Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)
"Death on Two Legs " is a song by British rock group Queen, the opening track on their fourth studio album A Night at the Opera...
", "Sweet Lady", "Bohemian Rhapsody
Bohemian Rhapsody
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 album A Night at the Opera...
", "Get Down Make Love", "Dragon Attack"), tapping
Tapping
Tapping is a guitar playing technique, where a string is fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion of being pushed onto the fretboard, as opposed to the standard technique being fretted with one hand and picked with the other...
("Bijou", "It's Late
It's Late
"It's Late" is a song written by Queen guitarist Brian May and performed by the band for their 1977 album News of the World. The song was May's idea of treating a song as a three-act theatrical play, and the verses are called "acts" in the lyrics sheet. It makes use of the tapping technique one...
", "Resurrection
Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
", "Cyborg", "Rain Must Fall", "Business", "China Belle", "I Was Born To Love You"), slide guitar ("Drowse", "Tie Your Mother Down"), Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
sounding licks ("Liar", "Brighton Rock"), tape-delay ("Brighton Rock", "White Man") and melodic sequences ("Bohemian Rhapsody
Bohemian Rhapsody
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 album A Night at the Opera...
", "Killer Queen", "These Are the Days of Our Lives
These Are the Days of Our Lives
"These Are the Days of Our Lives" is a song by English rock band Queen. It was written largely by their drummer Roger Taylor, and is the eighth track on the band's 1991 album Innuendo. It is harmonically and structurally one of the simplest songs of the band's catalogue...
"). Some of his solos and orchestral parts were composed by Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...
, who then asked May to bring them to life ("Bicycle Race", "Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon", "Killer Queen", "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy"). May also performed notable acoustic works, including the acoustic guitar live version of "Love of My Life" from 1975's A Night at the Opera, the finger-picked solo of "White Queen" and the skiffle
Skiffle
Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk, roots and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in the UK in the 1950s, where it was mainly...
-influenced "'39".
In January 2007, the readers of Guitar World
Guitar World
Guitar World is a monthly music magazine devoted to guitarists. It contains original interviews, album and gear reviews and guitar and bass tablature of approximately five songs each month. The magazine is published 13 times per year...
voted May's guitar solos "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Brighton Rock" into the top 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time ("Bohemian Rhapsody" was voted #20 and "Brighton Rock" was voted #41).
Aided by the uniqueness of his guitar — the Red Special
Red Special
The Red Special is an electric guitar owned by Queen guitarist Brian May and custom-built by May and his father. The Red Special is also sometimes named in reviews as the Fireplace or the Old Lady, both nicknames used by May when referring to the guitar. A guitar that would define May's signature...
— May was often able to create strange and unusual sound effects. For example, he was able to imitate an orchestra in the song "Procession"; in "Get Down, Make Love" he was able to create sound effects with his guitar that were so unusual that many thought a synthesiser was being used; in "Good Company" he used his guitar to mimic a trombone, a piccolo and several other instruments for the song's Dixieland jazz band feel. Queen used a "No synthesizers were used on this album" sleeve note on their early albums to make this clear to the listeners.
Other instruments
The first instrument Brian May learned to play was the banjoleleBanjolele
The banjolele is a four-stringed musical instrument with a small banjo-type body and a fretted ukulele neck. "Banjolele," sometimes also spelled "banjelele" or "banjulele" is a generic nickname given to the instrument, which was derived from the "banjulele-banjo", introduced by Alvin D...
, which he then played on Queen's song "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" (live and in the studio). For "Good Company", he used a regular baritone ukelele which he had bought in Hawaii on a holiday. Occasionally, May would also record on other string instruments such as harp (one chord per take, then copied and pasted by the engineer to make it sound like a continuous performance) and bass (on some demos and many songs in his solo career, and the Queen + Paul Rodgers album).
As a child, he was also trained on classical piano. Although Freddie Mercury was the band's main pianist, Brian would occasionally step in (such as on "Save Me
Save Me (Queen song)
"Save Me" is a rock ballad by English rock band Queen from their 1980 album The Game. Written by guitarist Brian May, it was recorded in 1979, and released in the UK on January 25, 1980, nearly six months prior to the release of the album. "Save Me" spent six weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking...
