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+ "page_name": "Queen's Brian May on Freddie Mercury's guitar skills, Bohemian ...",
+ "page_url": "https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/queens-brian-may-sounds-off-about-freddie-mercurys-guitar-skills-bohemian-rhapsody-actors-and-the-most-difficult-song-to-play-live",
+ "page_snippet": "Queen\u2019s John Deacon, Brian May and Freddie Mercury perform in Hamburg, Germany, in December 1974 (Image credit: Ellen Poppinga/K&K/Redferns) Let\u2019s go back to the beginning. In 1963, you were obviously a serious student in school, but at the same time you wanted to play guitar. Did those two ...Queen\u2019s John Deacon, Brian May and Freddie Mercury perform in Hamburg, Germany, in December 1974 (Image credit: Ellen Poppinga/K&K/Redferns) Let\u2019s go back to the beginning. In 1963, you were obviously a serious student in school, but at the same time you wanted to play guitar. Did those two pursuits conflict with each other? They did conflict, and the policy of the school was that guitar playing was immoral and illegal \u2014 it was the work of the devil. And there was Buddy Holly, not so much for string bending, but his incisive rhythm playing was a big influence on me. And those harmonies! I started to appreciate what could be done with the vocal harmonies. Those things chill me to the bone still \u2014 \u201cOh, Boy!\u201d and \u201cMaybe Baby.\u201d I still put them on and marvel at where they came from. Queen\u2019s Brian May and Roger Taylor with actor Rami Malek at the Bohemian Rhapsody world premiere in London in October 2018 (Image credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage/Getty Images) Queen\u2019s Freddie Mercury and Brian May perform at Live Aid in July 1985 (Image credit: Peter Still/Redferns/Getty Images) \u201cI mean, who could have predicted it?\u201d May asks rhetorically, almost sounding bewildered at the magnitude of the film\u2019s reach. \u201cWe thought it would do well with the fans, but we didn\u2019t imagine how fully it\u2019s been embraced. When my kids saw the first trailer of the film, they said, \u2018Dad, did you overdub your voice?\u2019 I said, \u2018No, he\u2019s an actor, and he\u2019s absolutely nailed me!\u2019 \u201d \u00b7 Brian May at the launch party for Brian May\u2019s Red Special (Image credit: Paul Harmer) Beyond Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019s gargantuan box-office take, May attributes Queen\u2019s sustained hold on the public\u2019s consciousness to the durability of their songs.",
+ "page_result": "\n\n\n\n\n\nQueen's Brian May on Freddie Mercury's guitar skills, Bohemian Rhapsody actors and the most difficult song to play live | Guitar World\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSkip to main content\n\n
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Queen's Brian May on Freddie Mercury's guitar skills, Bohemian Rhapsody actors and the most difficult song to play live
Dr. Brian May talks all things Queen, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and gear in our June cover story.
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\n\n\n\n\nMay with his iconic Red Special guitar, photographed at the launch party for the 2014 book, Brian May’s Red Special\n(Image credit: Paul Harmer)\n\n
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Best of 2019: Even by most multi-taskers’ standards, Brian May puts everybody to shame. He’s not only one of most distinctive guitarists on the planet, but he also co-founded and composed songs for one of the world’s top-selling bands, Queen. As if all that weren’t enough, May somehow found a little time in his schedule to become an astrophysicist, of all things, having received his Ph.D. from London’s Imperial College in 2007.
All of which begs the question: Is there anything this guy’s crap at?
May lets out a chuckle and says, “Oh, sure. I suppose there’s some things.” After racking his brain for a second, he admits household chores aren’t his strong suit. “I’m rubbish at that stuff. Ask my wife. I’m always leaving cups of tea sitting in all of these hidden places, and they turn up months later all full of mildew. That’s my worst trait.”
Housework aside, May’s achievements continue to pile up. It’s indeed rare for any band to sustain its popularity decades after its last recorded work, but Queen are riding a wave of popularity that’s practically unheard of. Thanks in large part to the behemoth 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody, now the most successful music biopic of all time (with worldwide box office receipts in excess of $1 billion — not to mention four Academy Awards), the band’s catalog has stormed back onto the charts. Shortly after the picture’s release last fall, Queen achieved a career first with not one, but two albums (the movie soundtrack and the band’s 1981 Greatest Hits collection) on the Billboard Top 10.
Queen’s Freddie Mercury and Brian May perform at Live Aid in July 1985 (Image credit: Peter Still/Redferns/Getty Images)
“I mean, who could have predicted it?” May asks rhetorically, almost sounding bewildered at the magnitude of the film’s reach. “We thought it would do well with the fans, but we didn’t imagine how fully it’s been embraced. People are going to see it five, six times. They’re singing along and crying. I met people in Asia who saw it 30 times. It’s extraordinary. We couldn’t be happier.”
Responding to critics who took issue with the movie’s reshuffling of chronological events, May says, “We weren’t making a documentary. It wasn’t supposed to be ‘This happened, and then this happened.’ This was an attempt to get inside Freddie Mercury and portray his inner-life — his drive, his passion, his fears and weaknesses. Also, we wanted to portray his relationship with us as a family, which was pretty much a part of what made him tick.” He pauses, then adds thoughtfully of the band’s late frontman, “And I think Freddie would love it, because it’s a good, honest representation of him as a person.\"
Bohemian Rhapsody had a long and sometimes troubled history before reaching the screen (before Rami Malek was cast in the role of Mercury, Sacha Baron Cohen was briefly attached), and for May, who along with drummer Roger Taylor served as a creative and musical consultant on the film, the process often proved difficult. “There were lots of battles we had to face,” he says. Even after the film wrapped, the guitarist had to fight execs at 20th Century Fox to be able to record his own version of the studio’s theme music that begins the picture. “They didn’t want me to do it because they thought it would open the door for lots of other things. But in the end, they let me do it, and they came through for us in every respect.”
One of May’s other roles on the film involved coaching actor Gwilym Lee, who portrays the guitarist, in the finer points of his unique style on the six-string, which even called for the actor to play with a British sixpence instead of a standard pick. Fortunately, Lee wasn’t a neophyte on the guitar, so he was already versed in the basics.
“Gwilym’s a good player, but he wanted to get into how I do stuff and observe me close-up,” May says. “We sat together with two guitars and played the songs he was going to do in the movie. He absorbed it all very rapidly. What I didn’t realize was that he was also observing all of my mannerisms and the tone of my voice. When my kids saw the first trailer of the film, they said, ‘Dad, did you overdub your voice?’ I said, ‘No, he’s an actor, and he’s absolutely nailed me!’ ”
Brian May at the launch party for Brian May’s Red Special (Image credit: Paul Harmer)
Beyond Bohemian Rhapsody’s gargantuan box-office take, May attributes Queen’s sustained hold on the public’s consciousness to the durability of their songs. “The songs are the main pillar, but that’s a very complex area in itself,” he says. “Those songs were generated during periods of stress. We were very fortunate to have a strong combination of personalities, but I think we were always on the verge of breaking up. Oddly enough, that’s where we got our strength, because we were pulling in different directions. We had four varied talents between us.”
Queen stayed off the road for more than a decade following Mercury’s AIDS-related death in 1991, but in 2004, May and Taylor resumed touring with singer Paul Rodgers fronting a revamped version of the band (bassist John Deacon had retired). That configuration, Queen + Paul Rodgers, enjoyed a run of highly successful worldwide treks before splitting in 2009. Two years later, May and Taylor invited American Idol runner-up winner Adam Lambert to join the group, and — as Queen + Adam Lambert — they’ve gone down a smash.
This summer, the band will embark on a North American arena tour, and with Queen still basking in their Bohemian Rhapsody glow, the run just might feel like a victory lap. “I think performance is still a big part of our history,” May says. “We still go out there with Adam and do it at the top level. I don’t think anybody could have predicted that, either. What’s great is, Adam doesn’t feel like a replacement at all; in his own way, he’s an innovator on stage. He’s part of our new balance.”
Queen’s John Deacon, Brian May and Freddie Mercury perform in Hamburg, Germany, in December 1974 (Image credit: Ellen Poppinga/K&K/Redferns)
Let’s go back to the beginning. In 1963, you were obviously a serious student in school, but at the same time you wanted to play guitar. Did those two pursuits conflict with each other?
They did conflict, and the policy of the school was that guitar playing was immoral and illegal — it was the work of the devil. We had to sneak guitars in and play in cycle sheds during lunchtime. We had to be rebels. All of those sorts of ways of formally learning to be a rock star didn’t exist in 1963. It was regarded by many as a big waste of time.
Your father helped you build your guitar, the Red Special. Was he was OK with the guitar taking time from your studies?
My dad’s a bit of an enigma. Yes, he did support me, and we made the guitar together, which was a wonderful bonding experience for the two of us. But when it came to me giving up my studies to go out and play guitar, he was violently against it. He was heartbroken I was considering giving up everything he thought that was going to secure my future — and everything that he felt he had made sacrifices to enable me to do. It was a very emotional thing, and we hardly spoke for about a year and a half.
If the guitar you built didn’t pan out, what would you have wound up playing?
Oh, well, we would have made it work; we wouldn’t have given up. [Laughs] We were absolutely determined, and we did a lot of experimental stuff as we went along. Having said that, it could have been much less of a success than it turned out to be, and then history would have been different. But I don’t know how because I couldn’t afford to buy a guitar for all those years. It would have been much later before I was able to buy a Fender or a Gibson or anything of that class.
You’ve played the Red Special throughout your career. Given all the technological changes that are available now, if you could go back in time, is there anything you wish you could change about it?
I wouldn’t change anything. No, it all worked out very well. [Laughs] It’s really part of my body, and everything about it is right for me. Now, how that happened is a bit of a mystery. I think some of it was intuition and good planning, but some of it was luck. One of the big unknowns was having those acoustic pockets in it. I had this idea that the guitar should feedback a certain way — not the scream-y kind of feedback that happens through pickups. I didn’t have any theory behind that; I was just lucky it worked out right.
Your style of playing is almost impossible to dissect. It’s hard to detect your influences. Who did you listen to as a kid?
There wasn’t much to listen to at that time, so kids like me would listen to everything they could lay their hands on. You wouldn’t call Django Reinhardt, Charlie Byrd or Chet Atkins rock guitar players, but they were all big influences on me. We were all Shadows fans, so Hank Marvin was a massive influence.
I just seized upon anything I could find. I didn’t know who James Burton was in those days, but he was a big influence. The way he bent strings, it sounded like a vocal. That’s what fired me up. And there was Buddy Holly, not so much for string bending, but his incisive rhythm playing was a big influence on me. And those harmonies! I started to appreciate what could be done with the vocal harmonies. Those things chill me to the bone still — “Oh, Boy!” and “Maybe Baby.” I still put them on and marvel at where they came from.
Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor with actor Rami Malek at the Bohemian Rhapsody world premiere in London in October 2018 (Image credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage/Getty Images)
Queen also seemed to occupy their own lane. You weren’t doing the blues thing like Free, and you weren’t aggressively prog like Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Were you guys trying to stay away from what everybody else was doing?
I think the real influence is from all of those things. A couple of songs in our early days were very much modeled on the way Free wrote. By that time I’d been exposed to Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, and that was life-changing. To us, Hendrix was the great god. I still can’t understand where that stuff came from. It’s like he came from another planet.
I mentioned harmonies — I came from Buddy Holly and the Crickets, the Everly Brothers, the Beatles. The Beatles built our bible as far as musical composition, arrangement and production went. The White Album is a complete catalog of how you should use a studio to build songs. “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” and “Dear Prudence” are blinding examples of how music can be like painting a picture on a canvas. In a sense, the Beatles were unburdened because they didn’t have to play the songs live. We became passionate about building stuff in the studio but also making it come to life on a stage.
In the early days, when you didn’t have full control over your show, was it hard to get your guitar sound to your liking on stage?
As soon as I found a Vox AC30 and a treble booster, which was given to me in concept by Rory Gallagher, I had my sound and I never had a problem. It was always the way I wanted it to be. It was my voice, and I was happy. I’m always looking to improve it, but that’s the basis and it hasn’t changed. Those Class A valves give you the smooth spectrum from clean to incredibly limited and saturated. Combined with my guitar, I got all the variations in tone I was looking for.
People often think of Freddie as a pianist, but he occasionally played guitar, and he would write with one, too. What kind of guitarist was he?
