I learned something new about the world the day Freddie Mercury died. Firstly, that there was a new way to die, and its name was AIDS. Secondly, that one of my heroes was, in fact, gay. As a young teenager I had never given either topic much thought. Queen rocked and that’s all that really mattered. Which brings us to the music.

Queen is one of those bands that make you think, “They don’t make ‘em like this anymore.” All the best bands flirt with madness. Queen, of course, did cross the line from time to time, but this is an occupational hazard of being true rock gods. And I’m sure they didn’t beat themselves up when they spilled a bit too much madness into the magic potion, which they did fairly regularly, and may be the reason why Queen are best known for their Greatest Hits albums, as opposed to that one perfect studio album, like Led Zeppelin managed with Physical Graffiti, or the Stones pulled off with Exile On Main Street. What they are remembered for is a stunning array of incredible songs and mind boggling live performances, most notable at Live Aid in 1985, a performance that was voted the world’s greatest rock gig in an industry poll in 2005. Freddy had 75 000 people clapping in unison to Radio Ga Ga. It was outrageous.

The musicianship within this band is ridiculous. We all know that Freddie had the voice, with its operatic undertones and the kind of power and range that would make Pavarotti sweat more than usual. He also wrote many of the hits, including Bohemian Rhapsody and Don’t Stop Me Now (only he could have written this song) amongst many others. But let’s have a look at the rest of the chaps, starting with John Deacon, the bass player. George Harrison was the quiet Beatle. Bill Wyman the quiet Rolling Stone. John Deacon was, er, the quiet Queen. A great bass player and multi instrumentalist who also happened to write Another One Bites the Dust, You’re my Best Friend and I Want to Break Free amongst others. He also invented an amplifier used by himself and Brian May, helping to create some of those unique Queen tones. Roger Taylor was not just the drummer, he is also an accomplished singer and wrote Radio Ga Ga, A Kind of Magic and These Are the Days of Our Lives amongst others. As for Brian May, well aside from his PhD in astrophysics, Brian has been known to dabble in guitar godliness (ranked 39 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time), songwriting (Tie Your Mother Down, We Will Rock You and Fat Bottomed Girls – brilliant song title, Brian) and lest we forget that he, with help from his dad, built his own guitar, the legendary Red Special. A guitar he uses to this very day. He also plays using an old six pence coin instead of a plectrum (all the guitarists out there are raising their eyebrows). [Click ‘continue reading’ for more of this AWESOME review – Seth]

So, anyway, in celebration of Queen’s 40th anniversary, and coinciding nicely with Freddie’s 65th birthday (born in Zanzibar by the way) last Monday, Universal has been reissuing re-mastered versions of all 15 studio albums, which all include bonus tracks. It’s a Queen extravaganza! The world is ready for a Queen revival. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the more successful the world gets, the more boring the popular music becomes – Phil Collins, Chris De Burgh – the soundtrack to a world full of yuppies. The more screwed up and penniless the world becomes, the wilder the music gets – Bowie, Queen and Pink Floyd in the 70’s and early 80’s when the world was dogged by the fuel crisis and various recessions. It’s escapism.

Now in troubled times, the music is crazy again. If you happened to have watched the MTV Music Video Awards the other night you would have seen Lady Gaga (who took her name from the Queen hit Radio Ga Ga) opening proceedings with none other than Brian May on guitar, letting the Red Special whale like only he can.

Have you given Bohemian Rhapsody a listen lately? It’s better and madder than ever. Its six minutes in length flies by. It’s a musical odyssey building to the best ending in rock history. In Wayne’s World when they’re all singing along to it in the car, going through all the mad operatic bits, “Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go, Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me!” then when the ending kicks in and they all start head banging. Genius. That is the awesomeness of Queen captured right there. Then there’s Another One Bites the Dust, Don’t Stop Me Now, Killer Queen, Fat Bottomed Girls, Somebody to Love, Under Pressure (featuring Bowie), do I need to go on? The cool thing about re-releasing the actual albums is that it’s a chance for Queen fans to dig out some buried treasures, and there are plenty of them. And for all the haters (there are many who are allergic to Queen), if you’re struggling to pay the mortgage and you’ve had to sell the Beemer and times are tough, now might be the time to go out and get Greatest Hits I and II. The songs are so full of exuberance, the talent so huge and the sound is so unique, but the best thing is that they make you want to stop taking everything so seriously. I wish I could have seen them playing live at their peak. Above all other bands. Even Led Zep. And that’s saying something. There will never be another Queen.