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John Richard Deacon (born 19 August 1951) is an English singer, songwriter and musician best known as being the bassist for Queen. His playing style was heavily influenced by dance music and funk, which helped define Queen's sound in the 1980s and heavily influenced the band's 1982 album Hot Space.

Although he was the quietest member of the band, Deacon produced many of the band's greatest hits, including You're My Best Friend, Spread Your Wings, Another One Bites the Dust and I Want to Break Free. The bassline to the band's hit collaboration Under Pressure is often attributed to John Deacon, in addition to co-writing Friends Will Be Friends and One Vision.

Deacon grew up in Oadby, Leicestershire, playing bass in a local band, The Opposition, before moving to study electronics at Chelsea College, London. He joined Queen in 1971 on the strength of his musical and electronic skills, particularly the home-made Deacy Amp that guitarist Brian May later used to create guitar orchestras throughout the band's career. After the death of lead singer Freddie Mercury in 1991 and the following year's Tribute Concert, Deacon performed only sporadically with the remaining members of Queen before retiring from the music industry in 1997 after recording No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young). He has not performed on any of the other projects that the two remaining members, Brian May and Roger Taylor, have put together except the Queen+Anna Kendrick Tour in 2018.

History[]

Early Life[]

John Richard Deacon was born on 19 August 1951 at St Francis Private Hospital, London Road, Leicester to Arthur Henry and Lilian Molly Deacon (née Perkins). His father worked at the Norwich Union insurance company and in 1960 the family moved to the dormitory town of Oadby. Deacon was known to friends and his bandmates as 'Deacs' or 'Deacy' and attended Linden Junior School in Leicester, Gartree High School.

Deacon took an interest in electronics at an early age, reading magazines on the subject and building small devices, including the modification of a reel-to-reel tape deck to record music directly from the radio. He studied well at Beauchamp Grammar School in Oadby, and achieved 8 GCE O level and 3 A level passes, all at grade A. He particularly enjoyed soul music.

Opposition1

Deacon with the rest of The Opposition.

The death of Deacon's father in 1968 hit the young musician hard. At the age of fourteen, Deacon formed his first band, The Opposition, with friends Nigel Bullen, Richard Young, and Clive Castledine. As well as being a band member, Deacon also was the band's archivist, taking clippings from newspapers of even the advertisements featuring The Opposition. He played a rhythm guitar bought with money borrowed from one of the other band members. The Opposition's first concert took place on 4 December 1965, playing for a party at Clive Castledine's house. In the summer of 1966, Castledine left the band as he believed he was outclassed by the other members of the band. Deacon took over as bass (using an Eko he bought for £22), with David Williams taking over guitar. After the band's lineup had almost entirely changed over the summer, the band went under the moniker The New Opposition.

The band continued to perform throughout 1969, now going under yet another moniker The Art, at one point recording three tracks on acetate: Sunny, Vehicle, and the improvised Transit 3. Deacon performed on all three tracks, marking his first recorded performance. After four years of performing with the band, Deacon played his last concert with The Art in the summer of 1969. He left Beauchamp in June 1969 to study at Chelsea College.

Although he left his bass and amplifier at home in Oadby, Leicester after less than a year in London where he went on to achieve a First Class Honours Degree in electronics at Chelsea College, now part of King's College London.

Career[]

Although he left his bass and amplifier at home in Oadby, after less than a year of studying in London, Deacon decided he wanted to join a band. In 1970, Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor had formed Queen; Deacon saw them in October that year but was not immediately impressed. Later in the year, he briefly formed a band called Deacon that made one live appearance at Chelsea College.

In early 1971, Deacon was introduced to Taylor and May by a friend at a disco who told him that they were in a band that had just lost its bassist. A couple of days later he auditioned in a lecture room at Imperial College London and became the last member of Queen to join. Deacon was the youngest member of the band. Deacon was selected for his musical talent, his quiet demeanour and his electrical skills. A persistent legend claims Deacon was the seventh bassist auditioned, but more recent sources show Queen's bassists were, in order: Mike Grose, Barry Mitchell, Doug Bogie and Deacon. Deacon played his first show with Queen at the College of Estate Management in Kensington in June.

On Queen's eponymous album he was credited as "Deacon John", to make him "sound more interesting". He asked to be credited under his real name, which was done on all albums from Queen II onwards.

75-11-23 Bournemouth 01

Deacon performing at a concert in Bournemouth, as part of the A Night at the Opera tour.

