Queen A Kind Of Magic

Queen are one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world. "Another One Bites the Dust" (1980) became their best-selling single, while their 1981 compilation album Greatest Hits is the best-selling album in the UK and is certified eight times platinum in the US. Their record sales range from 150 million to 300 million records, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2018 they were presented the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Freddie Mercury was rock’s most dazzling showman, a legendary entertainer who in 1991, at the age of just forty-five, became the first major music star to die of AIDS. Mercury’s soaring four-octave voice was a defining element in Queen’s unique sound, crucial to the success of the band’s fifteen studio albums, from Queen (1973) to Made in Heaven (1995). He was also a supremely talented songwriter and musician who wrote many of the band’s greatest hits, including ‘Killer Queen’, ‘We Are the Champions’ and their biggest triumph, the epic anthem ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. As a solo artist he released two acclaimed albums: Mr. Bad Guy in 1985 and the operatic 'Barcelona' with Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé in 1988. Mercury’s extraordinary charisma was perhaps best seen in his imperious live performances, in which he’d hold vast stadium crowds to rapturous attention. His outrageous theatrics, physicality and over-the-top costumes led one commentator to describe him as ‘a performer out to tease, shock, and ultimately charm his audience with various extravagant versions of himself’. He pushed the limits of camp in everything he did. His extreme behaviour, in a society in which being gay was only starting to be accepted, just added to Freddie Mercury’s allure. With expert understanding, Mark Blake traces Mercury’s life from his childhood in Zanzibar and India to his untimely death, and charts his astonishing achievements including in Queen’s world-conquering performance at Live Aid in 1985. In the year that marks what would have been his seventieth birthday, Freddie Mercury: A Life celebrates a remarkable life, lived to the fullest. Featuring revealing interviews with fellow musicians, producers and collaborators, and a detailed discography and timeline, this is a memorable tribute to a unique recording artist and an irreplaceable performer who rocked the world.

Telling the story of an immortal Scottish warrior doomed to survive through the centuries while watching those he loves die around him, 1986's Highlander was a British film that took the fantasy genre and infused it with a few thousand volts of energy from the rock video industry to create a timeless, genre-defying, classic. The story of an immortal Scottish warrior battling evil down through the centuries, Highlander fused a high concept idea with the kinetic energy of a pop promo pioneer and Queen's explosive soundtrack to become a cult classic. When two budget-conscious American producers took a chance on a college student's script, they set in motion a chain of events involving an imploding British film studio, an experimental music video director still finding his filmmaking feet, a former James Bond with a spiralling salary, and the unexpected arrival of low-budget indie film company, Cannon Films. Author Jonathan Melville looks back at the creation of Highlander with the help of more than 60 new cast and crew interviews, including stars Christopher Lambert and Clancy Brown, revisiting the gruelling shoot that took them from the back alleys of London, to the far reaches of the Scottish Highlands and onto the mean streets of 1980s New York City.

(Book). In 2011, the world celebrated the 40th anniversary of Queen one of the most innovative, glamorous, and influential bands in history. Over the course of the band's career, they have grossed 170 million album sales worldwide, have written 18 number one hits, and performed 700 concerts. While some acts enjoy a forte of incredible showmanship, a virtuoso instrumentalist, a strong, charismatic leader, or a prolific sole songwriter, Queen beholds all of these strengths. Although Freddie Mercury and Brian May are recognized as the prime songwriters, each of the members have penned number one hits, including classics such as "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Freddie Mercury), "Another One Bites the Dust" (John Deacon), "A Kind of Magic" (Roger Taylor), and "We Will Rock You" (Brian May). The fates brought the four creative and cerebral youths together in London in 1971 (Mercury was by then an established fine and graphic artist, May was enveloped in the study of astrophysics, Roger Taylor enrolled in dental school, and John studying electronics). Since then, they have made history with their sophisticated fusion of operatic expression, theatrical performance, symphonic melody, and raw rock-and-roll. Beginning with their debut Queen in 1973 (EMI/Electra Records), the band took the UK by storm, then conquered the United States along with rest of the world, serving as pioneers of stadium rock and enjoying commercial success and momentum well into the 1980s (marked by the famous Live Aid appearance in 1985) through the early 1990s. The whirlwind took a startling pause when singer Freddie Mercury passed away from AIDS on November 24, 1991. The living members have forged ahead and remain great music makers. The Complete Illustrated Lyrics is the first book of its kind. Never before has there been a complete Queen lyric book. The hundreds of images that accompany the songs range from handwritten lyrics to rare photographs from the stage to the studio. Also included is a complete discography, pairing each song to the album on which it was originally released. Designed by the band's longtime creative director, Richard Gray, the book is as true to the band as can be, carrying with it the flamboyance, expression, and depth that Queen embodies as writers and performers. If there is one book for a fan of the band to possess, this is the one.

MARRY THE KING, SAVE THE WORLD When the fae came, their magic brought destruction that only stopped when we offered them the one thing they wanted: Wives for their kings. I was selected "at random". Sacrificed to the fae. But the sexy, infuriating king I'm paired with doesn't want my body or soul; he wants my help. Thanks to some kind of prophecy, he and his people think I can get them back home. Getting them back home will require taking some of the king's magic, which is unstable on the best of days and catastrophic on the worst. When the power takes more effort to control than I would've ever guessed, and I'm forced to turn to my husband for help. But the fae never give anything away for free; especially knowledge. It was supposed to be simple: Marry the king, save the world. But now that we're married, and his power is becoming mine, our marriage might end up destroying the world... and I might be the one who destroys it. If you love books by Jennifer L Armentrout, Holly Black, Elise Kova, or Jaymin Eve, you'll devour this slow-burn enemies-to-lovers fae romance featuring an exciting new take on mermaids, faeries, dragons, and more!

After 1918, post-war euphoria spread across Europe and America. Technology was changing the pace of life and aeroplanes, motorcars and ocean liners were making the world a smaller place with improved communications. Some were making their fortunes, and for those who could afford it, it was an exciting time of cocktail parties, nightclubs and jazz. Fashion was Paris, elegance, the Paris Expo of 1925 and Art Deco with the lure of the avant-garde; but much of the wealth was in America, represented by the jazz age, glamour, The Great Gatsby and Hollywood. And the emancipated, wealthy, fashionable woman of means wanted newly-designed jewellery and accessories decorated with contemporary motifs to reflect her new status. The vanity case, the ultimate jewelled fashion accessory, was designed and made mostly in Paris by the skilled designers and craftsmen who understood that the fashionable modern woman needed a practical solution to containing her lipstick, powder compact, cigarettes, lighter, theatre tickets, keys and all the other small paraphernalia about her person.0Made of precious metals including platinum and gold, with inlays of lacquer, gemstones, mother of pearl, jade, or enamel, these 'reticules' took hundreds of hours of patient craftsmanship to complete and were very, very expensive. Objects of desire to be passed round and shown off at gatherings of the super-rich, they became miniature status symbols to be seen with at the opera or restaurant.

The tragic death of Freddie Mercury at his home in Kensington, London on 24th November 1991 heralded the beginning of an interest which was to continue to grow, in whether there was a well-kept secret to Queen, hidden in the lyrics of their many songs. In the years since Freddie Mercury’s death, Queen fans, the media around the world as well as the general public have taken a consistent interest in the life and loves of this man who became the Greatest Rock Star ever known and who has remained an enigma. This book provides an insight into the origin of some of Freddie’s lyrics through a psychic experience when Freddie returned to speak to me.