"). From 1979 onwards, he also played synthesisers, organ ("Wedding March") and programmed drum-machines for both Queen and outside projects (such as producing other artists and his own solo records).
May is also an accomplished singer. From Queen's Queen II
Queen II
Queen II is the second album by British rock group Queen, released in March 1974. It was recorded at Trident Studios, London in August 1973 with co-producers Roy Thomas Baker and Robin Cable, and engineered by Mike Stone....
to The Game
The Game (Queen album)
The Game is the eighth studio album by British rock band Queen released on 30 June 1980. It was the only Queen album to reach #1 in the US and became Queen's best selling studio album in the US with four million copies sold to date, tying News of the Worlds US sales tally. The album received very...
, May contributed lead vocals to at least one song per album.
May co-composed a mini-opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
with Lee Holdridge
Lee Holdridge
Lee Holdridge is a Haitian-born American television composer and orchestrator.-Biography:He was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, of a Puerto-Rican mother and an American father, the botanist an climatologist Leslie Holdridge...
, Il Colosso, for Steve Barron
Steve Barron
Steven "Steve" Barron is a director and producer, best known for directing the films Coneheads , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the innovative music videos for a-ha's "Take on Me" and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean"....
's 1996 film, The Adventures of Pinocchio. May performed the opera with Jerry Hadley
Jerry Hadley
Jerry Hadley was an American operatic tenor. He received three Grammy awards for his vocal performances in the recordings of Jenůfa , Susannah , and Candide...
, Sissel Kyrkjebo, and Just William
Just William
Just William is the first book of children's short stories about the young school boy William Brown, written by Richmal Crompton, and published in 1922. The book was the first in the series of William Brown books which was the basis for numerous television series, films and radio adaptations...
. On-screen, it was performed entirely by puppets.
Musician
Brian May has been referred to as a virtuoso guitarist by many publications and musicians. Former Van HalenVan Halen
Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. The band has enjoyed success since the release of its debut album, Van Halen, . As of 2007 Van Halen has sold 80 million albums worldwide and has had the most #1 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart...
vocalist Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar
Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....
stated, "I thought Queen were really innovative and made some great sounding records.. I like the rockin' stuff. I think Brian May has one of the great guitar tones on the planet, and I really, really love his guitar work." May has used a range of guitars, most often the "Red Special
Red Special
The Red Special is an electric guitar owned by Queen guitarist Brian May and custom-built by May and his father. The Red Special is also sometimes named in reviews as the Fireplace or the Old Lady, both nicknames used by May when referring to the guitar. A guitar that would define May's signature...
", which he designed when he was only 16 years old. It was built with wood from an 18th century fireplace. His comments on this instrument, from Queen In Their Own Words (ed. Mick St. Michael, Omnibus Press, 1992, p. 62) are:
In addition to using his home-made guitar he prefers to use coins (especially a sixpence from the farewell proof set of 1970), instead of a more traditional plastic plectrum
Plectrum
A plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick, and is a separate tool held in the player's hand...
, on the basis that their rigidity gives him more control in playing. He is known to carry coins in his pockets specifically for this purpose.
May's early heroes were Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
and The Shadows
The Shadows
The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...
, who he says were "the most metallic thing(s) out at the time." Many years later he gained his opportunity to play on separate occasions with both Cliff Richard and Shadows lead guitarist Hank Marvin
Hank Marvin
Hank Brian Marvin is an English guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist for The Shadows. The group, which primarily performed instrumentals, was formed as a backing band for vocalist Cliff Richard...
. He has collaborated with Cliff Richard on a re-recording of the Cliff Richard and The Shadows (then known as The Drifters) 1958 hit "Move It
Move It
"Move It" is a song recorded by Cliff Richard and the Drifters . Originally intended as the B-side to "Schoolboy Crush", it was released as Richard's debut single on 29 August 1958 and became his first hit record. It is credited with being one of the first authentic rock and roll songs produced...