He was very good on the guitar, very unorthodox — all downstrokes. He wrote the riff for “Ogre Battle” [from 1974’s Queen II]. I used to play it with up- and downstrokes, but he was all downstrokes. Imagine how fast his right hand was moving! He had a frenetic energy on the guitar, which came across very well in that song. He played the rhythm on “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” I wanted to sound as good as Freddie did on that record, which was damn good. He kind of left the guitar after a while and concentrated more on the piano. In the latter days, he even left the piano behind. He just wanted to be a performer who ran around and had the freedom to be a frontman.
Speaking of performing, you and Freddie pioneered some of the rock star poses people use today.
Did we? [laughs]
I think so. Sure.
I don’t know where it all came from. We had our influences, but we were never choreographed. We did it all instinctively, but there was an awareness of energy flow on stage. I think Japan changed us. We went to Japan and were treated like we were the Beatles. Every move we made was greeted by some kind of response from the audience, so we learned very quickly, instinctively, to use that. I think I wasn’t a very physical guitar player in the beginning, but experiencing the Budokan and that wall of appreciation molded us into people who are much more physical and responsive to what the audience felt.
Brian May performs at the Brian May’s Red Special launch party in 2014 (Image credit: Paul Harmer)
We could take days to go through your catalog, but I did want to touch on a few songs. It’s been said that that “Stone Cold Crazy” [from 1974’s Sheer Heart Attack] is a precursor to thrash metal. What were you guys thinking when you wrote it?
I can tell you exactly. Freddie wrote the lyric, and he already had a riff that he had played with his old band. I said, “That’s a great lyric and concept, but you need a better riff.” Freddie said, “OK, what do you got?” I started doing this frenetic riff to match the lyrics, and he really liked it. The whole band got into it, particularly Roger, because it’s very much based on the way he plays. It clicked quite quickly.
For some reason, we didn’t put it on the first album. We liked it, but we stuck it in a drawer thinking it would go on the second album. But that record was very highly arranged because we were consciously trying to push our music into a new place. Some people were pleased, but others weren’t. I remember getting a review in Australia saying, “Queen have abandoned their rock roots on Queen II.” I was shocked.
But that kind of response was an influence on Sheer Heart Attack, which was a deliberate attempt to recapture our original energy. We laid down “Stone Cold Crazy” very quickly, and we played it quickly. It’s one of the fastest tempos we’ve ever played. These days, if we play it on stage, we have fun with it. Sometimes we try to prove to ourselves that we can still flex our muscles at that rate, so it tends to get very fast. That’s when you have to pull it back, because it gets to the point where it loses its thump.
“The Prophet’s Song” appeared on 1975’s A Night at the Opera, but you were working on it at the time of Queen II.
I was. It was an obsession, and I’d been struggling with it. It did come from a dream — that isn’t a made-up thing. But I was trying to realize that dream, and I was having lots of problems with it. There were too many different bits, and it became a jumble.
I remember listening to Freddie playing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Rockfield. He had a piano outside at one point, and I thought, “My God, he’s got this thing organized so perfectly, and here I am struggling with these different bits.” Eventually, I did pull it together, but I don’t know if it came to the optimum point, even in the end. Of course, it was never as successful as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which became the prodigal child that has gone on to become immortal in so many ways. “The Prophet’s Song” is something Queen fans like, but it never conquered the world in the same way.
You mentioned James Burton, whom you emulate on “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”
Oh, yes.
And there’s “Another One Bites the Dust.”
Yes, but the rhythm guitar isn’t me. John played the rhythm on that one. He obviously wrote the bassline and the whole thing. He was very insistent on getting his own touch with the rhythm, so that’s him on a Strat. I played all the heavy stuff, which wasn’t all that much. It just punctuates it. I have to tell you, getting that chunky rhythm feel is one of the hardest things I have to play live.
It’s very Nile Rodgers.
It’s very Nile Rodgers, and John absolutely adored him — we all do. John was very influenced by him, without a doubt. What an amazing guy Nile Rodgers is. He’s got his own vocabulary, his own world.
After Freddie’s passing, it took some time for Queen to tour again. How would you describe the differences between Paul Rodgers and how you now work with Adam Lambert?
It’s a good question. They’re both great, of course. We had a fantastic time with Paul. He has his own style, which we integrated into the band. But what happened was, there was a meeting point where we wanted to go deeply into his music — we were influenced by it in the first place. For me, it was a joy to play “All Right Now,” “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” and all those things.
It became difficult as time went on, though. We would play South America, where people didn’t know that music, so we played more Queen songs. Paul dealt with it well, but I think it was hard for him to abandon a lot of his material. We really enjoyed it as an experiment, but as an experiment it had… limits. Eventually, we thought, “It’s probably gone as far as it can. Paul needs to get back to his own career.” Because he couldn’t just go on being the frontman of Queen. By mutual agreement, we thought, “That’s it.”
Now, with Adam, it’s a different story, because Adam can do all the stuff that Freddie did and more. It doesn’t matter what you throw at Adam — he can do it. He can do “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy” [from 1976’s A Day at the Races], which we wouldn’t dream of throwing at Paul Rodgers, because it just wouldn’t work. With Adam, it’s a different kettle of fish. He’s a born exhibitionist. He’s not Freddie, and he’s not pretending to be him, but he has a parallel set of equipment. He knows how to deal with an audience. He teases and taunts an audience quite naturally, without thinking about it. He loves to dress up. Although Paul did dress up a bit for us. We got a lot of sequins on him. [Laughs]
A little bit.
Adam lives and breathes that stuff. Adam is style, and that’s not to say he’s not content as well. He’s a born rock star and frontman, so it’s a very vibrant relationship we have with him. We treat Adam exactly the same as we treated Freddie in almost every way.
We talked about how you worked with Gwilym Lee, but what can we say about Rami Malek’s Oscar-winning performance as Freddie?
Ahh, Rami is such a phenomenon. He’s incredible. Rami became so Freddie-like in everyday life that we started to assume he was Freddie. It’s a really odd thing. That’s still the case. I mean, I think all the boys are great. The four of them, plus Lucy [Boynton, who portrayed Mercury’s longtime companion, Mary Austin] have become our extended family. We continue to spend a lot of time with them. It’s great.
Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar World, Guitar Player, MusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.
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+ "page_last_modified": " Sat, 16 Mar 2024 00:37:49 GMT"
+ },
+ {
+ "page_name": "Brian May - Wikipedia",
+ "page_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May",
+ "page_snippet": "At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards ... to Brian May. Queen closed the awards ceremony, with Adam Lambert on vocals, performing "The Show Must Go On", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions". The collaboration garnered a positive response from both fans and critics, resulting in speculation about future projects together. Queen + Adam Lambert played two shows ...At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards on 6 November, Queen received the Global Icon Award, which Katy Perry presented to Brian May. Queen closed the awards ceremony, with Adam Lambert on vocals, performing \"The Show Must Go On\", \"We Will Rock You\" and \"We Are the Champions\". The collaboration garnered a positive response from both fans and critics, resulting in speculation about future projects together. Queen + Adam Lambert played two shows at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, on 11 and 12 July 2012. Former Van Halen 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.\" Justin Hawkins, lead guitarist of the Darkness, cites May as his earliest influence, saying \"I really loved his tone and vibrato and everything. I thought his playing sounded like a singing voice. I think Brian May has one of the great guitar tones on the planet, and I really, really love his guitar work.\" Justin Hawkins, lead guitarist of the Darkness, cites May as his earliest influence, saying \"I really loved his tone and vibrato and everything. I thought his playing sounded like a singing voice. I wanted to be able to do that. Whenever I went to guitar lessons, I was always asking to learn Queen stuff.\" In February 2011, it was announced that May would tour with Kerry Ellis, playing 12 dates across the UK in May 2011. At the end of 2004, May and Taylor announced that they would reunite and return to touring in 2005, with Paul Rodgers, the 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. Performing a three-song set, May appeared in front of the Victoria Memorial monument as they opened with \"We Will Rock You\" which had been introduced in a comedy segment where the Queen and Paddington Bear tapped their tea cups to the beat of the song. I can listen to any player and pantomime their sound, but I can't do Brian May.",
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This article is about the British musician and astrophysicist. For the Australian film composer, see Brian May (Australian composer). For the Canadian politician, see Bryan May.
Sir Brian Harold MayCBE (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal rights activist and astrophysicist. He achieved worldwide fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen, which he co-founded with singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor. His guitar work and songwriting contributions helped Queen become one of the most successful acts in music history.\n
May previously performed with Taylor in the progressive rock band Smile, which he had joined while he was at university. After Mercury joined to form Queen in 1970, bass guitarist John Deacon completed the line-up in 1971. They became one of the biggest rock bands in the world with the success of the album A Night at the Opera and its single \"Bohemian Rhapsody\". From the mid-1970s until 1986, Queen played at some of the biggest venues in the world, including an acclaimed performance at Live Aid in 1985.[3] As a member of Queen, May became regarded as a virtuoso musician and was identified with a distinctive sound created through his layered guitar work, often using a home-built electric guitar called the Red Special.[4] May wrote numerous hits for Queen, including \"We Will Rock You\", \"I Want It All\", \"Fat Bottomed Girls\", \"Flash\", \"Hammer to Fall\", \"Save Me\", \"Who Wants to Live Forever\" and \"The Show Must Go On\".\n
Following the death of Mercury in 1991, aside from the 1992 tribute concert, the release of Made in Heaven (1995) and the 1997 tribute single to Mercury, \"No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)\" (written by May), Queen were put on hiatus for several years but were eventually reconvened by May and Taylor for further performances featuring other vocalists. In 2005, a Planet Rock poll saw May voted the seventh-greatest guitarist of all time.[5] He was ranked at No. 33 on Rolling Stone's 2023 list of 250 greatest guitarists of all time.[6] In 2012, he was further ranked the second-greatest guitarist in a Guitar World magazine readers poll.[7] In 2001, May was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Queen and, in 2018, the band received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[8]\n
At Hampton Grammar School, May attained ten GCE Ordinary Levels and three GCE Advanced Levels in physics, mathematics, and applied mathematics.[25] He studied mathematics and physics at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc degree in physics in 1968 with honours.[26] Following his graduation, May received a personal invitation from Sir Bernard Lovell to work at the Jodrell Bank Observatory while continuing to prepare his doctorate. He declined, choosing instead to remain at Imperial College to avoid breaking from Smile, the London-based band he was in at the time.[27]\n
In 2007, May was awarded a PhD degree in astrophysics from Imperial College London for work started in 1971 and completed in 2007.[1][2][28][29]\n
May formed the band Smile in 1968. The group included Tim Staffell as the lead 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 departed in 1970, leaving the band with a catalogue of 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\".[30] May also performed several other songs that night.\n
After the Live Aid concert in 1985, Mercury rang his band members 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); the lyrics were co-written by the four band members.[33]\n
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.[34] 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 problems with the British press). For the rest of the album, he did not contribute much creatively. However, he helped in building the basis of \"Party\" and \"Was It All Worth It\" (both being predominantly Mercury's pieces) and created the \"Chinese Torture\" guitar riff.[34]\n
Queen's subsequent album was Innuendo. May's contributions increased, although more in terms of arranging than actual writing in most cases. He did some of the arrangement for the heavy solo on the title track. He added vocal harmonies to \"I'm Going Slightly Mad\" and composed the solo for \"These Are the Days of Our Lives\", a song for which the four of them decided the keyboard parts together.[35]\n
Two songs May had composed for his first solo album, \"Headlong\" and \"I Can't Live With You\", eventually ended up on the Queen project. His other composition was \"The Show Must Go On\", which he coordinated and was the primary composer.[36] In recent years, he has supervised 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 played throughout 2005 and 2006 in South Africa, Europe, Aruba, Japan, and North America and released a new album with Rodgers in 2008, entitled The Cosmos Rocks. This album was supported by a major tour.[37]\n
1983\u20131999: Side projects and solo works[edit]
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During 1983, several members of Queen explored side projects. On 21 and 22 April in Los Angeles, May was in a studio with Eddie Van Halen, with no intention of recording anything. The result of the two-day session was a mini album titled Star Fleet Project, which was not originally going to be released.[41] In 1986, May contributed to former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett's album Feedback 86, playing guitar on the track \"Cassandra\" and providing guitar and vocals for \"Slot Machine\", which May co-wrote. Although produced in 1986, the album was not released commercially until 2000. Another song co-written by May and Hackett during this period, \"Don't Fall Away from Me\", was eventually recorded by Hackett in 1992 for release on his The Unauthorised Biography compilation album. Also in 1986, May worked with actress Anita Dobson on her first album, most noted for the song \"Anyone Can Fall in Love\", which added lyrics to the EastEnders theme tune and reached number four on the UK Singles Chart in August 1986. May and Dobson married in 2000.[42] In 1988, May contributed guitar solos to the song \"When Death Calls\" on Black Sabbath's 14th album Headless Cross, and the Living in a Box track \"Blow The House Down\" on the album Gatecrashing.[43] Both albums were released in 1989.\n
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After the tragic break-up of any band, it feels impossible to continue but I was really glad that Brian did launch a solo career. He had such a lot of music in him and a great deal more to give.\n
In the aftermath of the November 1991 death of Mercury, 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,[45] 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.[46] According to Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott, \"It was undoubtedly an enormous and terrible blow to lose someone he was so close to. Personally, I know it ripped the heart out of Brian, but having said that, he was in great spirits after the album was finished.\"[44]Back to the Light featured the single \"Too Much Love Will Kill You\", on which he collaborated as a songwriter with Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers. A version with Freddie Mercury's vocals was later released on the Queen album Made in Heaven and won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically in 1996.[47]\n
