Is This The Real Life?: The Untold Story of Queen
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Review
'Richly detailed biography...draws on extensive interviews' ('Pick of the Paperbacks') (Daily Telegraph )
‘Genuinely adds to the fund of knowledge about this truly unique band.’ (Record Collector )
‘Painstakingly thorough and well researched.' (Classic Rock )
‘Presents the whole, splendid saga…sparkling anecdotes throughout.’ (Mojo )
‘Impressively detailed.’ (Evening Standard )
‘Genuinely adds to the fund of knowledge about this truly unique band.’ (Record Collector )
‘Painstakingly thorough and well researched.' (Classic Rock )
‘Presents the whole, splendid saga…sparkling anecdotes throughout.’ (Mojo )
‘Impressively detailed.’ (Evening Standard )
Product Description
Despite the death of their exuberant frontman Freddie Mercury in 1991, Queen remain one of the most popular bands on the planet, with 300 million global album sales and a musical stage show that has been seen in nearly 20 cities around the world. Yet the full story of their extraordinary success has never been told, until now. Freddie Mercury begun his life as Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, before being schooled in India and arriving in West London as a shy teenager obsessed with art and pop music. By 1970 he had talked his way into forming a rock band with a dentistry student and part-time drummer named Roger Taylor and a would-be physicist and aspiring guitar hero named Brian May. When Farrokh Bulsara changed his name to Freddie Mercury, Queen was born. Derided by critics, but adored by fans, the band’s single-mindedness and sheer ambition paid off, and in 1975, Queen’s six-minute operatic single ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ became a Number 1 hit, changing their lives forever. From then on, Queen’s story was one of constant musical and stylistic re-invention, as the progressive rock of the early ‘70s mutated into stadium anthems, romantic ballads and pure pop, with a side order of jazz, gospel and heavy metal. Queen performed their pyrotechnic shows in vast arenas where their charismatic lead singer, dressed in leotard, black leather or regal crown and ermine, at last found a stage large enough for his vaudevillian performance. Then, in 1985, when their career seemed to have peaked, Queen’s incredible performance at Live Aid stole the show and reminded a global television audience of why they were one of the greatest live acts of all time. Mercury’s untimely death from AIDS robbed Queen of their lead singer, while forcing its surviving band members to find new ways to keep their music alive. Since then, Queen’s phenomenal sales have continued, turning them into one of the world’s biggest selling acts (second only to the Beatles), their stage-show We Will Rock You has broken box-office records, while Brian May and Roger Taylor recently resurrected the Queen brand for a new studio album and several tours with former Free and Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers. On the eve of Queen’s 40th anniversary, Mojo and Q journalist Mark Blake has drawn on his own earlier interviews with the band, and conducted almost 100 brand new interviews with record producers, ex-band members, personal assistants and schoolfriends, including many of Freddie Mercury’s earliest associates in England, to produce a fascinating and complete account of the band’s rise from suburbia to worldwide superstardom. Whether you’re a fan of the Queen of ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’ or prefer ‘Radio Ga Ga’, Is This The Real Life?: The Untold Story Of Queen tells you for the first time how they became champions of the world.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Queen are of course one of the UK's biggest bands of all time, in fact the world's. During Freddie Mercury's tragically short life, they were never out of the public eye, yet for some reason their essence remains elusive. I think some of this was down to the band's innate unwillingness to reveal much of themselves, and there can't be many bands so famous yet so little understood. This is perhaps why previous books on Queen have failed to satisfy the fans or the general reader.
I think Mark Blake's book is a triumphant attempt to decode the DNA of Queen, as well as telling their story magnificently well. I disagree totally with another reviewer who claimed the book offered nothing new. Even for the most hardened Queen geek, Blake has unearthed a wealth of new material, especially about the band's early days, partly through the first-person testimony of people who've never been interviewed before. He shows how the disparate personalities in the band meshed to create the unique and eclectic musical melange of Queen. He also follows the story of Freddie's remarkable early life in India and Zanzibar, as he gradually transformed himself from Faroukh Bulsara into Freddie Mercury.
For hardened Queen fans these early chapters may prove the most revelatory, though the rest of the story, lucidly and grippingly told, will likely satisfy most readers throughout. Any biography of Queen runs the risk of being overshadowed by the personality of Freddie, but Blake does an admirable job of keeping all four members of the band firmly in the story, and crediting each fully for his contribution. Again, he is able to draw on his own personal interviews with Brian and Roger - more material original to this book.
Freddie is, however, a dominant presence in the book, just as he was in the band. Freddie's story is a one of triumph and tragedy (a Hollywood motif which will no doubt be exploited to the full in the forthcoming biopic starring Sacha Baron Cohen), and the part of the book dealing with Freddie's death is poignant and understated. However Blake also introduces an intriguing notion (and again one original to this book) concerning 'who knew when' about Freddie's illness and did they use the knowledge to maximize the band's posthumous record sales? Blake leaves us to draw our own conclusions while giving us the evidence to chew over.
Overall, would I recommend the book? Undoubtedly. Whether you're a hardcore Queen fan, or a more casual fan who likes biographies, this book rocks, and I doubt Queen will ever have a finer biographer. The book also has an excellent plate section containing never-before-seen early photos of the band members.
I think Mark Blake's book is a triumphant attempt to decode the DNA of Queen, as well as telling their story magnificently well. I disagree totally with another reviewer who claimed the book offered nothing new. Even for the most hardened Queen geek, Blake has unearthed a wealth of new material, especially about the band's early days, partly through the first-person testimony of people who've never been interviewed before. He shows how the disparate personalities in the band meshed to create the unique and eclectic musical melange of Queen. He also follows the story of Freddie's remarkable early life in India and Zanzibar, as he gradually transformed himself from Faroukh Bulsara into Freddie Mercury.
