Welcome to “Queen The Greatest”
in which we celebrate some of the
outstanding songs, performances and
achievements that Queen have delighted us
with over the last 50 years.
This week we are taking a look behind the
scenes at one of the most significant
moments in Queen’s history,
the moment where one of their
ultimate goals was realised
it’s Queen’s Independence Day.
[Freddie Mercury] “Let’s face it,
we’re going to try and sort out a lot of
business, so called business problems and
I think Queen, the so called Queen Empire
it’s pretty large now, we've all got
subsidiary companies and things,
and it needs a lot of handling.”
[John Deacon] “We didn’t get a penny of
record royalties from the first
three albums. So, basically we got out of
that one by re-signing
with a guy called John Reid.
We signed with him for three years which
finishes in about September next year.
What we’re looking at that point in time
is basically to just look after ourselves,
and do it completely on our own.”
[Roger Taylor] “It’s the long road to
artistic, financial freedom
which is so hard to find if you’re
successful to any degree,
‘cos there’s a million sharks out there.”
In early 1978, just before they embarked
on recording their Jazz album,
Queen finally took full control of their
business affairs – setting up
Queen Productions Limited,
Queen Music Limited and
Queen Films Limited.
This was a highly unusual move for a band,
but testament to their belief
in their musical journey.
For the day to day running
of the business, Queen turned to
Jim Beach, who they had first met in 1975
when the bands quest for
financial independence truly began.
It was a meeting that left a
lasting impression on Jim…
[Jim Beach] “I first met Queen when
I was a solicitor at Harbottle and Lewis
in London, and I was a partner
and I was running what was then a very
fledgling music department.
Harbottle and Lewis was a show-business
firm and we were used to fairly bizarre
clients, but I remember when Queen arrived
the receptionist telephoned me and said
“Mr. Beach, Queen are here”,
and I said “Yes, fine, would you like
to send them up”.
And she whispered down the phone, she said
“have you seen them?”
[Jim Beach] “And I said, “well yes”,
she said “well one of them’s got
nail varnish on”.
And I said “well really?”
“Yes, black nail varnish”.
And I said, “well fine”,
“yes but it’s only on one hand”.
And I said, “don’t be silly,
come on send them up.”
And they walked in, and I always remember
Freddie walked in first, they sat down and
Freddie kicked straight off by saying
“we’ve recorded three albums,
our manager’s just bought
his second Rolls Royce and
we’re on sixty quid a week,
so something’s wrong.”
But it wasn’t just the business side where
Queen wanted to be masters of their own
destiny, their News of The World album had
proved that in the studio they were
also ready to take control.
[John Deacon] “It comes to a stage where
all you really need is an engineer,
because the idea of balancing and sounds
you want, I mean an artist or musician
should really know what they want.
And the only person needed to implement
that is an engineer.
And when you’re doing a mix,
when you’re mixing down the track from the
tapes, I mean it’s setting it up and then
we actually sit down and
work the controls as well.”
On that occasion, long time
Queen Engineer, Mike Stone, had become the
invaluable assistant that enabled
the band to enjoy the creative freedom
they craved in the studio.
This independence had been hard fought for
and so, after seven years together,
when most bands might be coming
to their natural end,
Queen had successfully manoeuvred
themselves into a position where
they could go from strength to strength.
And it’s fair to say,
the best was yet to come…