document_title: Iron ore mining in Western Australia

question_text: where does australia's main iron ore production take place

question_tokens: where does australia 's main iron ore production take place

text: Iron ore mining in Western Australia

text: History[edit]

text: While iron ore deposits were known, like the Mount Whaleback deposit discovered in 1957 by Stan Hilditch, it was not until 1960, when the Australian Government lifted the embargo on iron ore exports it had put in place because of concerns the mineral was in short supply, that mining began in earnest.[5] Up until the mid-1960s, iron ore production in Western Australia, and Australia as a whole, was negligible, in the range of less than 10 million tons a year. By the mid-1970s, this figure had reached 100 million tonnes, with the majority coming from Western Australia. Production slightly declined in the 1980s but it improved in the 1990s, reaching 150 million tonnes for the country by 1997 and 200 million tonnes by 2003.[1]

text: The first mine in the Pilbara, the Goldsworthy mine, was developed by Utah Development Co. in 1965. A private railway line, the Goldsworthy railway, as well as port facilities at Finucane Island, Port Hedland, were also constructed. On 1 June 1966, the first shipment of iron ore from the Pilbara left on board the Harvey S. Mudd.[6][7]

text: BHP's operations in Newman date back to 1968, when the Mount Whaleback mine was opened, the biggest single-pit Open-pit iron ore mine in the world. A new town, Newman, was constructed, as well as a 426 kilometre railway line, the Mount Newman railway. The first train left Newman on 1 January 1969 and the first shipment of Newman ore left port on 1 April 1969 on board of the Osumi Maru.[7] Newman remained a "closed" company town until 1981.[5]

text: Rio Tinto's iron ore operations in the Pilbara began in 1966,[8] with the Mount Tom Price mine opened that year, becoming the company's first mine to open in the Pilbara.[9]

text: Overview[edit]

text: Exploration[edit]

text: In 2008-09, expenditure for exploration in iron ore in Western Australia increased by 33 percent compared to the previous financial year, 2007-08. The A$560million spend on iron ore exploration accounted for 45 percent of all mineral exploration expenditure in the state.[1]

text: Production[edit]

text: The bulk of iron ore production in Western Australia comes from the Pilbara region of the state. A number of mines however are also located in the Mid West and Kimberley regions as well as in the Wheatbelt.[1]

text: The big two producers, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton accounted for 90 percent of all iron ore production in the state in 2008-09, with the third-biggest producer being the Fortescue Metals Group.[1]

text: Rio Tinto operates twelve iron ore mines in Western Australia, BHP Billiton seven, Fortescue two, all of those are located in the Pilbara region.[1]

text: Railways[edit]

text: Pilbara region[edit]

text: The three largest iron ore producers operate private rail networks to transport ore from their mines to ports on the coast.

text: BHP Billiton operates the Goldsworthy railway and the Mount Newman railway, both terminating at Port Hedland.

text: Rio Tinto operates the Hamersley & Robe River railway, formed in a 2001 merger of the Hamersley and Robe River railways. The two lines terminate at Cape Lambert and Dampier.

text: FMG's Fortescue railway, a relative newcomer, started operation in 2008. The line terminates at Port Hedland.[10] Before deciding to construct its own line, the National Competition Council of Australia received an application from FMG, on 15 June 2004, to use part of the Mount Newman railway and also part of the Goldsworthy railway.[11]

text: In June 2010, the Australian Competition Tribunal ruled that FMG would be granted access to Rio Tinto's Robe River line and BHP Billiton's Goldsworthy line but not to the busier Hamersley and Mount Newman lines.[12][13] Treasurer Wayne Swan suggested that several advantages would accrue from access to the rail lines by third parties. It would increase competition, reduce duplication of infrastructure, and reduce environmental damage.[14] Atlas Iron, another junior iron ore miner, is hopeful to come to terms with BHP Billiton in regards to using some of the company's rail infrastructure, the Goldsworthy railway, in the future. BHP, in late 2010, had agreed to a joint feasibility study into how an arrangement might work.[15]

text: Access to the rail networks by third parties is governed by the State Agreements Act.[16]

text: Westrail region[edit]

text: Other, generally smaller, mines use or propose to use the state government-owned railways, for example Windarling Range and Koolyanobbing to the port of Esperance.[17]

text: Ports[edit]

text: In the Pilbara, iron ore is shipped from Port Hedland, Dampier and Cape Lambert. The latter two ports are exclusively used by Rio Tinto, while Port Hedland is used by BHP, FMG and Atlas Iron.

text: Port facilities at Port Hedland consist of Nelson Point and Finucane Island, both BHP, and Herb Elliott Port, used by FMG. In Dampier, ore is shipped from Parker Point and East Intercourse Island.

text: The non-Pilbara mines ship their ore out of other ports, like Windarling Range, which ships from the port of Esperance,[17] or the Koolanooka Mine, which shipped from Geraldton.[18][19]

text: Projects[edit]

text: BHP Billiton is currently spending A$1.85 billion on its Rapid Growth Project 4, aimed at increasing its annual iron ore output to 155 million tonnes. To achieve this, upgrades to both mines and port facilities are necessary. The project is scheduled for completion by 2010. As a follow-up, Rapid Growth Project 5, with a budget of A$4.8 billion, targets a further production increase of 50 million tonnes annually. Additionally to upgrades at the mines and ports, it will also include duplication of existing railway lines and is scheduled for completion in late 2011.[1] The Jimblebar mine is part of another expansion project, launched in 2010 and aimed at increasing production from the Pilbara mines to 240 million tonnes of iron ore annually by 2013. The expansion of Jimlebar, together with an expansion of the inner harbour at Port Hedland and works on the duplication of rail tracks is estimated to cost A$2.15billion.[20] The project is titled Rapid Growth Project 6.[21]

text: Rio Tinto declared its intent to expand the Hope Downs mine, spending a further A$1.78 billion on its new Hope Downs 4 project, scheduled to produce 15 million tonnes of iron ore annually by 2013.[22][23] Rio has commenced construction on its new Western Turner Syncline project. Rio Tinto allocated a further A$1.24 billion in early December 2010, to expand the Brockman 4 mine to 40 million tonnes per annum, from 22, as well as develop its Western Turner Syncline project, raising planned production there from 6 to 15 million tonnes, with the aim of increasing the Pilbara production to 283 million tonnes per annum by late 2013. The expansion would make Brockman 4 Rio Tinto's second-largest mine in the Pilbara.[24] The company has also begun further construction at the port at Cape Lambert, which is scheduled to undergo a further expansion, to be completed by 2012. The new expansion is scheduled to cost A$276million.[25] The expansion is part of a plan to raise Rio's annual production from the Pilbara from 220 to 330 million tonnes annually by 2016. To achieve this, the Cape Lambert port capacity will be expanded to handle an additional 100 million tonnes annually.[26]

text: Plans by the Fortescue Metals Group to increase production from 39 million tonnes to 55 million tonnes through a US$220 million upgrade of the Cloud Break mine had to be abandoned in October 2009 because of funding difficulties through its Chinese investors. Instead, Fortescue decided to develop its Christmas Creek mine, at a cost of US$360 million, by building a mine and process plant there and linking it to its existing rail network. Christmas Creek is scheduled to produce 16 million tonnes of iron ore in its first year of operation. Fortescue plans to reach an annual production of 95 million tonnes of iron ore by 2012, downgraded from an earlier target of 120 million.[27]

text: At Cape Preston, CITIC Pacific Mining is currently, as of 2010, in the process of constructing a 27.6 million tonnes per annum magnetite iron ore mine, named the Sino Iron Project.[28]

text: Export[edit]

text: China, in 2008-09, was the main importer of Western Australian ore, having taken 64 percent, or A$21 billion in value. Japan was the second-most important market with 21 percent, followed by South Korea with 10 percent and Taiwan with 3. In comparison, Europe is a small market for ore from the state, having taken only one percent of the overall production in 2008-09.[1]

text: Criticism[edit]

text: General[edit]

text: The iron ore mining boom in Western Australia experienced since the early 2000s has not exclusively been seen as positive. Communities in the Pilbara region have seen a large influx of residential and Fly-in fly-out workers which has seen land prices skyrocket and has negatively affected tourism as accommodation has become sparse.[29][30]

text: Australian Aborigines[edit]

text: Aboriginal culture in the region is deeply connected to the land and water and the mining activities threaten the fragile desert environment of the Pilbara. Locals in the Pilbara argue that the wealth generated by the local mining industry is passing them by and they are left behind. A lack of accommodation and the unattractive nature of relocating to the "dusty outback" resulted in a majority work force of fly-in fly-out workers, depriving local towns of the benefits of a high-earning permanent population.[30]

text: Mining companies in Australia have, since 1992, changed their attitude towards the local Aboriginal population. In 1992, the Australian government began to recognise the land rights of the Indigenous Australians, opening an opportunity for the latter to engage in negotiations with mining companies to press for compensation and for assistance in preserving cultural artifacts. However, some Aboriginals feel short-changed, given the enormous profits made from mining, and also consider the financial benefits and employment opportunities as insufficient compensation for the destruction caused to their habitat.[30]

text: Aboriginal mining companies have been able to secure contracts with the big international mining companies. In 2007, BHP Billiton awarded a A$300 million contract to Ngarda Civil and Mining, an Aboriginal-owned company, to manage the Yarrie mine, the largest ever mining contract awarded to an Aboriginal company.[31][32] As part of the five-year contract, BHP Billiton planned to increase the number of Aboriginal workers at the mine to 70, out of a total of 90 workers. The managing director of Ngarda, Brian Taylor, saw this contract as a positive step, moving Aboriginal people in the region away from government welfare and into permanent employment. Western Australian Aboriginals, in 2007, suffered from an unemployment rate of 14 percent in the state, compared to 3.3% for the general population.[33] Of the 12,000 people employed by BHP Billiton in its Pilbara operations in 2010, 700 were indigenous. Rio Tinto also, as of 2010, employs 700 indigenous workers in its Pilbara operations, comprising 6 percent of its overall work force. FMG, under the leadership of Andrew Forrest, is driving a national program which aims to find 50,000 jobs for indigenous workers in Australia.[32] Companies like BHP Billiton, FMG and Rio Tinto have programs aimed at increasing the number of Aboriginal employees in their operations.[30] Indigenous Australians in Western Australia in 2001 accounted for 3.1% of the population.