In late 1992, the Brian May Band was officially formed. May had loosely formed an earlier version of the band 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 on vocals and lead guitar, Cozy Powell on drums and percussion, Mike Moran and Rick Wakeman on keyboards, and Maggie Ryder, Miriam Stockley and Chris Thompson on backing vocals.[48] The original line-up was May on vocals and lead guitar, Powell on drums and percussion, Michael Casswell on guitar, Neil Murray on bass, and Ryder, Stockley and Thompson on backing vocals. This version of the band was together only during the South American support tour (supporting The B-52's and Joe Cocker) on five dates.[49]\n
May later made significant changes, feeling the group never quite gelled. May brought guitarist Jamie Moses on board to replace Mike Caswell. The backing vocalists, Ryder, Stockley and Thompson, were replaced by 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, supporting Guns N' Roses and headlining a few dates.[50] The tour included dates in North America, Europe (support act: Valentine) and Japan. On 15 June 1993, the band did a show in London that would end up as The Brian May Band's only release as a collective, namely Live at the Brixton Academy. At the show, May would sing a few lines of \"Love of My Life\", and then, as Mercury used to, let the audience join in.[51] 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.[52] 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.[53] After Mercury's death, work on the album by Deacon and May began originally in 1992 but was left until a later date due to other commitments.[52]\n
In 1995, May began working on a new solo album of covers tentatively titled Heroes, in addition to working on various film and television projects[54] and other collaborations. May subsequently changed the approach from covers to focus on those collaborations and new material. The songs included Another World, and featured mainly Spike Edney, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray and Jamie Moses. On 5 April 1998, Cozy Powell was killed in a car accident on the M4 motorway near Bristol, England. This incident caused an unexpected disruption to the upcoming tour for the Brian May Band, which now needed a new drummer on short notice. Steve Ferrone was brought on to help May finish recording the drum tracks and join the band for the early stage promotional tour of five dates in Europe before the world tour. Following the early promotional tour, Eric Singer replaced him on the 1998 world tour.[citation needed]\n
The 1998 tour saw the brief introduction of a 'support act' known as T. E. Conway. Conway (Brian May in a wig and colourful suit playing the part of a teddy boy crooner) would play several 1950s rock and roll standards before May's 'arrival'. A bonus T. E. Conway EP entitled Retro Rock Special was attached to some pressings of the Another World album. The Conway character was retired at the end of the tour.[55]\nIn May 1999, May recorded lead guitars for the Guns N' Roses song \"Catcher in the Rye\" on Chinese Democracy, but his performance was removed from the album by the time it was released in 2008.[56]\n
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, he made a guest appearance at the Mot\u00f6rhead 25th Anniversary show at Brixton Academy along with Eddie Clarke (former Mot\u00f6rhead guitarist) for the encore song \"Overkill\". As part of the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II celebrations on 3 June 2002, May performed a guitar solo of \"God Save the Queen\" from the roof of Buckingham Palace, with the performance appearing on the 30th Anniversary DVD edition of A Night at the Opera.[57][58] May played guitar on the song \"Someone to Die For\" on the Spider-Man 2soundtrack in 2004.[59]\n
On the Queen's birthday honours list of 2005, he was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire \"for services to the music industry and for charity work\".[60] In the same year he played the guitar on the song Il mare... for Italian singer Zucchero Fornaciari, on his album Zu & Co., and he took part in the concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London held in May 2004, with the other guests of the Italian bluesman. May was a celebrity guest at the Genesis reunion concert at Twickenham Stadium in 2007.[61] May and Genesis frontman Phil Collins worked together on two previous occasions, at The Prince's Trust Rock Gala in 1988 and the Party at the Palace in 2002, when Collins had played drums with Queen. In 2011 he contributed to a feature about Collins for FHM, praising him as \"a great guy and an amazing drummer\".[62]\n
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 appearing with Ellis at many public performances\u2014playing 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.\n
On 20 May 2009, May and Queen bandmate Roger Taylor performed \"We Are the Champions\" live on the season finale of American Idol with winner Kris Allen and runner-up Adam Lambert providing a vocal duet.[68] In November 2009, May appeared with Taylor on The X Factor, with Queen mentoring the contestants, then later performed \"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 to promote animal rights in Britain.[69] In February 2011, it was announced that May would tour with Kerry Ellis, playing 12 dates across the UK in May 2011.[70]\n
At the end of 2004, May and Taylor announced that they would reunite and return to touring in 2005, with Paul Rodgers, the 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.[71]\n
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.[72] 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.[72][73] On 15 August 2006, May confirmed through his website and fan club that Queen + Paul Rodgers would begin producing their first studio album in October, to be recorded at a \"secret location\".[74] 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's release, the band embarked on a tour through Europe and parts of the US, opening on Kharkiv's freedom square in front of 350,000 Ukrainian fans.[75] The show in Ukraine was later released on DVD.[75] Queen and Paul Rodgers officially split up on 12 May 2009. Rodgers did not rule out the possibility of working together again.[76][77]\n
At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards on 6 November, Queen received the Global Icon Award, which Katy Perry presented to Brian May.[86] Queen closed the awards ceremony, with Adam Lambert on vocals, performing \"The Show Must Go On\", \"We Will Rock You\" and \"We Are the Champions\".[86] The collaboration garnered a positive response from both fans and critics, resulting in speculation about future projects together.[87]Queen + Adam Lambert played two shows at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, on 11 and 12 July 2012.[88][89] Both shows sold out within 24 hours of tickets going on open sale.[90] A third London date was added for 14 July.[91] On 30 June, Queen + Lambert performed in Kyiv, Ukraine at a joint concert with Elton John for the Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation.[92] Queen also performed with Lambert on 3 July 2012 at Moscow's Olympic Stadium,[93][94] and on 7 July 2012 at the Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw, Poland.[95]\n
\nMay with Taylor (right) and Jessie J in August 2012\n
In January 2012, May featured on N-Dubz frontman Dappy's solo single \"Rockstar\",[96] providing \"rumbling guitar riffs which culminate in an electrifying solo\".[97] The pair also collaborated on a performance of \"We Will Rock You\" for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.[98]\n
Welsh electronic musician Jayce Lewis collaborated with May in 2018 on the song We Are One, taken from Lewis' 2018 album release Million. Incorporating a repurposed Finger tapping/Hammering riff from May's solo track Cyborg from his album; Another World (Brian May album), both artists re-recorded May's guitar at a slower speed, and included it to the new song composition.[104][105][106]\n
Not long after performing with American Idol finalists Kris Allen and Adam Lambert during the programme's season finale in 2009, May and Taylor began contemplating the future of Queen after the group's amicable split with frontman Paul Rodgers. At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, Queen was presented with that year's Global Icon Award, accepted by May. As part of the broadcast, Queen performed a short set with Lambert, receiving an overwhelmingly welcoming response.[87] Speculation regarding collaboration with Lambert soon arose, with the three formally announcing a short summer tour of Europe in 2012, including three dates at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, as well as shows in Ukraine, Russia and Poland.[111][112]\n
The collaboration was revived in 2013, when the three performed together at the iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on 20 September.[113] Five months later, May, Taylor and Lambert announced a 19-date summer tour of North America on Good Morning America.[114] Because of ticket demand, five dates were soon added.[115] In May 2014, shows in Australia[116] and New Zealand[117] were announced, along with festival performances in South Korea[118] and Japan.[119] The tour was extended to the UK and greater Europe in early 2015.[120] The group performed together in South America in September 2015, including Queen's first performance at the Rock in Rio Festival since 1985.[121]\n
\nMay performing a solo of Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s New World Symphony in a planet themed segment during a June 2022 Queen + Adam Lambert concert\n
In 2016, the group embarked across Europe and Asia on the Queen + Adam Lambert 2016 Summer Festival Tour. This included closing the Isle of Wight Festival in England on 12 June where they performed \"Who Wants to Live Forever\" as a tribute to the victims of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida earlier that day.[122] On 12 September they performed at the Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv, Israel for the first time in front of 58,000 people.[123] In September 2018 the group had a residency in the MGM Park Theater in Las Vegas.[124] Though the collaboration remains active, there are currently no plans to record a studio album, though the three are willing to do so in the future.[125]\nOn 31 March 2020, Queen + Adam Lambert confirmed that their touring dates were postponed until 2021 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.[126]\n
His tone immediately grabbed me. Brian has his own style and sound, so you can always tell his work. Even in 1971 he had incredible finesse, amazing fluidity.\n
May has been referred to as a virtuoso guitarist by many publications and musicians.[131][132][133][134][135] He has featured in various music polls of great rock guitarists, and in 2011 was ranked number 26 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the \"100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time\".[6] In January 2007, the readers of Guitar World voted May's guitar solos on \"Bohemian Rhapsody\" and \"Brighton Rock\" into the \"top 50 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time\" (No.20 and No.41 respectively).[136] Former Van Halen 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.\"[135]Justin Hawkins, lead guitarist of the Darkness, cites May as his earliest influence, saying \"I really loved his tone and vibrato and everything. I thought his playing sounded like a singing voice. I wanted to be able to do that. Whenever I went to guitar lessons, I was always asking to learn Queen stuff.\"[137]\n
\nAmerican guitar virtuoso Steve Vai has spoken highly of May's work, saying:
In that whole genre, in that whole period\u2014he's one of the most unique contributors. He doesn't get credit. Because what he does is so rich and so specific, and so deep, it fits so well in Queen music, you just feel it as part of that music. But when you break it down and when you look at it from a guitar player's point of view, it's unique, and nobody to this date could do what he does and make it sound like that. He is an iconic player. His tone, his choice of melody notes, he doesn't just do solos. His solos are melodies, and they're perfectly in place.[138]
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Most of May's electric guitar work live and in the studio is done on the Red Special, which he built with his father, an electronics engineer, when he was sixteen years old.[4][21][139][140][141][142] It was built with wood from an 18th-century fireplace, and was composed of household items such as mother-of-pearl buttons, shelf edging, and motorbike valve springs. While May and his father were building the Red Special, May also produced plans to build a second guitar. However, the Red Special was so successful that May did not need to build another guitar.[143] These plans were eventually given to guitar luthier Andrew Guyton in around 2004\u201305. Guyton made some slight modifications and the guitar was built. It was named \"The Spade\" as the body's shape resembled the form shown on playing cards. The guitar also came to be known as \"The Guitar That Time Forgot.\"[143]\n
May commented on the Red Special:\n
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I like a big neck \u2013 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 from the ends of a knitting needle, and the springs are valve springs from an old motorbike.[144]
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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, because he feels their rigidity gives him more control in playing.[145] He is known to carry coins in his pockets specifically for this purpose.[145]\n
A meticulous arranger, he focuses on multi-part harmonies, often more contrapuntal than parallel\u2014a 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\").\n
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 finger-picked solo of \"White Queen\" (from Queen II), \"Love of My Life\" and the skiffle-influenced \"'39\" (both from A Night at the Opera).\n
Aided by the uniqueness of 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 various sound effects with his guitar; 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.[146] May also used his guitar to create the chime effect in \"Bohemian Rhapsody\".[147]\n
May's early influences included 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 the Shadows' lead guitarist Hank Marvin. He has collaborated with Richard on a re-recording of 1958 hit \"Move It\" on Richard's duets album Two's Company, which was released on 6 November 2006.[148]\n
May always stated that the Beatles, Led Zeppelin,[149]the Who and Jimi Hendrix were the greatest influences on him. On the Queen for an Hour interview on BBC Radio 1 in 1989, May listed 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.'\"[150] May told Guitarist in 2004, \"I don't think anyone has epitomised riff writing better than Jimmy Page \u2013 he's one of the great brains of rock music\".[151]\n
May also cites Rory Gallagher as a major influence, saying \"He was a magician. He was one of the very few people of that time who could make his guitar do anything, it seemed. I remember looking at that battered Stratocaster and thinking, 'How does that (sound) come out of there?'\" According to May, \"... it was Rory that gave me my sound, and that's the sound I still have.\"[152] May was also influenced by Steve Hackett, guitarist of the progressive rock band Genesis,[153] in particular his harmony guitar solo at the end of the band's epic 1971 song \"The Musical Box\".[154] Hackett said of May, \"Equally, his energetic approach to guitar inspired me.\"[155]\n
\nBrian May (pictured in 2017) playing his custom-made Red Special\nReplica of May's Red Special in the shop window, Denmark Street, London\n
From 1975 onwards, May had some replicas made of the Red Special, some of which were also used for live and recording purposes, others being mainly spares. The most famous replicas were made by John Birch in 1975 (May smashed it during a concert in the US in 1982), Greco BM90 (featured in the promo video of \"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy\" in 1977), Guild (back-up from 1984 to 1993), Fryers (1997\u20131998, used both live and in the studio) and Guyton[156] (back-up from 2003 to present). On stage, May used to carry at least one backup guitar (in case he broke a string). He occasionally would use others for specific songs or parts, such as alternate tunings. Currently, May owns a company that makes guitars whose design is modelled after the original Red Special guitar.\n
October 1974 \u2013 May 1975: Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, and the Stratocaster from the previous tour.[157]
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November 1975 \u2013 May 1976: Same two guitars as before, plus a natural finish John Birch replica of the Red Special.[157]
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September 1976: Same three as before, plus a Martin D-18 acoustic for \"'39\".
