Few rock guitarists possess a playing style as instantly recognizable as Queen's Brian May. With his orchestrated guitar armies (multi-tracked guitar lines overdubbed on top of each other) and instantly memorable, well-constructed melodic leads,May is in a class all by himself. Born in Hampton, Middlesex, the 19 July 1947, May showed his outstanding academic qualities at an early age, winning a scholarship when he was 11 to the top school in his district. Throughout his teenage years, he was fascinated by astronomy and for a while seemed set to follow a career path in this field.  

He also showed an interest in music at a very early age -- learning to play the ukulele and piano before receiving his first guitar as a present.

"My first guitar was my seventh birthday present. I still remember the excitement -- the smell of the new varnish and its apparent bigness for little fingers. I made a pickup for it and played through my dad's homemade grammophone amplifier. From there, we took the plunge -- to make an electric guitar from scratch, by hand. It took us two years, my dad and I."

May and his father began to build a custom guitar. Completed two years later, the one-of-a-kind instrument would become known as the Red Special, a guitar that would later become May's sonic and visual trademark throughout his career.

Growing up in the '50s and '60s, Brian was surrounded by the influences of an era dominated by such artists as the Shadows and Elvis Presley. His own taste, though, covered a wider spectrum -- from blues and country to rock to classical. He favored such artists as Buddy Holly, Lonnie Donegan, Hank Marvin and Rick Nelson, artists whose records featured guitar solos, a musical evolution that captivated and inspired him.

It was inevitable that he would form his own band, and this he did while in secondary school -- a five-piece instrumental group called 1984, after George Orwell's futuristic novel. The music was less futuristic, lodged somewhere between the Shadows and the blues. Throughout the year that followed, 1984 played a number of small gigs in and around London, including a less than auspicious appearance at the Olympia Theatre in 1967 following Jimi Hendrix, Traffic, Pink Floyd, the Herd, and Tyrannosaurus Rex.

At the same time, Brian was enrolled at Imperial College, reading physics and infra-red astronomy. The pressures of his studies together with increasing musical differences took their toll on the band, and in the spring of 1968, Brian left.

Through an ad Brian pinned on a college notice-board he met Roger Taylor and together with another former 1984 member, Tim Staffell, they formed the group Smile.

Brian in the meantime had graduated with honors degree in physics and math. His immediate plan was to embark on a doctorate on the movements of dust on the solar system, which would take him one step closer to becoming a professional astronomer. But four years later, the thesis was still incomplete, overshadowed by his commitment to music.

Smile signed to Mercury Records in 1969 and cut their first single, "Earth." After recording a few more tracks, Staffell decided to leave the band. Determined to continue, May and Roger Taylor reformed Smile to take in Freddie Mercury and John Deacon. And so Queen was born.

The band signed with EMI and Elektra in 1973, and a year later were given their first major break, touring as the support for Mott the Hoople. The impact that had on Brian is reflected in his new solo album, paying tribute to those days with a blistering version of Ian Hunter's "All the Way to Memphis."

From the beginning, May contributed both vocals and guitar to Queen's unique sound and played a major role in the band's writing and production. He experimented with multitrack guitar harmonies, a skill that was to become one of his -- and Queen's -- trademarks.

As songwriter, Brian provided Queen with a string of classic hits, including "Keep Yourself Alive," "We Will Rock You," "Tie Your Mother Down," "I Want It All," and "The Show Must Go On." He developed an interest in film scoring when Queen became the first rock group to score a major film, "Flash Gordon," subsequently followed by the score for "Highlander." May continues to pursue this passion, most recently providing original music for director Steve Baron's 1996 screen version of "Pinocchio."

May's solo career as a recording artist began in 1991 when he was asked to write the music for a Ford commercial. Out of this came "Driven by You," which was released as a single in November of that year and reached No. 6 on the UK charts and won him his first solo Ivor Novello Award for "Best Theme from a TV/Radio Commercial."

The album "Back to the Light" followed, providing him with two further hit singles, the title track and "Too Much Love Will Kill You" -- a song he had previously performed live at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert as his gift to Freddie. When the song was later recorded by Queen on their final album, it won May his second Ivor Novello. "Back to the Light" achieved double gold status in the UK and sold more than a million copies worldwide.

The album's success brought about Brian's first solo tour. The Brian May Band was formed, featuring old friends Cozy Powell on drums, Neil Murray on bass, and Spike Edney on keyboards, with new friends Jamie Moses on guitar and Shelley Preston and Cathy Porter on backing vocals.

