Queen's Mercury Rising

Queen's first album (Queen) was a commercial failure, but the second (Queen II) — capitalizing on the group's success as a live act—made the English Top Ten. By the time of Queen the third album, Sheer Heart Attack, Queen's conflict with Trident was fast becoming irreconcilable. "We'd thought it out and we knew we needed to sink a lot of money into albums and the stage act, but we had to fight for every penny," says May. "We thought, 'Okay, we can be satisfied just as long as the act is right and we have the artistic freedom to do what we want.' But they took such incredible advantage of that. It reached the point where we had best-selling albums but we were still living in crummy basement flats on £50 a week—pretty much the same wage we'd started on."

Relations between group and management worsened in 1975 on the group's second American tour — their first as headliners. After a tour of Japan the group returned to London and finally made the decision to split from Trident.

Sitting in his London office, decorated with gold and silver awards for Queen's first three albums, Norman Sheffield denies that the row centered around his company's reluctance to finance the band. He claims that for over three years Trident invested £200,000 in Queen, "probably the largest sum ever invested in an up-and-coming band." He claims a "question of principle" was at the crux of the dispute. "They wanted money — cash in hand — on a personal basis. I said no for tax reasons."

Typically, the band shopped around for a new management deal before finally approaching John Reid, Elton John's manager. It took Reid 24 hours to accept the offer.

Certainly, Reid has the economic wherewithal to indulge the band's extravagance. He needs it. The first album under his direction, A Night at the Opera, employed six different studios at a cost of close to $80,000, while the last album, A Day at the Races, is rumored to have cost closer to $150,000.

Reid agrees that managing Queen has been a test of his mettle. "Managing Elton is like a duel," he says. "I suggest something, he disagrees, and we fight it out from there. With Queen you're dueling with four people who all share the same objective and won't rest until they reach it. In that respect they are the only true 'group' I know."