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January 1977 \u2013 August 1979: Just the Birch replica plus an Ovation Pacemaker 12-string acoustic on some numbers (\"'39\", \"Love of My Life\", \"Dreamer's Ball\").
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November 1979 \u2013 June 1982: Birch replica (back-up), Fender Telecaster (\"Crazy Little Thing Called Love\" 2nd verse, middle-eight and solo), Ovation (acoustic numbers).
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July \u2013 November 1982: Added a Gibson Flying V as second back-up. On 9 August 1982, May smashed the Birch guitar, so the Flying V became the only spare.
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August \u2013 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.
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July 1985 \u2013 August 1986: Gibson Flying V no longer used. The rest remained the same. May used a Gibson Chet-Atkins guitar on the 1986 Magic Tour.[157]
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In 2012, he received a double-neck replica of the Red Special, with the second neck having 12-strings. He used this guitar at a few gigs with Adam Lambert now being able to play the 12-string part from the studio version of \"Under Pressure\" live.[158]
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He currently has a Guild 12-string to replace his Ovation Pacemaker. Some of the non-RS electric guitars he used in the studio included:\n
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Burns Double Six on \"Long Away\" (1976)[157] and \"Under Pressure\" (1981).
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Fender Telecaster on \"Crazy Little Thing Called Love\" (1979).[157] May used it for the video (but not the recordings) of \"Back Chat\" (1982).
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Gibson Firebird on \"Hammer to Fall\" and \"Tear It Up\" (album versions only, not on stage).
For acoustic, he favoured Ovation,[157] Martin, T\u014dkai 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).\n
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 a replica of the Burns TriSonic did not make May happy. The production of the guitars 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 back-up. At the moment, he uses the two guitars made by Greg Fryer\u2014the luthier who restored the Old Lady in 1998\u2014as back-up. They are almost identical to the original, except for the Fryer logo on the headstock (May's original one has a sixpence).\n
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 1960s/early 1970s.[160] In the mid-1970s he used six of them, with an Echoplex delay (with extended delay time) plugged into a separate amplifier, and a second Echoplex plugged into yet another amp; he used a homemade booster, his only effects pedal, which was on all the time.[161] 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.[162]\n
May also customises his amps by removing the Brilliant and Vib-trem channels (leaving only the circuitry for the Normal). This alters the tone slightly, with a gain addition of 6\u20137 dB. He always used a treble booster which, along with the AC30 and his custom 'Deacy Amp' transistor amp, built by Queen bass player John Deacon, went a long way in helping to create many of his signature guitar tones.[163] He used the Dallas Rangemaster for the first Queen albums, up to A Day at the Races. Effects designer 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.\n
When performing live, May 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\".\n
As a child, May was trained on classical piano. Although Freddie Mercury was the band's primary pianist, May would step in occasionally (such as on \"Save Me\"[164] and \"Flash\").[165] He mostly used Freddie Mercury's 1972 Steinway piano. From 1979 onwards, he also played synthesisers, organ (\"Wedding March\",[166] \"Let Me Live\") and programmed drum-machines for both Queen and outside projects (such as producing other artists and his own solo records). In the studio, May used Yamaha DX7 synths for the opening sequence of \"One Vision\"[167] and the backgrounds of \"Who Wants to Live Forever\"[168] (also on stage), \"Scandal\" and \"The Show Must Go On\".\n
The first instrument May learned to play was the banjolele. He used a \"genuine George Formby Ukulele-Banjo\" in \"Bring Back That Leroy Brown\" and \"Good Company\". 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). May was keen on using some toys as instruments as well. He used a Yamaha plastic piano in \"Teo Torriatte\"[169] and a toy mini koto in \"The Prophet's Song\".[170]\n
May studied physics and mathematics at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc (Hons) degree and ARCS in physics with Upper Second-Class Honours. From 1970 to 1974, he studied for a PhD degree[1] at Imperial College, studying reflected light from interplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. When Queen began to have international success in 1974, he abandoned his doctoral studies, but nonetheless co-authored two peer-reviewed research papers,[171][172] which were based on his observations at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife.\n
In October 2006, May re-registered for his doctorate at Imperial College, and he submitted his thesis in August 2007 (one year earlier than he estimated it would take to complete). As well as writing up the previous work he had done, May had to review the work on zodiacal dust undertaken during the intervening 33 years, which included the discovery of the zodiacal dust bands by NASA's IRAS satellite. After a viva voce, the revised thesis (titled \"A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud\")[1] was approved in September 2007, some 37 years after it had been commenced.[29][173][174][175][176] He was able to submit his thesis only because of the minimal amount of research on the topic during the intervening years and has described the subject as one that became in-demand again in the 2000s.[177] In his doctoral research, he investigated radial velocity using absorption spectroscopy and doppler spectroscopy of zodiacal light using a Fabry\u2013P\u00e9rot interferometer based at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife. His research was initially supervised by Jim Ring,[2] Ken Reay[2] and in the latter stages by Michael Rowan-Robinson.[1] He graduated at the awards ceremony of Imperial College held in the Royal Albert Hall on 14 May 2008.[178]\n
In October 2007, May was appointed a visiting researcher in Imperial College and he continues his interest in astronomy and involvement with the Imperial Astrophysics Group. He is co-author, with Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, of Bang! \u2013 The Complete History of the Universe[179][180] and The Cosmic Tourist.[181] May appeared on the 700th episode of The Sky at Night hosted by Sir Patrick Moore, along with Chris Lintott, Jon Culshaw, Professor Brian Cox, and the Astronomer RoyalMartin Rees who, on departing the panel, told Brian May, who was joining it, \"I don't know a scientist who looks as much like Isaac Newton as you do.\"[182] May was also a guest on the first episode of the third series of the BBC's Stargazing Live, on 8 January 2013.\n
On 17 November 2007, May was appointed chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University,[183] and he was installed in 2008 having also been awarded an honorary fellowship from the university for his contribution to astronomy and services to the public understanding of science.[184] He held the post until 2013.[182] Asteroid 52665 Brianmay was named after him on 18 June 2008 on the suggestion of Patrick Moore (probably influenced by the asteroid's provisional designation of 1998 BM30).[142][185]\n
\nMay at Johns Hopkins University on 31 December 2018 before the New Horizons flyby of the Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth\n
In 2014, May co-founded Asteroid Day with Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, B612 Foundation COO Danica Remy and German filmmaker Grigorij Richters. Asteroid Day is a global awareness campaign where people from around the world come together to learn about asteroids and what we can do to protect our planet.[186] May was a guest at the 2016 Starmus Festival where he also performed on stage with composer Hans Zimmer. The theme was Beyond The Horizon: A Tribute To Stephen Hawking.[187]\n
During the New Horizons Pluto flyby NASA press conference held on 17 July 2015 at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, May was introduced as a science team collaborator. He told the panel \"You have inspired the world.\"[188][189] From 31 December 2018 until 1 January 2019, May was in attendance at the watch party for the New Horizons flyby of the Kuiper belt object, 486958 Arrokoth, and performed an updated version of his \"New Horizons\" celebratory song.[190] As part of May's role as a collaborator with NASA's science team on the New Horizons mission, he worked on the first stereoanaglyph based on images of (486958) Arrokoth that were captured by the spacecraft.[191]\n
In 2020, he participated in the team that contributed the stereography images of numerical simulations of asteroid disruptions and re-accumulations in a publication in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications by Michel, P. et al. (2020) presenting a scenario of formation of the asteroids (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu, visited by NASA OSIRIS-REx and JAXA Hayabusa2 probes, respectively.[193] He was awarded the JAXA Hayabusa2 Honor Award for his contribution by making stereoscopic images of Ryugu.[194][195][196]\n
In 2021, he contributed the stereography images of the structural stability of double asteroid (65803) Didymos, the target of the NASA DART and ESA Hera missions, in a publication in the peer-reviewed journal Icarus by DART and Hera team members.[197] He is also on the advisory board of the NEO-MAPP project (Near-Earth-Object Modelling and Payloads for Protection), funded by the European Union.[198]\n
From 1976 to 1988, May was married to Christine Mullen.[18] They had three children.[18] They separated in 1988. May met actress Anita Dobson in 1986. She inspired him to write the 1989 hit \"I Want It All\". They married on 18 November 2000.[204]\n
He has said in interviews that he had depression in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to the point of contemplating suicide,[205] for reasons having to do with his troubled first marriage, his perceived failure as a husband and father and the deaths of his father Harold and Mercury.[206]\n
According to The Sunday TimesRich List of 2019, May is worth \u00a3160 million.[207] He has homes in London and Windlesham, Surrey.[208] May's father Harold was a long-time heavy cigarette smoker.[21] As a result, May dislikes smoking,[209] to the point where he was already prohibiting smoking indoors at his concerts before many countries imposed smoking bans.[210] He is an active animal rights advocate, and he was appointed a vice-president of an animal welfare charity, the RSPCA, in September 2012.[211] A vegan since taking part in the 2020 Veganuary challenge,[212][213] May has stated that meat eating is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.[214] May describes himself as \"not belonging to an organized religion, but feels there is a god of some kind which we know very little about\".[215]\n
May is a long-term champion of woodland as a haven and \"corridor\" for wildlife\u2014both in Surrey, where he has a house,[216] and elsewhere. In 2012, he bought land threatened by building development at Bere Regis, Dorset, and, in 2013 and with the enthusiastic support of local villagers,[217] initiated a project to create an area of woodland, now called May's Wood (or \"the Brian May Wood\").[218] The wood consists of 157 acres (64 ha), formerly under the plough, planted by May's team of co-workers with 100,000 trees. May's Wood is said to be flourishing.[219][220]\n
In 2013, a new species of the genus Heteragrion (Odonata: Zygoptera) from Brazil was named Heteragrion brianmayi\u2014one of four Heteragrion flatwing damselflies named after the bandmates, paying tribute to the 40th anniversary of Queen's founding.[221]\n
May experienced a small heart attack in May 2020. It required the insertion of three stents into three blocked arteries. May said he had been \"very near death\".[222]\n
\nMay filming for the BBC's The One Show in 2011 for an anti\u2013badger culling campaign.\n
May has formed a group to promote animal welfare. Though a Conservative Party voter most of his life,[223] he has stated that their policies on fox hunting and the culling of badgers meant he did not vote for them in the 2010 UK general election. His animal welfare\u2013focused organisation, 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.[15] The group's primary concern is to ensure that the Hunting Act 2004 and other laws protecting animals are retained in situ.[69]\n
In an interview in September 2010 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 scientific work.[224] May is a staunch supporter of the RSPCA, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the League Against Cruel Sports, PETA UK and the Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue. In March 2012, May contributed the foreword to a target paper published by the think tank the Bow Group, urging the government to reconsider its plans to cull thousands of badgers to control bovine TB, stating that the findings of Labour's major badger culling trials, several years earlier, show that culling does not work. The paper was authored by Graham Godwin-Pearson with contributions by leading tuberculosis scientists, including Lord Krebs.[225][226][227]\n
In 2013, May joined French guitar player Jean-Pierre Danel for a charity Danel launched for the benefit of animal rights in France. The guitarists signed guitars and art photos together, and were joined by Hank Marvin.[228]\n
\nMay outside the Houses of Parliament in London during a June 2013 anti-badger cull demonstration\n
In May 2013, May teamed up with actor Brian Blessed and Flash cartoonist Jonti \"Weebl\" Picking, as well as animal rights groups including the RSPCA, to form Team Badger, a \"coalition of organisations that have teamed up to fight the planned cull of badgers\".[229] With Weebl and Blessed, May recorded a single, \"Save the Badger Badger Badger\"\u2014a mashup of Weebl's viral 2003 Flash cartoon meme, \"Badger Badger Badger\", and Queen's \"Flash\", featuring vocals by Blessed. On 1 September 2013, \"Save the Badger Badger Badger\" charted at No. 79 on the UK Singles Chart, No. 39 on the UK iTunes chart[230] and No. 1 on the iTunes Rock chart.[231] In June 2013 naturalist Sir David Attenborough and rock guitarist Slash joined May to form a supergroup, Artful Badger and Friends, and released a song dedicated to badgers, \"Badger Swagger\".[232]\n
