Queen

Queen were an English rock band formed in 1970 in London by guitarist Brian May, lead vocalist Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor, with bassist John Deacon completing the lineup the following year. However, Philip "Spike" Edney, on keys, bass, guitar, trombone and backing vocals, has worked with the band to such an extent that he has been referred to as "the fifth member of Queen"[citation needed].

The band were noted for their musical diversity, multi-layered arrangements, vocal harmonies, and incorporation of audience participation into their live performances.[2] Their 1985 Live Aid performance was voted the best live rock performance of all time in an industry poll.

Queen enjoyed success in the UK in the early 1970s with the albums Queen and Queen II[citation needed], but it was with the release of Sheer Heart Attack in 1974 and A Night at the Opera the following year that the band gained international success[citation needed]. They have released fifteen studio albums, five live albums, and numerous compilation albums. Eighteen of these have reached number one on charts around the world[citation needed].

Following Mercury's death in 1991 and Deacon's retirement in 1997, May and Taylor have performed infrequently under the Queen name. Since 2004 they have been collaborating with Paul Rodgers, under the moniker Queen + Paul Rodgers.

History

Early days (1968–1973)
“ I thought up the name Queen. It's just a name, but it's very regal obviously, and it sounds splendid, It's a strong name, very universal and immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations. I was certainly aware of gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it. ”

—Freddie Mercury

In 1969, guitarist Brian May, a student at London's Imperial College, and bassist Tim Staffell decided to form a group. May placed an advertisement on the college notice board for a "Mitch Mitchell/Ginger Baker type" drummer; Roger Taylor, a young dental student, auditioned and got the job. They called the group Smile.

Smile signed to Mercury Records in 1969, and had their first session in a recording studio in Trident Studios that year. Tim Staffell was attending Ealing Art College with Farrokh Bulsara, later known as Freddie Mercury, and introduced him to the band. Bulsara soon became a keen fan. Staffell left in 1970 to join another band, Humpy Bong;[5] the remaining Smile members, encouraged by Bulsara, changed their name to "Queen" and continued working together, prior to Bulsara himself joining as vocalist.[5] The band had a number of bass players during this period who did not fit with the band's chemistry. It was not until February 1971 that they settled on John Deacon and began to rehearse for the first album.

In 1973, after a series of delays, Queen released their first album, a self-titled project influenced by the heavy metal and progressive rock of the day. The album was received well by critics; Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone said "their debut album is superb,"[7] and Chicago's Daily Herald called it an "above average debut".[8] However, it drew little mainstream attention and the lead single "Keep Yourself Alive," a Brian May composition, sold poorly. Greg Prato of Allmusic called it "one of the most underrated hard rock debuts of all time."

The album Queen II was released in 1974. The album reached number five on the British album charts,[10] while the Freddie Mercury-written lead single "Seven Seas of Rhye," reached number ten in the UK, giving the band their first hit. The album is their heaviest and darkest release, featuring long complex instrumental passages, fantasy-themed lyrics and musical virtuosity. The band toured as support to Mott the Hoople in the UK & United States during this period, and they began to gain notice for their energetic and engaging stage shows. However, album sales in the US were, like those of its predecessor, low.

Breakthrough era (1974–1979)




Because of medical complications, May was absent when the band started work on their third album, Sheer Heart Attack, released in 1974. The album reached number two in the United Kingdom,[12] sold well throughout Europe, and went gold in the United States.[13] It gave the band their first real taste of commercial success. The album experimented with a variety of musical genres, including British Music Hall ("Killer Queen"), heavy metal ("Flick of the Wrist", "Brighton Rock", "Tenement Funster", "Now I'm Here", and "Stone Cold Crazy" – a song which Metallica later covered, earning them a Grammy Award), ballads ("Lily Of The Valley" and "Dear Friends"), ragtime ("Bring Back That Leroy Brown") and Caribbean ("Misfire"). At this point Queen started to move away from the progressive tendencies of their first two releases into a more radio-friendly, song-oriented style. Sheer Heart Attack introduced new sound and melody patterns that would be refined on their next album A Night at the Opera.

The single "Killer Queen" reached number two on the British charts, and became their first U.S. hit, reaching number twelve in the Billboard American Top 40. It combines camp, vaudeville, British music hall with May’s guitar virtuosity. The album’s second single, "Now I’m Here", a more traditional hard rock composition, was a number eleven hit in Britain.

In 1975, the band left for a world tour with each member in Zandra Rhodes-created costumes and banks of lights and effects. They toured the US, headlining for the first time, and played in Canada for the first time in April. At the same time, the band's manager Jim Beach successfully negotiated the band out of their Trident contract. Of the options they considered, was an offer from Led Zeppelin’s manager, Peter Grant. Grant wanted them to sign with Led Zeppelin’s own production company, Swan Song Records. The band found the contract unacceptable and instead, contacted Elton John’s manager, John Reid, who accepted the position. In April 1975 the band toured Japan for the first time.

Later that year the band recorded and released A Night at the Opera. At the time, it was the most expensive album ever produced. Like its predecessor, the album features diverse musical styles and experimentation with stereo sound. In "The Prophet's Song", an eight-minute epic, the middle section is a canon, with simple phrases layered to create a full-choral sound. The album was very successful in Britain, and went triple platinum in the United States.[13]. It is considered their magnum opus; in 2003, it was ranked number 230 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The album also featured the hit single "Bohemian Rhapsody", which was number one in the United Kingdom for nine weeks,[10] and is Britain’s third-best-selling single of all time; it also reached number nine in the United States (a 1992 re-release reached number two).[14] Bohemian Rhapsody has been voted, several times, the greatest song of all time.[18][19] The band decided to make a video to go with the single; the result is generally considered to have been the first "true" music video ever produced.[citation needed] Although other bands (including The Beatles) had made short promotional films or videos of songs prior to this, generally those were made for specific showings or programs (such as the Beatles' videos for "Hey Jude" and "Revolution", which were specifically made to be aired on the Smothers Brothers' television show. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was the first musical video offered free of charge, to any program, network or station which would air it.[citation needed] The second single from the album, "You're My Best Friend", peaked at sixteen in the United States and went on to become a worldwide Top Ten hit.


By 1976, Queen were back in the studio, where they recorded A Day at the Races, what may be mistaken simply as a companion album to A Night at the Opera.[20] It again borrowed the name of a Marx Brothers' movie, and its cover was similar to that of A Night at the Opera, a variation on the same Queen Crest. Musically, the album was by both fans’ and critics’ standards a strong effort, and reached number one on the British charts.[10] The major hit on the album was "Somebody to Love", a gospel-inspired song in which Mercury, May, and Taylor multi-tracked their voices to make a 100-voice gospel choir. The song went to number two in the United Kingdom,[10] and number thirteen on the U.S. singles chart.[14]. The album also featured one of the band's heaviest songs, Brian May’s "Tie Your Mother Down", which became a staple of their live shows.

Also in 1976, Queen played one of their most famous gigs, a 1976 free concert in Hyde Park, London. It set an attendance record, with 150,000 people confirmed in the audience.

News of the World was released a year later. It contained many songs tailor-made for live performance, including "We Will Rock You" and the rock ballad "We Are the Champions", both of which reached number four in the United States and became enduring international sports anthems.[14] Roger Taylor released his first solo effort in 1977 in the form of a single: the A-side was a cover of a song by The Parliaments "I Wanna Testify", and the B-side was a song by Taylor called "Turn On The TV".

In 1978 the band released Jazz, including the hit singles "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Bicycle Race" which were also released as a double-A-side single. The word "jazz" was not used in a strict sense, and the album was noted by critics for its collection of different styles, jazz not being one of them.[23] Rolling Stone Magazine criticised it for being "dull", saying "Queen hasn’t the imagination to play jazz – Queen hasn't the imagination, for that matter, to play rock & roll."[23] Important tracks of the album include "Dead on Time", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Let Me Entertain You", and "Mustapha", in which Arabesque music is combined with heavy rock guitar.

The band’s first live album, Live Killers, was released in 1979; it went platinum twice in the United States.They also released the very successful single "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", a rockabilly song done in the style of Elvis Presley. The song made the top 10 in many countries, and was the band’s first number one single in the United States.




New sound and synthesisers (1980–1984)



Queen began the 1980s with The Game. It featured the singles "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Another One Bites the Dust", both of which reached number one in the United States.[14] The album stayed number one for four weeks in the United States,[25] and sold over four million copies.[13] It was also the only album to ever top the Billboard rock, dance, and R&B charts simultaneously. The album also marked the first appearance of a synthesiser on a Queen album. Heretofore, their albums featured a distinctive "No Synthesisers were used on this Album" sleevenote. The note is widely assumed to reflect an anti-synth, pro-"hard"-rock stance by the band,[26] but was later revealed by producer Roy Thomas Baker to be an attempt to clarify that those albums' multi-layered solos were created with guitars, not synths, as record company executives kept assuming at the time.

1980 also saw the release of the soundtrack Queen had recorded for Flash Gordon.

In 1981, Queen became the first major rock band to play in Latin American stadiums. Queen played to a total audience of 479,000 people on their South American tour, including five shows in Argentina and two in Brazil where they played to an audience of more than 130,000 people in the first night and more than 120,000 people the following night at São Paulo (Morumbi Stadium). In October of the same year, Queen performed for more than 150,000 fans on October 9 at Monterrey (Estadio Universitario) and 17 and 18 at Puebla (Estadio Zaragoza), Mexico.

Also in 1981, Queen worked with David Bowie on the single "Under Pressure". The first-time collaboration with another artist was spontaneous, as Bowie happened to drop by the studio while Queen were recording.[28] The band were immediately pleased with the results, but Bowie did not play the song live for several years.[citation needed] Upon its release, the song was extremely successful, reaching number one in Britain. The bass line was later used for Vanilla Ice's 1990 hit "Ice Ice Baby", prompting the threat of a lawsuit over the use of the sample. The lawsuit did not make it to court and was settled for an undisclosed amount.

Later that year, Queen released their first compilation album, entitled Greatest Hits, which showcased the group's highlights from 1974-1981. It was highly successful, and as of 2007, it is the United Kingdom's best selling album.aylor became the first member of the band to release his own solo album in 1981, entitled Fun In Space.

In 1982 the band released the funk album Hot Space. The band stopped touring North America after their Hot Space Tour, as their success there had waned, although they would perform on American television for the only time during the eighth season premiere of Saturday Night Live. Queen left Elektra Records, their label in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and signed onto EMI/Capitol Records.

After working steadily for over ten years, Queen decided that they would not perform any live shows in 1983. During this time, they recorded a new album, and several members of the band explored side projects and solo work. May released a mini-album entitled Star Fleet Project, on which he collaborated with Eddie Van Halen. A computer musician composer in Canada, Kevin Chamberlain, helped with vocals and background music for Mercury's solo project[citation needed], which was later cancelled due to creative differences.

In 1984, Queen released the album The Works, which included the successful singles "Radio Ga Ga" and "I Want to Break Free". Despite these hit singles, the album failed to do well in the United States. "Radio Ga Ga" was the band's last original American Top Forty hit until 1989's "I Want It All".

Queen embarked that year on a set of dates during their The Works Tour in Bophuthatswana, South Africa at the arena at Sun City.[31] Upon returning to England, they were the subject of outrage, having played there during the height of apartheid and in violation of worldwide divestment efforts. The band responded to the critics by stating that they were playing music for fans in that country, and they also stressed that the concerts were played before integrated audiences.

Live Aid and later years (1985–1989)

On 12 January 1985, the band headlined two nights of the first Rock in Rio festival at Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). They were the main act on the January 11 and 18 lineups. On each night, they played in front of over 180,000 people. A selection of highlights of both performances was released on VHS on May with the title Queen Live in Rio.

In April, Mercury released his first solo album, Mr. Bad Guy.

At Live Aid, held at Wembley on 13 July 1985, Queen performed some of their greatest hits in what has been considered their best performance to date.[32] The band, now revitalised by the response to Live Aid and the ensuing increase in record sales, ended 1985 by releasing the single "One Vision". The song was used in the film Iron Eagle. Also, a limited-edition boxed set containing all Queen albums to date was released under the title of "The Complete Works". The package included previously unreleased material, most notably Queen's non-album single of Christmas 1984, titled Thank God it's Christmas.

In early 1986, Queen recorded the album A Kind of Magic, containing several songs written for the Russell Mulcahy film Highlander. The album was very successful, producing a string of hits including the title track "A Kind of Magic", which contains the key lyrics 'There can be only one', a reference to the movie's plot; "Friends Will Be Friends", "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "Princes of the Universe".

Later that year, Queen went on a sold-out tour (the band's largest) in support of A Kind of Magic. The Magic Tour's highlight was at Wembley Stadium in London and resulted in the live double album, Queen Live At Wembley Stadium, released on CD and as a live concert film. They could not book Wembley for a third night because it was already booked, but they did play at Knebworth Park. The show sold out within two hours and over 120,000 fans packed the park for what proved to be Queen's final live performance with Mercury.[33] More than 1 million people saw Queen on the tour – 400,000 in the United Kingdom alone, a record at the time.[31]

After working on various solo projects during 1988 (including Mercury's collaboration with Montserrat Caballé, Barcelona) the band released The Miracle in 1989. The album continued the direction of A Kind of Magic, using a pop-rock sound mixed with a few heavy numbers. It spawned the European hits "I Want It All", "Breakthru", "The Invisible Man", "Scandal", and "The Miracle".

The Miracle also began a change in direction of Queen's songwriting philosophy. Since the band's beginning, nearly all songs had been written by and credited to a single member, with other members adding minimally. With The Miracle, however, the band's songwriting became more collaborative, and they vowed to credit the final product only to Queen as a group.[34]

The final albums and Mercury's death (1990–1997)
“ There was all that time when we knew Freddie was on the way out, we kept our heads down. ”

—Brian May

After fans and the tabloid press noted Mercury's gaunt appearance in public during 1988[citation needed], rumours began to spread that Mercury was suffering from AIDS. For reasons still not confirmed, Mercury flatly denied them at the time, insisting he was merely "exhausted" and too busy to provide interviews.[35] However, the band decided to continue making albums free of internal conflict and differences, starting with The Miracle and continuing with Innuendo, which was recorded during 1990 but not released until the beginning of 1991 as Mercury's health was a major factor in the delay[citation needed].

Despite his deteriorating health, Mercury continued to contribute. The band released their second greatest hits compilation, Greatest Hits II, in October 1991.

On 23 November 1991, in a prepared statement made on his deathbed, Mercury confirmed that he had AIDS. Within twelve hours of that statement, he died of bronchial pneumonia, which was brought on by AIDS. His funeral service was private, held in accordance with the Zoroastrian religious faith of his family.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was re-released as a single shortly after Mercury's death, with "These Are the Days of Our Lives" as the double A-side. The single went to number 1 for the second time in the UK. Initial proceeds from the single – approximately £1,000,000 – were donated to the Terrence Higgins Trust.[36]

Queen's popularity increased once again in the United States after "Bohemian Rhapsody" was featured in the comedy film Wayne's World, helping the song reach number two for five weeks in the United States charts in 1992. The song was made into a Wayne's World music video, with which the band and management were delighted.[citation needed]

On 20 April 1992, the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was held at London's Wembley Stadium. Performers included Def Leppard, Lisa Stansfield, Elton John, David Bowie, Robert Plant, Tony Iommi, Annie Lennox, Guns N' Roses, Extreme, Roger Daltrey, George Michael, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, Zucchero, Metallica, Liza Minnelli, Elizabeth Taylor and Spinal Tap, along with the three remaining members of Queen, performed many of Queen's major hits. It was a successful concert that was televised to over 1 billion viewers worldwide.[31] The concert is listed in The Guinness Book of Records as "The largest rock star benefit concert."[37] It raised over £20,000,000 for AIDS charities.[36]

The band also terminated their Capitol Records contract and signed a deal with Hollywood Records as their new U.S label.
Queen never actually disbanded, although their last album of original material, titled Made in Heaven, was released in 1995, four years after Mercury's death. It was constructed from Mercury's final recording sessions in 1991, plus material left over from their previous studio albums. In addition, re-worked material from Mercury's solo album Mr. Bad Guy and a track originally featured on the first album of Taylor's side-project The Cross were included. May and Taylor have often been involved in projects related to raising money for AIDS research. John Deacon's last involvement with the band was in 1997, when the band recorded the track "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)". It was the last song recorded by Queen, and it was released as a bonus track on the Queen Rocks compilation album later that year. Due to demand from Queen fans, the song was later released as a single reaching #13 in the UK chart.

"Queen + ..." projects (1998-2003)



Several Queen + projects were developed in the following years, a few of them mere remixes with no artistic involvement from the band. In 1999, a Greatest Hits III album was released. This album featured, among others, "Queen + Wyclef Jean" on a rap version of "Another One Bites the Dust"; a live version of "Somebody to Love" by George Michael; and a live version of "The Show Must Go On", performed live in 1997 with Elton John.

Brian May and Roger Taylor performed together as Queen on several occasions (award ceremonies, charity concerts, and the like), sharing vocals with various guest singers. They also recorded several covers of Queen's hits with guest vocalists, including "We Will Rock You" (with Five and later, Britney Spears, Beyonce, John Farnham and P!nk) and "We Are the Champions" (with Robbie Williams).

In 2003, four new songs were recorded by Queen for Nelson Mandela's 46664 campaign against AIDS. The studio versions of Invincible Hope (Queen + Nelson Mandela, feat. Treana Morris), 46664 - The Call, and Amandla (Anastacia, Dave Stewart and Queen) have not yet been released on album.

Also, in 2002, Brian May and Roger Taylor collaborated with Ben Elton to make a musical based on their greatest hits, called We Will Rock You. It will run until November 2009 in the Dominion Theatre, London and spawned many overseas versions.

Queen + Paul Rodgers (2004-Present)

Main article: Queen + Paul Rodgers
2005 Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour




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;[4] Danny Miranda of Blue Öyster Cult replaced him on bass. Other members of the tour included keyboardist Spike Edney, who played guitar and keyboards in Queen live shows since 1984, and additional guitarist Jamie Moses, who began working with May on solo efforts in the early 1990s.

A live double CD album, Return of the Champions, was released on 19 September 2005. It was recorded in May 2005 during the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England. A DVD from the concert was also released.