" on the Cliff Richard duets album Two's Company which was released on 6 November 2006. On Queen For An Hour 1989 Interview on BBC Radio 1 May listed Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
and Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
as his guitar heroes. In a 1991 interview for Guitar World magazine, May referred to The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
as "my inspiration", and on seeing Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
stated, "We used to look at those guys and think, "That's the way it should be done."
During the time in which Brian May and his father were building the Red Special
Red Special
The Red Special is an electric guitar owned by Queen guitarist Brian May and custom-built by May and his father. The Red Special is also sometimes named in reviews as the Fireplace or the Old Lady, both nicknames used by May when referring to the guitar. A guitar that would define May's signature...
, May also produced plans to build a second guitar. However, so successful was the Red Special, that May simply had no need to build another guitar. These plans were eventually given to guitar luthier
Luthier
A luthier is someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc...
Andrew Guyton in around 2004/05, some slight modifications were made and the guitar was built. It was named "The Spade", as the shape of the body resembled the form shown on playing cards. However the guitar also came to be known as "The Guitar That Time Forgot". As yet, this guitar has not been used in any recordings and remains in May's possession.
Equipment
Red Special
The Red Special is an electric guitar owned by Queen guitarist Brian May and custom-built by May and his father. The Red Special is also sometimes named in reviews as the Fireplace or the Old Lady, both nicknames used by May when referring to the guitar. A guitar that would define May's signature...
, which he built with his father during his teenage years. From 1975 onwards, he has also had some replicas made, some of which were also used for live and recording purposes, others were mainly spares. The most famous replicas were made by John Birch (in 1975—May actually smashed it during a concert in the States in 1982), Greco
Greco guitars
Greco are a brand of electric guitars produced by Kanda Shokai 神田商会. Kanda Shokai is a musical instrument wholesaler mostly known for being part of Fender Japan.-History:...
BM90 (featured in the promo video of "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" in 1977), Guild (back-up from 1984 to 1993) and Fryers (1997–1998, used both live and in the studio). On stage, Brian used to carry at least one back-up guitar (in case he broke a string) and occasionally would use others for certain songs or parts. Currently, May has his own company which makes guitars whose design is modelled after the original Red Special guitar.
- July 1973 – May 1974: Fender Stratocaster Pre-CBS
- October 1974 – May 1975: Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, and the Stratocaster from the previous tour.
- November 1975 – May 1976: Same two guitars as before, plus a natural finish John Birch replica of the Red Special.
- September 1976: Same three as before, plus a Martin D-18 acoustic for "'39".
- January 1977 – August 1979: Just the Birch replica plus an Ovation Pacemaker 12-string acoustic on some numbers ("'39", "Love of My Life", "Dreamer's Ball").
- November 1979 – June 1982: Birch replica (back-up), Fender Telecaster ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love" 2nd verse, middle-eight and solo), Ovation (acoustic numbers).
- July – November 1982: Added a Gibson Flying V as second back-up. On 9 August 1982 Brian smashed the Birch guitar, so the Flying V became the only spare.
- August to October 1984: The Flying V became a second back-up again as his main spare was the Guild replica. He also used Roger Taylor's Gibson Chet-Atkins Classical Electric.
- July 1985 – August 1986: Gibson Flying V no longer used. The rest remained the same.
Some of the non-RS electric guitars he used in the studio included:
- BurnsBurns LondonBurns London is a guitar-making company originally formed in 1960 as Ormston Burns Ltd. It was founded by James Ormston Burns , who has been described as the British Leo Fender...
Double Six on "Long Away" (1976) and "Under Pressure" (1981). - Fender Broadcaster on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (1979). It was used for the video (but not the recordings) of "Back Chat" (1982).
- Gibson Firebird on "Hammer to Fall" and "Tear It Up" (album versions only, not on stage).
