"Queen" arrived yesterday and will debut tonight" - from 'Clarin', 28 February 1981

The boys from Queen upon their arrival in Buenos Aires: a phenomenon that will take its first Argentine exam tonight

"Queen" arrived yesterday and will debut tonight

Yesterday in Ezeiza, a crowd of young people received the group "Queen", the rock group that sells the most records in the world. Tonight he will perform at the Vélez Sarsfield club, where tickets were sold out three months ago. Then he will do it at the Mar del Plata stadium and also in Rosario Central.

They have been recording since 1973, and from a short time later fortune showers them: they are successful, they are multimillionaires. They are children of the British upper middle class, with a certain intellectual bias. They do not recognize patterns and do without a manager. But like any Briton they recognize the queen. So much so that they are called like her: Queen. It is the most famous group in the world, the one that sells the most records. And they are in Buenos Aires: they arrived yesterday and are performing tonight at the Vélez Sársfield stadium.

Their names are Frederick Mercury, Brian Harold May, Roger Meadows Taylor and John Deacon. The four of them were students when they started getting together and playing. They didn't dream that in a short time they would become rock stars. In reality, the change was not so sudden: they worked for two years privately, before going out to perform on stage for the first time. Freddie Mercury, leader of the group, confesses that everything was a bit of a surprise: "We didn't know we were good," he comments with more sincerity than humor, so our professions were necessarily left behind. "This profession completely absorbed us. When we appeared in public we didn't have excessive aspirations. We became millionaires in a short time, and there are those who have been upset about that. But we don't take things too seriously. No, we don't take the 'Business show' to heart; we don't even take ourselves seriously. ".

Each one had his own profession, before the Queen adventure. Roger Taylor, the drummer, was into biology (he's now 31); Freddie Mercury (voice, lead and keyboards) is the oldest - 34 years old and has a degree in graphics and illustration; Brian May, 33, is the guitarist and had graduated in physics and astronomy at the University of London; John Deacon, finally, is the youngest (29) and the last to join the group: he now plays bass, but before that he had graduated in electronics.

Thanks to music, everyone earns a little more than what is paid in those specialties: their income is in the order of 13 million dollars a year, which is not a sum to be underestimated (despite which, naturally, there will be to see if they can afford to live in Argentina during their performances).

They forged that prestige and level of income with albums that sold very well: in 1973 Queen was released, followed by Queen II the following year. In 1975 they recorded A Night at the Opera (a song from that album, Bohemian Rhapsody, became the best-selling song in England in 20 years). A Day at the Races, News of the World and Jazz followed. Dinó de Laurentiis hired them for the music of Flash Gordon.

After tonight, they will perform again tomorrow in Vélez, then on Wednesday the 4th at the stadium in Mar del Plata, on March 6th at Rosario Central and they will say goodbye on the 8th, also in Vélez. Tomorrow, at 9:30 p.m., Channel 9 will broadcast a live show.