In March 2006, Queen + Paul Rodgers set out to tour the United States and Canada. During this tour, the group debuted their first new song, a collaboration called "Take Love". A second live DVD, Super Live in Japan, was released in 2006; the show was filmed at Saitama Super Arena on 27 October 2006.

On 15 August 2006, Brian 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".[38] The album, titled The Cosmos Rocks, was released in the European Union on 12 September 2008 and in the United States on 28 October 2008. Following this, the group embarked on the Rock The Cosmos Tour,[39] opening on 12 September with an AIDS-benefit concert to an audience of over 350,000 people in Kharkiv, Ukraine.[40][41]

In the digital realm

In conjunction with Electronic Arts, Queen released the computer game Queen: The Eye in 1998, to commercial and critical failure. The music itself — tracks from Queen's vast catalogue, in many cases remixed into new instrumental versions — was by and large well received, but the game experience was hampered by poor game play. Adding to the problem was an extremely long development time, resulting in graphic elements that already seemed outdated by the time of release.

In March 2009, Sony Computer Entertainment released a Queen branded version of the company's karaoke franchise, SingStar. The game, which is available on Playstation 2 and Playstation 3, is titled SingStar Queen and has 25 songs on the PS3 and 20 on the PS2.

Under the supervision of May and Taylor, numerous restoration projects have been underway involving Queen's lengthy audio and video catalogue. DVD releases of their 1986 Wembley concert (titled Live At Wembley Stadium) and 1982 Milton Keynes concert (Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl), and two Greatest Video Hits (Volumes 1 and 2, spanning the 1970s and 1980s) have seen the band's music remixed into 5.1 and DTS surround sound. So far, only two of the band's albums, A Night at the Opera and The Game, have been fully remixed into high-resolution multichannel surround on DVD-Audio. A Night at the Opera was re-released with some revised 5.1 mixes and accompanying videos in 2005 for the 30th anniversary of the album's original release (CD+DVD-Video set). In 2007, a BluRay edition of Queen's previously released concerts Queen Rock Montreal & Live Aid was released together marking their first project in 1080p HD.

In film and television

Queen contributed music directly to the movies Flash Gordon (1980, directed by Mike Hodges) and Highlander (the original 1986 film, directed by Russell Mulcahy). The theme song, "Princes of the Universe", was also used in the Highlander TV series (1992–1998). "One Year of Love" can be heard in "Highlander 2".

In the United States, "Bohemian Rhapsody" was re-released as a single in 1992 after appearing in Wayne's World. The single subsequently reached number two on the US Billboard chart (with "The Show Must Go On" as the first track on the single) and helped rekindle the band's popularity in North America.

Several films have featured their songs performed by other artists. A version of Somebody to Love was done by Anne Hathaway in the 2004 film Ella Enchanted. In 2006, Brittany Murphy also recorded a cover of the same song for the 2006 movie Happy Feet. In 2001, a version of "The Show Must Go On" was performed by Jim Broadbent and Nicole Kidman in the movie musical Moulin Rouge!. The closing credits of A Knight's Tale released in 2001 has a version of "We Are the Champions" performed by Robbie Williams and Queen; the introduction to the same movie features We Will Rock You played by the medieval audience. In 1992, the film "Gladiator" featured snippets of "We Will Rock You" performed by Warrant whereas their full version was released as a single.

Many films have featured their songs or sections of their songs. These include:

* Flash Gordon
* FM
* Highlander
* Iron Eagle
* I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
* Kicking & Screaming
* Moulin Rouge!
* National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon
* The Break-up
* Small Soldiers

* Son in Law
* Encino Man
* Stepmom
* High Fidelity
* Super Size Me
* The Girl Next Door
* Mr. Wrong
* Revenge of the Nerds
* 10th Kingdom
* Wayne's World



* D2: The Mighty Ducks
* Shaun of the Dead
* How High
* Happy Feet
* Chicken Little
* Cheaper By The Dozen 2
* Grosse Pointe Blank
* Blackball
* Blades of Glory
* A Knight's Tale
* Mickey Blue Eyes
* Super Mario Bros.
* Ella Enchanted
* The Pacifier
* Late Last Night
* Peter's Friends
* The Heartbreak Kid
* Imax The Alps
* Zoom
* What Happens in Vegas
* Failure to Launch
* Step Brothers
* Observe and Report



Keeping in the tradition (since Season Five) of naming each season's episodes after songs from a famous 1970s era rock band (Led Zeppelin for the fifth season, The Who for the sixth and The Rolling Stones for the seventh), the eighth and final season of That '70s Show consisted of episodes named after Queen songs. "Bohemian Rhapsody" served as the season premiere.[42]

On 11 April 2006 Queen appeared on the American singing contest television show American Idol. Each contestant was required to sing a Queen song during that week of the competition. Songs which appeared on the show included "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Fat Bottomed Girls", "The Show Must Go On", "Who Wants to Live Forever", and "Innuendo". Brian May later criticised the show for editing specific scenes,[43] one which made the group's time with contestant Ace Young look negative, despite it being the opposite.

Al Murray's Happy Hour has a Queen theme, as it uses "Don't Stop Me Now" for the introduction and features guest performers along with host Al Murray singing different Queen songs each episode. The remainder of Queen did appear at the end of a series of the show.

"I Was Born to Love You" was used as the theme song of the Japanese drama Pride on Fuji Television in 2004, starring Takuya Kimura and Yūko Takeuchi. The show's soundtrack also contained other songs by Queen, including "We Will Rock You, "We Are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody".

The band made tentative plans to provide material for use in "The Hotel New Hampshire" but this project was abandoned. However, "Keep Passing The Open Windows" (which is an important catch-phrase line in the movie) did survive.

In musical theatre

In 2002, a musical or "rock theatrical" based on the songs of Queen, titled We Will Rock You, opened at the Dominion Theatre on London's West End. The musical was written by British comedian and author Ben Elton in collaboration with Brian May and Roger Taylor, and produced by Robert De Niro. It has since been staged in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain; Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane, Australia; Cologne, Germany; Vienna, Austria; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; South Africa, Las Vegas United States; Zurich, Switzerland; Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Moscow, Russia; Varberg, Sweden; Auckland, New Zealand; Toronto, Canada; Hong Kong and Singapore.

The original London production was scheduled to close on Saturday, 7 October 2006 at the Dominion Theatre, but due to public demand, the show has now been extended indefinitely. We Will Rock You has become the longest running musical ever to run at this prime London theatre, overtaking the previous record holder, the Grease musical.[44]

The launch of the musical coincided with Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. As part of the Jubilee celebrations Brian May performed a guitar solo of "God Save the Queen",[45] as featured on Queen's A Night at the Opera, from the roof of Buckingham Palace. The recording of this performance was used as video for the same song on the 30th Anniversary DVD edition of A Night at the Opera.

Sean Bovim created "Queen at the Ballet", a tribute to Freddie Mercury, which uses Queen's music as a soundtrack for the show’s dancers, who interpret the stories behind tracks such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Radio Ga Ga" and "Killer Queen."

Brian May has confirmed that they are considering writing a sequel to the musical.

In 2009 the musical is going on tour around the UK, the production can be seen at: Manchester Palace Theatre, Sunderland Empire, Birmingham Hippodrome, Bristol Hippohouse, Edinburgh Playhouse.

Sound and style

Queen composed music that drew inspiration from many different genres of music, often with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. Among the genres they have been associated with are: dance/disco,[46] glam rock,[47] hard rock,[47] heavy metal,[47] pop rock,[47] progressive rock[47] and psychedelic rock.[48] Queen also wrote songs that were inspired by genres that are not typically associated with rock, such as country, ragtime, opera, gospel, vaudeville and folk.

Sonic experimentation figured heavily in Queen's songs. A distinctive characteristic of Queen's music are the vocal harmonies which are usually composed of the voices of May, Mercury and Taylor best heard on the studio albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races. Some of the ground work for the development of this sound can be attributed to their former producer Roy Thomas Baker as well as their engineer Mike Stone. Besides vocal harmonies, Queen were also known for multi-tracking voices to imitate the sound of a large choir through overdubs. According to Brian May, there are over 180 vocal overdubs in "Bohemian Rhapsody".[49] Many Queen songs were also written with audience participation in mind, such as "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions".[50]

Influence on other musicians

More recently Queen have been recognised as having made significant contributions to such genres as arena rock,[citation needed] hard rock,[51] heavy metal,[52] pop rock and progressive rock,[citation needed] amongst others. Hence the band has been cited as an influence by many other musicians. Moreover, like their music, the collection of bands and artists that have claimed to be influenced by Queen is diverse and spans different generations, countries and genres.

Some of the musicians that have cited the band as an influence include: Anthrax[53], Ben Folds Five[54], Blind Guardian[55], Kurt Cobain[56], Def Leppard[57], Extreme[58], The Killers[59], Foo Fighters, Green Day[60], Guns N' Roses[61], Helloween[62], Iron Maiden[63], Judas Priest,[63]Kansas[64], Manic Street Preachers[65], Marianas Trench[66], Marilyn Manson, Metallica[67], My Chemical Romance (Flash and Under Pressure covers), Mika[68], Muse[69], Radiohead[70], The Smashing Pumpkins[71][72], Styx[73], Lady Gaga[74].

Queen have also been cited as a major influence on the "neo-classical metal" genre by Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen.[75] Metallica recorded a cover version of "Stone Cold Crazy", which first appeared on the "Rubaiyat — Electra's 40th Anniversary" album in 1990, and won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1991. In the early '70s, Queen helped spur the heavy metal genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence;[52][63]the New Wave of British Heavy Metal followed in a similar vein, fusing the music with a punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed.

Hit Singles
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.

Over the course of their career, Queen have been regarded[who?] as a consistent hit maker. Many of their songs reached either #1, or high positions in charts around the world. Queen have released three Greatest Hits Compilations though due to the definition of a hit[clarification needed], there should have been more singles in their Greatest Hits catalogs as some songs reached the top 40# or 30# in countries and have made the UK Top 75 or US Top 100. The following singles reached the UK Top 75 or the US Top 100.
Historical success

As of 2005, according to The Guinness Book of World Records, Queen albums have spent a total of 1,322 weeks or twenty-seven years on the United Kingdom album charts; more time than any other musical act including The Beatles and Elvis Presley.[76] Also in 2005, with the release of their live album with Paul Rodgers, Queen moved into third place on the list of acts with the most aggregate time spent on the British record charts.[77]

In 2006, the Greatest Hits album was found to be the United Kingdom's all-time best selling album, with sales upwards of 5,407,587 copies, over 604,295 more copies than its nearest competitor, The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Their Greatest Hits II album came in seventh with sales upwards of 3,631,321 copies.[78]

One of rock's most successful, influential and popular acts, the band has released a total of eighteen number one albums, eighteen number one singles, and ten number one DVDs worldwide making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. Their total record sales have been estimated at over 300 million worldwide[79] including 32.5 million in the United States[80] alone as of 2004. The band is also the only group in which every member has composed more than one chart-topping single.[81] Also, on January 2007, it was announced that Queen's Greatest Hits I & II was the most downloaded album on iTunes in the US.

Queen is also one of the most bootlegged bands ever, according to Nick Weymouth, who manages the band's online presence at www.queenonline.com.[82] A 2001 survey revealed the existence of 12,225 websites dedicated to Queen bootlegs, the highest number for any band.[83] Bootleg recordings have contributed to the band's popularity in certain countries where Western music is censored, such as Iran.[84] In a project called Queen: The Top 100 Bootlegs, many of these have been made officially available to download for a nominal fee from Queen's website, with profits going to the Mercury Phoenix Trust.[82]

Accolades

Inductions

* 2001 - The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.[85]
* 2002 - The band was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[86]
* 2003 - The band became the first and remain the only band, rather than individual, to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[81]
* 2004 - The band was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame.[87]
* 2004 - "Bohemian Rhapsody" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[88]
* 2004 - The band was inducted into the RockWalk of Fame (at Guitar Center on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard)[89]
* 2006 - The band was the first inducted into the VH1 Rock Honors.[90]
* 2009 - "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions" are inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[88]

Awards

* 1974
o Sounds: 3rd Best New British Band, 9th Best International Band
o Disc: 10th Brightest Hope
o NME: 2nd Most Promising New Name

* 1975
o Melody Maker: 'Band of the Year'[91]
o Record Mirror: 2nd Best British Newcomer, 2nd Best Single ("Killer Queen"), 9th International Group
o NME: 8th Best British Group, 7th Best Stage Band, 4th Most Promising Group In The World, 3rd Most Promising New Name, 17th Best World Group
o Disc: Top Live Band, Top International Group, Top British Group, Top Single ("Killer Queen"), 3rd Best Album (Sheer Heart Attack), 5th Best Album (Queen II)
o Ivor Novello Award to Mercury for "Killer Queen"[92]
o Golden Lion Award (Belgium) to Mercury for "Killer Queen"
o Carl Allen Award for contribution to the Ballroom Dancing Industry

* 1976
o NME: 1st British Stage Band, 2nd Group, 5th World Group, 3rd World Stage Band, Mercury: 7th World Singer, May: 3rd Top Guitarist, 1st British Single ("Bohemian Rhapsody"), 2nd Album ("A Night at the Opera")
o Record Mirror / Disc: 1st Best British Group, 1st World Group, No. 1 Single ("Bohemian Rhapsody"), No. 6 Album ("A Night at the Opera"), Mercury: 5th British Singer, 6th World Singer, 4th British Songwriter, 5th World Songwriter, May: 4th British Musician, 4th World Musician
o Sound: Best Band, Best Album (A Night at the Opera), Best Single ("Bohemian Rhapsody")[93]
o Ivor Novello Award to Mercury for "Bohemian Rhapsody"[92]

* 1977
o The BRIT Awards: Best British Single of the Last 25 Years ("Bohemian Rhapsody")[94]
o Europe One Radio: Most Potential Rock Band
o Daily Mail: Best Group

* 1979
o Music Life, Japan: Top Group, Top Album (Jazz), Top Single, Top Singer, Top Guitarist, Top Drummer, Top Bass Player

* 1980
o Juno Awards, Canada: Best Group, Best International Single ("Another One Bites the Dust"), Best International Album (The Game)
o Record World USA: Top Male Group, Top Producer, Top Disco Crossover (All awarded for "Another One Bites the Dust")
o Dick Clark Awards USA: Best Band
o Circus Magazine USA: 2nd Best Group, 1st Live Show, No. 1 Album (The Game), No. 1 Single ("Another One Bites the Dust"), No.3 Single ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love"), Mercury: 2nd Male Vocalist, 3rd Best Songwriter, 3rd Best Keyboard Player; 3rd Best Guitarist, 3rd Best Bassist, 3rd Best Drummer

* 1981
o American Music Awards: 'Favorite Pop/Rock Single' ("Another One Bites the Dust")[91]
o Music Life, Japan: Best Group, Best Vocalist, Best Bass Player, 2nd Best Guitarist, 2nd Drummer
o NARM Award USA: Biggest Selling Single of 1980 ("Another One Bites the Dust")

* 1984
o Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Silver Clef Award: Outstanding Contribution to British Music
o UK Video Awards: Highly Commended in Best Compilation Category for The Works EP. Best Video award for "Radio Ga Ga"

* 1986
o Daily Mirror Reader's Poll: Top British Group, Top Male Vocalist, 5th Best Album (A Kind of Magic)
o Daily Express: Best Album Cover Award (A Kind of Magic)
o British Video Awards: Top Music Video Award (Live In Rio)

* 1987
o Sun: Best Male Vocalist for Mercury
o Capital Radio London: Best Group
o Ivor Novello Award: for Outstanding Contribution to British Music
o British Video Awards: Best Video, Music category for "Live In Budapest"

* 1988
o Golden Rose Festival, Montreux: International Music Media Conference: Best Long Form Video worldwide (The Magic Years)
o Festerio, Rio De Janiero: Best video documentary (The Magic Years)

* 1989
o Independent Television Awards: Best Band of the Eighties
o US Film & Video Festival: Silver Screen Award (The Magic Years)
o Diamond Awards, Antwerp: Best Special Effects Award ("The Invisible Man")

* 1990
o The BRIT Awards: Outstanding Contribution to Music[92]

* 1991
o American Film & Video Festival, Chicago: Innuendo won 1st Prize, I'm Going Slightly Mad won 3rd Prize for Creative Excellence in the Art Culture and Performing Arts category
o Monitor Awards (International Teleproduction Society), New York City: Best Achievement in Music Video ("Innuendo")

* 1992
o The BRIT Awards: Mercury received a posthumous Outstanding Contribution To Music Award, Best Single Award ("These Are the Days of Our Lives";).[95]
o Ivor Novello Award: Best Single ("These Are the Days of Our Lives"), May received a Best TV Commercial Music Award ("Driven By You")
o Golden Giraffe Award: Greatest Hits II (Award given by the Association of Hungarian Record Producers)
o MTV Awards: Best Video From A Movie (Wayne's World)
o US Film & Video Festival, Chicago: Gold Camera Awards (The Freddie Mercury Tribute), (Greatest Flix II), ("The Show Must Go On") ("These Are the Days of Our Lives")

* 1993
o Ivor Novello Award: to Mercury ("Living on My Own") (posthumous)
o American Society Of Composers, Authors & Publishers: Mercury posthumously awarded for "Bohemian Rhapsody" as the Most Played Record in the U.S. of 1993
o Monitor Awards, Hollywood: "Red Couch" Awards (Greatest Flix II and "I'm Going Slightly Mad")

* 1997
o Ivor Novello Award: Best Song Lyrically & Musically ("Too Much Love Will Kill You")

* 2001
o Golden Rose Film Festival, Montreux: Prix de la Presse (The Freddie Mercury Untold Story)

* 2002
o New York Film Festival: Gold World Medal for the Best Television and Entertainment Program (Variety Special Section), Gold World Medal for the Best Home Video (Music Video Section) for The Freddie Mercury Untold Story
o Capital FM Awards: Outstanding Contribution to Music
o Guinness World Records: UK’s best single of the past 50 years ("Bohemian Rhapsody")
o Annual DVD Awards: Best DVD-Audio/Non Video (A Night at the Opera)
o Surround Music Awards: "Most Adventurous Mix" and "Listener's Choice" (A Night at the Opera)

* 2003
o Annual DVD Awards: Best DVD-Audio (The Game)
o DVD Awards At The Universal Sheraton: DVD-Audio Of The Year (The Game)
o Capital Legends Awards: Legendary Group
o European Music DVD-Award: Best Live DVD (Live At Wembley Stadium)
o Surround Music Award: "Best Mix: Non-Orchestral" (The Game)

* 2008
o New York City radio station Q104.3 FM WAXQ names Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" number 13 in their 2008 Top 1,043 Songs Of All Time listener-generated countdown.

