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Original UK Release Date: 5 May 1991

“40 Years of Glam Rocking Genius” – NME 14th March 2001

“Britain’s Best Loved Band” – The Sun 25th February 2011

“Remastered Queen is jaw-dropping for its rabble-rousingconsistency” – Q August 2011

Between 1984 and 1995 Queen released their last five studioalbums and consolidated their reputation as the biggest,brashest and boldest band in the world. They achievedlegendary status as they delivered THE defining performance ofthe century at Live Aid as well as headlining massive stadiumconcerts all over the world. Queen also released some of theirbest loved and most anthemic work in this period, before andafter the passing of Freddie Mercury in 1991.

Now in 2011 Island Records reissue the five Queen albumsfrom this period on September 5th (to coincide with what wouldhave been Freddie Mercury’s 65th birthday) as part of theband’s 40th Anniversary celebrations – ‘The Works’, ‘A Kind OfMagic’, ‘The Miracle’, ‘Innuendo’ and ‘Made In Heaven’. Thereissues will be accompanied by the third in the ‘Queen: DeepCuts’ series, which looks at some of the lesser known tracksfrom these albums.

Many Queen favourites were released during this periodincluding ‘Radio Gaga’ (the track from which Lady Gaga tookher name), ‘I Want To Break Free’ (complete with the infamouscross-dressing Coronation Street parody video that MTVbanned in the US), ‘One Vision’, ‘A Kind of Magic’, ‘I Want It All’,‘The Miracle’ and ‘These Are The Days of Our Lives’ (featuringFreddie’s final haunting video appearance).

These five albums cover the era when Queen were elevated totruly legendary status as they stole the show at Live Aid in frontof a global TV audience of 1.9 billion people, and wowedaudiences with subsequent headline shows at Knebworth andWembley in 1986, the latter recently voted by the public as oneof the most iconic events ever seen at the stadium. This wasalso Queen’s most consistent period of commercial successwith each of the five albums going platinum in the UK and ‘AKind of Magic’ and ‘Made in Heaven’ each selling over 1 millioncopies, the latter doing so four years after Freddie’s deathshowing that the Queen legacy reigns eternal.

As well as their huge UK gigs they continued the globaldomination of the late 70’s playing Rock in Rio twice to crowdsof over 300,000 each time. On their subsequent Magic tour theysold over 1 million tickets around the world playing the first everstadium gig in Eastern Europe at the Nepstadium in Budapestwith fans hitchhiking from all over the Eastern Bloc to attend.

After Freddie’s death The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert sawa packed Wembley set alight again to the music of Queen onceagain in April 1992, with stars from all over the world joiningQueen surviving members John Deacon, Brian May and RogerTaylor on stage. Subsequently The Mercury Phoenix Trust wasfounded to help distribute money raised from this concert forAIDS awareness. Since then, the Trust has raised anddistributed over $15 million to help in the fight against AIDS.The charity has just created a truly unique initiative with thelaunch of the ‘Freddie For A Day’ Global Charity Network.

Queens 40th Anniversary year has kicked off in spectacularstyle so far with their first ever major exhibition ‘Stormtroopersin Stilettos’ in London’s East End which drew an incrediblecrowd of over 20,000 visitors in two weeks, and kicked off with astar studded launch party attended by the likes of Foo Fightersand Jessie J.

A recent two part BBC TV documentary drew widespread ravereviews as Brian May and Roger Taylor looked back over theirfirst 40 years in detail for the first time. The Guardian describedit as ‘fantastic and moving’.

Meanwhile the bands first ten albums have been reissued toconsiderable acclaim. The Telegraph said of their early work,’Queen’s greatest music was extravagantly innovative,technically brilliant and created with a jeweller’s care.’

These last five studio albums highlight the diverse talent,musical ambition and global success of a band made up ofsome of the best songwriters, musicians and performers of alltime.