Prior to the 2015 general election, it was reported that May was considering standing as an independent Member of Parliament. It was also revealed that May had started a \"Common Decency\" project \"to re-establish common decency in our lives, work and Parliament\". May said he wanted to \"get rid of the current government\" and wished to see a House of Commons containing \"individuals voting according to their conscience\".[233] May was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas at the election.[234] He also endorsed a Conservative Party candidate, Henry Smith, on the grounds of his animal welfare record.[235]\n
In July 2015, May criticised UK Prime Minister David Cameron for giving Members of Parliament a free vote on amending the ban on fox hunting in England and Wales. During a live television interview, he described the pro-hunting organisation the Countryside Alliance as \"a bunch of lying bastards\" for their support for a change to the law.[236] The government postponed the vote following the intervention of the Scottish National Party's Westminster MPs, who committed to vote to keep the ban as it existed. May told anti-hunt protesters in a rally outside Parliament that it was \"a very, very important day for our democracy\" but added \"we have not yet won the war, there's no room for complacency\".[237]\n
In June 2017, May endorsed Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 general election. May shared an article on Twitter by The Independent headlined \"Jeremy Corbyn says Fox hunting is 'barbarity' and pledges to keep it banned\"[238] and captioned it: \"Well, I guess that just about clinches it !! Anyone see any good reason not to prefer the evidently decent Corbyn over the weak and wobbly Mrs May? Bri\".[239]\n
In October 2018, May said, \"I don't like all this separatist stuff and you know this sort of illusion that we can all stand on our own, to me the future lies in co-operation. I get up every day and put my head in my hands about Brexit \u2013 I think it's the stupidest thing we ever tried to do.\" He also said that Prime Minister Theresa May was \"driven by vanity and thirst for power\".[240]\n
In the run-up to the 2019 United Kingdom general election May criticised what he saw as the poor conduct of the media and declined to endorse either candidate, stating that he found it \"impossible\" to vote for either Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson.[241] After the election in which the Conservatives won a majority, May vowed to continue fighting for animal rights but in an Instagram and blog post he urged his followers to congratulate Johnson and \"wish Boris a decent chance to rebuild Britain\" before praising reforms to animal welfare laws made by Conservative Party Environment Secretary Michael Gove.[242][243] In 2021 May criticised Johnson for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, calling it inadequate.[244]\n
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 Found,[64] on the work of English stereophotography innovator T. R. Williams.[246] He was awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Saxby Medal in 2012 for achievement in the field of three-dimensional imaging.[247]\n
May made a significant technical contribution to the book to accompany the exhibition 'Stereoscopic Photographs of Pablo Picasso by Robert Mouzillat', held at the Holburne Museum in Bath, England, from February to June 2014. The book provides photographs of Picasso in his studio, at a bullfight at Arles, and in his garden. May's 3D Owl viewer is used to view the photographs in 3D.\n
The purchase of his first card in 1973 started May on a lifelong and worldwide search for Les Diableries,[248] which are stereoscopic photographs depicting scenes of daily life in Hell. On 10 October 2013[249] the book Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell by Brian May, Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming was published.[250]\n
In 2017, May published Queen in 3-D,[251] chronicling the group's 50-year history. It contains over 300 of his own stereoscopic photos and is the first book about the band published by one of its members. Included with the book is May's patented OWL Stereoscopic Viewer.[252]\n
In the 2018 biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody, he was portrayed by Gwilym Lee.[253] May himself served as a creative and musical consultant for the film, and worked especially closely with Lee.[254]\n
^Fitzpatrick, Rob. \"'I'm The Antichrist of Music' Immensely popular for decades, yet a permanent resident on music's outermost fringes of fashionability, Phil Collins would like to apologise. Are you ready to forgive?\". FHM. April 2011.\n
^\"New Chancellor confirmed\". Ljmu.ac.uk. Liverpool John Moores University. 23 November 2007. Archived from the original on 6 September 2010. Retrieved 24 October 2011.\n
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+ "page_last_modified": " Sun, 17 Mar 2024 20:12:49 GMT"
+ },
+ {
+ "page_name": "Brian May, lead guitarist of rock band Queen, receives knighthood ...",
+ "page_url": "https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/15/entertainment/brian-may-knighted-gbr-scli-intl/index.html",
+ "page_snippet": "The legendary axman received the honor from the monarch at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace.Legendary rock guitarist Brian May has received a knighthood from Britain\u2019s King Charles III. May, who was a founding member of the band Queen, will now be known as Sir Brian, following the investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. May, who was a founding member of the band Queen, will now be known as Sir Brian, following the investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. May was honored for services to music and charity. ... The star received the title of Knight Bachelor for his services to music and to charity. He attended the ceremony alongside his wife, Anita Dobson, a former star of long-running British TV soap \u201cEastEnders.\u201d \u00b7 Congratulating him online, a tweet from Queen\u2019s official account said: \u201cArise Sir Brian May Brian May performed during the Platinum Party for the late Queen Elizabeth II in front of Buckingham Palace last year. Brian May was made a Knight Bachelor by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, March 14, 2023. ... Legendary rock guitarist Brian May has received a knighthood from Britain\u2019s King Charles III.",
+ "page_result": " \n\n \n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n Brian May, lead guitarist of rock band Queen, receives knighthood from King Charles III | CNN\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n\n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n
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\n \n Brian May was made a Knight Bachelor by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, March 14, 2023.\n \n
\n Jonathan Brady/PA/AP\n
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\n \n London\n CNN\n — \n \n
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\n Legendary rock guitarist Brian May has received a knighthood from Britain\u2019s King Charles III. \n
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\n May, who was a founding member of the band Queen, will now be known as Sir Brian, following the investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. \n
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\n \n May was honored for services to music and charity.\n \n
\n Victoria Jones/WPA Pool/Getty Images\n
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\n The star received the title of Knight Bachelor for his services to music and to charity. He attended the ceremony alongside his wife, Anita Dobson, a former star of long-running British TV soap \u201cEastEnders.\u201d \n
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\n Congratulating him online, a tweet from Queen\u2019s official account said: \u201cArise Sir Brian May\n
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\n \u201cBrian\u2019s investiture as a Knight of The Realm took place today at Buckingham Palace. The knighthood was presented to Brian by His Royal Highness, King Charles.\n
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\n \u201cMany congratulations, Sir Brian!\u201d\n
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\n \n Brian May performed during the Platinum Party for the late Queen Elizabeth II in front of Buckingham Palace last year.\n \n
\n May, 75, was one of more than 1,000 people honored on King Charles III\u2019s first New Year\u2019s honors list, announced in December 2022. \n
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\n In addition to performing with Queen since the 1970s, May is also an astrophysicist. He received his PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007 after taking a break from his studies in the 1970s to focus on the band.\n
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\n He is also a vocal supporter of animal rights and critic of hunting. In 2010, he formed an organization called the Save Me Trust, to campaign against fox hunting and badger culling in the UK.\n
\n \n \n Queen release 'Face It Alone,' a rediscovered song featuring Freddie Mercury \n
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\n May isn\u2019t the only member of Queen to have received a royal title. Drummer Roger Taylor was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2020. May previously received the title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2005.\n
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\n May famously performed a rendition of \u201cGod Save the Queen\u201d from the roof of Buckingham Palace at Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s Golden Jubilee in 2002.\n
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\n Twenty years later, he performed with Queen for the same monarch\u2019s Platinum Jubilee Concert.\n
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\n Sign up to CNN\u2019s Royal News, a weekly dispatch bringing you the inside track on the royal family, what they are up to in public and what\u2019s happening behind palace walls.\n
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+ "page_last_modified": ""
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+ {
+ "page_name": "Brian May facts: Queen guitartist's age, wife, children, net worth ...",
+ "page_url": "https://www.smoothradio.com/artists/queen/brian-may-facts-wife-children-age-songs-net-worth/",
+ "page_snippet": "Outside of Queen, Brian May has released two solo albums: 1992's Back to the Light and 1998's Another World. Jaw-dropping moment Brian May played 'God Save The Queen' on the roof of Buckingham PalaceSpine-tingling moment Brian May plays a staggering guitar solo to an empty stadium \u00b7 However, when Queen found success, he abandoned his studies, but co-authored two peer reviewed research papers, which were based on his observations at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife. In 2006, May re-registered for his PhD at Imperial College and submitted his thesis in August 2007. He graduated at the Royal Albert Hall on 14 May 2008. ... Brian May formed a group to promote animal welfare. Who is Brian May's wife? What is Brian May's age and net worth? What is Brian May's guitar of choice and other interesting facts. Jaw-dropping moment Brian May played 'God Save The Queen' on the roof of Buckingham Palace \u00b7 Brian May recalls \"merciless\" arguments with Freddie Mercury: \"We said terrible things\" Queen\u2019s Brian May giving a tutorial on how to play \u2018Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019 is so soothing",
+ "page_result": "\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n \n\n Brian May facts: Queen guitartist's age, wife, children, net worth and more revealed - Smooth\n\n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n\n \n\n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n \n \n \n
Brian May is one of the world's most successful and recognisable guitarists of all time (and not just because of the hair).
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Let's take a look at the most interesting and important facts about the legend that is Queen guitartist Brian May.
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How old is Brian May and where is he from?
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Brian May was born on July 19, 1947. He celebrated his 74th birthday in 2021.
Brian was born in a nursing home at Hampton Hill, Twickenham, and was the only child of Ruth Irving (n\u00e9e Fletcher) and Harold May, who worked as a draughtsman at the Ministry of Aviation.
His mother was Scottish, and his father was English.
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Who is Brian May's wife?
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From 1974 to 1988, Brian May was married to Christine Mullen.
Brian met EastEnders actress Anita Dobson in 1986, and she inspired him to write the 1989 hit 'I Want It All'. They married on 18 November 2000, and remain together ever since.
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How many children does Brian May have?
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With his first wife Christine Mullen, he has three children: James (born 15 June 1978), Louisa (born 22 May 1981), and Emily Ruth (born 18 February 1987).
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What are Brian May's best solo songs?
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Brian May - Driven By You (Official Video)
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Outside of Queen, Brian May has released two solo albums: 1992's Back to the Light and 1998's Another World.
His biggest solo songs were 'Driven By You' and 'Too Much Love Will Kill You' from his debut album (the latter of which was re-tooled with Freddie Mercury's vocals in 1995). He also teamed up with rapper Dappy for the 2012 track 'Rockstar'.
He also provided the soundtrack to the 1999 movie Furia, starring a young Marion Cotillard.
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What is Brian May's guitar of choice?
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brian may best solo ever
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Brian May mainly used his "Red Special", which he designed when he was only 16 years old. It was made with wood from an 18th century fireplace.
He said of his guitar: "I like a big neck \u2013 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."
He also prefers to use coins, instead of a more traditional plastic plectrum, as it gives him more control in playing. He is known to carry coins in his pockets specifically for this purpose.
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Is Brian May also a scientist?
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Brian May studied physics and mathematics at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc (Hons) degree and ARCS in physics with Upper Second-Class Honours.