Polls
Sister project Wikinews has related news: Queen voted Britain's greatest band

* 1999 - The band was voted the 2nd greatest band in music history.[96]
* 2005 - The band's performance at Live Aid is voted two times by a large selection of musicians and critics to be the greatest live show of all time.[32]
* 2007 - The band was voted the 'Best British Band Of All Time.'[97]
* 2008 - The band was voted the best rock band ever on the Internet site www.votenumber1.com. Millions of fans from over 40 countries voted.
* 2008 - The band enters the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Logo

The Queen logo, also known as the Queen Crest, was designed by Mercury (who earned a diploma in Illustration and Graphic Design from Ealing Art College in London) shortly before the release of their first album. The logo features the zodiac signs of all four members: two lions for Leo (Deacon and Taylor), a crab for Cancer (May), and two fairies for Virgo (Mercury).[95] The lions are embracing a stylised letter Q, the crab is resting atop the Q with flames rising directly above it, and the fairies are each sheltering below a lion. There is also a crown inside the Q and the whole logo is over-shadowed by an enormous phoenix. The whole symbol bears a passing resemblance to the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, particularly with the lion supporters. The original logo, as found on the reverse-side of the first album cover, was a simple line drawing but more intricate colour versions were used on later album covers.

British Number Ones

Bohemian Rhapsody- 1975- 9 Weeks

Under Pressure- 1981- 2 Weeks

Innuendo- 1991- 1 Week

These Are The Days Of Our Lives/Bohemian Rhapsody- 5 Weeks



Background information

Origin London, :England
Genre(s) :Rock
Years active :1971–1997 [1]
Label(s) :EMI, Elektra, Capitol, Parlophone, Hollywood
Associated acts :Queen + Paul Rodgers, Smile, The Cross
Website :queenonline.com

Dream Theater

Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Myung, John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, before they dropped out to support the band. Though a number of lineup changes followed, the three original members remain today along with James LaBrie and Jordan Rudess.

Dream Theater has become a successful progressive metal band. Although the band has had a few successful hits (notably "Pull Me Under" in the early 1990s, which received extensive MTV rotation), they have mostly stayed underground for their career.

The band is well known for the technical proficiency of its instrumentalists, who have won many awards from music instruction magazines. Dream Theater's members have collaborated with many other notable musicians. Guitarist John Petrucci has been named as the third player on the G3 tour six times, more than any other invited guitarist, following in the footsteps of Eric Johnson and Robert Fripp.

The band's highest selling album is the gold selling Images and Words (1992), which reached #61 on the Billboard 200 charts.[1] Both the 1994 release Awake and their 2002 release Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence also entered the charts at #32 and #46 respectively and received mostly positive reviews. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence also led to Dream Theater becoming the initial band reviewed in the Music Section of Entertainment Weekly during its opening week of release, despite the magazine generally preferring more mainstream music. In 2007, Systematic Chaos entered US Billboard 200 at #19.[1] Dream Theater has sold over two million albums in the U.S.,[2] and over 8 million records worldwide.[3] The band has finished recording their tenth studio album, Black Clouds & Silver Linings, which is scheduled for release on June 23.

History

Formation (1985)




Dream Theater was formed in September 1985 when guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung decided to form a band in their spare time while studying at the Berklee College of Music. The pair came across drummer Mike Portnoy in one of Berklee's rehearsal rooms, where he was asked to join the band. The trio started off by covering Iron Maiden and Rush songs in the rehearsal rooms at Berklee.

Myung, Petrucci, and Portnoy settled on the name Majesty for their newly formed group. According to the The Score So Far… documentary, they were waiting in line for tickets to a Rush concert at the Berklee Performance Center while listening to the band on a boom box. Portnoy commented that the ending of the song "Bastille Day" (from the album Caress of Steel) sounded "majestic." It was then decided that Majesty would be the band's name.

The trio then set out to fill the remaining positions in the group. Petrucci asked his high school band-mate Kevin Moore to play keyboards. After accepting the position, another friend from home, Chris Collins, was recruited as lead vocalist after band members heard him sing a cover of "Queen of the Reich" by Queensrÿche[5] During this time, Portnoy, Petrucci and Myung's hectic schedules forced them to abandon their studies to concentrate on their music, as they did not feel they could learn more in College. Moore also left his college, SUNY Fredonia, to concentrate on the band.

The Majesty Demos and the birth of "Dream Theater" (1986–1987)

The beginning months of 1986 were filled with various concert dates in and around the New York City area. During this time, the band recorded a collection of demos, titled The Majesty Demos. The initial run of 1,000 sold out within six months, and dubbed copies of the cassette became popular within the progressive metal scene. The Majesty Demos are still available in their original tape format today, despite being released officially on CD through Mike Portnoy's YtseJam Records.

In November 1986, after a few months of writing and performing together, Chris Collins left the band due to creative differences. After a year of trying to find a replacement, Charlie Dominici, who was far older and more experienced than anyone else in the band, successfully auditioned for the group. With the stability that Dominici's appointment brought to Majesty, they began to increase the number of shows played in the New York City area, gaining a considerable amount of exposure.

Shortly after hiring Dominici, a Las Vegas group also named Majesty[6] threatened legal action for intellectual property infringement related to the use of their name, so the band was forced to adopt a new moniker. Various possibilities were proposed and tested, among them Glasser, Magus, and M1, which were all rejected [7] until Portnoy's father suggested the name Dream Theater, the name of a movie house in Monterey, California.


When Dream and Day Unite (1988–1990)


With this stability, Dream Theater concentrated on writing more material while playing more concerts in New York and in neighboring states. This eventually attracted the attention of Mechanic Records, a division of MCA. Dream Theater signed their first record contract with Mechanic on June 23, 1988 and set out to record their debut album. The band recorded the album at Kajem Victory Studios in Gladwyne, PA. Recording the basic tracks took about 10 days, and the entire album was completed in about 3 weeks
When Dream and Day Unite was released in 1989 to far less fanfare than the band had anticipated. Mechanic ended up breaking the majority of the financial promises they had made to Dream Theater prior to signing their contract, so the band was restricted to playing around New York City. The promotional tour for the album consisted of just five concerts, all of which were relatively local. Their first show was at Sundance in Bay Shore, New York opening for the classic rock power trio Zebra.

After the fourth show, Dominici was fired because of personal and creative differences. Shortly after, however, the band Marillion asked Dream Theater to open for them at a gig at the Ritz in New York, so Dominici was given the opportunity to perform one last time. It would be another two years before Dream Theater had a replacement vocalist.

images and Words (1991–1993)
Following Dominici's firing, Dream Theater fought successfully to be released from their contract with Mechanic, and set about auditioning singers and writing material for their next album. In their search for a new singer they auditioned over 200 people, among them former Fates Warning front man John Arch; all were turned down. In mid-1990, at a gig in New York, Dream Theater introduced Steve Stone as their new singer. He performed just three songs with the band before he was fired for performing less than adequately.[10] It was five months before Dream Theater played another show, this time all-instrumental (under the name YtseJam). Until mid-1992 the band remained focused in an attempt to hire another singer and writing additional music.[9] It was during this period that they wrote the majority of what would become the 1992's Images and Words.

In late 1991, Kevin James LaBrie, of glam metal band Winter Rose, was flown from Canada to New York for an audition. LaBrie jammed on three songs with the band, and was immediately hired to fill the vocalist position. Once recruited, LaBrie decided to drop his first name to avoid confusion with the other Kevin in the band. For the next few months, the band returned to playing live shows (still mostly around NYC), while working on vocal parts for the music written before acquiring LaBrie. Derek Shulman and ATCO Records (now EastWest), a division of Elektra Records, signed Dream Theater to a seven album contract based on a three song demo (later made available as "The ATCO Demos" through the Dream Theater fan club).

The first album to be recorded under their new record contract was 1992's Images and Words. For promotion, the label released a CD Single and video clip for the song "Another Day," but neither made significant commercial impact. The song "Pull Me Under," however, managed to garner a high level of radio airplay without any organized promotion from the band or their label. In response, ATCO produced a video clip for "Pull Me Under," which saw heavy rotation on MTV. A third video clip was produced for "Take the Time," but it was not nearly as successful as "Pull Me Under."

The success of "Pull Me Under," combined with relentless touring throughout the U.S. and Japan, caused Images and Words to achieve gold record certification in the States and platinum status in Japan. A tour of Europe followed in 1993, which included a show at London's famed Marquee Club. The show was recorded and released as Live at the Marquee, Dream Theater's first official live album. Additionally, a video compilation of their Japanese concerts (mixed in with documentary-style footage of the off-stage portion of the tour) was released as Images and Words: Live in Tokyo.

