Rock legends QUEEN in an exhibition of photographs – some previously unreleased – from 31st July until 21st September at the Munich Rock Museum in the Olympic Tower.
On the occasion of the Bavarian premiere of the glamorous rock musical “WE WILL ROCK YOU” at the Deutsches Theater, a second QUEEN sensation celebrates its opening in Munich: From today, the unique exhibition “ONE VISION – THE MAGIC OF QUEEN” is on display in the Rock Museum at the top of the Olympic Tower. A tribute to the “bohème of bombastic rock”, it assembles around 60 exhibits documenting the vision and development of this extraordinary band. The impressive photographs, some of which have never been published before, come from various private collections, the QUEEN archive, and several music publishers, and were curated and exclusively made available by the legendary QUEEN manager Jim Beach for this spectacular exhibition.
Today the exhibition was officially opened by the chief executive of the Deutsches Theater, Carmen Bayer, by Herbert Hauke and Arno Frank Eser from the Rock Museum, and by Arno Hartung, the deputy director of the Olympiapark Munich. Markus Neugebauer, who plays the role of “Brit”, represented the cast of the musical “WE WILL ROCK YOU” and provided some authentic rock flair.
“We are very pleased to welcome this exhibition – it will get us in the right mood for the rock spectacle opening at the Deutsches Theater on 9th September,” said Carmen Bayer. Herbert Hauke, founder and director of the Rock Museum, is particularly proud to be able to celebrate the exhibition´s premiere in Munich – after all he experienced these kings of rock live at the theatre on the Brienner Street in 1974, when their career was only starting out. “Right after the concert I went backstage and met the lead singer of the band: FreddieMercury. Of course I had no idea what cult status QUEEN would eventually achieve!”
The Rock Museum offers the perfect ambiance for this unique documentation of QUEEN’s incredible history: the exposed, towering exhibition venue mirrors the outstanding achievement and importance of the band in the history of rock.
Formed at the beginning of the 70s, the band – consisting of guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, bassist John Deacon and lead singer Freddie Mercury – developed an idiosyncratic progressive style that was to become an influential and unmistakable sound in the history of rock music. Their concerts were glamorous and spectacular, their costumes extravagant, their lighting and set grandiose and gigantic. Munich was a second home to these musicians for much of the 80s: four albums were created here, and some of the band’s first concerts took place in the Bavarian capital.
The photographs in the exhibition are by renowned photographers Terry O’Neill, Neal Preston, Peter Hince, Lord Snowdon, Denis O’Regan, George Hurrell, Simon Fowler, David Bailey, Richard Young, Jill Furmanovsky and Arthur Edwards, who all accompanied the band at different stages of its career and whose cameras captured crucial moments in the band´s history, preserving them for all eternity.
And from 9th September to 13th December the musical “WE WILL ROCK YOU” will also honour the memory of QUEEN in a musical way: produced in collaboration with the rock legends Brian May and Roger Taylor themselves, it is built around 21 of QUEEN’s greatest hits – they not only form the basis for the witty and electric story by the well-known writer and comedian Ben Elton (who has written for, among others, Mr. Bean), but also guarantee an extravagant rock sound for one of the most successful musicals of all time.
Address:
On the visitors platform of the Olympic Tower
Spiridon-Louis-Ring 7
80809 Munich
Opening hours:
Monday – Sunday 9.00am – 12.00pm (last ascent 11.30pm)
Entrance fee:
No special entrance fee for the exhibition, just for the lift to the visitors platform (price for adults: 5,50 € I Special children and group prices)