In 1983, Star Licks Productions created a series of instructional videos featuring well-known musicians demonstrating their unique musical styles and techniques. The portfolio debuted with a wide-ranging group of players including Steve Lukather of Toto, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, guitarist Albert Lee, and acclaimed guitarist/educator Wolf Marshall.

In one of the videos, Queen’s Brian May discussed his equipment and techniques, and demonstrates a number of his guitar solos. He covers both famous and lesser known Queen songs, including “Brighton Rock”, “Tie Your Mother Down”, “Somebody To Love”, “It's Late”, “Dead On Time”, “Put Out The Fire”, “It's A Hard Life”, “Keep Yourself Alive”, “Jesus”, “Father To Son” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”.

Watch a clip featuring “It's A Hard Life” below.

The programme was produced and directed by Mark Freed and Robert Decker, and recorded at Sarm West, London, England. The video was originally released in 1983 and later reissued in 1993/4.

Note from Brian: “Mark initially came to me with an idea for making audio cassettes of guitarists explaining their techniques. It seemed a good one and we arranged to meet and make it happen. But I said ... if we’re going to the trouble of recording this stuff, why not film it as well, and make it into a Video Cassette ?! So we made a ‘pilot’ video, and people liked it, and this became the template for a whole collection of videos which, I think, stand up very well to this day. Maybe we should do an update?!”

Subscribe to Brian May’s channel here.

Queen + Adam Lambert Tour Dates 2017:

July
25 - Boston, MA - TD Garden
26 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center
28 - New York, NY - Barclays Center
30 - Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center
31 - Washington D.C. - Verizon Center

August
2 - Nashville, TN - Bridgestone Arena
4 - Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center
5 - Houston, TX - Toyota Center

November
1 - Prague, Czech Republic - O2 Arena
2 - Munich, Germany - Olympiahalle
4 - Budapest, Hungary - Sportarena
6 - Lodz, Poland - Atlas Arena
8 - Vienna, Austria - Stadhalle
10 - Bologna, Italy - Unipol Arena
12 - Luxembourg, Amneville - Galaxie
13 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Ziggo Dome
17 - Kaunas, Lithuania - Zalgiris Arena
25 - Dublin, Ireland - 3 Arena
26 - Belfast, Ireland - SSE Arena
28 - Liverpool, England - Echo Arena
30 - Birmingham, England - Barclaycard Arena

December
1 - Newcastle, England - Metro Radio Arena
3 - Glasgow, Scotland - The SSE Hydro
5 - Nottingham, England - Motorpoint Arena
6 - Leeds, England - First Direct Arena
8 - Sheffield, England - Motorpoint Arena
9 - Manchester, England - Arena
12 - London, England - 02 Arena
15 - London, England - The SSE Arena, Wembley