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Born: July 26 1949
Birthplace: King's Lynn Norfolk England
Instruments: Drums Guitar Vocals
Occupations: Musician Songwriter
Roger Meddows-Taylor, a.k.a Roger Taylor is best known as the drummer and backing vocalist of Queen. As a drummer he is known for his "big" unique sound and also for his song-writing. He is cited as one of the most important arena rock drummers. He contributed songs to the band's albums from the very beginning, composing at least one track on every album, and (in the early days) usually sang lead vocals on his own compositions. He was also capable of playing most of the instruments, including guitar, bass and keyboard parts.
Roger Taylor was born on July 26th 1949, to parents Winifred and Michael Taylor, in Norfolk, England. Several years later he and his family (now bigger by one: Roger's sister Clare, born 1953) moved to Cornwall. At age 8, he was inspired by his older cousin (who played guitar) to start learning the guitar. He started by teaching himself ukulele, and later taught himself to play the guitar. In his pre-teens, Taylor formed a school skiffle band known as "The Bubblingover Boys", which lasted but two school performances. In 1960 Taylor joined Truro Cathedral School on a musical scholarship - meaning he had to join their choir. He didn't enjoy life as a choirboy as they had to sing three times every Sunday and at special events such as weddings and at midnight mass every Christmas. By 1961 he had learnt to play the guitar, but found his interest in drums. In 1963 Taylor joined "Beat Unlimited" which later became "The Cousin Jacks" and "The Falcons", playing a mixture of guitars and drums. The big change came in 1965, when he joined "Johnny Quale and the Reaction" as drummer playing Shadows, Rolling Stones and pre-Soul covers, especially James Brown and Otis Redding. In 1965 "Johnny Quale" left and the band reshuffled. It became known simply as "The Reaction" with Taylor on lead vocals as well as drums. In 1966 they won the local battle of the bands, the Rock and Rhythm Championship, which they had failed to do the year before.
While maintaining his keen interest in music, Taylor decided his professional career lay in dentistry, and in 1967 moved to London to enroll at the London Hospital Medical College, but quickly grew bored and moved to a London Polytechnic where he studied biology, obtaining a BSc in the subject. In 1968 Taylor met Brian May and Tim Staffell at University and formed Smile, answering an ad for a "Ginger Baker/Mitch Mitchell-type drummer". Smile were signed to a record label and released a promotional single in America. Two seemingly official releases by the band were made in 1982 and 1997. The first being only released in Japan and the second only in the Netherlands. Both contain the same tracks. Later, Tim Stafell left the band thinking it wasn't going anywhere. By then their good friend Farrokh 'Freddie' Bulsara (who later changed his name to Freddie Mercury) jumped eagerly into the slot of vocalist, leaving the band to look for a new bass player. After trying 5 or 6 different ones (including Johnny Quale's brother), John Deacon stepped forward and Queen was born.
As a drummer Taylor possesses a sound which involves several trademarks including an involuntary opening of the hi-hat on every back beat for a rhythm emphasis. He has played a great deal of percussion along with his standard drum kit, the most famous being the timpani solos during live shows.
He has played styles such as speed ("Stone Cold Crazy"), thrash ("Ogre Battle"), and rockabilly ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love") among others. He is one of the earliest "arena" drummers.
In addition to his drum work, he routinely played the guitars and bass on his own songs, and, during the 1980s, he formed a parallel band known as The Cross in which he was the singer and rhythm guitarist. According to Brian May, the guitar solo and feedback outro to the Queen song "Calling All Girls" was played by Taylor.
As one of the band's three vocalists, Taylor's voice is notable for its raspiness, which has been compared to Rod Stewart's. He is famous within the Queen fandom for his ability to reach very high notes (e.g. the high B-flat at the end of "Bohemian Rhapsody"'s operatic section). His solo career demonstrates he was very good at the low range as well; for instance, in his cover of "I Wanna Testify" in which he sang all four vocal parts. In some Queen tracks he recorded his voice in octaves, and in "I'm In Love With My Car" he arranged and sang all the cascading harmonies.
Another fine example of his vocal talents is in the music hall-esque 'Seaside Rendezvous' where he and Freddie Mercury imitate tubas, clarinets and kazoos through mere voice manipulation.
One of Taylor's other talents was his ability to play fairly complicated drum parts while singing, as can be seen in numerous Queen performances.
His compositions include the hits "Radio Ga Ga", "Heaven for Everyone" and "A Kind of Magic", as well as other tunes that did not receive as much airplay, such as "Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll" (Queen), "Tenement Funster" (Sheer Heart Attack), and "I'm in Love With My Car" (A Night at the Opera), all of which were sung by him. An interesting situation occurred after "I'm in Love With My Car" was written. Taylor desperately wanted to include it as the B-side of Bohemian Rhapsody, but Freddie Mercury didn't agree. Taylor locked himself in a cupboard until Mercury changed his mind. Taylor being the composer of the B-side acquired the same amount of royalties as Mercury himself (which apparently led to argument later on in their careers).
The UK #1 hit These Are the Days of Our Lives, though credited to all the band, was actually written by Taylor, as well as Invisible Man, Breakthru (except the intro), and You Don't Fool Me (with lyrics by Mercury). A big part of the lyrics in Queen's epic Innuendo are by Taylor, too, although the music was Mercury's.
His first solo album, Fun In Space, was released in 1981 and did quite well. He appeared on various European TV shows to promote the single Future Management. A few years later he would perform various tracks of the album with The Cross. After Queen finished their The Works album in 1984, Taylor worked on his 2nd solo album Strange Frontier. Released in July 1984 it included guest appearances by bandmates Freddie Mercury and John Deacon.
After Queen finished their 1986 Magic Tour, Taylor wanted to start a new band, by putting an anonymous advertisement in the newspaper hinting that he was from a famous rock band and that he was seeking other musicians. This side project, The Cross did not turn out to be very successful. They released 3 albums over the 6 years that they existed, only having some minor success in the UK and Germany. In 1993 they split up, after performing one final gig at the Gosport Festival.
In 1994 he worked together with Yoshiki Hayashi, drummer and pianist of X Japan and released the song "Foreign Sand" and a reworking of The Cross' "Final Destination" which was a minor hit in the UK. The album Happiness? - dedicated to Freddie Mercury - got positive reviews around the world and Taylor promoted it with his first solo-tour through Europe, mainly performing in the UK and Italy.
In 1998 he released his most recent offering, Electric Fire. To promote it he did one of the first Internet-gigs - for which he got a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records. The album spawned two singles: Pressure On and a remix of Surrender, though none of them set the charts alight
