. Felix & Arty.WebsiteRoger Meddows Taylor (born 26 July 1949) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the drummer for the rock band. As a drummer, Taylor was recognised early in his career for his unique sound. He was voted by radio listeners as the eighth-greatest drummer in classic rock music history in a poll conducted by in 2005.As a songwriter, Taylor contributed songs to Queen's albums from the beginning, composing at least one track on every album, and often singing lead vocals on his own compositions. He wrote or co-wrote three UK number 1s (', ' and ') and contributed a further five major hits (', ', ', ', and '). He is also the main writer on the international top-ten hit ', although the track is credited to the whole band.
He has collaborated with such artists as,. As a producer, he has produced albums by, and.In addition to his drum work, Taylor is also well known for his vocal range. He sometimes played keyboards, guitars and bass on his own songs.
During the 1980s, in addition to his work with Queen, he formed a parallel band known as, in which he was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist. During the early 1980s, Taylor was also a panellist on the popular UK quiz show, hosted. In 2014, he appeared in as himself. Contents.Early life Roger Taylor was born on 26 July 1949 at West Norfolk & Lynn Hospital in,.
The new maternity ward was opened by Princess Elizabeth (the future queen, ), where she was introduced to 16 new mothers including Winifred Taylor, his mother. Taylor first lived at 87 High Street in King's Lynn, and later moved to Beulah Street in the town. Taylor's first school was Rosebury Avenue school. Taylor moved to, south west England, with his mother Winifred, father Michael and younger sister Clare. When he was seven years old, he and some friends formed his first band, the Bubblingover Boys, in which he played the.
He briefly attended; at the age of 13, he joined as a day boy. At the age of 15, Taylor became a member of the Reaction, a semi-professional rock band formed mainly of boys from Truro School. Taylor had originally learned guitar, but became a drummer when he realised he had a more natural aptitude for it. Taylor taught himself to tune his drums, inspired by of because of the 'great drums sounds' on the early Who records.
Another key influence on Taylor was drummer of, who Taylor stated was his early role model.In 1967, Taylor went to London to study dentistry at the, but he became bored with dentistry. He changed to biology and obtained a BSc at. Career 1968–1970: Smile. Taylor performing with in 1979.In 1969, Taylor was working with at the Kensington Market (they were sharing a flat at around the same time).
Mercury, then known as Freddie Bulsara, was an avid fan of Smile. The band split up in 1970. In the same year, Taylor turned down the chance to become drummer for, which led to joining instead. Bulsara convinced the remaining two members of Smile to continue and he eventually joined the band, which he renamed Queen. In 1971, they found bass guitarist and brought him into the band, before going on to release their in 1973.
Taylor is the third most credited songwriter for the band, usually contributing one or two tracks per album, and he is considered a prominent songwriter.1977–present: Solo career Taylor has had a productive solo career, releasing five albums. His first single was his 1977 'I Wanna Testify'. He recorded it during Queen's sessions for the album. The A-side, although a cover of the Parliaments song of the same name, was completely different from the original. The B-side was a self-penned song 'Turn on the TV'.Taylor's first solo album, was released in 1981.
Taylor performed all vocals and played all instruments aside of about half of the keyboards, which were done by engineer. With Queen still touring heavily and recording at the time of release, Taylor was unable to promote the album to its fullest extent, so he appeared on some European TV shows to promote the single, 'Future Management', including. The only other single to come from the album was 'My Country'. The only US single released from the album was 'Let's Get Crazy'.Taylor's next venture, came in June 1984. The three singles from the album were the title track, 'Beautiful Dreams' (in Portugal only) and 'Man on Fire', the latter becoming a live favourite for him in later years. No attempts to promote the singles were made since Queen toured to promote, and Taylor did not perform on any TV shows.
Strange Frontier included guest appearances by bandmates Freddie Mercury, Brian May and John Deacon. Mercury sang backing vocals on 'Killing Time', Deacon remixed the B-side 'I Cry For You' and co-wrote and played on 'It's An Illusion'. David Richards, Queen's engineer and producer at the time, also co-wrote two of the tracks.
The album includes covers of 's ' and 's '.In 1986, Taylor co-produced, the sixth studio album by rock band.After Queen finished their 1986, Taylor started a new band, which released three albums over their six years of existence. In 1993, the band split up, after performing one final gig at the.In 1994, Taylor worked with, drummer and pianist of and released the song 'Foreign Sand' and a reworking of the Cross's 'Final Destination'. The album Happiness? Was 'Dedicated to the tasmanian tiger – thylacinus cynocephalus, but most especially.
For Freddie'. 'Nazis 1994' from this album became Taylor's first hit single in England and was followed by two other top 40 UK hits, 'Happiness' and 'Foreign Sand'.In 1998, Taylor released his fourth solo album. He supported it with a small tour in the spring of 1999, on which Brian May joined him at the gig in Wolverhampton. Taylor also performed one of the first Internet-gigs – for which he got a mention in the.In 2010, after nearly twelve years between solo albums, Taylor planned to release a new studio album titled.
