The story has been retold as the famous song will feature on BBC’s Last Night Of The Proms
Queen at Rockfield in the ’70s(Image: ieie productions)
It is undoubtedly one of the biggest songs of all time. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody is a one of the only progressive rock songs of the 1970s to have proved accessible to a mainstream audience, and has transcended generations. But what you may not know is that it was recorded in Wales.
The song, which hit the number one spot in the charts in 1975, and stayed there for nine weeks, was recorded at Rockfield Studios, which is based at a former farmhouse in the Monmouthshire countryside.
The studios were originally created in the early ’60s by brothers Charles and Kingsley Ward and it is also the place where Oasis recorded their iconic album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon decamped there for several weeks 50 years ago to make their fourth LP, A Night At The Opera, which featured Bohemian Rhapsody.
The story has been retold as the famous song will feature on BBC’s Last Night Of The Proms on Saturday night.
Rockfield Studios, pictured in 2007(Image: David Hurst )
Sir Brian May told the BBC: “I remember Freddie tinkling around, saying ‘I am going to do this and this is where the vocals go’ and we just thought it was great and we would get on with it.
“The record company said we couldn’t release it because it was too long and they said no-one would play it and without the air play it would die a death.
“We just stuck to our guns. We have never been asked to the Last Night of the Proms, so we are thrilled.”
And Roger Taylor added: “It felt very audacious and brave when we were putting it together.
“We got carried away with how far we could take it and that was the thrill of it. It is really quite something to think that all these years later, people are still singing it.”
The band’s stay at Rockfield Studios was far from the kind of rock and roll glamour by which Mercury and his band would become synonymous.
They’d often have their recording sessions interrupted by Kingsley or Charles, the pair asking for help bringing in the hay whenever it began raining.
Moreover, Queen’s manager John Reid would also complain about the noise made by Rockfield’s sibling owners getting up at 6am to mow the grass in the surrounding fields.
It was a difficult time for the group, with guitarist Brian May laid low in bed with hepatitis, having been vaccinated with an unclean needle prior to the band’s first US tour – but Freddie Mercury was determined to go the extra mile.
Legend tells how the singer came up with Bohemian Rhapsody’s iconic last line – “Any way the wind blows” – quite by accident, whilst gazing out of a nearby window at a weather vane spinning around in the breeze.
Last Night of the Proms is on BBC One at 9pm on Saturday.