Brian May has announced the death of legendary Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker.
“Very sad to hear of the passing of Roy Thomas Baker. Roy played a huge part in the production of so much Queen music in the early days. Photographs of Roy seem to be quite rare, but I was able to find these 3-D pictures of a trip that my then wife Chrissy and I made to visit Roy and his wife Barbara in their cottage in Norfolk. It must have been 1973.
We went strawberry picking, and, as you can see, Roy was interested in the stereoscopic process, posing in a pile of wood for stereoscopic effect! I took the tennis picture at Ridge Farm, on a day when we were visited by some Japanese journalists from *Music Life* magazine. Roy was a part of our production team from the very beginning up to and including the album ‘A night at the Opera’. We then parted company for ‘A Day at the Races’, but reunited for the ‘Jazz’ album.
Roy’s production contribution along with Mike Stone’s engineering for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ will never be forgotten. I regret slipping out of touch latterly with Roy. I suppose life moves at such a pace these days that we imagine there will be plenty of time to rekindle a friendship, and then suddenly one day it’s too late. Thank you, Roy for all the great work you did for us, and all the fun we had. Rest in Peace. Bri.”