text: Companies however lack an understanding of Aboriginal culture, which requires young men to be sent to the bush for up to six weeks to hunt and learn about their culture. Companies are often unwilling to award their indigenous employees this time off to be able to perform these important traditions.[32]

text: Safety[edit]

text: In the past decade, from 2001 to 2010, 42 employees have lost their lives in the state's mining industry. Of those, gold and iron ore have been the most dangerous, with 14 fatalities each. Of the 42 fatalities, 29 have occurred at the surface and 13 in underground mining. Iron ore last had a fatality-free year in 2006.[34]

text: Since the late 1960s, when the Department of Mines began categorising fatalities by commodity, until 2010, 86 work-related fatalities have occurred in the iron ore mining industry in Western Australia.[34]

text: List of active mines[edit]

text: This is a list of currently active iron ore mines in Western Australia:[1]

text:
Mine
Owner 1
Location 2
Region
Capacity 3
Opening year

Abydos mine
Atlas Iron
Port Hedland
Pilbara
4.3
2013

Area C mine
BHP Billiton
Newman
Pilbara
55
2003

Brockman mine
Rio Tinto
Tom Price
Pilbara
8.7
1992

Brockman 4 mine
Rio Tinto
Tom Price
Pilbara
22
2010

Channar mine
Rio Tinto
Paraburdoo
Pilbara
20
1990

Christmas Creek mine
FMG
Nullagine
Pilbara
16
2009

Cloud Break mine
FMG
Nullagine
Pilbara
28
2008

Eastern Range mine
Rio Tinto
Paraburdoo
Pilbara
20
2004

Hope Downs mine
Rio Tinto
Newman
Pilbara
30
2007

Hope Downs 4 mine
Rio Tinto
Newman
Pilbara
15
2014

Jimblebar mine
BHP Billiton
Newman
Pilbara
14
1989

Koolan Island mine
Mount Gibson Iron
Koolan Island
Kimberley
4
2007

Marandoo mine
Rio Tinto
Tom Price
Pilbara
15
1994

Mesa A mine
Rio Tinto
Pannawonica
Pilbara
25
2010

Mesa J mine
Rio Tinto
Pannawonica
Pilbara
7
1994

Mt Webber mine
Atlas Iron
Port Hedland
Pilbara
6
2014

Mount Tom Price mine
Rio Tinto
Tom Price
Pilbara
28
1966

Mount Whaleback mine
BHP Billiton
Newman
Pilbara
38
1968

Nammuldi mine
Rio Tinto
Tom Price
Pilbara
6.6
2006

Orebodies 18, 23 and 25 mine
BHP Billiton
Newman
Pilbara

Pardoo mine
Atlas Iron
Port Hedland
Pilbara
2.4
2008

Paraburdoo mine
Rio Tinto
Paraburdoo
Pilbara
20
1972

Tallering Peak mine
Mount Gibson Iron
Mullewa
Mid West
3
2004

West Angelas mine
Rio Tinto
Newman
Pilbara
29.5
2002

Windarling Range
Cliffs Natural Resources
Bullfinch
Wheatbelt
11.5
2004

Wodgina mine
Atlas Iron
Port Hedland
Pilbara
4
2010

Yandi mine
BHP Billiton
Newman
Pilbara
41
1992

Yandicoogina mine
Rio Tinto
Newman
Pilbara
52
1998

Yarrie mine
BHP Billiton
Goldsworthy
Pilbara
2
1993

text:
1 Majority-owner and operator shown only.
2 Location refers to nearest town, mines are not necessarily located at this town.
3 Capacity is the production capacity of the mine, as of 2010, not actual annual production, and is in million tonnes of iron ore per annum.

text: List of inactive and exhausted mines[edit]

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2010)

text: This is a list of former iron ore mines in Western Australia:

text:
Mine
Owner
Location
Region
Opening year
Closing year

Cockatoo Island mine
Pluton Resources
Cockatoo Island
Kimberley
1995 (1951-1986)
2015

Goldsworthy mine
Mount Goldsworthy Mining Associates
Goldsworthy
Pilbara
1966
1982

Jack Hills mine
Mitsubishi Corporation
Jack Hills
Mid West
2006
2012

Koolanooka mine
Sinosteel Midwest
Morawa
Mid West
2010 (1965-1974)
2013

Koolyanobbing mine
Cliffs Natural Resources
Southern Cross
Wheatbelt
1994 (1950-1983)
2013

Nimingarra mine
BHP Biliton
Goldsworthy
Pilbara
1988
2007

Shay Gap mine
Mount Goldsworthy Mining Associates
Shay Gap
Pilbara
1973
1993

text: Statistics[edit]

text: Annual statistics for the Western Australian iron ore mining industry: [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44]

text:
Subject
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014

Production (million tonnes/annum)
158.87
162.25
171.77
194.75
215.85
244.64
250.40
264.45
305.72
341.64
390.77
427.03
476.17
558.17
696.83

Production value (A$ billion)
4.365
5.245
5.064
5.061
6.173
11.308
14.751
16.165
31.896
28.085
48.542
62.79
51.02
69.35
65.06

WA Royalty Receipts (A$ million)
232
285
272
290
330
534
774
830
1,518
1,701
2,394
3,785
3,535
4,344
5,226

Employees
8,604
9,103
9,289
11,184
12,585
13,727
16,203
18,387
23,185
26,051
27,537
33,345
43,008
55,323
60,844


document_title: History of the Texas Ranger Division

question_text: who was the leader of the texas rangers

question_tokens: who was the leader of the texas rangers

root

text: History of the Texas Ranger Division

text: Creation and early days[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

tag: table

text: By the early 1830s, the Mexican War of Independence had subsided, and some 60 to 70 families had settled in Texas—most of them from the United States. Because there was no regular army to protect the citizens against attacks by native tribes and bandits, in 1823, Stephen F. Austin organized small, informal armed groups whose duties required them to range over the countryside, and who thus came to be known as "rangers". Around August 4, 1823, Austin wrote that he would "... employ ten men ... to act as rangers for the common defense ... the wages I will give said ten men is fifteen dollars a month payable in property ..."[3] John Jackson Tumlinson Sr., the first alcalde of the Colorado district, is considered by many historians of the Texas Rangers to be the first killed in the line of duty.[4] While there is some discussion as to when Austin actually employed men as "rangers", Texas Ranger lore dates the anniversary year of their organization to this event.[5]

tag: p

text: However, the Texas Rangers were not formally constituted until 1835. Austin returned to Texas after having been imprisoned in Mexico City and helped organize a council to govern the group. On October 17, at a consultation of the Provisional Government of Texas, Daniel Parker proposed a resolution to establish the Texas Rangers. He proposed creating three companies that would total some 60 men and would be known by "uniforms" consisting of a light duster (clothing) and an identification badge made from a Mexican Peso. They were instituted by Texan lawmakers on November 24. On November 28, 1835 Robert McAlpin Williamson was chosen to be the first Major of the Texas Rangers. Within two years the Rangers grew to more than 300 men.

text: In their early days, Rangers performed tasks of protecting the Texas Frontier against Indian attacks on the settlers. During the Texas Revolution, they served mainly as scouts, spies, couriers, and guides for the settlers fleeing before the Mexican Army and performed rear guard during the Runaway Scrape and general support duties. These minor roles continued after independence, when the region became the Republic of Texas under President Sam Houston. Houston, who had lived with the Cherokee for many years (and who had taken a Cherokee wife), favored peaceful coexistence with Indians, a policy that left little space for a force with the Rangers' characteristics.

text: This situation changed radically when Mirabeau B. Lamar became president of the Republic of Texas in December 1838. Lamar had participated in skirmishes with the Cherokee in his home state of Georgia; like most Texians, he had not forgotten the support the Cherokee had given the Mexicans at the Cordova Rebellion against the Republic. He favored the eradication of Indians in Texas—a view that he shared with Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Thomas Rusk. Lamar saw in the Rangers the perfect tool for the task, and he obtained permission from the Texas Legislature to raise a force of 56 Rangers, along with other volunteer companies. During the following three years, he engaged the Rangers in a war against the Cherokee and the Comanche and succeeded in weakening their territorial control.[6]

text: Mexican–American War[edit]

text: Sam Houston was re-elected President of Texas on December 12, 1841. He had taken note of the Rangers' cost-efficiency and increased their number to 150. Under Captain John Coffee "Jack" Hays' leadership, the force played an important role in the defense against the Mexican invasion led by General Adrian Woll in 1842 and against attacks by Indians. Despite his youth at the time, the charismatic Hays was a rallying figure to his men and is often considered responsible for giving cohesion, discipline and a group mentality to the Rangers. Flacco, a chief of the allied Indian tribe of the Lipan, used to call Hays Bravo too much.[7] The adoption of the state-of-the-art five-shot Colt Paterson revolver (which had been turned down by the U.S. Army) was also his work. Hays trained his men to aim, fire and reload their weapons from horseback, a radical innovation from the usual contemporary technique of dismounting before shooting at enemies and reloading, which was a necessity with more cumbersome weaponry. This tactic was put to devastating effect, and it was imitated shortly afterwards by the military, Texian and American.[8] At the suggestion of one of Hays's officers, Samuel Hamilton Walker, these revolvers soon evolved into the famous, enhanced six-shot version, the Walker Colt; 1,000 of these revolvers were issued to the United States Mounted Rifles engaged in the Mexican-American War.[9] During these years, famous Rangers such as Hays, Walker, Benjamin McCulloch and William "Bigfoot" Wallace first established their reputation as frontier fighters.

text: With the annexation of Texas within the United States and the Mexican–American War in 1846, several companies of Rangers were mustered into federal service and proved themselves at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. From that moment on, their effectiveness as guerrilla fighters and guides to the federal army through a territory that they were familiar with marked the pace of the American offensive. Rangers played an important role in the battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista. The army, commanded by General Winfield Scott, landed at Veracruz in March 1847, and the Rangers once again provided valuable support at the ensuing Siege of Veracruz and the battles of Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec. They were also responsible for the defeat of the fierce Mexican guerrilleros that hindered the advance of the federal troops, which they achieved ruthlessly and efficiently. By then, the Rangers had earned themselves a considerable reputation that approached the legendary among Mexicans, and when Ranger companies entered and occupied Mexico City with the U.S. Army in September 1847, los Diablos Tejanos (the "Texas Devils") were received with reverence and fear.[10] Their role in the Mexican–American War also won them nationwide fame in the United States and news of their exploits, in the contemporary press became common, effectively establishing the Rangers as part of American folklore. As the Victoria Advocate reported in the November 16, 1848, issue:

text: Despite these popular stories and their fame, some of their most brutal interventions, such as the massacre of unarmed civilians, elderly men, women and children in Saltillo, ordered by Samuel H. Walker, remained unknown to the American public at large.[citation needed] Most of the Ranger force was disbanded during the years following the end of the Mexican–American War on February 2, 1848, since the protection of the frontiers was now an official duty of the U.S. Army. But as more settlers sought to establish homesteads in lands traditionally occupied by Indians, the skirmishes with the native peoples became a major political issue. During the 1850s, the Rangers were intermittently called on to deal with this problem, and with the election of Hardin Richard Runnels as governor in 1857, they once again regained their role as defenders of the Texas frontier.

text: On January 27, 1858, Runnels allocated $70,000 to fund a force of Rangers, and John Salmon "Rip" Ford, a veteran Ranger of the war with Mexico, was commissioned as senior captain. With a force of some 100 Rangers, Ford began a large expedition against the Comanche and other tribes, whose raids against the settlers and their properties had become common. On May 12, Ford's Rangers, accompanied by Tonkawa, Anadarko and Shawnee scouts from the Brazos Reservation in Texas, crossed the Red River into Indian Territory and attacked a Comanche village in the Canadian River Valley, flanked by the Antelope Hills in what is now Oklahoma. Suffering only four casualties, the force killed a reported 76 Comanche (including a chief by the name of Iron Jacket) and took 18 prisoners and 300 horses.

text: In December 1859, Ford and his company were assigned to Brownsville, in south Texas, where the local Mexican rancher Juan Cortina had launched an attack and briefly occupied the town and later conducted a series of guerrilla actions and raids against local American landowners. Together with a regiment of the U.S. Army commanded by Major Samuel P. Heintzelman (who later became a notable general of the Union in the Civil War), Ford's Rangers took part in the Cortina War, and on December 27, 1859, they engaged and defeated Cortina's forces in the battle of Rio Grande City. Pursued and defeated by Ford and his Rangers again a few days later, Cortina retreated into Mexico, and although he would continue to promote minor actions against the Texan ranchers, the threat of a large-scale military incursion was effectively ended.

text: The success of these campaigns marked a turning point in Rangers' history. The U.S. Army could provide only limited and thinly stretched protection in the enormous territory of Texas. In contrast, the Rangers' effectiveness when dealing with these threats convinced both the people of the state and the political leaders that a well-funded and organized local Ranger force was essential. Such a force could use the deep familiarity with the territory and the proximity with the theater of operations as major advantages in its favor. This option was not pursued in the light of the emerging national political problems, and the Rangers dissolved until 1874. However, the conviction of their usefulness had become firmly established, and the agency was eventually reconstituted.[12]

text: Civil War and late 19th century[edit]

text: After Texas seceded from the United States in 1861 during the American Civil War, many Rangers enlisted individually to fight for the Confederacy, such as Walter P. Lane, George W. Baylor, Thomas S. Lubbock, Benjamin McCulloch, Henry Eustace McCulloch, John B. Jones, Leander H. McNelly and John Ford. Although the famous Eighth Texas Cavalry regiment was widely known as Terry's Texas Rangers, neither its leader and founder, Benjamin Franklin Terry, nor the majority of its members had been affiliated with the state agency. The fact that both groups have often been regarded as related (and Terry's men themselves had thus adopted the organization's name) speaks of the widespread fame that the Rangers had achieved by that time. During the Civil War, the duties of scouting the state frontiers for Union troops, hostile Indians and deserters devolved upon those who could not be drafted into the Confederate Army because of their age or other disabilities. This mixed group was never officially considered a Ranger force, although their work was essentially the same. In April 1865 General John A. Wharton of the "Terry's Texas Rangers" was shot and killed after an argument with George W. Baylor-who served in the Texas Rangers Frontier Battalion after the Civil War until 1882.

text: During Reconstruction, the Rangers were replaced by a Union-controlled version of the Rangers aka the Texas State Police. Charged with enforcing unpopular new laws that came with reintegration, that organization fell into disrepute.[13] The TSP only existed from July 22, 1870 to April 22, 1873.

text: The scenario changed radically for the Rangers with the state election of 1873. When newly elected Governor Richard Coke took office in January 1874, it marked the end of Reconstruction for the Lone Star State, and he vigorously restored order to Texas in pursuit of improvements to both the economy and security. Once again Indians and Mexican bandits were threatening the frontiers, and once again the Rangers were tasked with solving the problem. That same year, the state legislature authorized the recommissioning of the Rangers,[14] and a special force was created within its aegis: the Frontier Battalion, consisting of six companies of 75 men each under the command of Major John B. Jones. This group played a major role in the control of ordinary lawbreakers as well as the defense against hostile Indian tribes, which was particularly necessary in the period of lawlessness and social collapse of the Reconstruction.

text: The Frontier Battalion was soon augmented with the Special Force, a second military group of 40 men under Captain Leander H. McNelly, with the specific task of bringing order in the area of south Texas between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, called the Nueces Strip. At this particular region, the general situation of lawlessness was aggravated by the proximity of Texas to Mexico and the conflict between agrarian and cattle interests. Raids along the frontier were common, and not only perpetrated by ordinary bandits but also promoted by local Mexican caudillos. In particular, Juan Cortina's men were again conducting periodic guerrilla operations against local ranchers. In the following two years, McNelly and his group energetically engaged these threats and virtually eradicated them.[15] A second sergeant of J. R. Waller's Company "A" was Dallas Stoudenmire, later El Paso Police Chief and Deputy U.S. Marshal.

text: It was at these times that many of the Rangers' myths were born, such as their success in capturing or killing notorious criminals and desperados (including bank robber Sam Bass and gunfighter John Wesley Hardin) and their decisive role in the defeat of the Comanche, the Kiowa and the Apache peoples. It was also during these years that the Rangers suffered the only defeat in their history when they surrendered at the Salinero Revolt in 1877. Despite the fame of their deeds, the conduct of the Rangers during this period was questionable. In particular, McNelly and his men used ruthless methods that often rivaled the brutality of their opponents, such as taking part in summary executions and confessions induced by torture and intimidation.[16] McNelly also made himself famous for disobeying direct orders from his superiors on several occasions, and breaking through the Mexican frontier for self-appointed law enforcement purposes.[17] Arguably, these methods either sowed the seeds of discontent among Mexican-Americans or restored order to the frontier. After McNelly's retirement because of health problems, the Special Force was dissolved in 1877 and their members absorbed into the Frontier Battalion, which continued to function even after Jones's death in the line of duty in 1881. By the last years of the 19th century, a high measure of security within the vast frontier of Texas had been achieved, in which the Rangers had played a primary role. In 1891, Governor James Stephen Hogg named Captain Bill McDonald to succeed Samuel A. McMurry as the captain of Texas Rangers Company B, Frontier Battalion, a position that he retained until 1907. Over the years, McDonald became the best known of the Rangers during his lifetime and the subject of two major biographies.[18]

text: Taft-Diaz Assassination Attempt[edit]

text: In 1909, Private C.R. Moore of Company A, "performed one of the most important feats in the history of the Texas Rangers".[19] William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz planned a summit in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, an historic first meeting between a U.S. president and a Mexican president and also the first time an American president would cross the border into Mexico[20] But tensions rose on both sides of the border, including threats of assassination, so the Texas Rangers, 4,000 U.S. and Mexican troops, U.S. Secret Service agents, FBI agents and U.S. marshals were all called in to provide security.[21] Frederick Russell Burnham, the celebrated scout, was put in charge of a 250 private security detail hired by John Hays Hammond, a nephew of Texas Ranger John Coffee Hays, who in addition to owning large investments in Mexico was a close friend of Taft from Yale and a U.S. Vice-Presidential candidate in 1908.[22][23] On October 16, the day of the summit, Burnham and Private C.R. Moore discovered a man holding a concealed palm pistol standing at the El Paso Chamber of Commerce building along the procession route.[24][25] Burnham and Moore captured, disarmed, and arrested the assassin within only a few feet of Taft and Díaz.[19][26]

text: Mexican Revolution and early 20th century[edit]

text: At the beginning of the 20th century, Texas's frontiers had become more settled, thus rendering the 1874 legislation obsolete after the organization had existed as a quasi-military force for more than 25 years. Amidst serious legal troubles that questioned the authority of the Rangers to exert such a role, new resolutions appropriate to the current times were adopted. The Frontier Battalion was disbanded with the passing of new legislation on July 8, 1901, and a new Ranger force was created, consisting of four companies of "no more than 20 men each" with a captain in command of every unit. The Rangers had evolved into an agency with an exclusive law enforcement focus.

text: The Mexican Revolution that began in 1910 against Mexican President Díaz changed the relatively peaceful state of affairs along the border. Soon after, violence on both sides of the frontier escalated as bands of Mexicans took over border towns and began crossing the Rio Grande on a near-daily basis. Taking over trade routes in Mexico by establishing themselves as road agents, Mexican banditos turned towards attacking the American communities for kidnapping, extortion, and supplies. As Mexican law enforcement disintegrated with the collapse of the Diaz regime, these gangs grouped themselves under the various caudillos on both sides of the border and took sides in the civil war, most simply to take advantage of the turmoil to loot.[27] Then, as the lack of American military forces for defending the border became clearer, the scope of the activities soon turned to outright genocide with the intention of driving Americans out of the Southwest entirely; this became known as the Plan de San Diego in 1915. In several well-rehearsed attacks, Mexicans rose up and in conjunction with raiding Villista guerrillas, within weeks had killed over 500 Texan women, children, and men.[28]

text: The political decision of the Texans was to restore control and order by any necessary means. As Governor Oscar Branch Colquitt instructed Ranger Captain John R. Hughes, "...you and your men are to keep Mexican raiders off of Texas territory if possible, and if they invade the State let them understand they do so at the risk of their lives."[29] Hundreds of new special Rangers were appointed by order of the state, which neglected to carefully screen aspiring members. Rather than conduct themselves as law enforcement officers, many of these groups acted more like vigilante squads. Reports of Rangers abusing their authority and breaking the law themselves increased.[30] The situation grew even more dramatic when on March 9, 1916, Pancho Villa led 500 Mexican raiders in a cross-border attack against Columbus, New Mexico, increasing the high tension that had already existed between the communities. Villa and General Ramon Banda Quesada, in an attack against the town that was garrisoned by a detachment of the 13th Cavalry Regiment (United States), seized 100 horses and mules, burned the town, killed 14 soldiers and 10 residents, and took ammunition and weaponry before retreating back into Mexico. Quesada had five men captured and suffered the loss of 80 dead or mortally wounded, mostly from the U.S. machine gun emplacements.

