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 via their hit songs, live performances, originality and showmanship.Their 1985 Live Aid performance was voted the best live rock performance of all time by fellow artists, journalists and music industry executives in a 2005 industry poll. As of 2009, Queen have sold more than 300 million albums internationally.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. They have released fifteen studio albums, five live albums and numerous compilation albums. 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. Queen was named 13th on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock .
