Freddie joining the band was very natural, as he was really good friends with the band members before I left and simply dovetailed in. The movie has used artistic license to depict the departure, but it wasn’t really like that because Freddie and I were good friends at college. I was drifting towards listening to jazz and blues. I began to want to play music that was more improvisational. My departure from Smile was completely amicable. Photo by Getty Images There was no animosity when Smile parted ways. Members of the group Smile posed in Addison Gardens, West Kensington, London in August 1969. In an interview with Esquire, Staffell-who released an album in 2018 and is prepping another this year-explains the true story of how he left Smile, how Queen was formed, and the details Bohemian Rhapsody left out or changed. or at least it would be if Bohemian Rhapsody didn’t tell a fictionalized version of Queen’s story. Seeing his opportunity, Mercury walks up to the remaining musicians, introduces himself, and stuns the guys by singing his own a cappella version of the song. (That’s Tim Staffell’s voice in the movie he recorded a version of the song for Bohemian Rhapsody.) After the show, Mercury watches as Staffell heatedly quits the band.

The band performing is Smile, playing its original song “Doin’ Alright,” which was later re-recorded by Queen. The film shows a young Mercury attending a concert at a London club.

The story of Smile, Staffell leaving the band, and Mercury joining with May and Taylor to form Queen serves as the opening backstory to the Oscar-nominated biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.īut the story that audiences have seen in the movie-which broke box-office records for the highest-grossing music biopic-isn’t the real one. Brian May and Tim Staffell with their first band 1984.

Did queen play without freddie mercury