text: The final straw was the Porvenir Massacre, involving the killing of innocent villagers wrongly accused of raiding the Brite Ranch Store on Christmas Day in 1917. In January 1918 a heavily armed group of Texas Rangers, ranchmen and members a troop of U.S. Cavalry descended upon the tiny community of Porvenir, Texas on the Mexican border in western Presidio County. The Rangers and company rounded up the inhabitants of the village and searched their homes. They then proceeded to gather all the men in Porvenir (fifteen Mexican men and boys ranging in age from 16 to 72 years) and march them off into the darkness. A short distance from Porvenir, the men were lined up against a rock bluff and shot to death.[31]

text: Before the decade was over, thousands of lives were lost, Texans and Mexicans alike. In January 1919, at the initiative of Representative José T. Canales of Brownsville, the Texas Legislature launched a full investigation of Rangers' actions throughout these years. The investigation found that from 300 up to 5,000 people, mostly of Hispanic descent, had been killed by Rangers from 1910 to 1919, and that members of the Rangers had been involved in many acts of brutality and injustice.[32]

text: These were the most turbulent times in the history of the Rangers, and with the objective of recycling the force's membership, putting it back in tune with its past and restoring the public's trust, the Legislature passed on March 31, 1919, a resolution to purge it and enhance it and its procedures. All special Ranger groups were disbanded; the four official companies were kept, albeit their members were reduced from 20 to 15 each; better payment was offered in order to attract men of higher personal standards; and a method for citizens to articulate complaints against any further misdeeds or abuses was established.

text: The reforms proved positive, and the new Ranger force eventually regained the status of a respectable agency. Under the command of captains such as Frank Hamer (who later became famous for leading the party that killed the outlaws Bonnie and Clyde), the Rangers displayed remarkable activity in the following years, including the continuous fighting of cattle rustlers, intervening in the violent labor disputes of the time and protecting the citizenry involved in Ku Klux Klan's public displays from violent mob reaction. With the passage of the Volstead Act and the beginning of nationwide prohibition on January 16, 1920, their duties extended to scouting the border for tequila smugglers and detecting and dismantling the illegal stills that abounded along Texas's territory.

text: One of the Rangers' highest-profile interventions during this period was taming Texas's oil boomtowns (beginning with Spindletop's discovery in 1901), which had developed into lawless territories. During the 1920s, martial law was decreed on several of these towns, such as Mexia and Borger; at others, like Desdemona, Wink, Ranger, Kilgore and Burkburnett, the situation was also very serious, and the Rangers were called in to quell agitated locals and terminate all illegal activities. This trouble continued until well in the 1950s, but the Rangers prevented it from growing into an even more dramatic problem. At Borger, a total of ten officers were sent on April 7, 1927, including Captain Hamer. The balance of the Rangers' activities upon their arrival as reported was:

text: Modernization and present day[edit]

text: The Great Depression forced both the federal and state governments to cut down on personnel and funding of their organizations, and the Rangers were no exception. The number of commissioned officers was reduced to 45, and the only means of transportation afforded to Rangers were free railroad passes, or using their personal horses. The situation worsened for the agency when its members entangled themselves in politics in 1932 by publicly supporting Governor Ross Sterling in his re-election campaign, over his opponent Miriam Amanda "Ma" Ferguson. Ferguson was elected, and immediately after taking office in January 1933, she proceeded to discharge all serving Rangers. The force also saw its salaries and funds slashed by the Texas Legislature, and their numbers reduced further to 32 men. The result was that Texas became a safe hideout for the many Depression-era gangsters escaping from the law, such as Bonnie and Clyde, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd and Raymond Hamilton. The hasty appointment of many unqualified Rangers to stop the increasing criminality proved ineffective.[33]

text: The general disorganization of law enforcement in the state convinced the members of the Legislature that a thorough revision of the public security system was in order, and with that purpose it hired the services of a consulting firm from Chicago. The resulting report yielded many worrying conclusions, but the basic underlying facts were simple: the criminality levels in Texas were extremely high, and the state's means to fight them were underfunded, undermanned, loose, disorganized and obsolete. The consultants' recommendation, besides increasing funding, was to introduce a whole reorganization of state security agencies; especially, to merge the Rangers with the Texas Highway Patrol under a new agency called the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). After deliberating, the Legislature agreed with the suggestion. The resolution that created the new state law enforcement agency was passed in 1935, and with an initial budget of $450,000, the DPS became operational on August 10.

text: With minor rearrangements over the years, the 1935 reforms have ruled the Texas Rangers' organization until present day. Hiring new members, which had been largely a political decision, was achieved through a series of examinations and merit evaluations. Promotion relied on seniority and performance in the line of duty. More sophisticated means of crime fighting were put at their disposal, like automobiles, advanced weaponry and forensics. By the late 1930s, the Rangers had one of the best crime labs in the United States at the Headquarters Division in Austin. The appointment of Colonel Homer Garrison in September 1938 as director of the DPS proved decisive as well. Under his leadership, many respected captains such as Manuel T. Gonzaullas worked extensively to restore the good name of the force that had been compromised in the previous decades, keeping it in line with its traditions within a modern and civilized society and regaining its high status.[27] The number of commissioned officers grew and the Rangers developed a clear detective function, while the Highway Patrol took charge of direct law enforcement duties.

text: The quality of the force in terms of training, funding, modernization and number strength has continued to improve. In the last few decades, the Rangers have intervened in several thousand cases with a high level of effectiveness,[34] including many high-profile ones such as the pursuit and capture of serial killer Ángel Maturino Reséndiz. The agency is also fully integrated with modern Texan ethnic groups, counting numerous officers of Hispanic and African American origin among its members. Today, the historical importance and symbolism of the Texas Rangers is such that they are protected by statute from being disbanded.[35]


document_title: Thank You for Your Service (2017 film)

question_text: who plays in the movie thank you for your service

text: Thank You for Your Service (2017 film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: After a harrowing 15-month combat experience in Iraq, the much-decorated Adam Schumann (Miles Teller) returns home to Kansas and a loving wife, Saskia (Haley Bennett). Adam and Saskia have two young children, a daughter and infant son born while Adam was still overseas. Adam suffers from PTSD as manifest by nightmares and frequent flashbacks for which his wife convinces him to seek help from an overburdened Department of Veterans Affairs. He also receives solace from two Iraq buddies living nearby, an American Samoan, Solo Aeiti (Beulah Koale), and Billy Waller (Joe Cole), who commits suicide in front of his fiancée (Kate Lyn Sheil) after discovering she has left him.

text: Adam's unresolved psychological issues revolve around his failure to safely rescue a fellow soldier from a building under fire, Michael Emory (Scott Haze), who was dropped on his head and rendered hemiplegic but later expresses gratitude to Adam for being alive, and survivor's guilt about letting Sergeant First Class James Doster (Brad Beyer) take Adam's place on patrol one day. When the Humvee with Doster filling in for Adam makes a wrong turn and hits an improvised explosive device, Solo assists the men in their escape to safety, but Doster is inadvertently left behind and dies in the conflagration. Doster's grieving widow, Amanda (Amy Schumer), who is best of friends with Saskia Schumann, finally gains closure as she learns the circumstances of her husband's death towards the end of the movie and absolves Adam and Solo of responsibility for it.

text: Meanwhile, Solo suffers from such severe PTSD and memory loss that he is unable to fulfill a fervent desire to reenlist for another tour in Iraq. He falls in with a group of drug dealers led by a Gulf War veteran, Dante (Omar Dorsey). Adam rescues his friend and puts him on a Greyhound bus to California, where Solo will take Adam's place at a rehabilitation center specializing in the treatment of PTSD.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Miles Teller as Staff Sergeant Adam Schumann, Saskia's husband, a soldier who leaves Iraq as a broken man.[6][7]
Haley Bennett as Saskia Schumann, Adam's loyal and supportive wife.[8][7]
Beulah Koale as Specialist Tausolo Aieti, Alea’s husband, an American Samoan soldier who feels that the military has made his life better.[7]
Joe Cole as Billy Waller, a soldier who returns home in crisis and tries to find his fiancée and their daughter who have left him.[9]
Amy Schumer[10] as Amanda Doster, Saskia’s best friend and the wife of Sergeant First Class James Doster.
Brad Beyer[10] as Sergeant First Class James Doster, Amanda’s husband.
Keisha Castle-Hughes as Alea, Tausolo Aieti's wife[10]
Scott Haze as Michael Adam Emory, a soldier suffering from PTSD.[11]
Omar Dorsey[10] as Dante, a veteran who now operates as a drug smuggler
Jayson Warner Smith as VA Receptionist[9]
Sean P Mcgoldrick as Private Chris Kyle Jr.[9]
Kate Lyn Sheil as Bell[12], Billy’s fiancée

tag: ul

text: Production[edit]

text: On March 12, 2013, DreamWorks announced that it had acquired the film rights to the David Finkel's upcoming non-fiction book Thank You for Your Service, about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in soldiers who return from war in Iraq and have difficulties in adapting to civilian life.[13] Steven Spielberg was expected to join the film as director,[13] while American Sniper's Oscar-nominated scribe Jason Dean Hall was hired in June 2013 to adapt the book into a film.[14][15] Daniel Day-Lewis was later eyed to re-team with Spielberg on this film.[16]

text: On June 30, 2015, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that screenwriter Hall would be making his directorial debut with the film from his own script.[15] On August 19, 2015, it was reported that Miles Teller was in talks to join the film as Adam Schumann, a soldier who leaves Iraq as a broken man.[6][7] On October 20, 2015, Haley Bennett was cast in the film to play Schumann's loyal and supportive wife.[8][7] On December 2, 2015, New Zealand-based newcomer Beulah Koale joined the film to play Solo, an American Samoan soldier who feels that the military had made his life better.[7] On January 7, 2016, Scott Haze was cast in the film to play a soldier suffering from PTSD.[11] Jon Kilik would produce the film, which Universal Pictures would distribute in the United States.[11] On January 28, 2016, Joe Cole joined the film to play a soldier who returns home in crisis and tries to find his fiancée and their daughter who have left him, while Jayson Warner Smith joined the film to play a receptionist at a Veterans Affairs office.[9] On February 9, 2016, Amy Schumer joined the cast with three others: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Brad Beyer, and Omar Dorsey.[10] It was later revealed that Kate Lyn Sheil had joined the cast.[17]

text: Filming[edit]