From 1970 to 1974, he also studied for a PhD degree at Imperial College, studying reflected light from interplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. The title alone sounds very technical!
However, when Queen found success, he abandoned his studies, but co-authored two peer reviewed research papers, which were based on his observations at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife.
In 2006, May re-registered for his PhD at Imperial College and submitted his thesis in August 2007. He graduated at the Royal Albert Hall on 14 May 2008.
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What is Brian May's connection with badgers?
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Brian May formed a group to promote animal welfare. Save Me (named after the Queen song), campaigns for the protection of all animals against unnecessary and degrading treatment, particularly focusing on the hunting of foxes and the culling of badgers.
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+ "page_last_modified": ""
+ },
+ {
+ "page_name": "Brian May - Wikipedia",
+ "page_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May",
+ "page_snippet": "At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards ... to Brian May. Queen closed the awards ceremony, with Adam Lambert on vocals, performing "The Show Must Go On", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions". The collaboration garnered a positive response from both fans and critics, resulting in speculation about future projects together. Queen + Adam Lambert played two shows ...At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards on 6 November, Queen received the Global Icon Award, which Katy Perry presented to Brian May. Queen closed the awards ceremony, with Adam Lambert on vocals, performing \"The Show Must Go On\", \"We Will Rock You\" and \"We Are the Champions\". The collaboration garnered a positive response from both fans and critics, resulting in speculation about future projects together. Queen + Adam Lambert played two shows at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, on 11 and 12 July 2012. Former Van Halen 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.\" Justin Hawkins, lead guitarist of the Darkness, cites May as his earliest influence, saying \"I really loved his tone and vibrato and everything. I thought his playing sounded like a singing voice. I think Brian May has one of the great guitar tones on the planet, and I really, really love his guitar work.\" Justin Hawkins, lead guitarist of the Darkness, cites May as his earliest influence, saying \"I really loved his tone and vibrato and everything. I thought his playing sounded like a singing voice. I wanted to be able to do that. Whenever I went to guitar lessons, I was always asking to learn Queen stuff.\" In February 2011, it was announced that May would tour with Kerry Ellis, playing 12 dates across the UK in May 2011. At the end of 2004, May and Taylor announced that they would reunite and return to touring in 2005, with Paul Rodgers, the 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. Performing a three-song set, May appeared in front of the Victoria Memorial monument as they opened with \"We Will Rock You\" which had been introduced in a comedy segment where the Queen and Paddington Bear tapped their tea cups to the beat of the song. I can listen to any player and pantomime their sound, but I can't do Brian May.",
+ "page_result": "\n\n\n\nBrian May - Wikipedia\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJump to content\n
This article is about the British musician and astrophysicist. For the Australian film composer, see Brian May (Australian composer). For the Canadian politician, see Bryan May.
Sir Brian Harold MayCBE (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal rights activist and astrophysicist. He achieved worldwide fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen, which he co-founded with singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor. His guitar work and songwriting contributions helped Queen become one of the most successful acts in music history.\n
May previously performed with Taylor in the progressive rock band Smile, which he had joined while he was at university. After Mercury joined to form Queen in 1970, bass guitarist John Deacon completed the line-up in 1971. They became one of the biggest rock bands in the world with the success of the album A Night at the Opera and its single \"Bohemian Rhapsody\". From the mid-1970s until 1986, Queen played at some of the biggest venues in the world, including an acclaimed performance at Live Aid in 1985.[3] As a member of Queen, May became regarded as a virtuoso musician and was identified with a distinctive sound created through his layered guitar work, often using a home-built electric guitar called the Red Special.[4] May wrote numerous hits for Queen, including \"We Will Rock You\", \"I Want It All\", \"Fat Bottomed Girls\", \"Flash\", \"Hammer to Fall\", \"Save Me\", \"Who Wants to Live Forever\" and \"The Show Must Go On\".\n
Following the death of Mercury in 1991, aside from the 1992 tribute concert, the release of Made in Heaven (1995) and the 1997 tribute single to Mercury, \"No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)\" (written by May), Queen were put on hiatus for several years but were eventually reconvened by May and Taylor for further performances featuring other vocalists. In 2005, a Planet Rock poll saw May voted the seventh-greatest guitarist of all time.[5] He was ranked at No. 33 on Rolling Stone's 2023 list of 250 greatest guitarists of all time.[6] In 2012, he was further ranked the second-greatest guitarist in a Guitar World magazine readers poll.[7] In 2001, May was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Queen and, in 2018, the band received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[8]\n
At Hampton Grammar School, May attained ten GCE Ordinary Levels and three GCE Advanced Levels in physics, mathematics, and applied mathematics.[25] He studied mathematics and physics at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc degree in physics in 1968 with honours.[26] Following his graduation, May received a personal invitation from Sir Bernard Lovell to work at the Jodrell Bank Observatory while continuing to prepare his doctorate. He declined, choosing instead to remain at Imperial College to avoid breaking from Smile, the London-based band he was in at the time.[27]\n
In 2007, May was awarded a PhD degree in astrophysics from Imperial College London for work started in 1971 and completed in 2007.[1][2][28][29]\n
May formed the band Smile in 1968. The group included Tim Staffell as the lead 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 departed in 1970, leaving the band with a catalogue of 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\".[30] May also performed several other songs that night.\n
After the Live Aid concert in 1985, Mercury rang his band members 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); the lyrics were co-written by the four band members.[33]\n
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.[34] 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 problems with the British press). For the rest of the album, he did not contribute much creatively. However, he helped in building the basis of \"Party\" and \"Was It All Worth It\" (both being predominantly Mercury's pieces) and created the \"Chinese Torture\" guitar riff.[34]\n
Queen's subsequent album was Innuendo. May's contributions increased, although more in terms of arranging than actual writing in most cases. He did some of the arrangement for the heavy solo on the title track. He added vocal harmonies to \"I'm Going Slightly Mad\" and composed the solo for \"These Are the Days of Our Lives\", a song for which the four of them decided the keyboard parts together.[35]\n
Two songs May had composed for his first solo album, \"Headlong\" and \"I Can't Live With You\", eventually ended up on the Queen project. His other composition was \"The Show Must Go On\", which he coordinated and was the primary composer.[36] In recent years, he has supervised 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 played throughout 2005 and 2006 in South Africa, Europe, Aruba, Japan, and North America and released a new album with Rodgers in 2008, entitled The Cosmos Rocks. This album was supported by a major tour.[37]\n
1983\u20131999: Side projects and solo works[edit]
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During 1983, several members of Queen explored side projects. On 21 and 22 April in Los Angeles, May was in a studio with Eddie Van Halen, with no intention of recording anything. The result of the two-day session was a mini album titled Star Fleet Project, which was not originally going to be released.[41] In 1986, May contributed to former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett's album Feedback 86, playing guitar on the track \"Cassandra\" and providing guitar and vocals for \"Slot Machine\", which May co-wrote. Although produced in 1986, the album was not released commercially until 2000. Another song co-written by May and Hackett during this period, \"Don't Fall Away from Me\", was eventually recorded by Hackett in 1992 for release on his The Unauthorised Biography compilation album. Also in 1986, May worked with actress Anita Dobson on her first album, most noted for the song \"Anyone Can Fall in Love\", which added lyrics to the EastEnders theme tune and reached number four on the UK Singles Chart in August 1986. May and Dobson married in 2000.[42] In 1988, May contributed guitar solos to the song \"When Death Calls\" on Black Sabbath's 14th album Headless Cross, and the Living in a Box track \"Blow The House Down\" on the album Gatecrashing.[43] Both albums were released in 1989.\n
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After the tragic break-up of any band, it feels impossible to continue but I was really glad that Brian did launch a solo career. He had such a lot of music in him and a great deal more to give.\n
In the aftermath of the November 1991 death of Mercury, 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,[45] 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.[46] According to Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott, \"It was undoubtedly an enormous and terrible blow to lose someone he was so close to. Personally, I know it ripped the heart out of Brian, but having said that, he was in great spirits after the album was finished.\"[44]Back to the Light featured the single \"Too Much Love Will Kill You\", on which he collaborated as a songwriter with Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers. A version with Freddie Mercury's vocals was later released on the Queen album Made in Heaven and won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically in 1996.[47]\n
In late 1992, the Brian May Band was officially formed. May had loosely formed an earlier version of the band 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 on vocals and lead guitar, Cozy Powell on drums and percussion, Mike Moran and Rick Wakeman on keyboards, and Maggie Ryder, Miriam Stockley and Chris Thompson on backing vocals.[48] The original line-up was May on vocals and lead guitar, Powell on drums and percussion, Michael Casswell on guitar, Neil Murray on bass, and Ryder, Stockley and Thompson on backing vocals. This version of the band was together only during the South American support tour (supporting The B-52's and Joe Cocker) on five dates.[49]\n
May later made significant changes, feeling the group never quite gelled. May brought guitarist Jamie Moses on board to replace Mike Caswell. The backing vocalists, Ryder, Stockley and Thompson, were replaced by 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, supporting Guns N' Roses and headlining a few dates.[50] The tour included dates in North America, Europe (support act: Valentine) and Japan. On 15 June 1993, the band did a show in London that would end up as The Brian May Band's only release as a collective, namely Live at the Brixton Academy. At the show, May would sing a few lines of \"Love of My Life\", and then, as Mercury used to, let the audience join in.[51] 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.[52] 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.[53] After Mercury's death, work on the album by Deacon and May began originally in 1992 but was left until a later date due to other commitments.[52]\n
In 1995, May began working on a new solo album of covers tentatively titled Heroes, in addition to working on various film and television projects[54] and other collaborations. May subsequently changed the approach from covers to focus on those collaborations and new material. The songs included Another World, and featured mainly Spike Edney, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray and Jamie Moses. On 5 April 1998, Cozy Powell was killed in a car accident on the M4 motorway near Bristol, England. This incident caused an unexpected disruption to the upcoming tour for the Brian May Band, which now needed a new drummer on short notice. Steve Ferrone was brought on to help May finish recording the drum tracks and join the band for the early stage promotional tour of five dates in Europe before the world tour. Following the early promotional tour, Eric Singer replaced him on the 1998 world tour.[citation needed]\n
The 1998 tour saw the brief introduction of a 'support act' known as T. E. Conway. Conway (Brian May in a wig and colourful suit playing the part of a teddy boy crooner) would play several 1950s rock and roll standards before May's 'arrival'. A bonus T. E. Conway EP entitled Retro Rock Special was attached to some pressings of the Another World album. The Conway character was retired at the end of the tour.[55]\nIn May 1999, May recorded lead guitars for the Guns N' Roses song \"Catcher in the Rye\" on Chinese Democracy, but his performance was removed from the album by the time it was released in 2008.[56]\n
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, he made a guest appearance at the Mot\u00f6rhead 25th Anniversary show at Brixton Academy along with Eddie Clarke (former Mot\u00f6rhead guitarist) for the encore song \"Overkill\". As part of the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II celebrations on 3 June 2002, May performed a guitar solo of \"God Save the Queen\" from the roof of Buckingham Palace, with the performance appearing on the 30th Anniversary DVD edition of A Night at the Opera.[57][58] May played guitar on the song \"Someone to Die For\" on the Spider-Man 2soundtrack in 2004.[59]\n