Deacon's first writing credit came on Queen's third album, Sheer Heart Attack. He wrote Misfire, a Caribbean-themed song on which he played almost all guitar parts, and co-wrote Stone Cold Crazy with the rest of the band. He also played some guide guitar parts on the album, for May was hospitalised with hepatitis when recording started.

His second song – written for his wife-to-be Veronica – You're My Best Friend was featured on the group's 1975 album, A Night at the Opera , and went on to be an international hit. Subsequently, Deacon tended to write one or two songs for subsequent albums. This songwriting initiative would continue on the band's 1976 album A Day at the Races, writing the piano ballad You and I. The song largely follows the same styles as You're My Best Friend, although now featured Deacon on acoustic guitar.

Deacon contributed two songs to the band's 1977 album News of the World, Spread Your Wings and Who Needs You. Who Needs You most notably features May on spanish guitar. Spread Your Wings was Deacon's second hit, reaching charts in the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The band's 1978 album Jazz produced two Deacon-written tracks, If You Can't Beat Them and In Only Seven Days. If You Can't Beat Them is one of Deacon's few hard rock numbers while In Only Seven Days is a typical lighter pop ballad, but is notable for appearing as the B-side to Don't Stop Me Now.

Another One Bites The Dust as a bass-driven dance song based on his early love of soul. The song saw radio play on both black and white US music stations, quickly becoming one of the band's bestselling singles. The success of Another One Bites the Dust cemented Deacon's songwriting abilities, leading to his various collaborations with Mercury throughout the early 1980s that propelled the band towards a lighter disco sound.

Deacon's collaboration with Mercury would culminate with the release of the band's 1982 album Hot Space. Deacon wrote three songs for the album, making it his greatest songwriting contribution to the band. These included Back Chat, Cool Cat, and the bassline for the major hit Under Pressure. Even with the success of Under Pressure, the album's disco style was critically panned by fans and critics alike. This critical and commercial failure seeped into their concerts, hurting ticket sales and causing Queen to quit touring in North America.

While the band was taking a break from recording in 1983, Deacon performed on the single Picking Up Sounds by Man Friday & Jive Junior, a supergroup also featuring Thin Lizzy's Scott Gorham, Bad Company's Simon Kirke and Mick Ralphs, and The Pretenders' Martin Chambers. This marked the first time Deacon performed as a guest on a track by another band.

The failure of Hot Space and its subsequent tour led the band to steer away from disco in their 1984 album The Works. Deacon made a smaller songwriting contribution to this album, only writing one song on the album: I Want to Break Free. He also played bass on Elton John's song Ice on Fire and Angeline, released in 1985 and 1986 respectively.

The band's 1986 album A Kind of Magic saw Deacon slowly expanding his songwriting roles, writing Friends Will Be Friends, Pain Is So Close to Pleasure, and One Year of Love. Friends Will Be Friends was a hit and became a mainstay in the band's live set throughout the Magic Tour, while One Year of Love was featured in the 1986 film Highlander.

In Queen's subsequent albums The Miracle, Innuendo, and Made In Heaven, all four members of Queen shared equal songwriting credits to prevent conflicts within the band.

On 1989's The Miracle and 1991's Innuendo, all four members of Queen shared equal credit with songwriting. Despite this, Deacon (along with Mercury) were largely credited with writing the basic chord structure of The Miracle.

Retirement[]

Deacon was so upset by Mercury's death in November 1991, it resulted in a significant reduction in his musical activity. He said, "As far as we are concerned, this is it. There is no point carrying on. It is impossible to replace Freddie." After playing live with Queen three more times: at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness on 20 April 1992, in a charity concert with Roger Taylor at Cowdray House in Midhurst on 18 September 1993, and at the opening of the Bejart Ballet in Paris on 17 January 1997, performing only "The Show Must Go On" with Elton John on lead vocals – he decided to retire from music, re-appearing only briefly by joining his former bandmates in October 1997 for the recording of the final Queen song "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)", included on the Queen Rocks album released a month later.

During the entire Paris concert, Deacon appeared very detached and downcast. Roger Taylor said: "I could tell he wasn't happy cause he was chain smoking and very, very nervous. Had been severely traumatised by losing Freddie." In the end of the concert, Deacon turned to Brian May and, heartbroken, said, "I can never do this again. I can't do this."

Deacon has reportedly spoken unfavourably about the May/Taylor/Robbie Williams cover of "We Are the Champions", recorded for A Knight's Tale.

