Queen in 3-D is an inside view of one of the greatest rock acts of all time told in his own pictures and words by founder member, songwriter and guitarist Brian May. Complimentary 3-D OWL viewer included.
Get the full story behind the Red Special, Brian May's hand-built guitar--a unique instrument that helped make May's musical dreams come true. In 1963, Brian May and his father Harold started to build the Red Special--an electric guitar meant to outperform anything commercially made. Here, Brian talks about of his one-of-a-kind instrument, from its creation on. He played it on every single Queen album and during the band's amazing shows: the roof of Buckingham Palace, Live Aid, the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics . . . and beyond. Along with original diagrams, sketches, and notes, May has included a great selection of photographs of himself with the guitar--which was fully dismantled so it could be shot-- as well as close-ups and X-rays.
With one big bang, the universe exploded into being 13.7 million years ago. This is the story of how everything came about, from the moment when time and space came into existence, to the formation of the first stars, galaxies, and planets, to the evolution of human beings able to contemplate our own origins and ultimate destiny--and on to the infinite future, after the Red Giant Sun consumes Earth. Bang explains it all in clear, straightforward terms, chronologically, without any mathematics, and including the most up-to-date discoveries. New in paperback.
An Annotated Tour of the 1850s series of Stereo Photographs "Scenes in our Village" by T.R. WilliamsThis book is the perfect antidote to the stress of life in the 21st Century.It portrays the idyll of life in an 1850s village, "far from the sound of the train's whistle".The identity of the village was lost to the world for 150 years, and only by a miracle does this magical set of stereoscopic views survive, brought together for the very first time by Brian May and his co-author, photohistorian Elena Vidal. Their research is amazingly in-depth, but the book is utterly readable, and the pictures leap into glorious 3-D, viewed in the new focussing stereoscope which May has designed and produced, to bring the stereos to life, and then fold neatly into the slip-case of the book.The book gives an extraordinary insight into everyday village life at the time - with a woman at her spinning wheel, the blacksmith outside his smithy, three men at the grind stone sharpening a tool, the villagers in the fields, bringing in the harvest as well as often taking time to enjoy a good gossip. In every case the original verse which accompanied the view is reproduced. In addition, May and Vidal have researched and annotated all the views, revealing another layer of meaning, by exploring the history of these real characters, this idyllic village and its links with the present day. The result is a powerfully atmospheric and touching set of photographs." A Village Lost and Found brings master pioneering stereographer T. R. Williams's passionate life-work Scenes in Our Village to a new audience - in glorious 3-D, as never before.For an Electronic Press Kit for A Village Lost and Found click here
Celebrating 40 years of one of the world's best-loved bands, an 'access all areas' biography for all the fans, chock full of facsimile memorabilia including some never before seen setlists, handwritten lyrics, unpublished album art, ultra-rare posters. Queen: one of the biggest bands ever. Sell-out tours, chart-topping records and stunning success for 40 years. Hundreds of millions of albums, singles and videos sold all over the world. They have broken records constantly: biggest ever paying crowd, longest number of weeks in the charts, headliners at the biggest festival ever and more. They have received accolades too numerous to list in full, but suffice to say 'Best Band', 'Best Album', 'Best Single, 'Best Video' and 'Best Live Act' feature again and again. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and given their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002. 40 YEARS OF QUEEN is an official publication, and has been approved at every stage by the band. It shows and tells the story of a fantastically talented and popular group of musicians who have retained an enormous fan base throughout their entire history. The book showcases the band, its members, recordings and concerts through images and the written word, as well as through unique pieces of memorabilia from Queen's private collection.
In the summer and autumn of 2006 I read several interviews with Brian May in which he mentioned his desire to complete the PhD that he had abandoned in 1974. I looked up the papers he had published while a PhD student, which were on spectroscopic studies of the motion of the dust responsible for the zodiacal light, and felt that there was a basis for a thesis. Since he had been a student at Imperial, I knew, as Head of the Astrophysics Group at Imperial, that it would be good for the Group if he came and worked with us. I got in touch with him by email and suggested he come and talk about it. He replied enthusiastically and said that he was working on typing up what he had completed by 1974. I gradually realized that I was the only staff member at Imperial who had previously worked on zodiacal dust, so that I would have to act as his supervisor. Eventually we met and I tried to assess whether he would be able to find time for the huge amount of work that finishing off a thesis involves, particularly if it has not been touched for over 30 years. Since some of Brian’s emails were coming from the recording studio I knew there was strong competition for his time.
Traces the history of the universe from the big bang that began it, through the emergence of life in it, to current exploration of it, and theorizes about future discoveries and its ultimate end.
As the lead guitarist of Queen, Brian May is one of rock's most recognisable stars. Brian May: The Definitive Biography charts his life from his childhood, through his years studying astrophysics and teaching, to his success with Queen, his more recent projects and his volatile relationship with actress Anita Dobson. Bestselling writer Laura Jackson examines closely the many aspects of the May's life, detailing Queen's struggles to acheive success and what life at the top was really like. It charts the camaraderie and conflicts within Queen as well as the disintegration of May's first marriage, the death of his father and the profound professional and emotional effects of Freddie Mercury's illness and death. Packed with nearly seventy first-hand exclusive interviews with some of May's closest friends, colleagues and fellow musicians - including Iommi, Joe Elliott, Raul Rodgers, Cliff Richard and Spike Edney - this is an extraordinary, inimate portrait of a rock legend.