- Ibanez JSIbanez JS SeriesThe Ibanez JS Series is a signature series of guitars endorsed by Joe Satriani and manufactured by Ibanez guitars. It is essentially the discontinued Radius Ibanez series, with Joe's select pickups installed. The JS100 is a lower end model in comparison to the JS1000 and the JS1200. The JS1000 and...
on "Nothing But Blue" (1991). - Parker FlyParker FlyThe Parker Fly is a type of electric guitar built by Parker Guitars. It was designed by Ken Parker and Larry Fishman, and first produced in 1993. The Fly is unique among electric guitars in the way it uses composite materials. It is notable for its light weight and resonance...
on "Mother Love" (1993–1995).
For acoustic, he favoured Ovation, Martin, Tōkai Hummingbird, Godin and Guild. On a couple of videos he also used some different electric guitars: a Stratocaster copy on "Play the Game" (1980) and a Washburn RR2V
Washburn RR-V Tour Series
The Washburn RR-V Tour Series is a rare line of solid-bodied electric 'Flying V' shaped guitars produced by Washburn Guitars in Japan between the years of 1985 to 1987.-Models:...
on "Princes of the Universe" (1986).
In 1984 Guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
released the first official Red Special replica for mass production, and made some prototypes specifically for May. However the solid body construction (the original RS has hollow cavities in the body) and the pick-ups (DiMarzio) that were not an exact replica of the Burns TriSonic did not make May happy, so the production stopped after just 300 guitars. In 1993 Guild made a second replica of the RS, made in just 1000 copies, of which May has some and used as a backup. At the moment, he uses the two guitars made by Greg Fryer—the luthier who restored the Old Lady in 1998—as backup. They are almost identical to the original, except for the Fryer logo on the headstock (May's original one has a sixpence).
In the studio, May used Yamaha DX7
Yamaha DX7
The Yamaha DX7 is an FM Digital Synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1986. It was the first commercially successful digital synthesizer. Its distinctive sound can be heard on many recordings, especially Pop music from the 1980s...
synths for the opening sequence of "One Vision
One Vision
"One Vision" is a song written and recorded by the rock band Queen, first released as a single in November 1985 and then included on their 1986 album A Kind of Magic...
" and the backgrounds of "Who Wants to Live Forever
Who Wants to Live Forever
"Who Wants to Live Forever" is a song by the English rock band Queen. The song is the sixth track on the album A Kind of Magic, released in June 1986, and was written by guitarist Brian May for the soundtrack to the film Highlander, directed by Russell Mulcahy...
" (also on stage), "Scandal
Scandal (song)
"Scandal" is a song by the British rock group Queen. It was released as the fourth single from their 1989 album The Miracle and peaked at #25 in the UK...
" and "The Show Must Go On"
The Show Must Go On (Queen song)
"The Show Must Go On" is a song by English rock band Queen, featured as the twelfth and final track on their 1991 album Innuendo. It is credited to Queen, but written primarily by Brian May. The song chronicles the effort of Freddie Mercury continuing to perform despite approaching the end of his...
. He mostly used Freddie Mercury's 1972 Steinway piano and reportedly now owns the instrument in question.
May was keen on using some toys as instruments as well. He used a Yamaha plastic piano in "Teo Torriatte", a "genuine George Formby Ukulele-Banjo" in "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" and in "Good Company"
A Night at the Opera (Queen album)
A Night at the Opera is the fourth studio album by the British rock group Queen, released in November 1975. Co-produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, A Night at the Opera was, at the time of its release, the most expensive album ever recorded...
, and a toy mini koto
Koto (musical instrument)
The koto is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument, similar to the Chinese guzheng, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum and the Vietnamese đàn tranh. The koto is the national instrument of Japan. Koto are about length, and made from kiri wood...
in "The Prophet's Song"
A Night at the Opera (Queen album)
A Night at the Opera is the fourth studio album by the British rock group Queen, released in November 1975. Co-produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, A Night at the Opera was, at the time of its release, the most expensive album ever recorded...
.
