Music

Freddie Mercury died aged 45 on November 24, 1991, after losing his battle with AIDS.Now 34 years on, surviving Queen members have been paying tribute to their late frontman.Sir Brian May shared a special collage artwork of Freddie zooming out, with his solo track, Just One Life, playing over it.The guitarist captioned his Instagram post: “The most beautiful memories are the saddest. Remembering the one and only Freddie M. Thank you @nenu_ph. [the artist]. Bri.”The 78-year-old rock star also addressed the negativity of some fans.Sir Brian added: “I’m going to say this only once, to you people who think you're so clever. This has nothing to do with AI. It is the work of an artist whom I was pleased to credit, above. And I'm reminded again that, in commenting, if we have only a negative c...

Freddie Mercury only lived 45 years, but like Elvis Presley (42) and John Lennon (40) before him left behind an incredible legacy in such a short time.The Queen singer, real name Farrokh Bulsara, lost his battle with AIDS on November 24, 1991.A few months later, the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert took place, led by Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.Three years on, Queen would release their final album, Made In Heaven, featuring Freddie’s posthumous vocals.Today, it’s been over three decades since the British icon died, but he still has a special part to play in the middle of Queen and Adam Lambert concerts, with an emotional on-screen performance of Love of My Life.

Freddie Mercury died 34 years ago today at just 45, after losing his battle with AIDS.Following his death, Queen bandmates Sir Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon set about putting together their final album, 1995’s Made In Heaven, which would feature the singer’s posthumous vocals.At his solo launch for the re-issue of 1998’s Another World, Sir Brian shared his emotional struggles with getting that last Queen record made and how he and the band came to terms with the star’s untimely death.The guitarist took part in a Q&A at his album launch, held at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich a couple of years ago. Producer Simon Lupton asked Brian at the time: “Just before you made this album you’d been involved in making Made In Heaven with the rest of Queen. Going through that cathar...

Queen star Brian Mayhas opened up about the unexpected impact of one of the band's greatest hits, Bohemian Rhapsody. This year marks the track's 50th anniversary, following its chart success for an impressive nine weeks back in 1975.Released at a time of economic downturn and high inflation, the band only had hopes of it being a "nice track" for their album A Night At The Opera. However, it led to a complete U-turn for the band and to this day is still recognised as one of their biggest hits.The iconic hit is particularly different from the rest due to its operatic sections, rock ballad style, and guitar solo, created by their late lead singer Freddie Mercury. Reflecting on the making of the hit, Brian said: "We thought, 'This is going to be a nice track for our new album, which hopeful...

EXCLUSIVEChancellor Rachel Reeves has been accused of turning a deaf ear to Britain’s musicians that has plunged the future prosperity of the nation’s world leading industry into jeopardy. A new poll for the Daily Express' Strike A Chord crusade reveals that 85% of adults believe the Labour Government has failed in its promise to provide better support for the arts.And ahead of the budget with the under-pressure chancellor facing the prospect of tax hikes and difficult choices on public spending – the survey in conjunction with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) reveals a significant rise in the percentage of adults that expected the Government to do more for the music industry. While investment in defence, net zero projects, the NHS and AI remain key priority areas for Government s...

Thankfully, Sir Brian approved of the decision, sharing exclusively with us: “I think they did a beautiful job of arranging and producing it. I wish they had called me, because there were a couple of things I could have done. But I think it's a great version, and it's got people excited. I have watched some of the series. It's great! It's nice when people take up our music and make it into something new and different. Otherwise, your music becomes a fossil. It has to keep growing and has to be related to a new audience every day.”Considering the title of the song, no doubt Stranger Things fan will be worried the lyrics are implying some big character deaths. Sir Brian chimed in: “Haha! I couldn't tell you, and if I could tell you, I wouldn't, obviously!”Sir Brian May’s new book Islands ...

Audience with hands raised at a music festival (Image: Getty Images)Britain’s late night economy is on the brink of collapse with the potential loss of 10,000 venues and 150,000 jobs unless urgent action is taken. Industry leaders say without intervention, the UK’s cultural identity could be destroyed forever due to the severe strain caused by rising costs, changing consumer behaviour, and the fear of higher taxation in Rachel Reeves upcoming budget.The crisis is particularly acute for grassroots and independent music venues, which form the backbone of the UK’s creative and cultural ecosystem. These venues provide essential platforms for emerging talent and create a pathway for Britain’s £7.6bn world leading music industry. Protecting this talent pipeline has been an ongoing aim of the ...

After Lily Allen announced dates for her upcoming theatre tour, they sold out in no time. But she wasn't quite done yet. The star of the brand new West End Girl album has just confirmed even more tour dates, and they're the biggest in her career history. Lily Allen will be playing arenas around the country in June, 2026, with shows taking place at such enormous venues as Dublin's 3Arena, Birmingham's BP Pulse Live, Glasgow's OVO Hydro and London's O2 Arena. These nine new shows brings the total Lily Allen gigs in 2026 to 23, marking her biggest and most prolific tour in decades.Tickets for these shows will be released later this week. And, considering how fast the first batch of shows sold out, these are expected to disappear just as quickly. With that said, there is one very limited pr...

Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury, who died on this day 34 years ago, was, indisputably, the greatest rock frontman of his generation. Some might say that he was the greatest rock frontman of all time. But, according to Queen drummer Roger Taylor: “In real life nobody knew Freddie,” and he was nothing like the flamboyant showman that thrilled an audience of millions at Live Aid in July 1985Reinhold Mack, who produced several Queen albums in the 1980s, as well as Freddie’s 1985 solo album Mr. Bad Guy, said: "It may sound strange, but one of the things people never noticed was that he was unbelievably modest and shy.” However, not everyone came away with such a positive experience of the ultimate rock showman, born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar in 1946.Norman Sheffield, Queen’s first manager, ...

Sir Brian May, who was promoting his new book, Islands in Infinity: Galaxies 3-D, confessed: “We're not talking about touring at the moment. I'm certainly not talking about touring because I've done 50 years of it. And I'm treasuring my time with the family at the moment and time to be able to do things like this, the astrophysics side of my life. To be able to do stuff with animals and basically spend time with my grandchildren and my animals. So that's become very important to me. I don't know how much longer I have left. It's going to be finite. We know that. But to me, that's a priority now. And I love to play. Everybody knows I love to play.”Sir Brian added: “I love to go to places and play and meet wonderful people. I loved working with Benson Boone. What a joy, what a treasure. I...