In some magazine from last year, Freddie entered the top ten for the first time for those celebrities who are dead and are still making millions. Now, how come Freddie is still making more money than Brian and Roger? is John the richest of the remaining members? or do they get the same shares? I guess people who live in the UK may have a better answer....
I can help a little. Freddie if he were still alive would be worth £80million if he were not working anymore. Brian and Roger have a similar fortune at £60million and John is worth £55million, i'd guess brian and roger are worth more as they do a hell of a lot more touring than john does in his spare time.
supernova190188: "I can help a little. Freddie if he were still alive would be worth £80million if he were not working anymore. Brian and Roger have a similar fortune at £60million and John is worth £55million."
This is true(ish) - but only in the sense of "Queen". Add to that picture their individual solo careers and a very different picture takes shape.
Brian has enjoyed (in terms of sales) more solo success (including Freddie) than the other members of the band.
Brian has launched more (successful) albums, singles, chart and touring and VHS career. He has worked for film (Furia), theatre (Macbeth), televison (Frank Stubbs/The Stretch) , radio (Spiderman) and TV advertising (Ford/Pepsi).
He is involved in the production of new Queen releases (5:1 remixes), oversees the musical, and has launched a very lucrative range of Brian May guitars and amplifiers.
Add to that all his work as a jobbing (guest) guitarist on other people's material, the "We Will Rock You" Sports franchise (Yes he does get paid for this track being played at sporting venues) - so even if he was NOT involved with Queen, he would still be worth a bob or two!
Theres no way Freddie is worth £20 million more than Brian. Brian will have more money than Roger. I read a while ago that Brian is on about £70 million and Rog was not far behind that. But really no one but them really know do they? Its just rumour.
my info came from several books about freddie which in them state his fortune when he died, so i worked out what this would be with inflation today and the information on the other 3 comes from the sunday times rich list.
deleted user 05.03.2005 11:26
John S Stuart wrote: supernova190188: "I can help a little. Freddie if he were still alive would be worth £80million if he were not working anymore. Brian and Roger have a similar fortune at £60million and John is worth £55million."
This is true(ish) - but only in the sense of "Queen". Add to that picture their individual solo careers and a very different picture takes shape.
Brian has enjoyed (in terms of sales) more solo success (including Freddie) than the other members of the band.
Dream on. Freddie was more successful with his solo projects than Brian. Freddie was the only Queen member to have a solo No. 1 hit (though after his death / Living On My Own in 1993). Brian never had a solo single that peaked at Number 4 ( Freddie's The Great Pretender in 1987) and not as many top ten hits as Freddie solowise (Love Kills, Barcelona (two times/ no. 2 in 1992!!), Great Pretender, Living On My Own in 1993). Add to this that the "Freddie Mercury Album" (no. 4 in 1992!!) and "Barcelona" sold by the truckload in 1992/93, its easy to see that Freddie was more successful solowise (Brian only real big success with a soloalbum was "Back To the Light" (it peaked at no. 6)/ Starfleet and also Another World were no big coup). Of course in summing up he may have made more money from it .... but only because Freddie is dead since 1991.
there's also the small matter of "rediduals" - when a single is released both sides get equal royalties and later on when queen "co-wrote" everything it became even less important
but where a song becomes more important is the residuals
radio and tv airplay, ad campaigns, sports PA airings, sheet music, covers etc - where the "user of the song" has to pay to use it
now if you look at queen's early hits the ones where individuals were credited with songwriting then Freddie wrote most A sides until about 1980
so the chances of the residuals for the early hits going to other band members is far less -
Everytime SSOR, Killer Queen, Bo Rhap, GOFLB, STL, Champions, Bicycle Race, Don't Stop Me Now and Crazy Little Thing are "aired on radio/tv" it's freddie alone that gets a fee - and ok - so it's only pence each time - but multiply that by every TV radio station worldwide per year - and you see who's getting the largest slice of the cake
las tuesday i heard BoRhap, STL Dont's stop me now and champions on Virgin radio
add to the above playing "champions" at sporting events - how many times eh? cup finals, rugby finals, superbowl - you name it - it crops up regularly
What you guys said about Brian make sense. He has other royalties besides Queen, for example: The Red Special...but it is also very true than death is the best marketing for someone's state.
Yes, but the only Charts that matter worlwide are the UK and the US (for example, all official Queen books say they had only four UK no.1 hits up to Freddie's death, though they had a lot of singles that were no. 1 hits in other countries) - and Freddie had a number one in the UK (and in some other European countries in 1993), while Brian "only" has the Netherlands.
I think the royalties from the singles' sales gives Freddie the advantage. Killer Queen, Seven Seas of Rhye, We Are the Champions... Don't Stop me Now... and BoRhap...