Roger Taylor

Born July 26th, 1949

Roger's Children

Roger was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. His middle name, "Meddows" is a family name that had passed down through the generations. At age eight, after watching his cousin play the guitar, Roger decided that he'd like to play. He first taught himself to play on a ukulele. Almost right away, he and some friends formed a band called the "Bubblingover Boys", even though Roger says that none of them could really play at that time. When he was almost eleven, Roger was awarded a choral scholarship to the Truro Cathedral School. At about the same time, he had saved enough to buy an inexpensive acoustic guitar and began to play it, but his interest in the guitar was short lived, and he found himself being more interested by the percussion side of things.

In 1963, Roger and his friends started a band called the "Cousin Jacks", with Roger initially playing rhythm guitar. He soon switched to the drums which he enjoyed much more. The band only lasted about a year. In 1965, Roger joined another band called "Johnny Quale and the Reaction". As it went through personnel changes, it eventually changed to just "Reaction", and Roger played and sang with them for several years.

While Roger was at London Hospital Medical School studyng dentistry, a friend told him of a notice on the Imperial College school bulletin board. There was a new band looking for a drummer, so Roger contacted the people, and subsequently auditioned with Brian May and Tim Staffel for the position. The band "Smile" was born.

Roger earned his BSc in Biology from North London Polytechnic.

Some Frequently Asked Questions

Is Roger going to re-release his solo albums Fun in Space and Strange Frontier?

Yes, in fact they were just released on CD in the UK during the first part of May, 1996. If you live somewhere else, you'll have to purchase them as an import.

Has Happiness? been released in North America? When will it be?

No, it hasn't been released there. Originally it was supposed to be released, and Roger had signed with Virgin Records and was working on a release deal. Nothing further has been mentioned since sometime in the spring of 1995, so it seems very unlikely that it will be released now.

How tall is Roger

5' 10.5" (179.1 cm)

Is Mr. Murdoch that is referenced in Roger's song "Dear Mr. Murdoch" real? Who is he?

Yes, Mr. Murdoch is a real person. He's basically a media tycoon who owns things all over the world including: British newspapers (The Sun, News of the World, and the Times), Fox Network (TV in the US), 20th Century Fox, the Delphi computer service, part or all of a German TV station, etc . . . There are specific parts of the song that refer to things about his paper-- things like the nude pictures typically run on page 3 of the Sun. The song was probably directed at all the media in general since all of Queen's members had been treated badly by the press in the past, perhaps especially when Freddie was ill. But, it was also probably directed specifically at Mr. Murdoch since he owns so *much* of the media.

 

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