text: Principal photography on the film began on February 9, 2016, in Atlanta, Georgia.[18] In March 2016, it filmed at the Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, Georgia.[19]

text: Release[edit]

text: The film had its world premiere at the Heartland Film Festival on October 15, 2017.[20] The film was released in the United States on October 27, 2017.[21]

text: Promotion[edit]

text: On October 20, 2017, Universal and DreamWorks announced a partnership with Chinese-owned AMC Theatres to give more than 10,000 free tickets to the film to veterans and service members.[22]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text: In the United States and Canada, Thank You for Your Service was released alongside Jigsaw and Suburbicon, and was projected to gross around $5 million from 2,054 theaters in its opening weekend.[23] It ended up debuting to just $3.7 million, finishing 6th at the box office, and marking the second straight week Teller was featured in a well-recieved but underperforming biopic, following Only the Brave.[24] In its second weekend it made $2.3 million, dropping 40%, finishing 7th at the box office.[25]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2017)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 76% based on 89 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Thank You for Your Service takes a sobering and powerfully acted -- if necessarily incomplete -- look at soldiers grappling with the horrific emotional impact of war."[26] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[27] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.[24]

text: Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film 3.5/4 stars, stating that the film, although a studio picture, "has been written, shot, edited and acted in such an intimate and unobtrusive way that the result feels like a throwback to an earlier era of American mainstream filmmaking, when it was still possible to base a handsomely produced feature film around observed behavior."[28]


document_title: Brian May

question_text: which member of queen has a phd in astrophysics

question_tokens: which member of queen has a phd in astrophysics

text: Brian May

text: Early life and education[edit]

text: Brian Harold May, the only child of Harold and Ruth May, was born in Hampton, London on 19 July 1947, and attended the local Hampton Grammar School, then a voluntary aided school (now independent and known as Hampton School).[1][15][16] He is of English and Scottish descent, with his mother being Scots.[17] During this time, he formed his first band, named 1984 after George Orwell's novel of the same name, with vocalist and bassist Tim Staffell.[18]

text: At Hampton Grammar School, he attained ten GCE Ordinary Levels and three GCE Advanced Levels in Physics, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics.[18] He studied Mathematics and Physics at Imperial College London, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1968 with honours.[19][20] In 2007, May was awarded a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London for work started in 1971 and completed in 2007.[4][3][21]

text: Musical career[edit]

text: 1968–1970: Smile[edit]

text: May formed the band Smile in 1968. The group included Tim Staffell as the lead singer and bassist, and later, drummer Roger Taylor, who also went on to play for Queen. The band lasted for only two years, from 1968 to 1970, as Staffell departed in 1970, leaving the band with a catalogue of nine songs. Smile would reunite for several songs on 22 December 1992. Taylor's band The Cross were headliners, and he brought May and Staffell on to play "Earth" and "If I Were a Carpenter".[22] May also performed several other songs that night.

text: 1970–present: Queen[edit]

text: In Queen's three-part vocal harmonies, May was generally the lower-range backing vocalist. On some of his songs, he sings the lead vocals, most notably the first verse of "Who Wants to Live Forever", the final verse of "Mother Love", the middle eight on "I Want It All" and "Flash's Theme", and full lead vocals on "Some Day One Day", "She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettoes)", "'39", "Good Company", "Long Away", "All Dead, All Dead", "Sleeping on the Sidewalk", "Leaving Home Ain't Easy" and "Sail Away Sweet Sister".[citation needed]

text: Throughout Queen's career, May frequently wrote songs for the band and has composed many worldwide hits such as "We Will Rock You", "Tie Your Mother Down", "I Want It All", "Fat Bottomed Girls", "Who Wants To Live Forever" and "The Show Must Go On" as well as writing significant hit songs "Hammer to Fall", "Flash", "Now I'm Here", "Brighton Rock", "The Prophet's Song", "Las Palabras de Amor", "No-One But You" and "Save Me". Typically, either Mercury or May wrote the most songs on every Queen album.[citation needed]

text: After the famous Live Aid concert in 1985, Mercury rang his band members and proposed writing a song together. The result was "One Vision", which was basically May on music (the Magic Years documentary shows how he came up with the opening section and the basic guitar riff) and the lyrics were co-written by all four band members.[23]

text: For their 1989 release album, The Miracle, the band had decided that all of the tracks would be credited to the entire band, no matter who had been the main writer. Still, interviews and musical analyses tend to help identify the input of each member on each track. May composed "I Want It All" for that album, as well as "Scandal" (based on his personal problems with the British press). For the rest of the album he did not contribute so much creatively, although he helped in building the basis of "Party" and "Was It All Worth It" (both being predominantly Mercury's pieces) and created the guitar riff of "Chinese Torture".[citation needed]

text: Queen's subsequent album was Innuendo, on which May's contributions increased, although more in arrangements than actual writing in most cases; for the title track he did some of the arrangement for the heavy solo, then he added vocal harmonies to "I'm Going Slightly Mad" and composed the solo of "These Are the Days of Our Lives", a song for which the four of them decided the keyboard parts together. He changed the tempo and key of Mercury's song "The Hitman" and took it under his wing, even singing guide vocal in the demo. May also co-wrote some of the guitar lines in "Bijou".[citation needed]

text: Two songs that May had composed for his first solo album, "Headlong" and "I Can't Live With You", eventually ended up in the Queen project. His other composition was "The Show Must Go On", a group effort in which he was the coordinator and primary composer, but in which they all had input, Deacon and Taylor with the famous chord sequence. In recent years, he has supervised the remastering of Queen albums and various DVD and greatest hits releases. In 2004, he announced that he and drummer Roger Taylor were going on tour for the first time in 18 years as "Queen", along with Free/Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers. Billed as "Queen + Paul Rodgers", the band played throughout 2005 and 2006 in South Africa, Europe, Aruba, Japan, and North America and released a new album with Paul Rodgers in 2008, entitled The Cosmos Rocks. This album was supported by a major tour.[24] Paul Rodgers then left the band [25] in May 2009 and it wasn't until 2011 that another vocalist, Adam Lambert,[26] was recruited. They subsequently went on a 2012 European Tour, a world tour over 2014 and 2015 and, most recently, 2016 Festival Tour. They also famously[citation needed] played the Big Ben New Year concert on New Year's Eve 2014 and New Year's Day 2015.[citation needed]

text: 1983–1998: Side projects and solo works[edit]

text: During 1983, several members of Queen explored side projects. On 21 and 22 April in Los Angeles, May was in the studio with Eddie Van Halen, with no intentions of recording anything; the result of those days was a mini album entitled 'Star Fleet Project', which originally wasn't going to be released.

text: May contributed to former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett's album Feedback 86, playing guitar on the track "Cassandra" and providing guitar and vocals for "Slot Machine," which was co-written by May. Although produced in 1986, the album was not issued as a commercial release until 2000. May worked with his second wife Anita Dobson on her first album, in which she sang vocals to the EastEnders theme tune. In this form, the tune became the song "Anyone Can Fall in Love".[27] May produced the song, which reached No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart in August 1986.[28] In 1989, May contributed guitar solos to the song "When Death Calls" on Black Sabbath's 14th album Headless Cross, and the Living in a Box track "Blow The House Down" from the album Gatecrashing.

text:
After the tragic break-up of any band, it feels impossible to continue but I was really glad that Brian did launch a solo career. He had such a lot of music in him and a great deal more to give

 —Joe Satriani[29]

tag: div

text: In the aftermath of the November 1991 death of Freddie Mercury, May chose to deal with his grief by committing himself as fully as possible to work, first by finishing his solo album, Back to the Light, and then touring worldwide to promote it. He frequently remarked in press interviews that this was the only form of self-prescribed therapy he could think of.[30] According to Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott, "It was undoubtedly an enormous and terrible blow to lose someone he was so close to. Personally, I know it ripped the heart out of Brian, but having said that, he was in great spirits after the album was finished."[29]

text: In late 1992, the Brian May Band was officially formed. An earlier version of the band was loosely formed for 19 October 1991, the date of the band's last concert of reunion, when May took part in the Guitar Legends guitar festival in Seville, Spain. The line-up for his performance was May on vocals and lead guitar, Cozy Powell on drums and percussion, Mike Moran and Rick Wakeman on keyboards, and Maggie Ryder, Miriam Stockley and Chris Thompson on backing vocals. The original line-up was May on vocals and lead guitar, Powell on drums and percussion, Michael Casswell on guitar, Neil Murray on bass, and Ryder, Stockley and Thompson on backing vocals. This version of the band lasted only during the South American support tour (supporting The B-52's and Joe Cocker) on only five dates.

text: Afterwards, May made significant changes, feeling the group never quite gelled. May brought guitarist Jamie Moses on board to replace Mike Caswell. The other change made was in the backing vocals department, when Ryder, Stockley and Thompson were replaced with Catherine Porter and Shelley Preston. On 23 February 1993, this new line-up of The Brian May Band began its world tour in the US, both supporting Guns N' Roses and headlining a few dates.[31] The tour would take them through North America, Europe (support act: Valentine) and Japan. After the tour ended on 18 December 1993, May returned to the studio with fellow surviving Queen band members Roger Taylor and John Deacon to work on tracks that became Made in Heaven, the final Queen studio album.[32] The band took Mercury's solo album demos and last recordings, which he managed to perform in the studio after the album Innuendo was finished, and completed them with their additions both musically and vocally.[33] Work on the album after Mercury's death originally began in 1992 by Deacon and May, but was left until a later date, due to other commitments.[32]

text: In 1995, May began working towards a new solo album of covers tentatively named Heroes, in addition to working on various film and television projects[34] and other collaborations. May subsequently changed the approach from covers to focus on those collaborations and on new material. The songs included Another World, and featured mainly Spike Edney, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray and Jamie Moses. On 5 April 1998, Cozy Powell was killed in a car accident on the M4 motorway near Bristol, England. This caused a huge, unexpected disruption to the upcoming tour for The Brian May Band, with a new drummer being needed at short notice. Steve Ferrone was brought on to help May finish recording drums and to join the band for the early stage promotional tour of five dates in Europe before the world tour. Following the early promotional tour, Eric Singer replaced Steve Ferrone for the full 1998 world tour.