May has used Vox AC30
Vox AC30
The Vox AC30 is a guitar amplifier manufactured by Vox and known for its "jangly" high-end sound. First introduced in 1958 due to the growing demand for higher-wattage amplifiers, it became an iconic amplifier for British musicians and soon for others....
amplifiers almost exclusively since a meeting with his long time hero Rory Gallagher
Rory Gallagher
William Rory Gallagher, ; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995, was an Irish blues-rock multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, and raised in Cork, Gallagher recorded solo albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, after forming the band Taste...
at a gig in London during the late '60s/early '70s. His choice is the model AC30TBX, the top-boost version with Blue Alnico speakers, and he runs the amp at full volume on the Normal channel. He also customises his amps by removing the circuitry for the Brilliant and Vib-trem channels (leaving only the circuitry for the Normal), and this alters the tone slightly, with a gain addition of 6–7 dB. He always used a treble booster built by John Deacon which, along with the AC30, went a long way in helping to create many of his signature guitar tones. He used the Dallas Rangemaster for the first Queen albums, up to A Day at the Races
A Day at the Races (album)
A Day at the Races is the fifth album by British rock group Queen, released in December 1976. A Day at the Races was the band's first completely self-produced album, and the first not to feature producer Roy Thomas Baker. Recorded at Sarm East, The Manor and Wessex Studios in England, A Day at the...
. Effects guru Pete Cornish
Pete Cornish
Pete Cornish is a British designer of electric guitar effects and other electronic musical instruments. He is mainly noted for his elaborate fully custom guitar pedalboard systems...
built for him the TB-83 (32 dB of gain) that was used for all the remaining Queen albums. He switched in 2000 to the Fryer's booster, which actually gives less boost than the TB-83.
Live, he uses banks of Vox AC30 amplifiers keeping some amps with only guitar and others with all effects such as delay, flanger and chorus. He has a rack of 14 AC30s, which are grouped as Normal, Chorus, Delay 1, Delay 2. On his pedal board, May has a custom switch unit made by Cornish and subsequently modified by Fryer that allows him to choose which amps are active. He uses a BOSS
Boss Corporation
Boss is a manufacturer of effects pedals for electric guitar and bass guitar. It is a division of the Roland Corporation, a Japanese manufacturer that specializes in musical equipment and accessories...
pedal from the '70s, the Chorus Ensemble CE-1, which can be heard in In The Lap of The Gods
Sheer Heart Attack
Sheer Heart Attack is the third album by the British rock group Queen, released in November 1974. It was produced by Queen and Roy Thomas Baker and distributed by EMI in the United Kingdom, and Elektra in the United States....
(Live at Wembley '86
Live at Wembley '86
Live at Wembley '86 is a double compact disc live album by English rock band Queen.It was recorded live on Saturday July 12, 1986 during the Magic Tour at Wembley Stadium in London, England and released on May 26, 1992...
) or Hammer to Fall
Hammer to Fall
"Hammer to Fall" is a 1984 song by the British rock group Queen. Written by guitarist Brian May, the song is the eighth track on their 1984 album The Works....
(slow version played live with P. Rodgers). Next in the chain, he uses a Foxx Foot Phaser (We Will Rock You
We Will Rock You
"We Will Rock You" is a song written by Brian May and recorded and performed by Queen for their 1977 album News of the World. Rolling Stone ranked it #330 of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and the RIAA placed it at #146 on its list of Songs of the Century...
, We Are the Champions
We Are the Champions
"We Are the Champions" is a power ballad written by Freddie Mercury, recorded and performed by British rock band Queen for their 1977 album News of the World. One of their most famous and popular songs, it remains among rock's most recognisable anthems...
, Keep Yourself Alive
Keep Yourself Alive
"Keep Yourself Alive" is a song by English rock group Queen. Written by guitarist Brian May, it is the opening track on the band's debut album Queen . It was released as Queen's first single along with "Son and Daughter" as the B-side...
, etc.), and two delay machines to play his trademark solo in Brighton Rock.
May's lead vocals in Queen
- "Keep Yourself AliveKeep Yourself Alive"Keep Yourself Alive" is a song by English rock group Queen. Written by guitarist Brian May, it is the opening track on the band's debut album Queen . It was released as Queen's first single along with "Son and Daughter" as the B-side...
