Becoming A Queen Fan

Every fan has their own journey, and usually starts by hearing a song that instantly attracts them to continue listening to an artists music.

This is my journey on how I became a Queen fan.

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My Earliest Memory of Queen

As I was growing up in the 80s, I remember being subjected to a wide range of music, courtesy of my father's collection of vinyl singles and albums.

The range of music being played expanded from rock ‘n’ roll all the way through to the latest craze. One moment we could be listening to an Elvis album, then the next could of been

“War of the Worlds”; there were no rules to music where my father was concerned, so long as it wasn't opera!

One single that I remember hearing quite a lot during my earlier childhood was Queen’s “Bicycle Race”. This became one of my favourite singles in my father's collection and was therefore frequently played.

"Bicycle Race" and "Fat Bottomed Girls" - Released 13th October 1978 and reached 11 in the UK charts.

The official music video for "Bicycle Race", featured on the album "Jazz" released 10 November 1978.

I must stress, it was not until at a later age that I watched the video!!

“Bicycle Race” may have been a favourite play, but I was too young to realise who I was listening to.

Although “Fat Bottomed Girls” was the double A side, I do not have any memory of this being played. Who would've thought that I would go on to meet Lyn, whose favourite Queen song happens to be “Fat Bottomed Girls”

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Being Introduced to Queen

Fast forward to 1992, I had just moved up to high school and introduced to a set of new peers from the various different middle schools in the area. I was allocated into a form class which was far from enjoyable; the only good thing to being allocated into this form was meeting my late friend Scott Brown.

It was Scott who really introduced me to Queen's music, especially as the summer olympics held at Barcelona had just finished. A few of us still had the theme tune in our heads and were regularly singing it, me included.

I think our initial conversation started by Scott asking whether I was familiar with Freddie, at this point, all I knew was that Freddie had passed away the previous year; around 3 weeks earlier than my own mother. As the conversation developed, Scott was surprised that I was so unfamiliar with Queen; I suppose Scott wanted to share his passion. As it turns out, this was the start to a great friendship.

Picture of Scott Brown - taken in 1996 during our final year at high school.

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Scott’s First Queen Song and His Favourite

As Scott introduced me to the different albums that he owned, it was immediately obvious that the song I requested my father to play so frequently as an infant was in fact a Queen single.

The song that Scott first heard and instantly attracted him to Queen was “Radio Ga Ga”, but his favourite song was “Sail Away Sweet Sister”

Lyric video of "Sail Away Sweet Sister", featured on the album "The Game" released 30 June 1980.

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My First Queen Albums

Every fan has to start somewhere, and I was no different. I remember walking around the shops on the hunt for Queen albums and eventually purchased the cassette versions of “Queen” and “News of the World”, which I still have today (amongst others)

My first cassette albums

My Cassette Collection

Share your Queen Journey

So, that's my journey.

How did you get into Queen?