Brian May Biography, Videos & Pictures
Brian May Facts
| Name: Brian May | Guitars: Brian May Guitars |
| Born: July 19, 1947 | Amplifiers: Vox |
| Origin: London, England | |
| Bands: Queen, Smile, Solo Artist, 1984 | |
| Links: Official Website, Youtube Channel | |
Brian May was born on July 19, 1947 in Hampton, London. He started his first band with his friend Tim Staffell while attending Hampton Grammar School. The band was named after the George Orwell novel, “1984”. He graduated the school with four Advanced Levels in Physics, Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, and Additional Mathematics.
While still attending school, Brian May built himself a guitar, which he refers to as “The Red Special”. The guitar was built from an 18th century fireplace, May once explained its construction, “I like a big neck – thick, flat and wide. I lacquered the fingerboard with Rustin’s Plastic Coating. The tremolo is interesting in that the arm’s made from an old bicycle saddle bag carrier, the knob at the end’s off a knitting needle and the springs are valve springs from an old motorbike.” May not only continues to use that unique guitar, but uses it in an equally unusual way. Instead of a standard guitar pick, Brian prefers to use coins, especially a sixpence. He says that their rigidity gives him more control in his playing.
While studying physics at Imperial College in London, Brian and Tim Staffell decided to form another band. Drummer Roger Taylor responded to an ad they placed in the college newpaper, and the group Smile was formed. The band was signed to Mercury Records in 1970. Staffell left the band shortly after, but not before introducing them to his college buddy, Farrokh Bulsara. When Staffell left, Busara encouraged the remaining members to keep playing. He joned them as vocalist and began going by the name Freddy Mercury. It was Freddy’s idea to rename the band Queen. He explained his thoughts, “I thought up the name Queen. It’s just a name, but it’s very regal obviously, and it sounds splendid, It’s a strong name, very universal and immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations. I was certainly aware of gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it.”
Queens debut album, with the Brian May penned lead single “Keep Yourself Alive” didn’t sell well, despite receiving good reviews from critics. Their second attempt performed better however, “Queen II”, reached number five on the British album charts and it’s single “Seven Seas of Rhye” broke into the top ten in the UK. The band toured as an opening act to Mott the Hoople on their US and UK tour. The album, however still didn’t break into the US charts.
While Queen was still trying to make it Brian graduated with a Bachelors degree in Physics in Mathematics. May went on to begin studying for his Ph.D. Queen made it big while Brian was in the middle of his studies working on reflected light from interplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. Brian put his academic aspirations on hold to build upon the success that Queen was having. Although not actively pursuing his degree at the time, May still co-wrote two research papers in the field of astrophysics, MgI Emission in the Night-Sky Spectrum (1972), and An Investigation of the Motion of Zodiacal Dust Particles (Part I) (1973).
May didn’t perform on the band’s breakout album, “Sheer Heart Attack” because of medical complications but the album became their first hit in the United States, going gold. May returned to the studio for the next album, “A Night at the Opera”, and his virtuosic playing on their first US hit single, “Killer Queen” helped build the band’s popularity.
Queen continued their success well throughout the 70s and 80s, cranking out massive hits such as “We Will Rock You”, which is still a staple in sports venues and school pep rallys, “We Are the Champions”, “Fat Bottomed Girls”, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, “Another One Bites the Dust”, and the David Bowie collaboration “Under Pressure”. The band contributed heavily to the soundtracks of the 1980 science fiction film, Flash Gordon, and the Highlander franchise.
Freddy Mercury died from complications due to AIDS on November 23, 1991 and Brian May chose to deal with his grief by immersing himself in work, forming the Brian May Band. The band toured in support of May’s recently released solo album, “Back to the Light” and continued to tour , although with numerous lineup changes, until 1993. That year, Brian May went back into the studio with Queen to finish album with recording that Mercury had made before his death.
In 2004, Brian May and Roger Taylor began a collaboration with Paul Rodgers dubbed “Queen + Paul Rodgers”. They named it that way to emphasize the fact that Rodgers wasn’t replacing the late Freddy Mercury as Queen’s front man.
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