In October, “GREATEST HITS TWO,a double album” was released, which included 17 tracks. At the same time “GREATEST FLIX II”, and “GREATEST PIX II”were released, which this time were composed by Richard Greem. In addition, they released a special edition of “Box Of Flix”, which included clips from “Flix I & II” and 4 of the clips were in the bonus. Of course both”Hits II” and “Flix II” reached first place in the charts.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

At the turn of the decade many TV channels, especially in Britain, made numerous programs devoted to the “best in the 80′s”. So, readers of the magazine “TV Times”, as well as the audience of Independent Television unanimously voted Queen the best band of the decade. The musicians were very pleased with such a recognition by the public. At the award ceremony Queen arrived in full glamour. In November 1989 the band returned to the studio to work on a new album. In February, the 1990 Queen was again honored,now by “the British record industry” by awarding the musicians a prize for “outstanding contribution to British music”. After receiving the awards Queen went to the star party in London’s “Groucho Club”, a specially organized to celebrate the momentous event.

In November the same year Queen signed with “Hollywood Records”, which is funded by “Disney”, a new big contract. Hollywood planned to increase Queen’s popularity, so it was decided to reissue the entire collection of albums on CD and remaster them. This format had never been used with Queen’s albums in The US before.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

On June 7th Queen again started a tour. This time they went on a European Magical Tour. First appearance in the tour was given at the stadium in “St James Park” in Newcastle. Queen and their promoter Narvi Goldsmith decided to give all proceeds from the concert to the International Save the Children Fund .On July 11th the group gives to the British capital two concerts at the Wembley Stadium. And their second appearance was filmed for Tyne Tees television. The director was again Gavin Taylor. Broadcast shooting took place simultaneously on the “Independent Radio Network,” and Channel Four. It was for the first time in the history of England.

On the 27th July 1986 Queen made history again (that became a habit), when they were in the remarkable “Nepstadion” in Budapest (Hungary). It was the first time a rock band of this magnitude played at the stadium in a country of the Eastern bloc, and all the tickets were completely sold out long before the concert. The performance was filmed by the Hungarian film studio “MAFILM”.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

On 13th July 1985 it became a symbol of the global campaign “Live Aid”, which was held at Wembley (London) and in Philadelphia. Queen was one of those groups which performed for 20 minutes. The whole world watched them. Both the press and the public unanimously recognized Queen as a group, which eclipsed absolutely everyone. For Queen this event was significant: shortly before this the musicians had decided to rest for some time , but this success gave them new enthusiasm and strength. The result of this upsurge of creative forces is the song “One Vision”.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

But the most unexpected was the clip to the next single “I Want To Break Free”. It was also filmed with the participation of fans of the band and musicians dressed as female personages in the popular British soap opera “Coronation Street”. When asked why, Roger said that they were tired of the epic, serious video, it’s time to joke. American channel MTV refused to show the video clip. In August 1984, Queen went to Belgium to start a new round of “The Works”. And in October, the musicians played a series of concerts in South Africa Bofutatsvane at the famous stadium “Super Bowl” in Sun City. During these concerts Freddie had major problems with his voice, because of which they even had to cancel some concerts. However, these problems seem trivial compared to how they were met at home: the public was shocked by their trip, because of apartheid in South Africa . As an excuse the musicians said that their group was apolitical, and that they went in South Africa to play their music for the people. And there really was no other reason.

In September 1984, “We Will Rock You” appeared – the first full-length video by Queen. It was filmed in Montreal in 1981 during their concerts. In the autumn of ’84 in the list of two hundred best British albums were no less than 9 Queen’s albums. 1985 was marked by “Rock in Rio”, declared the biggest rock festival, held at any time in the world. Queen got the role of headliners at the event. “Rock in Rio” was broadcast throughout South America, but only Queen released their recital at the festival on a video, which came out in May 1985 titled “Live In Rio”.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

On the occasion of the new album there was a party in New Orleans which went down in history. It was organized by Queen, who intended to invite there their record company “EMI” from Europe and “Elektra” – their U.S. representatives. The leaders of these companies first met at a party, with each side trying to prove their numerical superiority. The party was held with cheers – wrestling in the mud, topless waitresses and so on.

By the end of December the tour of North America was completed, and the group flew to Britain for Christmas. But they had very little time for rest, as early as January 1979 the band went on tour in Europe, which began in Hamburg. In March, the group retreated to the “Mountain Studio”, in Montreaux, to work on a live album. Queen liked to work in this place, so they did not hesitate long before they decided to buy the studio.

