We learned the hard way, as every group does at some stage. We aimed for the top. None of us wanted to get tied to a 9 to 5 job and I definitely knew that we’d got everything in terms of the music. We were original enough and we started proving it. We weren’t the kind of band that would say, “Ok, we’re going to do this, but if it doesn’t work out we will follow what someone else does.” No. That’s the wrong way to do it. We weren’t going to enter into the music business if we weren’t serious enough to go the whole hog. This is a full-time occupation, not a hobby. In a way it was a very good inspiration; we just thought we’ve left our academic qualifications behind and now we’re going to do this.

At that time we said, “Let’s make it interesting. Let’s try to incorporate all the different backgrounds that we’ve acquired.” We weren’t snobbish, but we were very careful. We wanted to appear tastefully. Even though we weren’t anybody yet, we felt we should appear that way. I suppose it was snobbish really. We didn’t want Queen to be just everybody’s band, but for just a select few to start with. We were so stubborn about it. We wanted people to know that we were a band to be reckoned with.

Freddie Mercury