Awake (1994)
Eager to work on fresh material, Dream Theater retreated to the studio in May 1994. Awake, Dream Theater's third studio album, was released on October 4 1994 in a hail of controversy among fans. Shortly before the album was mixed, Moore announced to the rest of the band that he was simply no longer interested in touring, nor did he favor the style of music Dream Theater performed and would be quitting Dream Theater to concentrate on his own musical interests.[11] As a result, the band had to scramble to find a replacement keyboardist before a tour could be considered. The album was received very well by both critics and fans. The album has been seen by some as Dream Theater's darkest album mainly due to lyrical content with many of the songs dealing with internal conflicts. For example, The Mirror explores the topic of alcoholism, from which Portnoy was recovering at the time.

Jens Johansson, who would go on to become a member of Stratovarius, was among the biggest names to audition, however the band members were eager to fill the position with keyboardist Jordan Rudess. Portnoy and Petrucci had come across Rudess in Keyboard Magazine, where he was recognized as "best new talent" in the readers' poll. The two invited him to play a trial gig with the band at the Concrete Foundations Forum in Burbank, CA.[9] For the members of Dream Theater, the show went incredibly well, and Rudess was asked to fill the keyboardist position permanently, however Rudess opted to tour with The Dixie Dregs instead, since it granted him more personal latitude. Disappointed, Dream Theater hired fellow Berklee alumnus Derek Sherinian, whose previous work included stints with Alice Cooper and Kiss, to fill in for the Awake promotional tour. By the conclusion of the tour, the band decided to take Sherinian on as Moore's full-time replacement.

A Change of Seasons and Falling into Infinity (1995–1998)




Once again finding themselves with a new member, Dream Theater did not immediately start working on new material. Fans around the world, united on the YtseJam Mailing List (the most popular form of communication between Dream Theater fans at that point), had started placing pressure on the band to officially release the song "A Change of Seasons". It had been written in 1989 and was intended to be a part of Images and Words, but at almost 17 minutes, it was deemed too long for studio placement. However, the band did perform it live on occasion while continuing to revise it in the years leading up to 1995.

The petition was successful, and the group entered BearTracks Studios in New York in April 1995 to rewrite and record the 23 minute song with Sherinian contributing significantly to the final product. To disseminate "A Change of Seasons", the band released it as an EP along with a collection of cover songs recorded live at the Uncovered fan club gig.

After a short run of small concerts to promote A Change of Seasons, Dream Theater took a break for a few months. To keep busy, however, the band released a special Christmas CD through their official fan club, consisting of rare live tracks recorded during the band's early years. They continued releasing a new CD each Christmas until 2005.[12] Also during the break the individual members set out to write compositions for their upcoming collaborative writing sessions.

Meanwhile, there were several changes at EastWest, and Dream Theater's main contact within the label was fired. As a result, the new team at the company were unaccustomed to the relationship Dream Theater had with former EastWest personnel, and they pressured Dream Theater to write an album that was more accessible. At the end of 1996, they entered the studio to write their next album. In addition to pressuring the band to adopt a more mainstream sound, EastWest recruited writer/producer Desmond Child to work with Petrucci on polishing the lyrics to his song "You Or Me". The whole band substantially reworked the music to the song, and it appeared on the album as "You Not Me" with a chorus that was barely reminiscent of the original. Child also had a noticeable impact on the album, with a shift towards compositions that were less complex and more radio-friendly.

The band wrote almost two CDs worth of material, including a 20 minute long follow-up to the Images and Words song "Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper". The label, however, did not allow the release of a double album because it felt that a 140-minute record would not be digestible by the general public. James LaBrie also felt that the CD should be a single disc.[13] The unused songs were later released in the Ytsejam Records release The Falling Into Infinity Demos[14].

The material that made it onto the album proper was released as Falling Into Infinity, which received a mixed reception from fans who were more familiar with the band's earlier sound. While the album was moderately progressive-sounding, tracks such as "Hollow Years" and "You Not Me" prompted some to believe it was the dawn of a new, mainstream-sounding Dream Theater. Overall, the album was both a critical and commercial disappointment. Although Portnoy didn't speak out publicly at the time, many years later, in the 2004 DVD commentary for 5 Years in a LIVEtime, he revealed that he had been so discouraged during this period he'd considered disbanding Dream Theater altogether.

During the European leg of the Falling Into Infinity world tour, two shows were recorded for a live album entitled Once In A LIVEtime, in France and The Netherlands. The album was released at around the same time as the video 5 Years in a LIVEtime, which chronicled the time from when Kevin Moore left the band up to the Falling Into Infinity promotional tour.


Scenes from a Memory and first live DVD (1999–2001)

In 1997, Magna Carta Records' Mike Varney invited Portnoy to assemble a progressive 'supergroup' to work on an album, which would become the first in a long string of side-projects for the members of Dream Theater.[15] The lineup consisted of Portnoy on drums, Petrucci on guitar, Tony Levin on bass, and keyboardist Jordan Rudess, who had finished with the Dixie Dregs. The band assumed the name Liquid Tension Experiment, and would act as a medium through which Portnoy and Petrucci could once again court Rudess to join Dream Theater. In 1999, he accepted an offer to become the third full-time Dream Theater keyboardist, replacing Sherinian.[4]

With yet another new member, Dream Theater entered BearTracks Studio once again to write and record their next album. As a result of an ultimatum from Portnoy, the label gave the band complete creative control. The follow-up to "Metropolis Part 1", which was written during the Falling Into Infinity sessions (but not used on that album), was taken off the shelf for reworking. They decided to expand the 20-minute song into a complete concept album, with a story revolving around themes such as reincarnation, murder and betrayal. To avoid stirring up the fan base, a tight veil of secrecy enveloped the writing and recording process. The only things fans were privy to prior to its release were a track list that had been leaked against the band's wishes, and a release date. In 1999, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory was released to high critical acclaim. It was hailed as Dream Theater's masterpiece by many fans and critics alike, despite only reaching #73 on the US album chart.[1]

A massive world tour followed, taking over a year to complete, by far their largest to that point. The concerts reflected the theatrical aspect of the album. They played the entire Scenes From a Memory album from start to finish, with a video screen on the back wall of the stage showing a narrative companion to the story of the album. In addition to playing the album in its entirety, the band also played a second set of Dream Theater songs, as well as a few covers and improvisations of old Dream Theater material. For one extra special show, at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City, actors were hired to play characters in the story, and a gospel choir was enlisted to perform in some sections of the performance.

This show, the last North American date of the tour, was recorded for the band's first DVD release. After many technical delays, the DVD, titled Metropolis 2000, was released in early 2001. Shortly after, the band announced that an audio version of the concert, with the entire four-hour long set-list (most of which had to be cut from the DVD to save space), would be released.

The cover for the CD version of the concert, titled Live Scenes from New York, depicted one of Dream Theater's early logos (the Images And Words-era burning heart, modeled on the Sacred Heart of Christ) modified to show an apple (as in "Big Apple") instead of the heart, and the New York skyline, including the twin towers of the World Trade Center, in the flame above it. In an unfortunate coincidence, the album was released on the same date as the September 11, 2001 attacks. The album was quickly recalled by the band and was re-released with revised artwork later

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)

Putting the whole ordeal behind them, Dream Theater once again entered BearTracks Studios to record their sixth studio album. Four years after they first petitioned EastWest to allow them to release a double album, they finally got their chance with Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. The first disc consisted of five tracks of 7–13 minutes in length, and the second disc was devoted entirely to the 42-minute title track, which is to date the longest song Dream Theater has written. The genesis of that song came when Rudess wrote what would become the "Overture" section of "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence", and the band took some different melodies and ideas contained within it and expanded them into chapters of the complete piece.[4]

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence ended up being received very well by critics and the press. It was the most publicized of Dream Theater's albums since Awake, debuting on the Billboard charts at #46[1] and the Billboard Internet charts at #1.[17] Throughout the next year and a half they toured the world once more, with an expanded live show including a select few special "album cover" gigs (see Cover songs section, below), in which they played Metallica's Master of Puppets and Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast in their entirety.


Train of Thought and Live at Budokan (2003–2004)

During 2003, Dream Theater entered the studio to write and record another album. Since Scenes From A Memory was written and recorded simultaneously in the studio, in the spirit of change, the band took a different approach by setting aside three weeks for writing prior to recording. In the middle of the recording sessions for the album, a special tour with two other progressive metal bands, Queensrÿche and Fates Warning, was undertaken in North America. The "Escape From The Studio American tour", as it was referred to in Dream Theater's promotional material, featured Queensrÿche and Dream Theater as co-headlining acts with Fates Warning performing supporting act duties. As a finale for each concert there was an extended encore in which both Dream Theater and Queensrÿche performed together on stage simultaneously, often playing cover songs.

At the completion of the tour, Dream Theater returned to the studio to finish the recording of their seventh album, Train of Thought. They concentrated more on writing a great song-oriented album, a mindset inspired by covering Master of Puppets and Number of the Beast on a previous concert tour. As a result, the more straight-forward metal sound of those two albums seemed to creep into Train of Thought.[18] The album was a critical success, but it alienated a fair proportion of Dream Theater's fans who preferred traditional progressive rock, such as Yes or King Crimson. Regardless, it seemed to expand Dream Theater's fan base into new territory, capturing many more metal fans.[4]

Another world tour followed, during which Dream Theater performed support act duties for one of their major influences, Yes. A modest North American tour was completed by the two bands, after which Dream Theater continued to tour the world with their so-called "An Evening With Dream Theater" shows.