" – Vocal bridge with Taylor, rest sung by Mercury (1973) - "Some Day, One Day" (1974)
- "She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettoes)" (1974)
- "'39" (1975)
- "Good Company" (1975)
- "Long AwayLong Away"Long Away" is a single by the band Queen; it is the third track on the first side of the 1976 album A Day at the Races. Brian May wrote the song and sings the lead vocals...
" (1976) - "All Dead, All Dead" (1977)
- "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" (1977)
- "Fat Bottomed GirlsFat Bottomed Girls"Fat Bottomed Girls" is a song by the English rock band Queen. Written by guitarist Brian May, the track featured on their 1978 album Jazz, and also appears on the band's compilation album, Greatest Hits...
" – Chorus lead vocals (1978) - "Leaving Home Ain't Easy" (1978)
- "Sail Away Sweet Sister" – Mercury sings the bridge (1980)
- "Flash" – with Freddie Mercury (1980)
- "Put Out the Fire" - lead on falsetto lines.
- "Las Palabras de AmorLas Palabras de Amor"Las Palabras de Amor " is a rock ballad by English rock band Queen. It was released as the third single from their 1982 album Hot Space...
" – Lead harmony vocals on chorus (1982) - "I Go Crazy" – Lead Bridge Vocals (1984)
- "Who Wants to Live ForeverWho Wants to Live Forever"Who Wants to Live Forever" is a song by the English rock band Queen. The song is the sixth track on the album A Kind of Magic, released in June 1986, and was written by guitarist Brian May for the soundtrack to the film Highlander, directed by Russell Mulcahy...
" – First verse, harmony and other lines throughout (1986) - "I Want It All" – with Mercury (1989)
- "Lost Opportunity" (1991)
- "Mother Love" – Lead vocals on final verse (1995)
- "Let Me LiveLet Me Live"Let Me Live" is a song by Queen, from the album Made in Heaven. Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor and Brian May share lead vocals, with Mercury singing the first verse, Taylor singing the second and May singing the last...
" – Lead vocals on third verse (1995) - "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)"No-One But You " is a song recorded by the remaining three members of the British rock band Queen following the death of singer Freddie Mercury. Guitarist Brian May – the writer of the song – and drummer Roger Taylor share lead vocals...
" – with Taylor (1997)
Personal life
From 1974 to 1988, May was married to Chrissie Mullen, who is the mother of his three children: Jimmy, who was born on 15 June 1978; Louisa, who was born on 22 May 1981 and Emily Ruth, who was born on 17 February 1987. Chrissie and Brian separated in 1988. Their separation and eventual divorce was highly publicised by British tabloid newspapers following reports that he had an affair with EastendersEastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
actress Anita Dobson
Anita Dobson
Anita Dobson is an English television actress and singer. She gained her highest profile while playing Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders...
, whom he met in 1986, and who gained fame in the 1980s as Angie Watts
Angie Watts
Angela "Angie" Watts is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Anita Dobson from the first episode of the show until 1988 when the actress decided to quit and the character was written out....
. After many years together they married on December 18, 2000.
He has stated in interviews that he suffered from severe depression in the late 1980s and early 1990s, even to the point of contemplating suicide, for reasons having to do with his troubled first marriage, his perceived failure as a husband and a father, his father Harold's death, and Freddie Mercury's illness and eventual death.
May's father Harold worked as a draughtsman at the Ministry of Aviation
Ministry of Aviation
Ministry of Aviation was a department of the United Kingdom government, established in 1959. Its responsibilities included the regulation of civil aviation and the supply of military aircraft, which it took on from the Ministry of Supply....
and had been a long-time cigarette-smoker. As a result, May dislikes smoking, even to the point where he has prohibited smoking indoors at his more recent concerts.
His father was disappointed that he abandoned his scientific education to become a rock musician. For a while May didn't speak with his father. He reconnected with his dad when he flew both his parents out to New York to attend Queen's first concert in Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
. After the concert his dad said that "he got it".
According to The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
Rich List
Sunday Times Rich List
The Sunday Times Rich List is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families in the United Kingdom, updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday newspaper The Sunday Times since 1989...
he is worth £85 million .
Astrophysics
May studied physics and mathematics at Imperial College LondonImperial College London
Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...
