In 1968, two London students - Brian May and Tim Staffell - decided to organize a group. On the bulletin board of his Imperial college, Brian posted a note saying they needed a drummer like the Ginger Baker, which was answered by a young medical student, Roger Meddows-Taylor. He became the drummer of a group called Smile. In 1969, Smile signed a contract with Mercury Records and in the same year began working in the Trident Recording Studio. Tim Staffell soon introduced Freddie Mercury, a fellow at Ealing College of Art, to the group. Freddy became their passionate fan. Unfortunately, in 1970, Smile concluded that nothing else shines on them. Tim went to the Humpy Bong group. Then Freddy left his band Wreckage and joined Brian and Roger. So it all started.
Freddie decided to change his name to Mercury, and the name of the group to Queen. After they had already changed three bassists, John Deacon was invited to this role. In February 1971, he became the fourth member of the group. They constantly rehearsed and took part in several small concerts for close friends at the Imperial College - the same place where the rehearsals took place. Then they had the opportunity to try out the new recording studio De Lane Lea. As a reward for checking new equipment, they could make free test recordings for themselves and, of course, did not miss such a chance. In 1972, they signed a contract with Trident for sound recording, publishing, and management, and during that year each received only 60 pounds a week. In those hours when Trident was free, Queen could work on their first album.
In 1973, Trident signed an agreement with EMI regarding Queen, and in July of the same year the first album, also called Queen, was released. The group was asked to take a long break in the recordings, and they went on their first tour to support the band Mott The Hoople. It began in Leeds in November 1973, and many then admitted that Queen was "much more than just a warm-up band" ...
Finally, in March 1974, the Queen II album was released. He should have come out earlier, but there was a typo on the cover, and Queen insisted on fixing it. They went on their first independent tour of the cities of Britain, which began in March 1974 in Blackpool. In April 1974, they received an invitation from Mott The Hoople to support them during a tour of America - this is how their first tour of the country began. But in May, Brian fell ill with hepatitis, and they had to cancel the remaining concerts.
They started work on their third album without Brian. Roy Thomas Baker helped them a lot. Over time, Brian felt quite decent to go to the studio to record guitar parts, but he was still not healthy enough, and spent all his breaks in the studio bathroom, as he felt very weak. Finally, the album was completed. Sheer Heart Attack was released in November 1974. He was a great success on both sides of the Atlantic.
In January 1975, Queen went to the United States on her first independent tour. Tickets sold out instantly; there were so many who wanted to add several concerts, so at some venues, they had to give two concerts a day, but all tickets were sold out. Only a few concerts of this tour still had to be canceled, because Freddy started having big problems with his throat. But he mobilized all his strength and acted as much as he could, although the doctors objected to this. Also in 1975, Queen began to use the services of lawyer Jim Beach to get rid of obligations to Trident, because the company no longer provided them with adequate support, and the group was very unhappy with this state of affairs. Their first concert in Canada took place on April 2 in Edmonton, where they performed at the opening act of Kansas.
In April 1975, Queen embarked on her first trip to Japan. When they arrived at the airport, three thousand fans were waiting for them, noisily greeting the group. Sheer Heart Attack was the leader of the Japanese hit parade. In May 1975, Freddy received the Ivor Novello Award as the author of the song Killer Queen.
In June, Queen began work on her new album. In August, the agreement with Trident was finally terminated, which was a great relief for the group, and in September they already signed a contract with the new leadership - John Reed became them.
To be continued in the next part https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/5d6273f204af1f00aeac207e/a-brief-history-of-queen-part-2-5d91e2051febd400b0563e14