Queen were an English rock band which formed in London in 1970 following the demise of the band Smile. Queen consisted of vocalist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor. The band became popular with audiences through their hit singles, live performances, originality and showmanship; and in 2007 were voted the greatest British band ever in a national BBC poll. Queen's performance at Live Aid in 1985 was voted the best live rock performance of all time by fellow artists, journalists and music industry executives in a 2005 industry poll. According to the BBC, Queen have sold more than 300 million albums internationally as of 2009.
Queen enjoyed success in the UK in the early to mid-1970s with the albums Queen and Queen II, but it was with the release of Sheer Heart Attack in 1974 and the following year's A Night at the Opera that the band gained international commercial and critical success—those albums, along with Queen II, have been cited as being among Queen's best work and some of the finest albums ever recorded. They have released fifteen studio albums, five live albums, twelve compilation albums, and nine DVDs. Since Mercury's death and Deacon's retirement, May and Taylor have performed infrequently together at special events and programmes as members of other ensembles. Between 2004 to 2009 the duo collaborated with Paul Rodgers, under the moniker Queen + Paul Rodgers.
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