For hardened Queen fans these early chapters may prove the most revelatory, though the rest of the story, lucidly and grippingly told, will likely satisfy most readers throughout. Any biography of Queen runs the risk of being overshadowed by the personality of Freddie, but Blake does an admirable job of keeping all four members of the band firmly in the story, and crediting each fully for his contribution. Again, he is able to draw on his own personal interviews with Brian and Roger - more material original to this book.
Freddie is, however, a dominant presence in the book, just as he was in the band. Freddie's story is a one of triumph and tragedy (a Hollywood motif which will no doubt be exploited to the full in the forthcoming biopic starring Sacha Baron Cohen), and the part of the book dealing with Freddie's death is poignant and understated. However Blake also introduces an intriguing notion (and again one original to this book) concerning 'who knew when' about Freddie's illness and did they use the knowledge to maximize the band's posthumous record sales? Blake leaves us to draw our own conclusions while giving us the evidence to chew over.
Overall, would I recommend the book? Undoubtedly. Whether you're a hardcore Queen fan, or a more casual fan who likes biographies, this book rocks, and I doubt Queen will ever have a finer biographer. The book also has an excellent plate section containing never-before-seen early photos of the band members.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book has photos of Freddie Mercury and Queen that I have never seen before, which is unusual in this day and age! So that is good start! Also after reading most of the books printed about this group I learned something new and read stories that I haven't heard a million times before. This also is unusual in this day and age! I admit I didnot learn anything new about the "Live Aid" concert or the video for "I want to break free" but what is there new to say about those things?? But there IS a lot on Freddie Mercury's time as a student and singer in groups before joining Queen which i have not read in all the other books. I did not know that he started writing "Bohemian Rhapsody" when he was at college before being in Queen!! There are a lot of interesting and amusing stories from the Queen tours and in the studio and where their producers have been interviewed, and it sounds as if the group all hated each other! This book is honest and critical sometimes of Queen but the writer also likes Queen's music and knows their music. I read the book in three days and it is four hundred pages long, so I did not get bored. I would have wanted to read more about the Paul Rodgers and Queen tour and the stageshow musical but apart from that, it is excellent. Buy this one and the "Illustrated History Of The Crown Kings" book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A huge Queen fan, I realised recently that I don't own a decent biography of the band. Having browsed for reviews, I went for this one, as the feedback was quite positive. I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed. The reviewer who said it was just a straightforward recounting of who did what and when has summed it up best. I can't say it's particularly well-written. Often, you get a feeling the writer was thinking "now where do I put this piece of information about Roger Taylor's love of motor boat racing? Ah, let me just stick it at the end of this sentence, the beginning of which has nothing to do with this information." Somehow, it seems to me that it would have been better to have separate subchapters about the band's work and leisure/personal life, instead of piling it all up together in a sort of a mish-mash. But the worst thing about this book is that it is riddled with misprints and mistakes that are small, but annoying. Like the wrong month of Roger Taylor's birth that was already mentioned in a previous review. The title of the song In the Lap of the Gods becomes In the Lap of the Chords at one point. How on earth did that one happen? The birth year of Brian May's second daughter is also given incorrectly, which would have been not that important, but it actually screws up the timing in the book, as the name of the baby is mentioned in the 1987 Magic Years documentary (year given correctly in the book), but the birth year of the girl is given as 1988, which doesn't make sense for someone who's seen the documentary. Unlike another reviewer, the book did tell me some things I didn't know (although most of the information, despite reading only one book on the band, I have heard in interviews), but because of the mistakes I've noticed I feel reluctant to trust the information that is new to me. Overall, not very satisfying. I will give "As It Began" by Jacky Gunn and Jim Jenkins a try next.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Queen for the serious.
Have not completed the book yet, but so far it reads as an exhaustive in depth and detailed biography, in the tradition of the numerous very detailed and well written Bowie... Read more
Published 1 month ago by A Customer
The Best Queen AND Freddie book
This is the best book I have ever read about Queen the band and it',s also the best I have read about Freddie Mercury. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Brendan Benson
Does this reveal the life?
OK, so I'm not a great Queen fan, but I wanted to know what made the band tick and this book didn't tell me.
It's a light easy read. Read more
It's a light easy read. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Dale
Disappointed!
Very disappointed in this book. It seems to be a re-hash of many other biographies that have been written. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Meeeeeee!
Magic
"Is This The Real Life" is the best book you are ever likely to read about Queen in their lifetime. Blake has turned private detective to dig up some of Freddie Mercury's oldest... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Wings
I Want it All!
Is this a kind of magic? Although not Keith Richards' "Life", nor even Bob Dylan's "Chronicles", this for the Queen Fan will probably suffice as a good engrossing read, albeit a... Read more
Published 17 months ago by P. Pickup
This is some views of the Real Life...
No doubt it's a good read.
Mark Blake has done a good job and the start from the successful Live Aid appearance that made Queen stole the show makes anyone interested in Queen... Read more
Mark Blake has done a good job and the start from the successful Live Aid appearance that made Queen stole the show makes anyone interested in Queen... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Magnus Rouden
This is another book i couldn't let down from my hands till i...
I recommand this book for every Queen fan of all ages,you will love it...I found out so many things I didn't know!Go for it have it and enjoy. Read more
Published 19 months ago by koronja
Another average book about Queen
I have been looking forwards to this book for some time, having been a huge Queen fan since the late 70s and having read most books released about them. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mr Fahrenheit
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