Queen’s Brian May on Adam Lambert and story behind Bohemian Rhapsody

Over the course of their career, rock legends Queen have sold more than 150 million albums – one of them, Greatest Hits (1981), the biggest-selling album in UK history.

They have had 18 number-one albums and 18 number-one singles – several of them fixed in rock’s firmament, such as Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions.

And they’ve earned a reputation as the most incendiary live band in history, responsible for arguably the most memorable live performance ever when they upstaged the whole of musical royalty at 1985’s Live Aid.

But one thing they’ve never done is play in Hong Kong – a tiny gap in their accomplished CV that will finally be filled in on September 28, when they perform at AsiaWorld-Expo, Lantau, as part of an Asian tour that also includes Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo, Bangkok and Shanghai. That last gig will also be their first in China.

“It’s extraordinary that we never could make direct contact with China all these years, and we have fans there and we never really knew,” says the band’s guitarist, Brian May. “It wasn’t possible in the old days. We wanted to come, but I think culturally we were unacceptable at that time. It’s amazing that we can actually come now. At the age of 69, it’s just extraordinary.”

The band on stage at the AsiaWorld-Expo, of course, won’t be all of Queen; singer Freddie Mercury died in 1991, while bassist John Deacon retired in 1997, leaving guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor to carry the torch. It is particularly tough to have been robbed of one of rock’s greatest frontmen, whose astonishingly versatile voice, blistering charisma and warm, humorous personality made him one of the most compulsively watchable performers ever to take to a stage.