Their next move was to release another live CD/DVD combination, this time recorded at the famous Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan on their Train of Thought world tour. Live at Budokan was released on October 5, 2004, and further propelled Dream Theater's reputation as one of the premier live acts in progressive metal.

Octavarium and Score (2005–2006)



Upon the completion of their Train of Thought promotional tour, Dream Theater entered the Hit Factory studios in NYC to record their eighth album. As it turned out, they would be the last group ever to record in that famous studio, and after they wrapped up their final session, the lights were turned off at the studio forever. [19]

Octavarium was released on June 7, 2005, and took the band's sound in yet another new direction. Among its eight songs is a continuation of Portnoy's "Twelve-step" saga ("The Root of All Evil", steps 6-7 in the 12-step plan), as well as the title track, a musically versatile 24 minute epic rivaling "A Change of Seasons". Octavarium received mixed reviews from fans and has been the subject of spirited debate. Octavarium was the last album under their seven-album deal with Elektra Records, which had inherited the contract upon its absorption of EastWest Records.

Dream Theater toured extensively throughout 2005 and 2006 to celebrate their 20th Anniversary as a band, including a headlining spot on Gigantour. During a show on August 2, 2005 in Dallas, the band paid tribute to Pantera's late guitarist Dimebag Darrell by performing the song "Cemetery Gates" as an encore. In addition was the unexpected appearance of fellow musicians Russell Allen, Burton C. Bell and Dave Mustaine, who joined the band on stage to perform parts of the song.

Dream Theater later departed from Gigantour and continued on with their own series of concerts. The 20th anniversary tour concluded with a show at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on April 1, 2006. Though the show had minimal promotion, it was sold out days after tickets were made available. This show, which was recorded for a CD/DVD called Score released on August 29, 2006 through Rhino Records, was the band's first concert accompanied by a full symphonic orchestra (the "Octavarium Orchestra").


Systematic Chaos (2007)

Dream Theater's latest album Systematic Chaos was released on June 5, 2007. The record marked their first with new label Roadrunner Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. Roadrunner implemented increased promotion for the album, and as a result, Systematic Chaos reached number 19 on the Billboard 200, marking the highest initial charting album in Dream Theater's career.[20] It also saw the release of a video for "Constant Motion" on July 14, the band's first music video since the mid-1990s. An authorized book entitled Lifting Shadows, detailing their first twenty years, was also released in 2007.[21] Systematic Chaos contains eight tracks, but technically only seven songs. The album contains an epic titled "In the Presence of Enemies", bookending the album as tracks 1 and 8, Portnoy's continuing AA Saga with the song "Repentance", and a song of political nature, "Prophets of War".

The 2007/2008 Chaos In Motion World Tour started off in Italy. Dream Theater played in the Gods of Metal concert on June 3, 2007.[22] Dream Theater also appeared at the Fields Of Rock Festival in the Netherlands on June 17, 2007.[23] They also played at various other European festivals including the UK's Download Festival and the French festival Hellfest Summer Open Air with other bands such as Megadeth, Korn, Mastodon and Slayer.

Dream Theater returned to perform the North American leg of the tour on July 24 in San Diego, California and wrapped up on August 26 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They played with opening acts Redemption and Into Eternity. The "Chaos In Motion" tour continued for the rest of the year and into 2008, playing shows in Asia, South America and, for the first time, Australia.[24]
Greatest Hit and Chaos in Motion (2008)

On April 1, 2008, a two-disc compilation album entitled Greatest Hit (...and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs) was released by the band. The title jokingly references the song "Pull Me Under", the band's only significant radio hit. It also includes three song re-mixes from their second album, Images and Words, five edited versions of previously released songs, and a track from a single B-Side. Unlike most Greatest Hits compilations, Dream Theater was actively involved with the album, coming up with the tracklisting that they felt best represented their musical careers. The album was their last with longtime label, Atlantic Records.

Dream Theater recently finished their package tour dubbed as "Progressive Nation Tour 2008," which started on April 29. Joining them on the tour were Opeth, Between the Buried and Me as well as 3[25]. Unlike previous Dream Theater tours, performances were held in cities that they had not visited before in the past (such as Vancouver, Canada) or cities they hadn't played in for several years. This tour also marked the first time, since the release of Images and Words, where the group performed in small venues and performance halls.

After this tour, the band released a DVD set called Chaos in Motion 2007–2008. It is a compilation of songs from the tour supporting their 9th album, Systematic Chaos. There were two sets of DVDs released. One is a regular two disk set while the Special Edition set contains three CDs of music that go along with the DVDs. It was released on September 30, 2008.


Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009)

Mike Portnoy announced on June 2, 2008 that the band would be entering the studio to record a new album. On October 7, 2008, Dream Theater began work on their 10th album. The album, which is titled Black Clouds & Silver Linings, will be released on June 23, 2009. In addition to the standard CD, the album will be available on vinyl LP, as well as a 3-disc Special Edition CD that will include the full album, a CD of instrumental mixes of the album and a CD of six cover songs, the titles of which will be revealed at a later date.

When announcing news of the album's progress on his forum, Mike Portnoy described the album as "a DT album with 'A Change of Seasons', 'Octavarium', 'Learning to Live', 'Pull Me Under' and 'The Glass Prison'....all on one album..." Jordan Rudess later added, "...We've been entering into the Gothic domain quite a bit on this album."

On February 27, Mike Portnoy confirmed on the Eddie Trunk Radio Show that Dream Theater has completed recording and that mixing would begin March 2. Audio and video updates are available through Jordan Rudess' website.[30] The songs "A Nightmare to Remember" and "A Rite of Passage" were leaked onto the internet on various torrent sites after being broadcast on a Portuguese radio station.

On May 1, Mike Portnoy spoke to Metal Hammer about the new album for their podcast saying that while 'The Shattered Fortress' was the last in a series of songs about his 12 Steps recovery from alcoholism, 'The Best Of Times' "is a real heavy personal subject about my dad who passed away during the making of the album," adding, "He was battling cancer throughout its making."

The band has also announced a second Progressive Nation tour, including the tour's first performances in Europe. Opeth, Bigelf and Unexpect will support Dream Theater in Europe, while Zappa Plays Zappa, Pain of Salvation and Beardfish will open the North American leg.

Live performances


Throughout their career, Dream Theater's live shows have gradually become bigger, longer, and more diverse. The most obvious example of this is their rotational set list policy. That is, every single night of every tour has its set list devised by Portnoy using a meticulous process that ensures its uniqueness. Factors such as set lists from previous cities are taken into account to ensure that people who see Dream Theater multiple times within the same area will not see the same songs performed twice, and even the set list from the last time the band was in a particular city is taken into account for the benefit of fans who see the band on successive tours.
For this to be possible, the band prepares to play the majority of its catalogue at any performance, depending on what Portnoy decides to program for that night. This process also requires the employment of a complex lighting system to load pre-configured lighting cues based on the individual songs.

Some of Dream Theater's more notable touring partners include Deep Purple, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Iron Maiden, Joe Satriani, King's X, Marillion, Megadeth, In Flames, Pain of Salvation, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Queensrÿche, Riverside, Spock's Beard, Fear Factory, Enchant, Symphony X, and Yes. In 2005, Dream Theater toured North America with the Gigantour festival, co-headlining with Megadeth, and have played with Megadeth and Iron Maiden physically on stage.

The band's full world tours, since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, have predominantly been so-called "Evening with..." tours, in which the band performs for at least three hours with an intermission and no opening act. The show that was recorded for Live Scenes From New York was nearly four hours in length, and resulted in Portnoy almost being hospitalized after acquiring severe food poisoning from the food he ate after the show.
here is also a significant amount of humor, casualness, and improvisation attached to a Dream Theater concert. In the midst of "A Change of Seasons" it is quite common for themes such as those for Major League Baseball and The Simpsons to be quoted, and Rudess routinely modifies his solo section in the song and others, often playing the ragtime section of "When the Water Breaks" from Liquid Tension Experiment 2. Several songs included on Once in a LIVETime include snippets of others' pieces, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee." Other quotations include "Mary Had a Little Lamb" during "Endless Sacrifice" on the Gigantour, a calliope-inspired break between verses of "Under a Glass Moon", a quote of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina"'s main melody played by Petrucci while performing the intro solo of "Through Her Eyes" in Buenos Aires, the Turkish March at a concert in Istanbul, and the opening riff of Rush's A Passage to Bangkok at a show in Bangkok, Thailand. On the most recent "20th Anniversary World Tour" Rudess has even thrown in a short "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" theme in a break during "Endless Sacrifice".

Occasionally, a member of the audience is picked at random to perform on stage, an example of which can be seen during Portnoy's drum solo on the Live at Budokan DVD. There have also been many impromptu renditions of "Happy Birthday" when a member of the band or crew has a birthday corresponding to a tour date, which normally results in a birthday cake being thrown at the subject.

