Queen Share Story Behind Queen I Promo Videos

12-06-2024

(Hollywood Records) Queen The Greatest Special: "The Story Of Queen I - Behind The Promo Videos" (Episode 4) Queen's reputation for iconic music videos wasn't earned overnight. In an exclusive video interview for the latest episode of Queen The Greatest, co-founders Brian May and Roger Taylor look back on the false starts and lucky breaks of their early career on camera and talk about why they hated their first promo video.

Known as masters of the music video, with the lineup of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon immortalised as everything from the floating heads of "Bohemian Rhapsody" to the stifled housewives of "I Want To Break Free." Rewind to 1973, however, and when the young band set out to promote their self-titled debut album - now freshly remastered and extended as the new Queen I boxset - the four musicians found themselves facing the unique challenge of matching sound and vision.

In the latest episode of Queen The Greatest, Brian and Roger reflect on the twists of fate - not to mention the good, bad and ugly run of early promos - that would eventually propel them into the public eye. Queen's career on camera, remembers the guitarist, began with a lucky break that shone a much-needed spotlight on debut single "Keep Yourself Alive."

Back in July 1973, just one week before the album came out, the opening track, "Keep Yourself Alive," was released as a single. But with Queen being a new band struggling for any radio airtime, there was a danger the song would fail to make any impact at all. That was, until a BBC TV show offered a glimmer of hope that not only gave this first single valuable exposure, but would go on to kick start Queen's now legendary reputation for making music videos.

"I remember it very vividly. We had heard that The Old Grey Whistle Test wanted to play 'Keep Yourself Alive,'" explains Brian of the seminal BBC TV show. "I remember going to my parents' house and it was going to come on the TV, so we're glued to The Old Grey Whistle Test. And suddenly you hear the riff and there's this little train going along. And we were mesmerised because somebody had put together a really nice video. They didn't have any footage of us, so they couldn't make a performance video, but they put together very nice little bits of animation, made it all work, and it was very exciting. And suddenly we're like, 'Oh, we're kind of on the scene now.'

"(Presenter) Bob Harris was there, bless him, whispering Bob Harris said some nice things about it, 'something very exciting, a new group.' And suddenly we're like, 'oh we're kind of on the scene, you know, people have actually heard of us now.' And it really did make a difference. So massive thanks forever to The Old Grey Whistle Test team for doing that, taking that shot and putting us on there."

"It really went very well," picks up Roger. "I think it was [producer] Mike Appleton who chose that song for The Old Grey Whistle Test. He was a man of taste, actually. I think that was our first - well, I say 'TV appearance', but we weren't in it, you know. But the track was and the cartoon was."

To build on the momentum - and put faces to the name - Queen's management decided to shoot a short promotional film at the UK's Shepperton Studios. "I think that was Trident's idea," remembers Roger, "to show people what we were about."

Yet the result - as laid bare by this week's episode - was a misfire, with all the grit and danger of Queen's live shows evaporating as the band squirmed through a performance of "Keep Yourself Alive" in a sterile TV studio.

"When we saw the finished result, we hated it," admits Brian. "Because somehow the whole thing had become so well-lit, it looked very clinical. It just didn't feel like rock 'n' roll at all. So, we kicked up a bit of a fuss, being the precocious boys we were, and said 'We don't like it, we need to do it again. And this time we want it lit the way we want it. Instead of a white stage, we'll have a black stage and lights which make us look like moody and serious rock musicians, rather than Top of the Pops.'"

At the second attempt - with the four shadowy bandmembers prowling a dimly lit stage - the classic Queen aesthetic began to take shape. And although the video was seen by precious few outside the music industry - "There was no outlet for a video like that," explains Brian, "no way you could put it on Top of the Pops" - Queen had taken their first emphatic step into the visual realm that would ultimate lead to era-defining visual moments like the now classic "Bohemian Rhapsody" promo video.

"At the time, we did think the visual thing had a part to play, but we didn't really realise the power of a video," recalls Roger. "When we did "Bohemian Rhapsody" later, the idea of making that video was our idea, and we knew we could use it as a promotional tool on television. Which is why - when we got to Australia a year after "Bohemian Rhapsody" had been released - it was number one, and they'd been subjected to it for six weeks on their big TV music show, Countdown..."