text: The 1998 tour saw the brief introduction of a 'support act' known as T. E. Conway. Conway (Brian May in a wig and colourful suit playing the part of a teddy boy crooner) would play a number of 1950s rock and roll standards prior to May's 'arrival'. A bonus T. E. Conway EP entitled Retro Rock Special was attached to some pressings of the Another World album. The Conway character was retired at the end of the tour.[35]

text: From his last solo release in 1998, May has been performing as a solo artist, as part of an ensemble, and infrequently as Queen with Roger Taylor. On 22 October 2000, Brian May made a guest appearance at the Motörhead 25th Anniversary show at Brixton Academy along with Eddie Clarke (former Motörhead guitarist) for the encore song "Overkill". As part of the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II celebrations in June 2002, May performed a guitar solo of "God Save the Queen" from the roof of Buckingham Palace, with the performance appearing on the 30th Anniversary DVD edition of A Night at the Opera.[36][37] In 2004 May played guitar on the song "Someone to Die For" on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack.[38] In the Queen's birthday honours list of 2005, he was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire "for services to the music industry and for charity work".[2] In the same year he played the guitar in the song Il mare... of the Italian singer Zucchero Fornaciari, in his album Zu & Co., and he took part in the concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London held in May 2004, with the other guests of the Italian bluesman.

text: May was a celebrity guest at the Genesis reunion concert at Twickenham Stadium in 2007.[39] May and Genesis frontman Phil Collins had worked together on two previous occasions, at The Prince's Trust Rock Gala in 1988 and the Party at the Palace in 2002, when Collins had played drums with Queen. In 2011 he contributed to a feature about Collins for FHM, praising him as "a great guy and an amazing drummer".[40]

text: May worked extensively with stage actress and singer Kerry Ellis, after he cast her in the musical We Will Rock You. He produced and arranged her debut studio album Anthems (2010), a follow-up to her extended play Wicked in Rock (2008), as well as appearing with Ellis at many public performances – playing guitar alongside her. He also contributed a guitar solo to Meat Loaf's Hang Cool, Teddy Bear album in exchange for the use of drummer John Miceli. Along with Elena Vidal, Brian May released a historical book in 2009 entitled A Village Lost and Found: Scenes in Our Village.[41] The book is an annotated collection of stereoscopic photographs taken by the Victorian era photographer T. R. Williams and it is sold with a focussing stereoscope. May became an enthusiast of stereoscope photographs as a child, and first encountered the work of Williams during the late 1960s. In 2003, May announced a search to identify the actual location of the Scenes in Our Village images. In 2004 May reported that he had identified the location as the village of Hinton Waldrist in Oxfordshire.

text: On 20 May 2009, May and Queen bandmate Roger Taylor performed "We Are the Champions" live on the season finale of American Idol with winner Kris Allen and runner-up Adam Lambert providing a vocal duet.[42] In November 2009, May appeared with Taylor on The X Factor, with Queen mentoring the contestants, then later performing "Bohemian Rhapsody". In April 2010, May founded the "Save Me" 2010 project to work against any proposed repeal of the British fox-hunting ban, and also to promote animal rights in Britain.[43] In February 2011 it was announced that May would tour with Kerry Ellis, playing 12 dates across the UK in May 2011.[44] On 1 March 2013 May and Ellis played a free thirty-minute acoustic set at St Pancras railway station to launch Tiger Track, a three-week tiger conservation event.

text: On 18 April 2011, Lady Gaga confirmed that May would play guitar on her track "You and I" from her latest album Born This Way, released on 23 May 2011.[45] In June 2011, May performed with Tangerine Dream at the Starmus Festival on Tenerife, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first spaceflight.[46]

text: On 26 August, May performed "We Will Rock You" and "Welcome to the Black Parade" with American rock band My Chemical Romance at the Reading Festival.[47] On 28 August, May performed "You and I" live with Lady Gaga at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards at the Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles.[48] On 10 October, May made an appearance to celebrate the reunion of British rock band The Darkness at an "intimate" 100 Club show with support from Dark Stares.[49][50] A long-time fan of the group, May performed three songs onstage with The Darkness, including Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down", at the Hammersmith Apollo on their subsequent "comeback" tour.[51][52]

text: At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards on 6 November, Queen received the Global Icon Award, which Katy Perry presented to Brian May.[53] Queen closed the awards ceremony, with Adam Lambert on vocals, performing "The Show Must Go On", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions".[53] The collaboration garnered a positive response from both fans and critics, resulting in speculation about future projects together.[54] Queen + Adam Lambert played two shows at the Hammersmith Apollo, London on 11 and 12 July 2012.[55][56] Both shows sold out within 24 hours of tickets going on open sale.[57] A third London date was added for 14 July.[58] On 30 June, Queen + Lambert performed in Kiev, Ukraine at a joint concert with Elton John for the Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation.[59] Queen also performed with Lambert on 3 July 2012 at Moscow's Olympic Stadium,[60][61] and on 7 July 2012 at the Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw, Poland.[62]

text: In January 2012, May featured on N-Dubz frontman Dappy's solo single "Rockstar",[63] providing "rumbling guitar riffs which culminate in an electrifying solo".[64] The pair also collaborated on a performance of "We Will Rock You" for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.[65]

text: On 12 August 2012, Queen performed at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[66] May performed part of the "Brighton Rock" solo before being joined by Taylor and solo artist Jessie J for a performance of "We Will Rock You".[66][67] On 16 September 2012, May appeared at the Sunflower Jam charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall, performing alongside bassist John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin), drummer Ian Paice (of Deep Purple), and vocalists Bruce Dickinson (of Iron Maiden) and Alice Cooper.[68]

text: May donated his guitar talent to the end credits song from the film, A Dog Named Gucci, in the song "One Voice", which also features the talents of Norah Jones, Aimee Mann, Susanna Hoffs, Lydia Loveless, Neko Case, and Kathryn Calder. It was produced by Dean Falcone, who also wrote the film's score. "One Voice" was released on Record Store Day, 16 April 2016, with profits from the sale of the single going to benefit animal charities.[69]

text: 2004–2009: Queen + Paul Rodgers[edit]

text: At the end of 2004, May and Taylor announced that they would reunite and return to touring in 2005, with Paul Rodgers (founder and former lead singer of Free and Bad Company). Brian May's website also stated that Rodgers would be "featured with" Queen as Queen + Paul Rodgers, not replacing the late Freddie Mercury. The retired John Deacon would not be participating.[70]

text: Between 2005 and 2006 Queen and Paul Rodgers embarked on a world tour, the first leg being Europe and the second, Japan and the US in 2006.[71] On 25 May 2006, Queen received the inaugural VH1 Rock Honors at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, and May and Taylor were joined on stage with the Foo Fighters to perform a selection of Queen songs.[71][72] On 15 August 2006, May confirmed through his website and fan club that Queen + Paul Rodgers would begin producing their first studio album beginning in October, to be recorded at a "secret location".[73] The album, titled The Cosmos Rocks, was released in Europe on 12 September 2008 and in the United States on 28 October 2008. Following the album the band again embarked on a tour through Europe and parts of the US, opening on Kharkiv's freedom square in front of 350,000 Ukrainian fans.[74] The show in Ukraine was later released on DVD.[74] Queen and Paul Rodgers officially split up on 12 May 2009. Rodgers does not rule out the possibility of working together again.[75][76]

text: 2011–present: Queen + Adam Lambert[edit]

text: Not long after performing with American Idol finalists Kris Allen and Adam Lambert during the programme's season finale in 2009, May and Taylor began contemplating the future of Queen after the group's amicable split with frontman Paul Rodgers. Two years later, at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, Queen was presented that year's Global Icon Award, accepted by May. As part of the broadcast, Queen performed a short set with Lambert, receiving an overwhelmingly welcoming response.[54] Speculation regarding a collaboration with Lambert soon arose, with the three formally announcing a short summer tour of Europe in 2012, including three dates at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, as well as shows in Ukraine, Russia and Poland. As with the partnership with Paul Rodgers, John Deacon did not participate.

text: The collaboration was revived in 2013, when the three performed together at the iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on 20 September.[77] Five months later, May, Taylor and Lambert announced a 19-date summer tour of North America on Good Morning America.[78] Due to ticket demand, five dates were soon added.[79] In May 2014, shows in Australia[80] and New Zealand[81] were announced, along with festival performances in South Korea[82] and Japan.[83] The tour was extended to the UK and greater Europe in early 2015.[84] The group performed together in South America in September 2015, including Queen's first performance at the Rock in Rio Festival since 1985.[85]

text: In 2016, the group embarked across Europe and Asia on the Queen + Adam Lambert 2016 Summer Festival Tour. This included closing the Isle of Wight Festival in England on 12 June where they performed "Who Wants to Live Forever" as a tribute to the victims of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida earlier that day.[86] On 12 September they performed at the Park Hayarkon in Tel-Aviv, Israel for the first time in front of 58,000 people.[87] Though the collaboration remains active, there are currently no plans of recording a studio album, though the three are willing to do so in the future.[88]

text: Discography[edit]

text:
"Keep Yourself Alive" (1973) vocal bridge with Taylor, rest sung by Mercury
"Some Day, One Day" (1974)
"She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettoes)" (1974)
"'39" (1975)
"Good Company" (1975)
"Long Away" (1976)
"All Dead, All Dead" (1977)
"Sleeping on the Sidewalk" (1977)
"Fat Bottomed Girls" (1978) chorus vocals
"Leaving Home Ain't Easy" (1978)
"Sail Away Sweet Sister" (1980) Mercury sings the bridge
"Flash" (1980) with Freddie Mercury
"Put Out the Fire" lead on falsetto lines
"Las Palabras de Amor" (1982) harmony vocals on chorus
"I Go Crazy" (1984) lead bridge vocals
"Who Wants to Live Forever" (1986) first verse, harmony and other lines throughout
"I Want It All" (1989) with Mercury
"Lost Opportunity" (1991)
"Mother Love" (1995) lead vocals on final verse
"Let Me Live" (1995) lead vocals on third verse
"No-One but You" (1997) with Taylor

text:
Back to the Light (1992)
Another World (1998)
Furia (2000) soundtrack

text:
Acoustic by Candlelight (with Kerry Ellis) (2013)
Golden Days (with Kerry Ellis) (2017)

text: Highlights[edit]

text: Brian May began composing in 1968 to 1969, and through the years he has collaborated with other songwriters, including Frank Musker, with whom he wrote "Too Much Love Will Kill You", and with Elizabeth Lamers, whose music won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically in 1996.[89] A meticulous arranger, he focuses on multi-part harmonies, often more contrapuntal than parallel – a relative rarity for rock guitar. Examples are found in Queen's albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, where he arranged a jazz band for guitar mini-orchestra ("Good Company"), a vocal canon ("The Prophet's Song") and guitar and vocal counterpoints ("Teo Torriatte").

