(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Thu 8 January 2026 8:00, UK
Today, we see Queen as storming visionaries of their era. But at the time, convincing the rest of the world of that vision was a bit more of an uphill struggle for the band.
After all, as much as the early 1970s took the spirit of glam rock by the reins and ran wild with it, Queen’s particular brand of that ideal was perhaps initially a step too far. While there were shared qualities across the board in terms of the gregariousness, pomp, and regalia among artists of this time, it remains to be said that Freddie Mercury was simply just all in a league of his own.
Yet in many ways, it was a matter of luck in terms of it taking a longer road for Queen to finally hit the big time: not because they were any less exciting or talented, but because that’s just sometimes the way in which things pan out. Of course, we know with hindsight that all the best things are worth waiting for, but that pending period still didn’t stop the green eyes of envy.
As Brian May put it during an interview in 1993: “We were very much into our own world, even early on. We knew what was going on around us, but we were much more into our own stuff. We didn’t pay that much attention to anyone else.” That trailblazing approach was all well and good to a certain extent, but it soon transpired that the real trouble came from sticking in their own bubble.
It didn’t make sense to the band at the time why the glam rock launch shot off into life when they were the ones originally pedalling the machine, but it seemed that the rest of the world didn’t necessarily see it that way. “It’s funny. Things very often tend to be triggered off in different places at the same time. When we started this thing, no one else was standing on a stage and putting a lot of time into costumes and the lights and the dramatic appeal of a show,” May bemoaned.
Yet, by the time things really took off, it looked as though Queen had been left behind. “We’d spent two years banging our heads against the wall, trying to get ourselves heard, [then] it had become a trend. Not because other people copied us. They were just at the same point at the same time. I remember feeling so frustrated when David Bowie and Roxy Music were out there really breaking down barriers. We thought, ‘God, we’re still stuck trying to get our album released. It’s been 18 months!’”
It goes without saying that within the space of a few years, the glam rock train had not only managed to truly pick up speed, but Queen had miraculously managed to catch it and jump on board. They may have eventually moved on from that starting point in terms of the name itself, but it was clear that through everything, the essence of glam was the bedrock they lived by.
Some of the artists the band were initially jealous of were ones that they eventually went on to work with, particularly when it came to the likes of David Bowie. Despite any pretensions to the contrary, that must have been a gratifying feeling to know that they were finally on a par with the people they had spent such a long time chasing.
But ultimately, comparison never mattered all that much. Queen were often right to stay in their own lane; otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone on to become such rock pioneers on their own path. They were really the definition of the fact that good things come to those who wait – it’s just they wouldn’t have known that at the time, and the stretching years must have been frustrating.
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