, graduating with a BSc (Hons) degree and ARCS
Associate of the Royal College of Science
The Associateship of the Royal College of Science is an honorary degree-equivalent award presented by Imperial College London to students who complete an undergraduate course of study in science...
in physics with Upper Second-Class Honours. He then proceeded to study for a PhD degree, also at the Imperial College London
Imperial College London
Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...
departments of Physics and Mathematics, and was part way through this PhD programme, studying reflected light from interplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. When Queen became successful he abandoned his physics doctorate but did co-author two scientific research papers: MgI Emission in the Night-Sky Spectrum (1972) and An Investigation of the Motion of Zodiacal Dust
Zodiacal dust
The Zodiacal dust cloud is visible as a diffuse glow, known as the zodiacal light, that stretches along the zodiac, and is best seen just after sunset and before sunrise in spring and autumn when the zodiac is at a steep angle to the horizon....
Particles (Part I) (1973), which were based on his observations at the Teide Observatory
Teide Observatory
The Observatorio del Teide is an astronomical observatory on Tenerife operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. Opened in 1964, it became one of the first major international observatories, attracting telescopes from different countries around the world because of the good astronomical...
in Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
. He is the co-author of Bang! – The Complete History of the Universe with Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott
Chris Lintott
Christopher John Lintott is an English astrophysicist currently serving as the Director of Citizen Science at the Adler Planetarium. He is a post-doctoral researcher who is involved in a number of popular science projects aimed at bringing astronomical science to a wider audience...
, which was published in October 2006. In October 2007, more than 30 years after he started his research, he completed his PhD thesis in astrophysics
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
, entitled A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, passed his viva voce, and performed the required corrections. He officially graduated at the postgraduate awards ceremony held in the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, on the afternoon of Wednesday 14 May 2008.
On 17 November 2007, May was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...
, taking over from Cherie Blair
Cherie Blair
Cherie Blair , known professionally as Cherie Booth QC, is a British barrister working in the legal system of England and Wales. She is married to the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair; the couple have three sons and one daughter...
, and installed in 2008.
Asteroid 52665 Brianmay
52665 Brianmay
52665 Brianmay is a main-belt minor planet. It was discovered by Jana Tichá and Miloš Tichý at the Kleť Observatory near České Budějovice in the Czech Republic on January 30, 1998. It is named after Brian May, an astrophysicist and English musician, playing lead guitar and writing songs for the...
was named in his honour on 18 June 2008 on the suggestion of Sir Patrick Moore (probably influenced by the asteroid's provisional designation of ).
May appeared on the 700th episode of The Sky at Night
The Sky at Night
The Sky at Night is a monthly documentary television programme on astronomy produced by the BBC. The show has had the same permanent presenter, Sir Patrick Moore, from its first airing on 24 April 1957, making it the longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history.The...
hosted by Sir Patrick Moore, along with Dr. Chris Lintott
Chris Lintott
Christopher John Lintott is an English astrophysicist currently serving as the Director of Citizen Science at the Adler Planetarium. He is a post-doctoral researcher who is involved in a number of popular science projects aimed at bringing astronomical science to a wider audience...
, Jon Culshaw
Jon Culshaw
Jonathan Peter Culshaw is an English impressionist and comedian. He was educated at St Bede's RC High School, Ormskirk and St John Rigby College, in Orrell, Wigan....
, Prof. Brian Cox
Brian Cox (physicist)
Brian Edward Cox, OBE , is a British particle physicist, a Royal Society University Research Fellow and a professor at the University of Manchester. He is a member of the High Energy Physics group at the University of Manchester, and works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at...
, and the Astronomer Royal
Astronomer Royal
Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the second is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834....
Martin Rees who on leaving the panel told Brian May, who was joining it, "I don't know any scientist who looks as much as like Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
as you do". May replied that "that could be my after dinner comment, thank you very much".