The first single, of the same name, was released on 23 November 2009 as a digital download, but due to popular demand it was released as a limited edition single. Originally leaked to the official Queen fan club's website for members only, it still managed to be on YouTube within hours of the early bird release. It was announced in late 2012 that fans would be able to vote on which songs appeared on the new album, with the album itself slated for release that year.The album is called, and was released on 11 November 2013. The Cross. Taylor performing with in 1990After Queen's 1986 Magic Tour, the band members went their separate ways to do various solo work.
Taylor decided to form a new band with whom he could tour. He had already written and recorded the album himself before finding a band to play the songs with.
He eventually placed an ad for band members in a national newspaper, hinting he was a famous rock musician. The position of keyboard player was duly offered to after two successful Queen tours in which Edney had played. When the auditions were over, the line-up was completed by Peter Noone on bass, Clayton Moss on guitar and on drums. Taylor himself would take the responsibility on lead vocals and rhythm guitar.The first album, Shove It, was released in 1988. In Europe, ' (later a Queen song) contained Freddie Mercury on lead vocals and Taylor on backing vocals. However, on the single version and American album version the roles were switched.
The European CD contained an extra track (compared to cassette and LP) in the 2nd Shelf Mix, the US version having 'Feel the Force' as its extra track. The band promoted hard (especially in Germany), with many TV performances of singles including an appearance at the Montreux Golden Rose festival in 1988. The tour took in dates in the UK and Germany.
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Three singles were released from the album: 'Cowboys and Indians', 'Heaven for Everyone' and 'Shove It'. Another single, 'Manipulator', was released in 1988, but it was not included on any album. It was also the only song from the time that had joint writing credits, Taylor sharing them with Edney and Steve Strange.Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know. Taylor performing with the Cross in 1990.After finishing Queen's 1989 album, Taylor went into the studio with the rest of the Cross for the first time to record. The band composed the opening track 'On Top of the World Ma' with a riff bearing a resemblance to the track '.
The rest of the album consisted mainly of individually written songs, except for 'Power To Love' which was the result of the combined effort of Macrae, Noone and Moss. Clayton Moss sang lead vocals on his own track 'Better Things', and Spike Edney played on 'Final Destination', which was written by Taylor. 'Final Destination' was released as a single, as were 'Liar' and 'Power To Love', the latter being the last single to be released in the UK by the band. 'Final Destination' came with a live rendition of Taylor's song 'Man on Fire' as a B-side, and 'Liar' (Noone) had a brand new track, 'In Charge of My Heart', which was also penned by Taylor. The 12' single and CD of 'Liar' also included extended remixes of both 'Liar' and 'In Charge of My Heart'. The instrumental section at the beginning of 'In Charge of My Heart' was used as the opening to concerts on the accompanying tour.
'Closer To You' (Edney) had been planned to be released in America, but never was. The group having seemingly given up on the UK market, the accompanying tour only included dates in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ibiza. Unusual for such tours, every song from the new album was played live.Blue Rock Made at a time when Taylor's efforts were concentrated on Queen and Mercury himself, gave the other members of the band a chance to take control of the upcoming album. It was in fact mostly written by Edney, who contributed three of his own tracks and contributed to four more. Once again the opening track was penned by the entire band, 'Bad Attitude' was written (although not complete) by the Christmas fan club party of 1990. The album itself contained a lot of vocals not from Taylor, but mainly of Edney and Noone.
Examples of this can be heard in 'Put It All Down To Love' (Edney), 'Life Changes' (Moss, Noone, Edney and Macrae) and 'Heartland' (The B-side to Life Changes, penned by Noone). Blue Rock itself was only released in Germany (although promo copies were released in Italy and Japan), so copies are somewhat rare. 'New Dark Ages' (Taylor) was released in Germany with another live version of 'Man on Fire', whilst 'Life Changes' was released with the B-side 'Heartland'. It was however immediately withdrawn due to Mercury's death. The tour was in support of, so the concert lengths were short (45 mins.) and very few bootlegs have survived. The tour pace was rapid, covering 20 dates in one month.Break-up of the Cross The band broke up in 1993 after performing a final show. Taylor continued working with Queen and produced solo albums.
Drummer Macrae accompanied Taylor on his solo tours and also played percussion at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Both Taylor and keyboardist Edney participated in the tours, while Macrae worked behind the scenes as co-producer, sound engineer and Pro Tools engineer for them.
In the late 1990s, Edney formed the SAS Band ('Spike's All Stars'), a group with an ever-changing line-up of popular '80s musicians.21st century Taylor has appeared along with May for various other events and promotions, including Queen's induction into the in 2001 and the ' in 2002, celebrating the golden jubilee of. In 2004, Taylor, May, and Mike Dixon received the for Best Music Direction for the musical. At in 2007, Taylor opened the concert with of and of.Taylor and May, performing as Queen, also appeared three times on the American singing contest television show. The first appearance was on 11 April 2006, during which that week's contestants were required to sing a Queen song. Songs performed included ', ', ', ', and '. The second time Queen appeared was on the show's finale in May 2009, performing 'We Are the Champions' with finalists. The third appearance was during the on 25 and 26 April 2012, performing a Queen medley with the six finalists on the first show.