Deacon has stayed out of the public eye since retiring. He chose not to be present at Queen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. He also did not join the collaboration with singer Paul Rodgers (as Queen + Paul Rodgers), where he was replaced on bass by Danny Miranda. On the Queen + Paul Rodgers collaboration album The Cosmos Rocks, the bass duties were split between May and Rodgers, but Deacon was thanked in the notes on the CD. Brian May has since said that Deacon is still involved on the business side of Queen but chooses to stay out of the limelight. May also confirmed that Deacon approved of the making of the band's biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, where he was played by Joseph Mazzello.

In 2013, a newly-discovered species of the genus Heteragrion (Odonata : Zygoptera) from Brazil was named Heteragrion johndeaconi after Deacon, in honour of his musical and songwriting skills; one of four Heteragrion flatwing damselflies named after the bandmates, paying tribute to the 40th anniversary of Queen's founding.

In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone magazine regarding the forthcoming Queen + Adam Lambert North American tour with Adam Lambert, May and Taylor admitted that they no longer have much contact with Deacon except regarding finances, with Taylor stating that "[Deacon]'s completely retired from any kind of social contact", and describing him as "a little fragile". May added, however, "he still keeps an eye on the finances, though. John Deacon is still John Deacon. We don't undertake anything financial without talking to him." Session bassist Neil Fairclough played on the tour.

Musical style and equipment[]

In 1973, Rolling Stone wrote that the combination of Taylor and Deacon "is explosive, a colossal sonic volcano whose eruption makes the earth tremble." Deacon played guitar in addition to bass, taking over rhythm parts on many albums, as well as several acoustic performances. Some of the guitar work on Hot Space (the clean Fender Telecaster single-coil sound) is Deacon's. He would occasionally play synthesizers on his own compositions and often composed at the piano, playing a Wurlitzer electric piano on "You're My Best Friend". He can also be seen playing the grand piano in the music video to "Spread Your Wings", although on the actual recording the piano was played by Mercury. Unlike the other three members of Queen, Deacon did not sing on the group's records, though he did occasionally sing backing vocals during live performances.

Deacon's first bass, used in The Opposition, was an Eko, later switching to a Rickenbacker 4001. For most of Queen's career, he used a Fender Precision Bass, which underwent a number of cosmetic changes. Towards the end of the group's career, he used a custom bass designed by Roger Giffin. He also used an Ernie Ball MusicMan Stingray live on occasion. As a trained electronics engineer, he was able to build equipment for the band. His most famous creation is the "Deacy Amp", built in 1972 from pieces of electronic equipment found in a skip, and used by himself and May throughout Queen's recording career. Many of the so-called "guitar orchestras" on Queen albums use this amplifier.

Deacon usually played the bass with his fingers, instead of using a plectrum. He counted his influences as Chic, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. His favourite bass players were Chris Squire of the progressive rock band Yes and The Who's John Entwistle. A trademark of Deacon's playing is his bass runs. A 1975 review of Sheer Heart Attack said, "Only at the end would a new initiate to Queen recognize John Deacon's unmistakable trademark ... the least well known musician in Queen is one of his rock generation's most able."

Personal life[]

Deacon has often been described as the "quiet" member of the band. Although the rest of the band felt he was the right bassist for them, he barely spoke in rehearsals and avoided arguments. He lives in Putney in Southwest London with his wife Veronica Tetzlaff, whom he married on 18 January 1975, and is the father of six children. One of the reasons for Queen splitting from Trident, their original management company, is that it refused to lend Deacon money to put a deposit on a house.

According to the 2019 Sunday Times Rich List, Deacon was worth £130 million.

Trivia[]

  • On Queen's first album he was credited as "Deacon John". Not long after its release, he requested that he be referred to by his proper name.
  • His first writing credit did not come until Queen's third album, Sheer Heart Attack. The song Stone Cold Crazy was his first writing credit but the song was also credited to the other three members of the band. The first song Deacon wrote on his own was the song "Misfire" from the same album, a Caribbean-themed song that garnered little attention. He would achieve much greater success with his second song, "You're My Best Friend", which went on to be an international hit.
  • He lives in Putney in South West London with his wife Veronica Tetzlaff. Married since 18 January 1975, the two have six children: Robert (born 1975), Michael (born 1978), Laura (born 1979), Joshua (born 1983), Luke (born 1992) and Cameron (born 1993).
  • According to The Sunday Times Rich List, he is worth a £65 million as of 2008.
  • As a trained electronics engineer, he often used to build equipment for the band. His most famous creation is the "Deacy Amp", used by Deacon and Brian May, for instance for the guitar part on the ending of Bohemian Rhapsody
  • He would have reunited with Queen and met Anna Kendrick in 2018
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