The Queen moment that made the biggest impact on you.

I haven't been a fan for a very long time. Only started getting into them in about 2010. Damn, that actually sounds like a long time ago now. Anyway, I got the Wembley DVD set that was released in 2011 and I happened to check out the first night. I was mesmerized just what a powerhouse singer and frontman Freddie was. My favourite songs live at that point were AKOM and UP. And I still think those are great in that gig. Then I checked out Montreal, since it was in HD and I am a video freak, I loved that. Of course I knew some songs here and there but I pretty much started to get into albums backwards. So one of the first ones was MIH which I listened to a lot in summer of 2012 while I was hired by my relatives to paint a wall of large poppy flowers in their bedroom. So to me songs like Heaven For Everyone associates with peaceful summer sunshine. Either before that or after that I got into Innuendo. It might have been my first album actually because I loved TSMGO and since Freddie passed a year later I was naturally curious about the rest of the album. A year later is when I joined Queenzone in Spring 2013. That summer I had already got into some 70s stuff which I loved, like The Prophet's Song, It's Late.
I'm not really sure if it was a one moment. More like a gradual event that happened to suck me in.

I'm lucky (?) to be old enough to have got into the band when I first heard Seven Seas Of Rhye on the radio (in 1974!), and I remember seeing them perform it on Top Of The Pops here in the UK. I was into glam rock at the time, so Sweet, Slade, Mud, Suzi Quatro and Showaddywaddy (!) were my favourite bands, and SSOR fitted quite nicely into that genre. I kind of went off Queen when Killer Queen came out, as it was so different to the hard rock of SSOR, but then Now I'm Here reasserted the rock style, so I was back on board. I never really got fully into them until I first heard Bohemian Rhapsody, at which point I thought the first part of it was a radio commercial, but after that stuck with me (I remember being most upset when Mamma Mia by Abba knocked it off the Number 1 slot after 9 weeks), I stuck with them ever since. 

The first album I had of theirs was ANATO, followed by QII, then SHA.  I don't think I got the first album for a while after that, but I do remember it had various different coloured sleeves, presumably depending on the country of manufacture.  I remember getting ADATR on it's release date, and being a little disappointed at first, but now it's my favourite Queen album, then along came NOTW, which contained my favourite ever Queen track, It's Late.  That's about it - a potted history of my teenage introduction to Queen. 

Long time no see! 

Much the same, only with less time on my side.

Like LF I'd heard SSOR back in '74 on TOTP (i don't think they were even supposed to be on - wasn't Bowie unwell?). as much as i liked it, i never really thought i'd hear any more from the mysterious band. so many bands back then were so good but never really made the big time.
I'd been at Grammar School a few months and all my new friends were into bands like Genesis, Yes and Floyd with a few opting for our local band Zeppelin.

Later that year I heard Killer Queen and that was the first time i thought this might be a band to get into. Bo Rhap a year later proved I'd chosen well.
Fast forward to early winter '76 (and this one is very vivid - even now), doing some late night (after 10pm school night) revision and on the radio - immediately after a song by Archie Bell & The Drells (really) came Somebody To Love. Just wow! - Even now, this song is still in my top 5 songs of all time.

My aunt worked at EMI's warehouse in London and the following Spring she brought me a "employee freebie" copy of ADATR.

haha^

Ahoy Rotterdam 1977....just to begin with. I was very 'into' Freddie as a singer per se. But it was Brian who was bloody fantastic that evening.


Tom

I will say the first time I saw and watched Bohemian Rhapsody in 1992. It was and still is unlike anything I've seen before...or since.

Seeing Boh Rhap in early 76 on TV for the first time.

Seeing Queen live for the first time..

Freddies passing away.. First returned back to work after New Year..

