THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTNING

Fifty years after Queen recorded 'Bohemian Rhapsody' for their seminal 1975 album, A Night at the Opera, Rolling Stone UK takes a Rolls-Royce on a trip to speak to those who met the band in the rural idylls where the record took shape, from one woman's childhood memories in an English country vicarage to the founder of the legendary Rockfield Studios in Wales...

- JEREMY TAYLOR

Vicarage. Rehearsal space for bands, no heavy rock.” Joan Murray’s advert in The Times was brief and to the point – mainly because in 1975 and pre-internet, classified ads were priced by the word and, living in a small village in rural Herefordshire, money was tight, very tight.

“Mum was a fantastic cook and had tried everything to make some cash – that advert was a desperate last attempt to keep the wolf from the door,” recalls her daughter Tiffany Murray. “Norton Canon is a tiny village in the back end of nowhere but fortunately her ad was spotted by someone in the music industry. That moment changed our lives.”

Queen was one of the first bands to arrive at the vicarage. Horslips and Black Sabbath would also visit later on, with a naked Ozzy Osbourne dancing around the churchyard and upsetting Joan and some of the locals. “A few days later, a Harrods van full of toys arrived for me. It was Ozzy’s way of saying sorry,” recalls Tiffany, who has written a book about her unusual childhood entitled My Family and Other Rock Stars.

But it is Freddie Mercury and Queen that she remembers best. It’s 50 years since Queen made a thunderbolt and lightning visit to the vicarage in Norton Canon to rehearse their fourth album A Night at the Opera, which includes the showstopping ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. The six-minute operatic track has endured for five decades and is still regarded as one of the greatest pop songs of all time.

It seems a lifetime ago. In 1975, inflation had peaked at 25 per cent, Tom Baker was Doctor Who, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was the big hit in cinemas.

Now, 50 years on, I’m returning to the Welsh Marches – the border between England and Wales – close to where I grew up. I want to unravel the story of Queen’s time in Norton Canon and of their legendary recording session at nearby Rockfield Studios. Was it the real life, was it just fantasy? Here’s what I discovered...