On the Queen's birthday honours list of 2005, he was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire \"for services to the music industry and for charity work\".[60] In the same year he played the guitar on the song Il mare... for Italian singer Zucchero Fornaciari, on his album Zu & Co., and he took part in the concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London held in May 2004, with the other guests of the Italian bluesman. May was a celebrity guest at the Genesis reunion concert at Twickenham Stadium in 2007.[61] May and Genesis frontman Phil Collins worked together on two previous occasions, at The Prince's Trust Rock Gala in 1988 and the Party at the Palace in 2002, when Collins had played drums with Queen. In 2011 he contributed to a feature about Collins for FHM, praising him as \"a great guy and an amazing drummer\".[62]\n
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 appearing with Ellis at many public performances\u2014playing 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.\n
On 20 May 2009, May and Queen bandmate Roger Taylor performed \"We Are the Champions\" live on the season finale of American Idol with winner Kris Allen and runner-up Adam Lambert providing a vocal duet.[68] In November 2009, May appeared with Taylor on The X Factor, with Queen mentoring the contestants, then later performed \"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 to promote animal rights in Britain.[69] In February 2011, it was announced that May would tour with Kerry Ellis, playing 12 dates across the UK in May 2011.[70]\n
At the end of 2004, May and Taylor announced that they would reunite and return to touring in 2005, with Paul Rodgers, the 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.[71]\n
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.[72] 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.[72][73] On 15 August 2006, May confirmed through his website and fan club that Queen + Paul Rodgers would begin producing their first studio album in October, to be recorded at a \"secret location\".[74] 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's release, the band embarked on a tour through Europe and parts of the US, opening on Kharkiv's freedom square in front of 350,000 Ukrainian fans.[75] The show in Ukraine was later released on DVD.[75] Queen and Paul Rodgers officially split up on 12 May 2009. Rodgers did not rule out the possibility of working together again.[76][77]\n
At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards on 6 November, Queen received the Global Icon Award, which Katy Perry presented to Brian May.[86] Queen closed the awards ceremony, with Adam Lambert on vocals, performing \"The Show Must Go On\", \"We Will Rock You\" and \"We Are the Champions\".[86] The collaboration garnered a positive response from both fans and critics, resulting in speculation about future projects together.[87]Queen + Adam Lambert played two shows at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, on 11 and 12 July 2012.[88][89] Both shows sold out within 24 hours of tickets going on open sale.[90] A third London date was added for 14 July.[91] On 30 June, Queen + Lambert performed in Kyiv, Ukraine at a joint concert with Elton John for the Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation.[92] Queen also performed with Lambert on 3 July 2012 at Moscow's Olympic Stadium,[93][94] and on 7 July 2012 at the Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw, Poland.[95]\n
\nMay with Taylor (right) and Jessie J in August 2012\n
In January 2012, May featured on N-Dubz frontman Dappy's solo single \"Rockstar\",[96] providing \"rumbling guitar riffs which culminate in an electrifying solo\".[97] The pair also collaborated on a performance of \"We Will Rock You\" for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.[98]\n
Welsh electronic musician Jayce Lewis collaborated with May in 2018 on the song We Are One, taken from Lewis' 2018 album release Million. Incorporating a repurposed Finger tapping/Hammering riff from May's solo track Cyborg from his album; Another World (Brian May album), both artists re-recorded May's guitar at a slower speed, and included it to the new song composition.[104][105][106]\n
Not long after performing with American Idol finalists Kris Allen and Adam Lambert during the programme's season finale in 2009, May and Taylor began contemplating the future of Queen after the group's amicable split with frontman Paul Rodgers. At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, Queen was presented with that year's Global Icon Award, accepted by May. As part of the broadcast, Queen performed a short set with Lambert, receiving an overwhelmingly welcoming response.[87] Speculation regarding collaboration with Lambert soon arose, with the three formally announcing a short summer tour of Europe in 2012, including three dates at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, as well as shows in Ukraine, Russia and Poland.[111][112]\n
The collaboration was revived in 2013, when the three performed together at the iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on 20 September.[113] Five months later, May, Taylor and Lambert announced a 19-date summer tour of North America on Good Morning America.[114] Because of ticket demand, five dates were soon added.[115] In May 2014, shows in Australia[116] and New Zealand[117] were announced, along with festival performances in South Korea[118] and Japan.[119] The tour was extended to the UK and greater Europe in early 2015.[120] The group performed together in South America in September 2015, including Queen's first performance at the Rock in Rio Festival since 1985.[121]\n
\nMay performing a solo of Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s New World Symphony in a planet themed segment during a June 2022 Queen + Adam Lambert concert\n
In 2016, the group embarked across Europe and Asia on the Queen + Adam Lambert 2016 Summer Festival Tour. This included closing the Isle of Wight Festival in England on 12 June where they performed \"Who Wants to Live Forever\" as a tribute to the victims of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida earlier that day.[122] On 12 September they performed at the Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv, Israel for the first time in front of 58,000 people.[123] In September 2018 the group had a residency in the MGM Park Theater in Las Vegas.[124] Though the collaboration remains active, there are currently no plans to record a studio album, though the three are willing to do so in the future.[125]\nOn 31 March 2020, Queen + Adam Lambert confirmed that their touring dates were postponed until 2021 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.[126]\n
His tone immediately grabbed me. Brian has his own style and sound, so you can always tell his work. Even in 1971 he had incredible finesse, amazing fluidity.\n
May has been referred to as a virtuoso guitarist by many publications and musicians.[131][132][133][134][135] He has featured in various music polls of great rock guitarists, and in 2011 was ranked number 26 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the \"100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time\".[6] In January 2007, the readers of Guitar World voted May's guitar solos on \"Bohemian Rhapsody\" and \"Brighton Rock\" into the \"top 50 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time\" (No.20 and No.41 respectively).[136] Former Van Halen 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.\"[135]Justin Hawkins, lead guitarist of the Darkness, cites May as his earliest influence, saying \"I really loved his tone and vibrato and everything. I thought his playing sounded like a singing voice. I wanted to be able to do that. Whenever I went to guitar lessons, I was always asking to learn Queen stuff.\"[137]\n
\nAmerican guitar virtuoso Steve Vai has spoken highly of May's work, saying:
In that whole genre, in that whole period\u2014he's one of the most unique contributors. He doesn't get credit. Because what he does is so rich and so specific, and so deep, it fits so well in Queen music, you just feel it as part of that music. But when you break it down and when you look at it from a guitar player's point of view, it's unique, and nobody to this date could do what he does and make it sound like that. He is an iconic player. His tone, his choice of melody notes, he doesn't just do solos. His solos are melodies, and they're perfectly in place.[138]
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Most of May's electric guitar work live and in the studio is done on the Red Special, which he built with his father, an electronics engineer, when he was sixteen years old.[4][21][139][140][141][142] It was built with wood from an 18th-century fireplace, and was composed of household items such as mother-of-pearl buttons, shelf edging, and motorbike valve springs. While May and his father were building the Red Special, May also produced plans to build a second guitar. However, the Red Special was so successful that May did not need to build another guitar.[143] These plans were eventually given to guitar luthier Andrew Guyton in around 2004\u201305. Guyton made some slight modifications and the guitar was built. It was named \"The Spade\" as the body's shape resembled the form shown on playing cards. The guitar also came to be known as \"The Guitar That Time Forgot.\"[143]\n
May commented on the Red Special:\n
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I like a big neck \u2013 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 from the ends of a knitting needle, and the springs are valve springs from an old motorbike.[144]
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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, because he feels their rigidity gives him more control in playing.[145] He is known to carry coins in his pockets specifically for this purpose.[145]\n
A meticulous arranger, he focuses on multi-part harmonies, often more contrapuntal than parallel\u2014a 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\").\n
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 finger-picked solo of \"White Queen\" (from Queen II), \"Love of My Life\" and the skiffle-influenced \"'39\" (both from A Night at the Opera).\n
Aided by the uniqueness of 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 various sound effects with his guitar; 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.[146] May also used his guitar to create the chime effect in \"Bohemian Rhapsody\".[147]\n
May's early influences included 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 the Shadows' lead guitarist Hank Marvin. He has collaborated with Richard on a re-recording of 1958 hit \"Move It\" on Richard's duets album Two's Company, which was released on 6 November 2006.[148]\n
May always stated that the Beatles, Led Zeppelin,[149]the Who and Jimi Hendrix were the greatest influences on him. On the Queen for an Hour interview on BBC Radio 1 in 1989, May listed 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.'\"[150] May told Guitarist in 2004, \"I don't think anyone has epitomised riff writing better than Jimmy Page \u2013 he's one of the great brains of rock music\".[151]\n
May also cites Rory Gallagher as a major influence, saying \"He was a magician. He was one of the very few people of that time who could make his guitar do anything, it seemed. I remember looking at that battered Stratocaster and thinking, 'How does that (sound) come out of there?'\" According to May, \"... it was Rory that gave me my sound, and that's the sound I still have.\"[152] May was also influenced by Steve Hackett, guitarist of the progressive rock band Genesis,[153] in particular his harmony guitar solo at the end of the band's epic 1971 song \"The Musical Box\".[154] Hackett said of May, \"Equally, his energetic approach to guitar inspired me.\"[155]\n
\nBrian May (pictured in 2017) playing his custom-made Red Special\nReplica of May's Red Special in the shop window, Denmark Street, London\n
From 1975 onwards, May had some replicas made of the Red Special, some of which were also used for live and recording purposes, others being mainly spares. The most famous replicas were made by John Birch in 1975 (May smashed it during a concert in the US in 1982), Greco BM90 (featured in the promo video of \"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy\" in 1977), Guild (back-up from 1984 to 1993), Fryers (1997\u20131998, used both live and in the studio) and Guyton[156] (back-up from 2003 to present). On stage, May used to carry at least one backup guitar (in case he broke a string). He occasionally would use others for specific songs or parts, such as alternate tunings. Currently, May owns a company that makes guitars whose design is modelled after the original Red Special guitar.\n
October 1974 \u2013 May 1975: Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, and the Stratocaster from the previous tour.[157]
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November 1975 \u2013 May 1976: Same two guitars as before, plus a natural finish John Birch replica of the Red Special.[157]
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September 1976: Same three as before, plus a Martin D-18 acoustic for \"'39\".
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January 1977 \u2013 August 1979: Just the Birch replica plus an Ovation Pacemaker 12-string acoustic on some numbers (\"'39\", \"Love of My Life\", \"Dreamer's Ball\").
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November 1979 \u2013 June 1982: Birch replica (back-up), Fender Telecaster (\"Crazy Little Thing Called Love\" 2nd verse, middle-eight and solo), Ovation (acoustic numbers).
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July \u2013 November 1982: Added a Gibson Flying V as second back-up. On 9 August 1982, May smashed the Birch guitar, so the Flying V became the only spare.
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August \u2013 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.
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July 1985 \u2013 August 1986: Gibson Flying V no longer used. The rest remained the same. May used a Gibson Chet-Atkins guitar on the 1986 Magic Tour.[157]
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In 2012, he received a double-neck replica of the Red Special, with the second neck having 12-strings. He used this guitar at a few gigs with Adam Lambert now being able to play the 12-string part from the studio version of \"Under Pressure\" live.[158]
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He currently has a Guild 12-string to replace his Ovation Pacemaker. Some of the non-RS electric guitars he used in the studio included:\n
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Burns Double Six on \"Long Away\" (1976)[157] and \"Under Pressure\" (1981).
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Fender Telecaster on \"Crazy Little Thing Called Love\" (1979).[157] May used it for the video (but not the recordings) of \"Back Chat\" (1982).
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Gibson Firebird on \"Hammer to Fall\" and \"Tear It Up\" (album versions only, not on stage).