There was no actual defining moment for me as such to begin with. My dad was (and still is) a Queen fan and in the very early 80's when I wasn't into music at all there was one thing that stood out more than anything else - a song with the lyrics "Mamma, just killed a man....". My curiosity found his audio cassette collection and I pretty much stole his tapes to listen to. Queen were my introduction to music. FULL STOP! I was a big enough fan in 1984 when The Works came out and listened to it constantly. When my dad went to see them at the NEC I wasn't happy he didn't ask me if I wanted to go. Apparently he didn't realise how much I was a fan! Luckily for me a couple of years later, and after purchasing the A King of Magic album, I had a little money thanks to working for the local milkman. So at age 15 (nearly 16!) on Friday 11th July 1986 I travelled to London with a friend to see Queen live! After about 5 years of becoming a Queen fan I got to see them them live - not knowing that this would be the last time Freddie would tour. As we arrived we ended up standing slap bang in the middle of Wembley Stadium near the scaffold tower. I felt overawed at the impressive setting that Queen had chosen for their show. The place summed them up perfectly. After INXS, The Alarm and Status Quo I had worked my way almost to the front, enough to have to look up at the stage. For 2 hours this electrifying - and soakingly wet - experience made me realise just how special Queen were - and how privileged I was to be a fan. I am still proud to be a fan. I have since seen The Cross, Roger, Brian and QPR live and as much as I enjoyed these I will never forget Wembley Stadium 1986.

My uncle David got the original VHS of Wembley, and I was hooked in the spot. After that, my cousin had the 2 wembley cassetes, he borrowed the to me. And in 95, I bought Live Killers, at the same time I started playing guitar. Everything came into place.

Bit of a long post, be warned!

Finding records in the days before the internet was fun. It felt like a real quest for the holy grail. I have a memory of staring at the inner sleeve of Queen's Greatest Hits, looking longingly at the images of the then unheard albums, wondering what they sounded like. Making a secret pact with myself that I would own them all one day.

I'd listen to that record on a radiogram that I'd bought from my Brother. It was a stereo one that had two speakers mounted on the front, designed more to be a piece of furniture than a hi-fi system. I used to lie on the floor with the back of my head propped against the gap between the two speakers and listen to Bohemian Rhapsody whizzing around my head from left to right. These days I listen to the 5.1 surround mix, the sound is literally flying around the room. But back then, the sheer over the top awesomeness just went straight through me and consumed me. It also drove my passion for better sounding equipment.

I live in New Zealand, and in the 80’s trying to obtain Queen II or Flash Gordon seemed to be impossible. When I found Queen's first album I felt so elated, and treated it with the utmost reverence, even writing a poem on the plastic inner sleeve warning of how incredibly rare it was, and providing instruction on how to handle it. I had similar issues trying to track down Flash Gordon on video a few years later. You just could not find it anywhere, so I naturally assumed at the time that because I couldn't find it, that it was impossible to find, and therefore, extremely rare. It added to the aura of mystery that surrounded it and just made it that much more exciting a task to thumb your way through the record bins.

The inner gatefold of Jazz is another record that takes me back. I got my copy from L D Nathans, which used to be Woolworths, and subsequently became DEKA. I got my copy in 1987. My bedroom was small, but it got the sun. I'd stare at the picture of the band sitting in the studio for hours. Imagining that I was there. I can just about transport myself back there now. Lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to "Fun It". The sun streaming in through the windows on a lazy winter's afternoon. Joy, pure peace and joy. Alas, my copy did not have its naked Bicycle Race poster, which would have no doubt been a very interesting thing for a teenage boy to behold!

The inner sleeve of The Game holds a similar nostalgic feel too. I'd love to imagine just being there in one of the buildings in the cityscape behind them.

I also remember going to see the The Highlander. I think it may have been one of the first films I went to on my own, and there were bugger all people in the theatre as it was during the day. Probably during the August school holidays. I thought it was a really cool film, especially the way the scenes would change when going into the past. A Kind Of Magic became yet another favourite that was flogged to death. It was also one of the first CDs I ever bought. CDs were cool because you used to get extra tracks on them. I also remember there was some kind of embargo on playing music videos on NZ TV at the time, so we didn't get the official music video for this played on NZ TV, we got one made up of clips from the movie. It all tied in with the Americas Cup – Kiwi Magic, so it got played heaps on radio as well.

Thanks for the chance to reminisce. Something that you can do here...

I had the two greatest hits cds since 1993 or 1994 then they started talking about Made In Heaven and released at the same time the documentary "Champions Of The World" on VHS. Even if I know it is a doc with a lot of flaws, it is really this film that made me think it was a hell of a band!