Brian May

Biography

With a musical career spanning four decades, Queen founding member Brian May is a world-renowned guitarist, songwriter, producer and performer. His influence on a new generation of musicians is a tribute to his unique style and musicianship, most memorably displayed when he performed his own arrangement of God Save The Queen on Buckingham Palace roof to open the 2002 Golden Jubilee celebrations. Brian May has provided Queen with many of their finest musical moments, among them the anthemic We Will Rock You, The Show Must Go On, I Want It All, Fat Bottomed Girls and some of their finest ballads including Who Wants To Live Forever, No-One But You, and Save Me. To date he has penned 22 top 20 hits worldwide and his songs continue to inspire, with versions recorded and sampled by such diverse artists as Def Leppard, Shirley Bassey, Eminem, Elton John, Metallica and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. When he wrote the hit track Flash, Queen became the first rock group to score a major film, Flash Gordon. This was followed by definitive music for Highlander, an opera for Steve Barron’s 1996 Pinocchio and a complete soundtrack for the French art film Furia. His song Driven By You, originally penned for a Ford advert, became his first solo hit record. Venturing into the theatre, Brian May wrote and performed the music for The Red and Gold Theatre Company’s Macbeth at the Riverside Theatre in 1987 (later revived in two other productions). This was a pre-cursor to his deep commitment to developing Queen’s musical We Will Rock You, currently breaking all records in its fifth year at the Dominion Theatre in London. As an accomplished solo artist, Brian May has recorded two highly successful solo albums – 1991’s Back To The Light, including Too Much Love Will Kill You and Driven By You, both Ivor Novello Award winners, and 1998’s Another World. He has enjoyed collaborating with numerous artists including Robbie Williams, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Luciano Pavarotti, Diana Ross, Cliff Richard, The Foo Fighters and Meat Loaf and continues to support Nelson Mandela’s 46664 campaign for Aids awareness. As patron to a number of charities, these endeavours along with his accomplishments in music led to a return visit to the Palace in Spring 2006 when he was awarded the title of CBE. He retains his keen interest in astronomy and regularly contributes to Sir Patrick Moore's Sky at Night with whom he has recently co-authored the astro-physics book 'Bang! The Complete History of the Universe' published by Carlton Books and has recently completed his Astrophysics PhD Thesis at Imperial College London, began in 1970, which he plans to submit in August 2007.