The following day, they performed ' with the Queen Extravaganza band.In November 2009, Taylor appeared on the reality TV show with May as Queen mentoring the contestants, performing '. Also in that month, Taylor confirmed he was planning to tour with Taylor Hawkins, which Taylor described as a 'quick tour'. At the on 6 November, Queen received the, and Taylor and May closed the awards ceremony, with on vocals, performing 'The Show Must Go On', 'We Will Rock You', and 'We Are the Champions'. In 2011, Taylor, along with and, joined the advisory board of Edge Music Network.
Taylor performed in the in London on 12 August.In 2013 and 2014, Taylor served as an executive producer of the film Solitary, directed by Sasha Krane. In addition to those duties, he provided original music, including the song 'When We Were Young' and three instrumental songs which serve as incidental/background music in the film and during the closing credits. Taylor also appeared as special guest for Welsh Rock artist and his project Protafield, with Taylor providing drums on the track 'Wrath'. On 15 November 2014, Taylor joined the charity group, playing drums alongside current British and Irish pop acts on the latest version of the track ' at in, London, to raise money for the in Western Africa.On 5 and 6 September 2015, Taylor, along with 's, joined on stage in to perform a cover of the Queen and song '.On 1 April 2019 he released a new single called 'Gangsters Are Running This World' and on 8 April 2019 he released a more rock version of this song called 'Gangsters Are Running This World-Purple Version'. Both versions became available for streaming on 8 April 2019. On 10 May 2019 he and Czech goalkeeper released a song called 'That's Football' which Čech wrote for his retiring football career.
Influences and favourite drummers Taylor has stated that his early role model as a drummer was of. He said: 'I still think listening to Mitch Mitchell, especially the early stuff with Hendrix, is just fantastic. This fusion of jazz technique and wonderful riffs but with this rolling ferocious attack on the whole kit, it had lots of jazz influences I think. In fact for me he played the kit like a song, it was just wonderful. Total integration into the song.
Not just marking time'.Taylor has also expressed great admiration for of. Speaking of Bonham, Taylor said, 'The greatest rock and roll drummer of all time was John Bonham, who did things that nobody had ever even thought possible before with the drum kit.
And also the greatest sound out of his drums – they sounded enormous, and just one bass drum. So fast on it that he did more with one bass drum than most people could do with three, if they could manage them. And he had technique to burn and fantastic power and tremendous feel for rock and roll'. However, for just sheer technique, Taylor described the jazz and drummer as 'the best I've ever seen'.Speaking to in 1984, Taylor also described, the drummer of, as 'absolutely brilliant.he had a total unique style; he didn't owe anyone anything.' Tributes In 2013, a newly-discovered species of the genus (Odonata: Zygoptera) from Brazil was named Heteragrion rogertaylori after Taylor, in honour of his 'powerful sound, wonderful lyrics and raspy voice ' – one of four Heteragrion flatwing named after the bandmates, paying tribute to the 40th anniversary of Queen's founding.In 1999, Taylor became the second living person, other than members of the British Royal Family and Sir in 1967, to appear on a, being seen behind Freddie Mercury as part of a 'Great Britons' issue. This caused controversy as it was an understood rule that the only living people allowed to appear on British stamps could be members of the Royal Family.In 2002, Taylor appeared on the 'Twelve Drummers Drumming' Christmas card in the ' set sold at to raise money for the – alongside 's drummer. Discography.
Macnab, Geoffrey. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
– Issue 149 – 12 June 1973. 10 July 2005. Retrieved 28 January 2008.
Bechstein Debauchery. Archived from on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 28 January 2008. Bechstein Debauchery. Archived from on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 28 January 2008. Trevor, Heaton.
Queen Archives. Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 8 April 2012. ^. Archived from on 15 July 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2015. ^.
Queen Online. Retrieved 10 August 2015. Queen official website.
Retrieved 15 January 2017. Rose, Frank. Queen Archives. Eastern Daily Press.
8 February 2007 at the. The Daily Telegraph. 24 September 2011. Retrieved 27 August 2015. Patrick Lemieux; Adam Unger (2013). The Queen Chronology: The Recording & Release History of the Band.
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Across the Board Books. Retrieved 1 March 2018. Gregory, Andy (2002). Psychology Press. 30 September 2007 at the. 17 November 2009. Retrieved 1 December 2009.
22 November 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018. 15 April 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
Retrieved 16 July 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2016. Rolling Stone. 27 April 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
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17 November 2009. Retrieved 16 July 2014. Penny Newton (6 November 2011). Retrieved 16 July 2014. Archived from on 9 August 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
Retrieved 29 September 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2014. 11 November 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
Lencioni, F.A.A. (9 July 2013). Magnolia Press – Auckland, New Zealand. Retrieved 26 September 2015. Rohrer, Finlo (14 October 2008).
Retrieved 29 October 2011. Alex Spence. Retrieved 29 October 2011. 28 September 2011 at theExternal links. on. – includes an extensive description of Roger Taylor's early career.
– includes most detailed discography of Roger Taylor as a solo artist, member of the Cross, as well as his numerous guest appearances.