In April 1979 Queen again travelled to Japan on a tour. In June, they asked the English Tennis Club to provide the Center Court at Wimbledon for the concert. They were refused. In the same month “LIVE
KILLERS” – the first live album by Queen was released.

On one occasion the group was asked to write music for the film “Flash Gordon” (science fiction). The film producer Dino De Laurentis in the first discussion of this idea, asked: “And who are Queen?”. The musicians decided to agree, and in June started to work on the music in Munich. At the end of 1979, the group went on “The Crazy Tour”. With it, they performed in such famous places as “Tiffany’s in Purley”, “The Lewisham Odeon”, “Alexandra Palace” and “Hammersmith Odeon”. In the “Hammersmith Odeon” group participated in a charity concert to help the starving Kampuchean people. On this tour, Jerry Stikkelsa, Queen’s tour manager, who had been travelling with them since 1976,was taken seriously ill. He was rushed to hospital.

In the beginning of the 80s, the musicians were working intensively on the new album “The Game”, which was the first one to utilize the electronic magic of synthesizers. In June, they went on a North American tour again.

“THE GAME” was released in June 1980, which became a platinum album five times in Canada alone. A composition “Another One Bites The Dust” became the best selling single of Queen in the world. In the U.S., the song becomes a huge hit and was at the top in all three charts – rock, disco and soul.

Finally, on December 8th , 1980, the soundtrack to “FLASH GORDON” was released. Sales of Queen’s albums in the world by the end of that year climbed to more than 45 mln. In February of next year after another Japanese tour they travelled to Rio de Janeiro, where they began their first South American tour. Queen became the first rock band, which ventured to perform to full stadiums on this continent, thus paving the way for other musicians in the future.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

In early 1976, Mercury received another “Ivor Novello”, now for “Bohemian Rhapsody”. At the same time the group went on its 3rd tour in America, which lasted nearly three months. Immediately after this tour, they flew to Japan, where they also had an overwhelmingly enthusiastic reception. At this time all four of Queen’s albums were in the British Top  Twenty best albums ,which was absolutely unprecedented. The Group made an extensive tour of Japan, and then went to Australia. Their tour “Down Under” in this country began with a presentation of “Entertainment Centre” in the city of Perth.

After that, the musicians returned to the UK to work on a new album – A Day At The Races, but the record was delayed, as the band went on a short UK tour. On 18^th of September 1976,out of gratitude to their numerous loyal fans, Queen gave a free concert in Hyde Park in London. According to unofficial estimates, the concert drew about 150-200 thousand people, which was a record number at the time.

“A Day At The Races” sales exceeded 500 thousand copies . On January 4th 1977 the group flew to the U.S. to prepare for its forthcoming tour of America. Nearly three months were packed with concerts in Canada and the United States. In May, 1977, Queen flew to Stockholm to begin an extensive European tour.

: The recording of the new Queen album required the highest budget of all times.However ,after the release of A Night at the Opera in November 1975,it immediately became popular and brought Queen their first platinum award.

At the betting sponsored by EMI the group accidentally bet on the same horse which happened to win the race.

Their tour “Down Under” in this country began with a performance at “Entertainment Centre” in the city of Perth.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

In January 1975 Queen hired the lawyer Jim Lashing. He was supposed to release the group from obligations to the record company “Trident”, which had ceased to provide the necessary support to Queen. On April 2, Queen for the first time appear in Canada’s Edmonton. In the same month, the group first visited Japan. At the airport were crowds of many thousands of fans who enthusiastically greeted them. Album Sheer Heart Attack at the time occupied in the “Celestial Empire” all the first place album charts. In May the same year, Freddie gets the prize “Ivor Novello” from the “Union of Poets” for the song “Killer Queen”. In June the band started work on a new album. Soon were finally discontinued all ties with the group “Trident” – to the great relief of all participants, and by September Queen had signed a  contract with John Reed. In 1975, Queen decided to release “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Ambient asserted that the composition is too long – 5 minutes 55 seconds – and never will be a hit. Freddie decided to give the song to his friend Kenny Everett, who worked as a DJ in London.  Mercury told him that this is a copy for personal use only and not for airtime. And, of course, Kenny let the song in the air. 14 times in 2 days! Since then the “bohemian rhapsody” can be heard on every radio station, with the full version. It was a huge success and marked the Queen as a group of the century.

A video clip for the single, which was directed by  Bruce Gowers’ based on the ideas of the musicians themselves, is  considered to be the beginning of mass entrainment video clips. “Bohemian Rhapsody” lasted on the top line of the UK charts for 9 weeks!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites