Queen’s 50th Anniversary Celebrations Kick Off On Friday

Queen will kick off the band’s 50th anniversary celebrations on Friday (March 19th) with a celebration running a full calendar year — with a string of rare and iconic clips via YouTube chronicling the band’s historic career.

According to the announcement, “Presented in chronological order, the series will take us from Queen’s earliest shows at London’s Rainbow and Odeon through vast arenas across the entire world on a journey culminating with the band’s latest record setting achievements with Adam Lambert.”

The videos will feature concert footage, soundchecks, backstage and rare after-show access, with clips shedding new and important light on the band’s catalogue, along with rare and previously unseen films of the band at work and at play. Footage promised over the coming year includes performances from Queen’s “first tours abroad to Europe, Scandinavia, and North America.”

Series producer and creator Simon Lupton said: “The Queen story is unlike any other, and I hope fans from all around the world will enjoy celebrating the many extraordinary achievements, timeless songs, and iconic performances that Freddie (Mercury), Brian (May), Roger (Taylor), and John (Deacon) have given us. While we will be revisiting some of their most famous and legendary milestones, I'm hoping there will also be some surprises along the way to excite people whether they be die-hard fans, or curious newcomers. This story has so many chapters to explore, and who knows. . . there could well be some new ones over the course of the next 50 weeks! “

Roger Taylor admitted to us that he and Brian May are amazed that there's still a tremendous amount of interest in Queen's music: “I think it's impossible to tell at the time that something's going to have longevity. We managed to keep a really great career for 20 years, so we know we had some kind of longevity, but we didn't really think that all this time later that the songs would still be or some of the songs would still be such a part of the wallpaper.”