The new album, "Another World," has been three years in the making and sees Brian eager to return to live performance. A UK and European tour again featuring original Brian May Band members Cozy Powell, Neil Murray, Spike Edney, and Jamie Moses was planned for autumn this year. Just as plans were finalized came the tragic news of Cozy Powell's death in a car crash. Brian and the group were devastated by the loss of Cozy, a brilliant and inspiring musician, crucial contributor to the Brian May album and irreplaceable friend. Plans for the tour are proceeding, but no decision has been made yet regarding who will replace Powell.

Brian also retains his keen interest in astronomy -with a regular contributor to Sir Patrick Moore's 'Sky at Night'- venturing off to distant parts of the world whenever an eclipse is imminent -- and is currently working on a book of T.R. Williams, a prominent stereo photographer of the 1850s.

Brian's songs continue to influence many different genres of musicians, with versions recorded by such diverse artists as Def Leppard, George Michael, Ted Nugent, Elaine Paige, 5ive, Shirley Bassey, Metallica, Claire Sweeney, Macy Gray and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Tolga Kashif. Brian has collaborated with numerous artists including Robbie Williams, The Foo Fighters, Guns’n’Roses, Zucchero and The Yardbirds, as well as making guest appearances at a number of charitable concerts where he has performed solo and, amongst others, with Bryan Adams and Luciano Pavarotti. Brian was proud to play feature guitar on the Winter Olympics 2002 Opening music for his good friend, composer the late Michael Kamen.

Two thousand and two was also the year in which Brian provided one of the defining images of the celebration of Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee - when he opened 'The Party at the Palace Jubilee Concert' performing his own arrangement of God Save the Queen' live from the roof of Buckingham Palace. Seen by 1.2 million people outside the palace and on millions of televisions across the world, it will long remain one of those historical moments indelibly printed in time.

Brian is, of course, no stranger to the theatrical world. As well as his contributions to his wife Anita Dobson’s live performance work, he wrote and performed the music for the Red and Gold Theatre Company's 'Macbeth', at London's Riverside Theatre in 1987. The enormously successful and long awaited Queen rock theatrical ‘We Will Rock You’ at London’s Dominion Theatre has received standing ovations since opening in May 2002. Remaining the UK’s best selling show acclaimed by over one million theatregoers, productions have since been opened in Melbourne and Madrid in 2003. Brian’s role as producer and musical director extends to overseas productions, which sees shows opening in Perth, Brisbane, Las Vegas, Sydney, Moscow and Cologne in 2004 with further overseas productions planned for 2005.

In October 2002, Queen were honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, joining the Beatles as one of the few non-US bands to earn this accolade. This followed just 4 months after Queen were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, enrolled for "Queen's million selling achievements over three decades and in particular for having achieved the distinction of being the only group in which each of its members have achieved No.1 songs". Brian's ‘We Will Rock You’ was particularly singled out for being one of the USA's most played songs as well as a sports anthem to hundreds of organisations and teams throughout the US.

Brian’s ongoing commitment to Aids awareness led to Queen becoming a driving force in the '46664' campaign in collaboration with The Nelson Mandela Foundation, which culminated in a concert in November 2003. The concert, performed by leading African artists and a host of top international artists in front of an audience of 40,000 at Green Point Stadium, Cape Town, was simultaneously broadcast to a worldwide audience via TV, webcast and radio becoming the most widely distributed media event in history with an audience of over 2 billion in 166 countries.

More recently, Brian has joined an impressive list of world-famous talent with whom PepsiCo International has worked. During filming in Rome in September 2003, Brian recorded a unique version of his timeless track ‘We Will Rock You’ with Beyonce, Pink and Britney Spears to accompany the epic Pepsi advertisement, which also features Enrique Inglesias.

Other credits include designing a planetarium show currently showing in Germany, re-mixing Queen recordings in 5.1 Surround Sound, and writing themes for several TV shows. He has also enjoyed lending his inspirational skills to the 3 top selling volumes of ‘The Best Air Guitar in the World Ever!’.

He is patron to a number of charities including The Mercury Phoenix Trust and The British Bone Marrow Donor Association. Brian can also be addressed as Dr May, since being awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Hertfordshire.

Brian enjoys interacting with his fans who can contact him and enjoy updates on his work and thoughts via his website at www.brianmay.com.