For acoustic, he favoured Ovation,[157] Martin, T\u014dkai 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).\n
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 a replica of the Burns TriSonic did not make May happy. The production of the guitars 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 back-up. At the moment, he uses the two guitars made by Greg Fryer\u2014the luthier who restored the Old Lady in 1998\u2014as back-up. They are almost identical to the original, except for the Fryer logo on the headstock (May's original one has a sixpence).\n
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 1960s/early 1970s.[160] In the mid-1970s he used six of them, with an Echoplex delay (with extended delay time) plugged into a separate amplifier, and a second Echoplex plugged into yet another amp; he used a homemade booster, his only effects pedal, which was on all the time.[161] 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.[162]\n
May also customises his amps by removing the Brilliant and Vib-trem channels (leaving only the circuitry for the Normal). This alters the tone slightly, with a gain addition of 6\u20137 dB. He always used a treble booster which, along with the AC30 and his custom 'Deacy Amp' transistor amp, built by Queen bass player John Deacon, went a long way in helping to create many of his signature guitar tones.[163] He used the Dallas Rangemaster for the first Queen albums, up to A Day at the Races. Effects designer 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.\n
When performing live, May 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\".\n
As a child, May was trained on classical piano. Although Freddie Mercury was the band's primary pianist, May would step in occasionally (such as on \"Save Me\"[164] and \"Flash\").[165] He mostly used Freddie Mercury's 1972 Steinway piano. From 1979 onwards, he also played synthesisers, organ (\"Wedding March\",[166] \"Let Me Live\") and programmed drum-machines for both Queen and outside projects (such as producing other artists and his own solo records). In the studio, May used Yamaha DX7 synths for the opening sequence of \"One Vision\"[167] and the backgrounds of \"Who Wants to Live Forever\"[168] (also on stage), \"Scandal\" and \"The Show Must Go On\".\n
The first instrument May learned to play was the banjolele. He used a \"genuine George Formby Ukulele-Banjo\" in \"Bring Back That Leroy Brown\" and \"Good Company\". 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). May was keen on using some toys as instruments as well. He used a Yamaha plastic piano in \"Teo Torriatte\"[169] and a toy mini koto in \"The Prophet's Song\".[170]\n
May studied physics and mathematics at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc (Hons) degree and ARCS in physics with Upper Second-Class Honours. From 1970 to 1974, he studied for a PhD degree[1] at Imperial College, studying reflected light from interplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. When Queen began to have international success in 1974, he abandoned his doctoral studies, but nonetheless co-authored two peer-reviewed research papers,[171][172] which were based on his observations at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife.\n
In October 2006, May re-registered for his doctorate at Imperial College, and he submitted his thesis in August 2007 (one year earlier than he estimated it would take to complete). As well as writing up the previous work he had done, May had to review the work on zodiacal dust undertaken during the intervening 33 years, which included the discovery of the zodiacal dust bands by NASA's IRAS satellite. After a viva voce, the revised thesis (titled \"A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud\")[1] was approved in September 2007, some 37 years after it had been commenced.[29][173][174][175][176] He was able to submit his thesis only because of the minimal amount of research on the topic during the intervening years and has described the subject as one that became in-demand again in the 2000s.[177] In his doctoral research, he investigated radial velocity using absorption spectroscopy and doppler spectroscopy of zodiacal light using a Fabry\u2013P\u00e9rot interferometer based at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife. His research was initially supervised by Jim Ring,[2] Ken Reay[2] and in the latter stages by Michael Rowan-Robinson.[1] He graduated at the awards ceremony of Imperial College held in the Royal Albert Hall on 14 May 2008.[178]\n
In October 2007, May was appointed a visiting researcher in Imperial College and he continues his interest in astronomy and involvement with the Imperial Astrophysics Group. He is co-author, with Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, of Bang! \u2013 The Complete History of the Universe[179][180] and The Cosmic Tourist.[181] May appeared on the 700th episode of The Sky at Night hosted by Sir Patrick Moore, along with Chris Lintott, Jon Culshaw, Professor Brian Cox, and the Astronomer RoyalMartin Rees who, on departing the panel, told Brian May, who was joining it, \"I don't know a scientist who looks as much like Isaac Newton as you do.\"[182] May was also a guest on the first episode of the third series of the BBC's Stargazing Live, on 8 January 2013.\n
On 17 November 2007, May was appointed chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University,[183] and he was installed in 2008 having also been awarded an honorary fellowship from the university for his contribution to astronomy and services to the public understanding of science.[184] He held the post until 2013.[182] Asteroid 52665 Brianmay was named after him on 18 June 2008 on the suggestion of Patrick Moore (probably influenced by the asteroid's provisional designation of 1998 BM30).[142][185]\n
\nMay at Johns Hopkins University on 31 December 2018 before the New Horizons flyby of the Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth\n
In 2014, May co-founded Asteroid Day with Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, B612 Foundation COO Danica Remy and German filmmaker Grigorij Richters. Asteroid Day is a global awareness campaign where people from around the world come together to learn about asteroids and what we can do to protect our planet.[186] May was a guest at the 2016 Starmus Festival where he also performed on stage with composer Hans Zimmer. The theme was Beyond The Horizon: A Tribute To Stephen Hawking.[187]\n
During the New Horizons Pluto flyby NASA press conference held on 17 July 2015 at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, May was introduced as a science team collaborator. He told the panel \"You have inspired the world.\"[188][189] From 31 December 2018 until 1 January 2019, May was in attendance at the watch party for the New Horizons flyby of the Kuiper belt object, 486958 Arrokoth, and performed an updated version of his \"New Horizons\" celebratory song.[190] As part of May's role as a collaborator with NASA's science team on the New Horizons mission, he worked on the first stereoanaglyph based on images of (486958) Arrokoth that were captured by the spacecraft.[191]\n
In 2020, he participated in the team that contributed the stereography images of numerical simulations of asteroid disruptions and re-accumulations in a publication in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications by Michel, P. et al. (2020) presenting a scenario of formation of the asteroids (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu, visited by NASA OSIRIS-REx and JAXA Hayabusa2 probes, respectively.[193] He was awarded the JAXA Hayabusa2 Honor Award for his contribution by making stereoscopic images of Ryugu.[194][195][196]\n
In 2021, he contributed the stereography images of the structural stability of double asteroid (65803) Didymos, the target of the NASA DART and ESA Hera missions, in a publication in the peer-reviewed journal Icarus by DART and Hera team members.[197] He is also on the advisory board of the NEO-MAPP project (Near-Earth-Object Modelling and Payloads for Protection), funded by the European Union.[198]\n
From 1976 to 1988, May was married to Christine Mullen.[18] They had three children.[18] They separated in 1988. May met actress Anita Dobson in 1986. She inspired him to write the 1989 hit \"I Want It All\". They married on 18 November 2000.[204]\n
He has said in interviews that he had depression in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to the point of contemplating suicide,[205] for reasons having to do with his troubled first marriage, his perceived failure as a husband and father and the deaths of his father Harold and Mercury.[206]\n
According to The Sunday TimesRich List of 2019, May is worth \u00a3160 million.[207] He has homes in London and Windlesham, Surrey.[208] May's father Harold was a long-time heavy cigarette smoker.[21] As a result, May dislikes smoking,[209] to the point where he was already prohibiting smoking indoors at his concerts before many countries imposed smoking bans.[210] He is an active animal rights advocate, and he was appointed a vice-president of an animal welfare charity, the RSPCA, in September 2012.[211] A vegan since taking part in the 2020 Veganuary challenge,[212][213] May has stated that meat eating is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.[214] May describes himself as \"not belonging to an organized religion, but feels there is a god of some kind which we know very little about\".[215]\n
May is a long-term champion of woodland as a haven and \"corridor\" for wildlife\u2014both in Surrey, where he has a house,[216] and elsewhere. In 2012, he bought land threatened by building development at Bere Regis, Dorset, and, in 2013 and with the enthusiastic support of local villagers,[217] initiated a project to create an area of woodland, now called May's Wood (or \"the Brian May Wood\").[218] The wood consists of 157 acres (64 ha), formerly under the plough, planted by May's team of co-workers with 100,000 trees. May's Wood is said to be flourishing.[219][220]\n
In 2013, a new species of the genus Heteragrion (Odonata: Zygoptera) from Brazil was named Heteragrion brianmayi\u2014one of four Heteragrion flatwing damselflies named after the bandmates, paying tribute to the 40th anniversary of Queen's founding.[221]\n
May experienced a small heart attack in May 2020. It required the insertion of three stents into three blocked arteries. May said he had been \"very near death\".[222]\n
\nMay filming for the BBC's The One Show in 2011 for an anti\u2013badger culling campaign.\n
May has formed a group to promote animal welfare. Though a Conservative Party voter most of his life,[223] he has stated that their policies on fox hunting and the culling of badgers meant he did not vote for them in the 2010 UK general election. His animal welfare\u2013focused organisation, 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.[15] The group's primary concern is to ensure that the Hunting Act 2004 and other laws protecting animals are retained in situ.[69]\n
In an interview in September 2010 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 scientific work.[224] May is a staunch supporter of the RSPCA, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the League Against Cruel Sports, PETA UK and the Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue. In March 2012, May contributed the foreword to a target paper published by the think tank the Bow Group, urging the government to reconsider its plans to cull thousands of badgers to control bovine TB, stating that the findings of Labour's major badger culling trials, several years earlier, show that culling does not work. The paper was authored by Graham Godwin-Pearson with contributions by leading tuberculosis scientists, including Lord Krebs.[225][226][227]\n
In 2013, May joined French guitar player Jean-Pierre Danel for a charity Danel launched for the benefit of animal rights in France. The guitarists signed guitars and art photos together, and were joined by Hank Marvin.[228]\n
\nMay outside the Houses of Parliament in London during a June 2013 anti-badger cull demonstration\n
In May 2013, May teamed up with actor Brian Blessed and Flash cartoonist Jonti \"Weebl\" Picking, as well as animal rights groups including the RSPCA, to form Team Badger, a \"coalition of organisations that have teamed up to fight the planned cull of badgers\".[229] With Weebl and Blessed, May recorded a single, \"Save the Badger Badger Badger\"\u2014a mashup of Weebl's viral 2003 Flash cartoon meme, \"Badger Badger Badger\", and Queen's \"Flash\", featuring vocals by Blessed. On 1 September 2013, \"Save the Badger Badger Badger\" charted at No. 79 on the UK Singles Chart, No. 39 on the UK iTunes chart[230] and No. 1 on the iTunes Rock chart.[231] In June 2013 naturalist Sir David Attenborough and rock guitarist Slash joined May to form a supergroup, Artful Badger and Friends, and released a song dedicated to badgers, \"Badger Swagger\".[232]\n
Prior to the 2015 general election, it was reported that May was considering standing as an independent Member of Parliament. It was also revealed that May had started a \"Common Decency\" project \"to re-establish common decency in our lives, work and Parliament\". May said he wanted to \"get rid of the current government\" and wished to see a House of Commons containing \"individuals voting according to their conscience\".[233] May was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas at the election.[234] He also endorsed a Conservative Party candidate, Henry Smith, on the grounds of his animal welfare record.[235]\n
In July 2015, May criticised UK Prime Minister David Cameron for giving Members of Parliament a free vote on amending the ban on fox hunting in England and Wales. During a live television interview, he described the pro-hunting organisation the Countryside Alliance as \"a bunch of lying bastards\" for their support for a change to the law.[236] The government postponed the vote following the intervention of the Scottish National Party's Westminster MPs, who committed to vote to keep the ban as it existed. May told anti-hunt protesters in a rally outside Parliament that it was \"a very, very important day for our democracy\" but added \"we have not yet won the war, there's no room for complacency\".[237]\n
In June 2017, May endorsed Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 general election. May shared an article on Twitter by The Independent headlined \"Jeremy Corbyn says Fox hunting is 'barbarity' and pledges to keep it banned\"[238] and captioned it: \"Well, I guess that just about clinches it !! Anyone see any good reason not to prefer the evidently decent Corbyn over the weak and wobbly Mrs May? Bri\".[239]\n
In October 2018, May said, \"I don't like all this separatist stuff and you know this sort of illusion that we can all stand on our own, to me the future lies in co-operation. I get up every day and put my head in my hands about Brexit \u2013 I think it's the stupidest thing we ever tried to do.\" He also said that Prime Minister Theresa May was \"driven by vanity and thirst for power\".[240]\n
In the run-up to the 2019 United Kingdom general election May criticised what he saw as the poor conduct of the media and declined to endorse either candidate, stating that he found it \"impossible\" to vote for either Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson.[241] After the election in which the Conservatives won a majority, May vowed to continue fighting for animal rights but in an Instagram and blog post he urged his followers to congratulate Johnson and \"wish Boris a decent chance to rebuild Britain\" before praising reforms to animal welfare laws made by Conservative Party Environment Secretary Michael Gove.[242][243] In 2021 May criticised Johnson for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, calling it inadequate.[244]\n
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 Found,[64] on the work of English stereophotography innovator T. R. Williams.[246] He was awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Saxby Medal in 2012 for achievement in the field of three-dimensional imaging.[247]\n
May made a significant technical contribution to the book to accompany the exhibition 'Stereoscopic Photographs of Pablo Picasso by Robert Mouzillat', held at the Holburne Museum in Bath, England, from February to June 2014. The book provides photographs of Picasso in his studio, at a bullfight at Arles, and in his garden. May's 3D Owl viewer is used to view the photographs in 3D.\n
The purchase of his first card in 1973 started May on a lifelong and worldwide search for Les Diableries,[248] which are stereoscopic photographs depicting scenes of daily life in Hell. On 10 October 2013[249] the book Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell by Brian May, Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming was published.[250]\n
In 2017, May published Queen in 3-D,[251] chronicling the group's 50-year history. It contains over 300 of his own stereoscopic photos and is the first book about the band published by one of its members. Included with the book is May's patented OWL Stereoscopic Viewer.[252]\n
In the 2018 biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody, he was portrayed by Gwilym Lee.[253] May himself served as a creative and musical consultant for the film, and worked especially closely with Lee.[254]\n
^Fitzpatrick, Rob. \"'I'm The Antichrist of Music' Immensely popular for decades, yet a permanent resident on music's outermost fringes of fashionability, Phil Collins would like to apologise. Are you ready to forgive?\". FHM. April 2011.\n
^\"New Chancellor confirmed\". Ljmu.ac.uk. Liverpool John Moores University. 23 November 2007. Archived from the original on 6 September 2010. Retrieved 24 October 2011.\n
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