In celebration of the release of Queen I, the band’s remixed and remastered debut album, Sir Brian May and Roger Taylor gave a brand new interview looking back on the group’s early days.
Appearing in the YouTube miniseries’ fourth and final official video below, the rock legends confessed why they hated Queen’s first-ever promo video.
Long before their iconic music videos of Bohemian Rhapsody and I Want To Break Free, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon faced more than they bargained for in the first attempt.
In 1973, just a week before the release of their debut album, the opening track, Keep Yourself Alive, was released as a single.
Struggling to get radio airtime, Queen had a golden opportunity with a BBC TV show.
Sir Brian shared: “I remember it very vividly. We had heard that The Old Grey Whistle Test wanted to play Keep Yourself Alive. 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.”
Roger recalled: “It really went very well. 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, Queen’s management decided the best thing for the band was to shoot a short promo video at Shepperton Studios. Tragically, the result would be a misfire and a far cry from the band’s live shows as they plodded through Keep Yourself Alive.
Sir Brian added: “When we saw the finished result, we hated it,“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.”
So, on the second attempt, Queen performed Keep Yourself Alive on a dimly lit stage in a promo that would largely be unseen outside the music industry. Nevertheless, it was their first step into medium that would become a staple for their greatest hits.
Roger recalled: “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. 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 No 1, and they’d been subjected to it for six weeks on their big TV music show, Countdown…”