Queen were one of the greatest rock bands ever. Not just in the UK but in the whole wide world. With Freddie Mercury as their front man, Queen had very few bands that could beat them for style, songwriting, and sheer spectacle.

Unfortunately, Freddie Mercury died in 1991 at the tender age of just 45 after a protracted battle with AIDS. The band then naturally disbanded until 2004 when Brian May and Roger Taylor teamed up with Paul Rodgers, formerly of Free and Bad Company.

Queen + Paul Rodgers, as they chose to be called, have toured extensively and even released a studio album in 2008. However, the collaboration was only mildly successful and it’s clear to most people that this new iteration of a classic band were relying on the old material too heavily.

Which is why I’m neither surprised or that bothered to hear that Queen and Paul Rodgers have ended their extended collaboration.

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2009 is approaching fast and so it’s time to look back at 2008. Here we’ll see the high and lowlights of the first three months of the year, with a selection of stories we covered between January and March.

January

The month began with Queen being named as the best British band of all time, beating The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Take That, and Oasis. Sad news in the middle of the month when Lily Allen suffered a miscarriage. She later split with boyfriend Ed Simons.

Geri Halliwell claimed that the Spice Girls wouldn’t make a penny from their huge world tour despite it selling out everywhere. She was later proved a liar when it was revealed the girls had made $20 million apiece. Then the once-great girl group canceled the tour and split up again.

The Cribs took Johnny Marr, formerly of The Smiths, on as a fourth member, while Amy Winehouse finally entered rehab.

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Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday concert, held to pay tribute to the freedom fighter and former President of South Africa, as well as to draw attention to raise funding for and awareness of the 46664 Campaign, Mandela’s HIV and Aids charity.

The concert included appearances from the cream of the crop of British music talent. This included Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis, Queen, Simple Minds and Annie Lennox. Other stars from the world of entertainment introduced the acts on stage, including Will Smith, Quincy Jones and Lewis Hamilton.

The concert was held 20 years after a similar concert was held in 1988 to celebrate Mandela’s 70th birthday, and to call for his release from prison which he was being held because of his anti-apartheid views. While the main emotion on show back then was frustration and anger, this time around saw happiness and optimism shine through.

Mandela was finally released from prison in 1990 and went on to become South Africa’s first black President. He now spends his days promoting awareness of the huge HIV and Aids problem around the world in developing countries, and Africa in particular.

The concert had a hard time competing with the first day of the 2008 Glastonbury Festival, but 46,664 people turned up to show their support for the cause, and to see some brilliant musical performances. The 46664 is an important number due to it being Mandela’s prisoner number while in jail.

The biggest performance at the gig came from Amy Winehouse, who was released from hospital, where she is receiving treatment for the early stages of lung disease emphysema, just for the concert.

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Some of the bloggers here on the b5 music channel decided to record our Soundtrack For A Day yesterday. This could take different forms, be it all the songs you listened to on that day, a selection from certain moments, or a particular album.

I decided to stick my media player on random and note down the first 50 songs it played, and here is the result.

As a full time blogger who works from home, music is very important to me as it can change the mood of my day. Pressing the random button is therefore a bit of a gamble but this time it didn’t let me down.

Notice the amount of British songs in the collection! That’s not engineered in any way, just proof that that is where my big love in music lies. There are also some brilliant American and Irish bands in there too, and of course, Abba…

Stereophonics - Mr Writer
The Feeling - Join With Us
Foo Fighters - Times Like These
Art Brut - Stand Down
The Killers - On Top
Coldplay - Spies
The Kooks - Got No Love
Radiohead - Videotape
The Hoosiers - Worried About Ray
Maximo Park - By The Monument
The Jam - All Around The World
Girls Aloud - Long Hot Summer
Snow Patrol - Gleaming Auction
Jimi Hendrix - House Burning Down
Therapy? - Knives
Tricky - Ponderosa
Lily Allen - Everything’s Just Wonderful
The Rolling Stones - Honky Tonk Woman
Linkin Park - Nobody’s Listening
Rage Against The Machine - People Of The Sun
Nina Simone - Feeling Good
REM - It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
The Young Knives - Another Hollow Line
Paul Simon - The Boy In The Bubble
The Specials - Too Much Too Young

See the second half of my 50 song list after the cut…

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There have been some brilliant British bands over the years, with the UK leading the way when it comes to big, over the topm talented bands. I’m sure some Americans may disagree but I don’t think we can be beaten for the number of fantastic bands to have emerged since the sixties.

With that in mind, BBC Radio 2 held a poll over the New Year to find the greatest of them all, which is a tough call.

As you may have guessed from the rather obvious title, Queen came top, just beating out The Beatles in to second place, but only by 400 votes. Over 20,000 of the listeners who took part in the survey voted for the Freddie Mercury led band.

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I love hearing and seeing media of people taking British music and doing something slightly different than normal with it. As well as the mash ups I keep sharing with you, I’m always on the look out for something a bit different, and this video fits that bill exactly.

It shows an all male a capella group of singers doing their version of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.

I love the way they’ve taken this classic piece of British rock music and made it their own. From the great quality of singing on display to the movements and actions they use to add a bit of style to the song, it all works really well.

I don’t think anyone will ever beat Freddie Mercury as a front man, and this song has become his and Queens trademark song, but this version certainly does it justice.

I have another song and video mash up for you today. After my first selected mash up of The Beatles Vs The Monkees, I thought it would be a good idea to try to find another video edited collaboration between two massive and hugely successful artists. This time I found myself with a Queen Vs Michael Jackson video that combines ‘I Want To Break Free’ and ‘Black Or White. Enjoy…

I know Michael Jackson’s career has gone slightly off the boil of late, something to do with a combination of abuse allegations and the fact his face is melting off slowly, but in his day he released some incredible songs. Queen meanwhile live on in both my mind and on my stereo even though Freddie Mercury is long gone.

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