text: May explored a wide variety of styles in guitar, including sweep picking ("Was It All Worth It", "Chinese Torture"), tremolo ("Brighton Rock", "Stone Cold Crazy", "Death on Two Legs", "Sweet Lady", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Get Down Make Love", "Dragon Attack"), tapping ("Bijou", "It's Late", "Resurrection", "Cyborg", "Rain Must Fall", "Business", "China Belle", "I Was Born To Love You"), slide guitar ("Drowse", "Tie Your Mother Down"), Hendrix sounding licks ("Liar", "Brighton Rock"), tape-delay ("Brighton Rock", "White Man") and melodic sequences ("Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "These Are the Days of Our Lives"). Some of his solos and orchestral parts were composed by Freddie Mercury, who then asked May to bring them to life ("Bicycle Race", "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon", "Killer Queen", "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy"). May also performed notable acoustic works, including the acoustic guitar live version of "Love of My Life" from 1975's A Night at the Opera, the finger-picked solo of "White Queen" and the skiffle-influenced "'39".

text: In January 2007, the readers of Guitar World voted May's guitar solos "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Brighton Rock" into the "top 50 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time" ("Bohemian Rhapsody" was voted No. 20 and "Brighton Rock" was voted #41).[90]

text: Aided by the uniqueness of his guitar – the Red Special – May was often able to create strange and unusual sound effects. For example, he was able to imitate an orchestra in the song "Procession"; in "Get Down, Make Love" he was able to create various sound effects with his guitar; in "Good Company" he used his guitar to mimic a trombone, a piccolo and several other instruments for the song's Dixieland jazz band feel. Queen used a "No synthesizers were used on this album" sleeve note on their early albums to make this clear to the listeners.[91] May also used his guitar to create the chime effect in Bohemian Rhapsody.[92]

text: Musicianship[edit]

text: Influences[edit]

text:
He's a class act from head to toe, and it shows in his playing. I can listen to any player and pantomime their sound, but I can't do Brian May. He's just walking on higher ground.

 —Steve Vai[93]

text:
His tone immediately grabbed me. Brian has his own style and sound, so you can always tell his work. Even in 1971 he had incredible finesse, amazing fluidity.

 —Andy Powell, Wishbone Ash[29]

text: May has been referred to as a virtuoso guitarist by many publications and musicians.[94][95][96][97][98] He has featured in various music polls of great rock guitarists, and in 2011 was ranked number 26 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".[7] Former Van Halen vocalist Sammy Hagar stated, "I thought Queen were really innovative and made some great sounding records.. I like the rockin' stuff. I think Brian May has one of the great guitar tones on the planet, and I really, really love his guitar work."[98] May mainly used the "Red Special",[5] which he designed when he was only 16 years old.[99] It was built with wood from an 18th century fireplace. His comments on the guitar:

text: I like a big neck – thick, flat and wide. I lacquered the fingerboard with Rustin's Plastic Coating. The tremolo is interesting in that the arm's made from an old bicycle saddle bag carrier, the knob at the end's off a knitting needle and the springs are valve springs from an old motorbike.

text: In addition to using his home-made guitar he prefers to use coins (especially a sixpence from the farewell proof set of 1970), instead of a more traditional plastic plectrum, on the basis that their rigidity gives him more control in playing.[101] He is known to carry coins in his pockets specifically for this purpose.[101]

text: May's early influences were Cliff Richard and The Shadows, who he says were "the most metallic thing(s) out at the time." Many years later he gained his opportunity to play on separate occasions with both Cliff Richard and Shadows lead guitarist Hank Marvin. He has collaborated with Cliff Richard on a re-recording of the Cliff Richard and The Shadows (then known as The Drifters) 1958 hit "Move It" on the Cliff Richard duets album Two's Company which was released on 6 November 2006.[102]

text: May always stated that The Beatles, Led Zeppelin,[103] The Who and Jimi Hendrix were the greatest influences on him. On 2 June 2010, on BBC Radio 2, Brian May said, "I would put Rory Gallagher way up there; he is one of the people who inspired me most." On Queen for an Hour 1989 Interview on BBC Radio 1, May listed Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton as his guitar heroes. In a 1991 interview for Guitar World magazine, May referred to the Who as "my inspiration", and on seeing Led Zeppelin stated, "We used to look at those guys and think, "That's the way it should be done."[104] May told Guitarist in 2004: "I don't think anyone has epitomised riff writing better than Jimmy Page – he's one of the great brains of rock music".[105] May was also influenced by Steve Hackett, guitarist of progressive rock band Genesis,[106] in particular his harmony guitar solo at the end of the band's epic 1971 song "The Musical Box".[107]

text: While May and his father were building the Red Special, May also produced plans to build a second guitar. However, so successful was the Red Special, that May had no need to build another guitar.[108] These plans were eventually given to guitar luthier Andrew Guyton in around 2004/05, some slight modifications were made and the guitar was built. It was named "The Spade", as the shape of the body resembled the form shown on playing cards. However the guitar also came to be known as "The Guitar That Time Forgot".[108]

text: Equipment[edit]

text: Guitars and keyboards[edit]

text: Most of May's electric guitar work live and in the studio was done on the Red Special, which he built with his father, an electronics engineer, during his teenage years.[15][109][110][111] From 1975 onwards, he has also had some replicas made, some of which were also used for live and recording purposes, others were mainly spares. The most famous replicas were made by John Birch in 1975 (May actually smashed it during a concert in the States in 1982), Greco BM90 (featured in the promo video of "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" in 1977), Guild (back-up from 1984 to 1993), Fryers (1997–1998, used both live and in the studio) and Guyton[112] (back-up from 2003 to present). On stage, May used to carry at least one back-up guitar (in case he broke a string) and occasionally would use others for certain songs or parts, such as alternate tunings. Currently, May owns a company which makes guitars whose design is modelled after the original Red Special guitar.

text:
July 1973 – May 1974: Fender Stratocaster CBS era (thought to be a 1972)
October 1974 – May 1975: Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, and the Stratocaster from the previous tour.
November 1975 – May 1976: Same two guitars as before, plus a natural finish John Birch replica of the Red Special.
September 1976: Same three as before, plus a Martin D-18 acoustic for "'39".
January 1977 – August 1979: Just the Birch replica plus an Ovation Pacemaker 12-string acoustic on some numbers ("'39", "Love of My Life", "Dreamer's Ball").
November 1979 – June 1982: Birch replica (back-up), Fender Telecaster ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love" 2nd verse, middle-eight and solo), Ovation (acoustic numbers).
July – November 1982: Added a Gibson Flying V as second back-up. On 9 August 1982 Brian smashed the Birch guitar, so the Flying V became the only spare.
August – October 1984: The Flying V became a second back-up again as his main spare was the Guild replica. He also used Roger Taylor's Gibson Chet-Atkins Classical Electric.
July 1985 – August 1986: Gibson Flying V no longer used. The rest remained the same.
In 2012 he received a double-neck replica of the Red Special with the second neck having 12-strings. He used this guitar at a few gigs with Adam Lambert now being able to play the 12-string part from the studio version of Under Pressure live.[113]

text: He currently has a Guild 12-string to replace his Ovation Pacemaker. Some of the non-RS electric guitars he used in the studio included:

text:
Burns Double Six on "Long Away" (1976) and "Under Pressure" (1981).
Fender Telecaster on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (1979). It was used for the video (but not the recordings) of "Back Chat" (1982).
Gibson Firebird on "Hammer to Fall" and "Tear It Up" (album versions only, not on stage).
Ibanez JS on "Nothing But Blue" (1991).
Parker Fly on "Mother Love" (1993–1995).

text: For acoustic, he favoured Ovation, Martin, Tōkai Hummingbird, Godin and Guild. On a couple of videos he also used some different electric guitars: a Stratocaster copy on "Play the Game" (1980) and a Washburn RR2V on "Princes of the Universe" (1986).

text: In 1984 Guild released the first official Red Special replica for mass production, and made some prototypes specifically for May. However the solid body construction (the original RS has hollow cavities in the body) and the pick-ups (DiMarzio) that were not an exact replica of the Burns TriSonic did not make May happy, so the production stopped after just 300 guitars. In 1993 Guild made a second replica of the RS, made in just 1000 copies, of which May has some and used as a back-up. At the moment, he uses the two guitars made by Greg Fryer—the luthier who restored the Old Lady in 1998—as back-up. They are almost identical to the original, except for the Fryer logo on the headstock (May's original one has a sixpence).

text: In the studio, May used Yamaha DX7 synths for the opening sequence of "One Vision" and the backgrounds of "Who Wants to Live Forever" (also on stage), "Scandal" and "The Show Must Go On". He mostly used Freddie Mercury's 1972 Steinway piano and reportedly now owns the instrument in question. May was keen on using some toys as instruments as well. He used a Yamaha plastic piano in "Teo Torriatte" and a toy mini koto in "The Prophet's Song". He also used a "genuine George Formby Ukulele-Banjo" in "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" and "Good Company".

text: Amplifiers and effects[edit]

text: May has used Vox AC30 amplifiers almost exclusively since a meeting with his long-time hero Rory Gallagher at a gig in London during the late 1960s/early 1970s.[114] In the mid-1970s he used six of them, with an Echoplex delay (with extended delay time) plugged into a separate amplifier, and a second Echoplex plugged into yet another amp; he used a homemade booster, his only effects pedal, which was on all the time.[115] His choice is the model AC30TBX, the top-boost version with Blue Alnico speakers, and he runs the amp at full volume on the Normal channel.[116]

text: May also customises his amps by removing the circuitry for the Brilliant and Vib-trem channels (leaving only the circuitry for the Normal), and this alters the tone slightly, with a gain addition of 6–7 dB. He always used a treble booster which, along with the AC30 and his custom 'Deacy Amp' transistor amp, built by Queen bass player John Deacon, went a long way in helping to create many of his signature guitar tones.[117] He used the Dallas Rangemaster for the first Queen albums, up to A Day at the Races. Effects guru Pete Cornish built for him the TB-83 (32 dB of gain) that was used for all the remaining Queen albums. He switched in 2000 to the Fryer's booster, which actually gives less boost than the TB-83.