Perhaps the best example of Dream Theater's unpredictable concert structure is that during Derek Sherinian's time with the band. At selected shows the band members all swapped instruments and performed an encore as the fictitious band dubbed Nightmare Cinema. They usually performed a cover of Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers", and, on one occasion, Ozzy Osbourne's "Suicide Solution." At some shows, Sherinian, Petrucci and Portnoy would take the stage together under the name "Nicky Lemons and the Migraine Brothers". Sherinian, wearing a feather boa and novelty sunglasses, would perform a pop-punk song entitled "I Don't Like You" with Petrucci and Portnoy backing. In Chaos in Motion tour in several concerts before Trial of Tears Portnoy and Petrucci would change positions and play Van Halen's Eruption.

Dream Theater's largest audience as a headlining act was 20,000 in Santiago, Chile on December 6, 2005. This was during their first tour of South American countries other than Brazil (which they had visited in 1997 and 1998).

In the Score and Chaos in Motion DVDs, an animation has accompanied certain parts of the songs, showing the band playing along to the music as cartoon characters. On the Score DVD, during the song Octavarium, the band is seen performing in an octagonal shaped maze. As the animation continues Jordan Rudess spontaneously turns into Santa Claus and John Petrucci catches fire. In The Dark Eternal Night from the Chaos in Motion DVD, the band battles against a monster by shooting fireballs from guitars, throwing drum sticks, and screaming.

Dream Theater just wrapped up their highly successful "Progressive Nation '08" tour, along with Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, and 3. The tour is the brainchild of Mike Portnoy, who stated, "I've been wanting to assemble a package tour like this for many years now. With all of the festivals and package tours that go through America, I've been talking with our manager and agent for over 10 years now about doing something that focuses on the more progressive, musician-oriented side of hard rock and metal. I decided it was time to stop talking the talk, lace up and finally walk the walk."

On February 13, 2009, Dream Theater announced the official line up for their Progressive Nation 2009 tour. The featured bands include Swedish bands Beardfish and Pain of Salvation, as well as Zappa plays Zappa. The tour is scheduled for a North American run throughout July and August 2009. Official dates have not been announced. On March 26, 2009 it was announced that Dream Theater would take the Progressive Nation tour to Europe for the first time alongside Opeth, Bigelf and Unexpect. The tour is scheduled to run throughout September, October and November 2009.


Bootleg culture

Mike Portnoy started an official bootlegs series in response to Dream Theater fans' affinity for live versions of their concerts. Dream Theater is one of the most actively bootlegged bands in the progressive metal genre. Since their very first shows in New York as Majesty, fans have recorded almost every single show that Dream Theater have played (occasionally there are three or four versions of a single concert), and some very elaborate and professional recordings have been released.

However, not every member in the band condones the release of Dream Theater bootlegs. Portnoy is the most pro-bootlegging member, since he was an avid collector of many bootlegs in his younger days and keeps his own personal archive of Dream Theater material in his basement. Petrucci and LaBrie have voiced opposition to people recording their concerts. Petrucci takes issue with bootleggers because he prefers audience members to concentrate on the musicians on stage, and not the level adjustments on their recording device. LaBrie, on the other hand, argues that bootlegging takes ownership and control over Dream Theater's performances away from the band themselves and into the hands of the public. Myung has expressed mild opposition to bootlegging, but in some interviews has mentioned that he does not particularly take great issue with it.

Dream Theater have released a series of official bootlegs, demos and other rarities through YtseJam Records, headed by Portnoy.[45] They include demos the band put out before official albums, as well as many live shows, including shows where the band has covered a particular album. Albums covered include Dark Side of the Moon, Made in Japan, Master of Puppets, and Number of the Beast.


Cover songs

Dream Theater has been known for covering other artists' work throughout their career. They took this practice to a new level during the promotional tour for Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. At three special gigs, one each in Barcelona, Chicago and New York City, they covered Metallica's Master of Puppets album in its entirety after a full set of Dream Theater material. This came as a surprise to fans, as there was no sign that this was to occur, other than it being announced that the gigs involved, which were on the second night of a two-night stand in each city, would be "extra special". This tradition can most likely be traced back to one of Mike Portnoy's favorite bands, Phish, who began a series of performing "musical costumes" of entire albums from other artists each Halloween beginning in 1994. Portnoy devised this "album cover" as the first in a series of gigs to be played as tributes to bands that had been influential in the formation and development of Dream Theater. The covers set divided many fans who attended the shows, with some people saying that they went to a Dream Theater concert to see original music and not another artist's work. Others, however, said that it was a bonus and not a replacement for a normal Dream Theater concert, since an ordinary gig had been played the night before.

On the next leg of the tour they covered Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast and received a similar reaction to Master of Puppets, although it was already known that a cover was to be performed that night because the tour itinerary included two successive gigs in a single city. On October 11, 2005, Dream Theater covered Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Dream Theater's official webpage stated that the second sets of the second nights in Amsterdam, London, Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Tokyo (October 11, October 25, December 4, December 11 and January 13 respectively), and also the second set of the January 15 show in Osaka, would be a classic album covered in its entirety. Dark Side of the Moon was played again on October 25 in London. However, in Buenos Aires (December 4) and São Paulo (December 11) the 'classic album' played was Dream Theater's own Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, to make up for not having visited Argentina and Brazil in their Metropolis 2000 tour. On January 13, 2006 (Tokyo) and on the 15th (Osaka), Dream Theater covered Deep Purple's live album Made in Japan. Portnoy says that he has one more cover show planned, but refuses to reveal when it will occur, or what album will be covered.

During Gigantour 2005, Dream Theater did a cover of Pantera's "Cemetery Gates" as a tribute to "Dimebag" Darrel Lance Abbott. As an added bonus, they had Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory, and Russell Allen of Symphony X do guest vocals and Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, do the main solo for the song.

In March 2006, Dream Theater played the rare Rush song Jacob's Ladder at a show in Toronto. John Petrucci said a few days later in Asbury Park, NJ, prior to the night's show, that Rush "wouldn't play it, so we thought we'd play it for them."

In addition, Dream Theater released several live cover songs on their EP A Change of Seasons, including songs from Elton John, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Journey, Kansas, and Dixie Dregs.

In 2008, they recorded a version of Iron Maiden's "To Tame a Land" for a Kerrang magazine compilation entitled Maiden Heaven.


Discography
Main article: Dream Theater discography
When Dream and Day Unite (1989)
Images and Words (1992)
Awake (1994)
Falling into Infinity (1997)
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999)
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)
Train of Thought (2003)
Octavarium (2005)
Systematic Chaos (2007)
Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009)

In addition to the above official albums, the members of Dream Theater, past and present, have contributed to hundreds of bootleg albums, both official and unofficial, side projects, collaborations with other artists, and guest appearances.


Band members
Main article: List of Dream Theater band members
James LaBrie - Lead vocals, Percussion (1991-present)
John Myung - Bass guitar, Chapman stick (1985-present)
John Petrucci - Guitars, Backing vocals (1985-present)
Mike Portnoy - Drums, Percussion, Backing vocals (1985-present)
Jordan Rudess - Keyboards, Continuum, Lap steel guitar (1999-present)


Former members
Chris Collins - Lead vocals (1985-1986)
Charlie Dominici - Lead vocals (1986-1989)
Kevin Moore - Keyboards (1985-1994)
Derek Sherinian - Keyboards, Backing vocals (1994-1999)


Awards and certificates
RIAA gold and platinum certification
Images and Words (Gold) - February 2, 1995
Metropolis 2000: Live Scenes From New York (Gold) - November 8, 2002
Live at Budokan (DVD) (Platinum) - January 26, 2005
Live in Tokyo/5 Years in a Livetime (Platinum) - March 22, 2006
Score (DVD) (Platinum) - October 11, 2006
Keyboard Magazine

Jordan Rudess was awarded the following 'Keyboard Magazine Reader's Poll award':
Best New Talent (1994)
Burrn magazine's best keyboards player of the year (2007)
Modern Drummer

Mike Portnoy won the following Modern Drummer magazine Reader's Poll awards:
Best Up & Coming Talent (1994)
Best Progressive Rock Drummer (1995-2006)
Best Recorded Performance (1995 for Awake, 1996 for A Change of Seasons, 1998 for Falling Into Infinity, 2000 for Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory, 2002 for Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and 2007 for Score)
Best Clinician (2000, 2002)
Best Educational Video/DVD (2000, 2002)
Hall of Fame Inductee (2004)
Guitar World

The album Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory was ranked #95 on the magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time.
Total Guitar

John Petrucci won Guitarist of the year award (2007).

Dream Theater

Background information
Origin :Long Island, NY
Genre(s) :Progressive metal
Years active :1985–present
Label(s) :Roadrunner, Elektra, EastWest, Atco, Mechanic Records
Associated acts :Liquid Tension Experiment, Liquid Trio Experiment, Explorers Club, MullMuzzler, Nightmare Cinema, OSI, Platypus, The Jelly Jam, Transatlantic, True Symphonic Rockestra, Chroma Key
Website :www.dreamtheater.net

Members
James LaBrie
John Myung
John Petrucci
Mike Portnoy
Jordan Rudess

Former members
Chris Collins
Charlie Dominici
Kevin Moore
Derek Sherinian