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DARK SECRETS: Roy thomas baker | Rare Historical Photos

“We had a good run and did some great things. That wasn’t one of them”: Abandoned songs, a broken foot and footballer-size egos destroyed a Yes album

The classic line-up fell apart after disastrous attempts to make the follow-up to Tormato in Paris, before a new line-up released Drama in 1980

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“It’s the best album ever made! It’s so diverse it transcends any sort of rock boundaries. Even within the first two songs, you’re thrown straight into the unknown”: Why this Queen classic is hailed as the GOAT by The Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins

“The whole album means so much to me. It blew my mind”

MusicRadar

"We think we played for eight hours. I can't say for sure, because everyone was tripping." The acid-fried story of Man, the Welsh jam band with its heart in San Francisco

"We're a pretty unmanageable bunch of stoned musos, which might have something to do with our lack of commercial success."

Louder

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“We opened for bands we really hated, like Styx. People were relating to us and not them. They got a little pissed”: the stellar rise and sudden fall of The Cars, the new wave band who soundtracked America

For nearly a decade in the late 70s and early 80s, The Cars were one of America’s most popular bands

Louder

"He stopped and said 'This is where the opera section comes in!' Then we went out to eat dinner." How Freddie Mercury's "fevered brain" conjured up Queen's greatest song

Queen's record company didn't want to release Bohemian Rhapsody as a single, but history has proved them wrong several times

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"A girl at school dumped me, maybe that trauma stayed with me!" The story behind Foreigner's classic AOR anthem Cold As Ice

Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones on his bad girl-critiquing 1977 hit Cold As Ice

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"The band's accountants possibly didn't figure in the cost of their eccentric new guitarist insisting upon recording his parts inside a bespoke chicken coop." The 10 most eye-wateringly expensive rock albums ever recorded

The rock albums that almost bankrupted the music business

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“I’d have to smoke a big joint to be able to listen to all of it, and I haven’t done that in a long, long time!”: Why Fleetwood Mac legend Lindsey Buckingham would prefer to forget some of his own albums

“Roy Thomas Baker spent most of the time just barking orders”

MusicRadar

"There are people who are almost tainted by their knowledge of music. It's almost like they know too much": How we got over ourselves and learned to love The Darkness

On October 7, 2003, The Darkness released their debut album Permission To Land. Many were resistant to its obvious charms, including us

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“He wanted it to sound tinny, so he literally put the mic in a tin. That’s the way he would chase ideas”: When Justin Hawkins and The Darkness teamed up with Queen’s eccentric producer, strange things happened with champagne buckets, panpipes and more

They took a One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back

MusicRadar

"We owed everybody money. We knew that if the next album didn't succeed, the ship would sink": The inside story of the album that saved Queen

Fifty years on, Brian May and Roger Taylor reveal the vision, precision and daring behind Queen’s A Night At The Opera, the album that rewrote rock’s rules

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‘Nobody is painted any worse than they actually were’: new book tells the true story of the Cars

In Let the Stories Be Told, the surviving members of the 80s band share the behind-the-scenes drama behind some of the decade’s biggest hits

The Guardian - US

“A leopard doesn’t change its spots. There’s going to be certain levels of diva‑ness. It might be nice if there wasn’t, but there is”: Why Yes decided, after some doubts, to make Heaven & Earth

Their first with Jon Davison, and their last with Chris Squire, the 2014 album saw them continuing to release new music after many of their peers had stopped – but didn’t meet the standards expected of it

Louder

"The astonishing, histrionic Liar that tears the roof off": Queen's debut album gets more intense on Dolby Atmos Blu-ray edition

Spatial surround sound doesn’t restrain Queen's rip-roaring debut album

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MusicRadar

“After every take, Mutt would say, ‘Check the tuning, man!’ This went on and on for almost a year. One day, I just gave him the guitar and said, ‘You tune it. I can’t take this anymore!’”: How legendary producer Mutt Lange drove the Cars half-mad

And the result? 'A beautiful record,' says guitarist Elliot Easton

The Guardian - UK

Roy Thomas Baker obituary

Record producer, songwriter and arranger whose work on Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody took the single to the top of the charts around the world

Louder

"Life moves at such a pace these days that we imagine there will be plenty of time to rekindle a friendship, and then suddenly one day it's too late." Queen's Brian May pays tribute to legendary producer Roy Thomas Baker

"Thank you, Roy for all the great work you did for us, and all the fun we had"

BANG Premier

Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody producer Roy Thomas Baker dead at 78

Legendary producer Roy Thomas Baker, who produced albums for Queen and The Cars, has died.

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“If they were ever going to do the story of Nero, probably the most decadent of all the emperors, they would have to use Roy Thomas Baker”: Tributes to the legendary producer of Queen, Alice Cooper, Journey and more, who has died aged 78

RTB produced Bohemian Rhapsody and other landmark songs

Louder

Legendary Bohemian Rhapsody producer Roy Thomas Baker dead at 78

Roy Thomas Baker worked with Queen, Free, Journey, The Cars, Yes, Ozzy Osbourne, Smashing Pumpkins and many more

MusicRadar

“I had moments where I thought, ‘I am in a great place. I can make music… then somehow, everything would fall apart. That’s what the song was about”: Brian May on how The Night Comes Down was born of depression – and the desire to prove people wrong

With a radically-modded cheapo classical guitar, a head clouded by darkness, May wrote a great Queen epic and tore up the production rulebook that said you can’t mix electric and acoustic

Louder

"When I first heard Coldplay, they had that same unique feeling and emotional promise": Steve Perry's track-by-track guide to Journey's Infinity

Former Journey frontman Steve Perry gives us the lowdown on every song from his first album with the band, Infinity

Louder

"The thought of being in jail in tights didn't appeal to Freddie at all": Queen and the struggle to make Day At The Races

After A Night At The Opera, Queen had the world at their feet. But how on Earth do you follow such an album?

Louder

For nearly a decade in the late 70s and early 80s, The Cars were one of America’s most popular bands

Louder

"The man once known as Vincent Furnier was struggling during Flush The Fashion, but his alter ego was still snapping and snarling": Alice Cooper embraces new wave on Flush The Fashion

Recorded during Alice Cooper's "blackout" period, Flush The Fashion found The Coop exploring new sounds

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