text: When performing live, he uses banks of Vox AC30 amplifiers keeping some amps with only guitar and others with all effects such as delay, flanger and chorus. He has a rack of 14 AC30s, which are grouped as Normal, Chorus, Delay 1, Delay 2. On his pedal board, May has a custom switch unit made by Cornish and subsequently modified by Fryer that allows him to choose which amps are active. He uses a BOSS pedal from the '70s, the Chorus Ensemble CE-1, which can be heard in "In The Lap of The Gods" (Live at Wembley '86) or "Hammer to Fall" (slow version played live with P. Rodgers). Next in the chain, he uses a Foxx Foot Phaser ("We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions", "Keep Yourself Alive", etc.), and two delay machines to play his trademark solo in "Brighton Rock".

text: Other instruments[edit]

text: The first instrument May learned to play was the banjolele, which he played on Queen's song "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" (live and in the studio). For "Good Company", he used a regular baritone ukulele which he had bought in Hawaii on a holiday. Occasionally, May would also record on other string instruments such as harp (one chord per take, then copied and pasted by the engineer to make it sound like a continuous performance) and bass (on some demos and many songs in his solo career, and the Queen + Paul Rodgers album).

text: As a child, he was also trained on classical piano. Although Freddie Mercury was the band's primary pianist, May would occasionally step in (such as on "Save Me", "Flash", "Who Wants To Live Forever"). From 1979 onwards, he also played synthesisers, organ ("Wedding March", "Let Me Live") and programmed drum-machines for both Queen and outside projects (such as producing other artists and his own solo records).

text: Vocals[edit]

text: May is also an accomplished singer. From Queen's Queen II to The Game, May contributed lead vocals to at least one song per album. May co-composed a mini-opera with Lee Holdridge, Il Colosso, for Steve Barron's 1996 film, The Adventures of Pinocchio. May performed the opera with Jerry Hadley, Sissel Kyrkjebo, and Just William. On-screen, it was performed entirely by puppets.

text: Scientific career[edit]

text: May studied physics and mathematics at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc (Hons) degree and ARCS in physics with Upper Second-Class Honours. From 1970 to 1974, he studied for a PhD[3] degree at Imperial College, studying reflected light from interplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. When Queen started to have international success in 1974, he abandoned his doctoral studies, but co-authored two peer reviewed research papers,[118][119] which were based on his observations at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife.

text: In October 2006, May re-registered for his PhD at Imperial College and submitted his thesis in August 2007 (one year earlier than he estimated it would take to complete). As well as writing up the previous work he had done, May had to review the work on zodiacal dust undertaken during the intervening 33 years, which included the discovery of the zodiacal dust bands by NASA's IRAS satellite. After a viva voce, the revised thesis (titled A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud)[3] was approved in September 2007, some 37 years after it had been commenced.[120][121][122][21][123] He was able to submit his thesis only because of the minimal amount of research on the topic during the intervening years and has described the subject as one that became "trendy" again in the 2000s. His PhD investigated radial velocity using absorption spectroscopy and doppler spectroscopy of zodiacal light using a Fabry–Pérot interferometer based at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife. His research was initially supervised by Jim Ring,[4] Ken Reay[4] and in the latter stages by Michael Rowan-Robinson.[3] He graduated at the awards ceremony of Imperial College held in the Royal Albert Hall on 14 May 2008.[citation needed]

text: In October 2007, May was appointed a Visiting Researcher in Imperial College and continues his interest in astronomy and involvement with the Imperial Astrophysics Group.

text: He is co-author, with Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, of Bang! – The Complete History of the Universe[124][125] and The Cosmic Tourist.[126]

text: Asteroid 52665 Brianmay was named in his honour on 18 June 2008 on the suggestion of Sir Patrick Moore (probably influenced by the asteroid's provisional designation of 1998 BM30).[99][127]

text: In 2014, May co-founded Asteroid Day with Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, B612 Foundation COO Danica Remy and German filmmaker Grigorij Richters. Asteroid Day is a global awareness campaign where people from around the world come together to learn about asteroids and what we can do to protect our planet.[128]

text: May appeared on the 700th episode of The Sky at Night hosted by Sir Patrick Moore, along with Chris Lintott, Jon Culshaw, Prof. Brian Cox, and the Astronomer Royal Martin Rees who on departing the panel, told Brian May, who was joining it, "I don't know a scientist who looks as much like Isaac Newton as you do".[129] May was also a guest on the first episode of the third series of the BBC's Stargazing Live, on 8 January 2013.

text: On 17 November 2007, May was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University,[130] and installed in 2008.[131] He held the post until 2013.[129]

text: During the New Horizons Pluto flyby NASA press conference held on 17 July 2015 at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, Brian May was introduced as a science team collaborator. He told the panel "You have inspired the world."[132][133]

text: Personal life[edit]

text: From 1974 to 1988, May was married to Chrissie Mullen[1] and they had three children: James (aka Jimmy), born on 15 June 1978; Louisa, born on 22 May 1981 and Emily Rose, born on 18 February 1987. May and Chrissie separated in 1988. He met EastEnders actress Anita Dobson in 1986; she inspired him to write the 1989 hit "I Want It All". They married on 18 November 2000.[134]

text: He has stated in interviews that he suffered from severe depression in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to the point of contemplating suicide,[135] for reasons having to do with his troubled first marriage, his perceived failure as a husband and a father, his father Harold's death and Freddie Mercury's illness and death.[136]

text: May's father Harold worked as a draughtsman at the Ministry of Aviation and was a long-time heavy cigarette smoker.[15] As a result, May dislikes smoking,[137] even to the point where he has prohibited smoking indoors at his more recent concerts.[138] According to The Sunday Times Rich List of 2017 he is worth £125 million.[139]

text: Brian May is a vegetarian. He has homes in London and Windlesham, Surrey.[140] He is an active animal rights advocate, and was appointed a vice-president of animal welfare charity, the RSPCA, in September 2012.[141]

text: May describes himself as agnostic.[142]

text: Activism[edit]

text: May has formed a group to promote animal welfare. Though a Conservative Party voter most of his life,[143] he has stated that their policies on fox hunting and the culling of badgers meant he did not vote for them at the 2010 UK general election. His group, Save Me (named after the May-written Queen song), campaigns for the protection of all animals against unnecessary, cruel and degrading treatment; with a particular emphasis on preventing hunting of foxes and the culling of badgers.[14] The group's primary concern is to ensure that the Hunting Act 2004 and other laws protecting animals are retained in situ.[43]

text: In an interview in September 2010 with Stephen Sackur for the BBC's HARDtalk program, May said that he would rather be remembered for his animal rights work than for his music or scientific work.[144] May is a staunch supporter of the RSPCA, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the League Against Cruel Sports, PETA UK and the Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue.

text: In March 2012, May contributed the foreword to a target paper published by the think tank the Bow Group, urging the government to reconsider its plans to cull thousands of badgers to control bovine TB, stating that the findings of Labour's major badger culling trials, several years earlier, show that culling does not work. The paper was authored by Graham Godwin-Pearson with contributions by leading tuberculosis scientists, including Lord Krebs.[145][146][147]

text: In 2013, May joined French guitar player Jean-Pierre Danel for a charity Danel launched to the benefit of animal rights in France. The guitarists signed guitars and art photos together, and were joined by Hank Marvin.[148]

text: In May 2013, May teamed up with actor Brian Blessed and Flash cartoonist Jonti "Weebl" Picking, as well as animal rights groups including the RSPCA, to form Team Badger, a "coalition of organisations that have teamed up to fight the planned cull of badgers".[149] With Weebl and Blessed, May recorded a single, "Save the Badger Badger Badger" – a mashup of Weebl's viral 2003 Flash cartoon meme, "Badger Badger Badger", and Queen's "Flash", featuring vocals by Blessed. Weebl animated the music video, parodying both Weebl's original animation and a scene from Flash Gordon, a film featuring music by Queen, and in which Blessed played Prince Vultan.[citation needed] On 1 September 2013, "Save The Badger Badger Badger" charted at No. 79 on the UK Singles Chart, No. 39 on the UK iTunes chart[150] and No. 1 on the iTunes Rock chart.[151] In June 2013 renowned naturalist David Attenborough and rock guitarist Slash joined May to form the supergroup, Artful Badger and Friends, and released a song dedicated to badgers, "Badger Swagger".[152]

text: Prior to the 2015 general election, it was reported that May was considering standing as an independent Member of Parliament. It was also revealed that May had started a "Common Decency" project "to re-establish common decency in our lives, work and Parliament". May said he wanted to "get rid of the current government" and wished to see a House of Commons containing "individuals voting according to their conscience".[153] May was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas at the election.[154] He also endorsed a Conservative Party candidate, Henry Smith, on the grounds of his animal welfare record.[155]

text: In July 2015, May criticized British prime minister David Cameron for giving Members of Parliament a free vote on amending the ban on fox hunting in England and Wales. During a live television interview, he also attacked the pro-hunting organisation the Countryside Alliance as "a bunch of lying bastards" for their support for a change to the law.[156] The vote was postponed by the government following the intervention of the Scottish National Party's Westminster MPs, who committed to vote to keep the ban as it existed. May told anti-hunt protesters in a rally outside Parliament that it was "a very, very important day for our democracy" but added "we have not yet won the war, there's no room for complacency".[157]

text: In September 2015, a new damselfly species of the genus Heteragrion (Odonata : Zygoptera) from Brazil was named Heteragrion brianmayi in honour of him.[158]

text: In June 2017, May endorsed Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 general election. May shared an article on Twitter by The Independent headlined "Jeremy Corbyn says Fox hunting is 'barbarity' and pledges to keep it banned"[159] and captioned it: "Well, I guess that just about clinches it !! Anyone see any good reason not to prefer the evidently decent Corbyn over the weak and wobbly Mrs May? Bri"[160]

text: Stereophotography[edit]

text: May has had a lifelong interest in collecting Victorian stereophotography. In 2009, with co-author Elena Vidal, he published his second book, A Village Lost and Found,[41] on the work of English stereophotography innovator T. R. Williams.[161] He was awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Saxby Medal in 2012 for achievement in the field of three-dimensional imaging.[162]

text: May made a significant technical contribution to the book to accompany the exhibition 'Stereoscopic Photographs of Pablo Picasso by Robert Mouzillat', held at the Holburne Museum in Bath, UK from February to June 2014. The book provides a cross-section of photographs of Picasso in his studio, at the bullfight at Arles and in his garden. May's 3D 'Owl viewer' is used to view the photographs in 3D.

text: The purchase of his first card in 1973 started May on a lifelong and worldwide search for Les Diableries,[163] which are stereoscopic photographs depicting scenes of daily life in Hell. On 10 October 2013[164] the book Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell by Brian May, Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming was published.[165]