Activist
Brian May has formed a group to promote animal welfare. Though a Conservative PartyConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
voter most of his life, he has stated that their policies on fox hunting
Fox hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...
and the culling
Culling
Culling is the process of removing animals from a group based on specific criteria. This is done either to reinforce certain desirable characteristics or to remove certain undesirable characteristics from the group...
of badger
Badger
Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the weasel family, Mustelidae. There are nine species of badger, in three subfamilies : Melinae , Mellivorinae , and Taxideinae...
s meant he did not vote for them at the 2010 General Election. His group, Save Me (named after the May-written Queen song
Save Me (Queen song)
"Save Me" is a rock ballad by English rock band Queen from their 1980 album The Game. Written by guitarist Brian May, it was recorded in 1979, and released in the UK on January 25, 1980, nearly six months prior to the release of the album. "Save Me" spent six weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking...
), campaigns for the protection of all animals against unnecessary, cruel and degrading treatment; with a particular emphasis on preventing hunting of foxes and the culling of badgers.
The group's primary concern is to ensure that the Hunting Act 2004
Hunting Act 2004
The Hunting Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The effect of the Act is to outlaw hunting with dogs in England and Wales from 18 February 2005...
and other laws protecting animals are kept in place.
In a September 2010 interview with Stephen Sackur
Stephen Sackur
Stephen John Sackur is a BBC journalist who presents HARDtalk, a current affairs interview programme on BBC World News and BBC News 24. He is also the main Friday presenter of GMT on BBC World News...
for the BBC’s HARDtalk
HARDtalk
Hardtalk is a flagship BBC television programme, consisting of in-depth half-hour one-on-one interviews.It is broadcast four days a week on BBC World News and the BBC News channel. Launched in 1997, much of its worldwide fame is due to its global reach via BBC World...
program, May said that he would rather be remembered for his animal rights work than for his music or science.
Stereophotography
May has had a lifelong interest in collecting Victorian stereophotography. In 2009, with co-author Elena Vidal, he published his second book, A Village Lost and FoundA Village Lost and Found
A Village Lost and Found: Scenes in Our Village by T. R. Williams is the full title of a book released in 2009 by Brian May and Elena Vidal. The book is an annotated collection of stereoscopic photographs taken by the Victorian era photographer T. R. Williams. It is sold with a focussing...
, on the work of English stereophotography innovator TR Williams.
Discography
AlbumsStudio albums
| Year | Title | UK | US |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Star Fleet Project Star Fleet Project Star Fleet Project is a project of Brian May, most famous as the guitarist from Queen, which resulted in an album with the same name. The project was released as the work of "Brian May + Friends", consisting of May, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alan Gratzer , Phil Chen , and Fred Mandel Star... |
35 | 125 |
| 1992 | Back to the Light Back to the Light Back to the Light is the first solo effort of Queen's guitarist Brian May and his second non-Queen album. It was recorded between 1988 and 1992 at the Allerton Hill Studios, mixed at the Metropolis Studios and then released on September 28, 1992 in the UK... |
6 | 159 |
| 1998 | Another World Another World (Brian May album) Another World is the second full studio album delivered by Queen guitarist, Brian May. Recorded at his home studio after the completion of the last Queen album, Made in Heaven, the album was released in the UK on 1 June 1998 and on 15 September of that year in the US. The album itself started life... |
23 | – |
| 2000 | Furia Furia (album) La musique de Furia – Un film de Alexandre Aja is a soundtrack album written and recorded by Brian May. The film Furia was released in 1999.-Track listing:# Furia Theme – Opening Titles # First Glance ... (Original Soundtrack) |
– | – |
Live albums
| Year | Title | UK | US |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Live at the Brixton Academy Live at the Brixton Academy (Brian May album) Live at the Brixton Academy is a recording of The Brian May Band's first show in London on June 15 1993. The album was released on CD, LP and VHS in 1994, and remains the group's only release as a collective.... |
20 | – |
External links
- Brian May's official homepage
- Brian May World
- Brian Interviews
- Queenpedia – Brian May Complete Song List
- Scientific paper with Brian May as co-author
- Brian May's astronomy book
- Five interview clips with Brian May
- Brian May's Ph.D thesis
- Brian May interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air, 3 August 2010
- Brian May: the interview, by Rachel Cooke, The Observer, Sunday 5 September 2010