John Deacon

John Richard Deacon was the bassist for the rock band Queen. Born 19 August, 1951 in Leicester, United Kingdom, he was the youngest member of Queen. He is the author of the hits Another One Bites the Dust and I Want to Break Free , which show that his contribution to Queen was significant. Deacon is also the only member of Queen never to sing on any of their tracks, although in music videos it appears that he does.

He first attended Langmoor Junior School before moving to Gartree High School and Beauchamp Grammar School. It was here that he formed his first band, The Opposition in 1965 at the age of fourteen. He played a rhythm guitar bought with money loaned by one of the other band members. He became the bassist after the original bassist was fired for not being of the same quality of the rest of the band. As well as a dedicated musician Deacon also was the band's archivist, taking clippings from newspapers of even the advertisements featuring The Opposition. After being in the band for four years, Deacon played his final concert with the band (now called The Art) in August 1969. He left as he had been accepted to study electronics at Chelsea College .

Although he left his bass and amplifier at home in Oadby, after less than a year in London, he decided he wanted to join a band. By this time Queen had actually been formed by Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor, and Deacon even saw them once October 1970. Then in early 1971 he was introduced to Taylor and May by a friend at a disco who told him that they were in a band that had just lost its bassists. A couple of days later he auditioned in a lecture room at Imperial College and became the last member of Queen to join the band. He was reportedly chosen so as not to upstage Mercury, May and Taylor.

His first song Misfire was on their third album Sheer Heart Attack. It was a nice, but unnoted song. But his second song for the band You're My Best Friend was a world wide hit.

He was the 'quiet' member of the band, and the others said that he was in charge of most of the finances. His last public appearance with the band was at an AIDS Charity event in 1997, and his last direct involvement with Queen, was with the recording of No One But You.

Currently, Deacon has retired from the music scene, and has even declined to participate in an upcoming Queen reunion tour. Although he has made it clear that he endorses the 'Queen' projects put forward by Brian May and Roger Taylor, and was partially involved in the early stages of the preparation for the We Will Rock You musical. According to The Sun, he was not impressed with Robbie Williams's version of We Will Rock You, recorded for A Knight's Tale.

He lives in South-west London with his wife Veronica and their five sons and one daughter. According to The Sunday Times Rich List he is worth £50 million in 2004.

As a trained electrical engineer, he often used to jimmy up equipment for the band. His most famous creation is the "Deacy Amp", used by Brian May.

Discography

His only solo effort is listed below.

• The Immortals: No Turning Back (Single from Biggles) (1986)

Songs he wrote that were released as singles:

• You're My Best Friend from A Night at the Opera, written for his wife, Veronica.
• Spread Your Wings from News of the World
• Another One Bites The Dust and Need Your Loving Tonight from The Game
• Back Chat from Hot Space
• I Want To Break Free from The Works
• Friends Will Be Friends and Pain Is So Close To Pleasure from A Kind of Magic (both cowritten with Freddie Mercury)

Other Queen songs by Deacon:

• Misfire from Sheer Heart Attack
• You And I from A Day at the Races
• If You Can't Beat Them and In Only Seven Days from Jazz
• Execution of Flash from Flash Gordon
• Cool Cat from Hot Space (cowritten with Freddie Mercury)
• One Year Of Love from A Kind of Magic

References

• Mark Hodkinson (2004). The Early Years: Queen. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-012-2.
• Blake, Mark (Editor) (2005). MOJO Classic Queen Special Edition. EMAP Metro Limited.