John Deacon Biography

John Richard Deacon was born on August 19th, 1951 in Oadby, Leicester. When John was 7, he was given his first guitar, a red plastic “Tommy Steele” special.John’s father, Arthur, always encouraged John to tinker with electronics, a hobby that he loved himself. One of John’s early projects included adapting an old reel-to-reel recorder to record music off of the radio. Electronics became John’s passion, so he contemplated turning his hobby into a career.John was a huge fan of the Fab Four, and decided he wanted to learn how to play guitar. He later saved enough money from his early morning paper route to buy one.At the age of fourteen, John formed his first band, The Opposition. By the end of 1966, they had earned quite a following throughout Leicester. Later that year, the Opposition's bassist Clive Castledine left the band, leaving John to fill the gap. He bought his first bass, an EKO for £22. Because of the new lineup, the band changed their name in a daring move to The New Opposition. In 1969, John left the band, now called ART, for London. Here he studied electronics at Chelsea College, which is part of the University of London. He didn’t take part in the music scene at school, but had brought along his acoustic guitar in case an opportunity came up.In October of 1970, he went to see a performance by a band called Queen. He recalls, “They were all dressed in black, and the lights were very dim too, so all I could see were four shadowy figures. They didn't make a lasting impression on me at the time".As he began his second year of school, he realized he missed music, and wanted to be involved in a group. He soon convinced his mother to drive his equipment to school for him. He found a few people to play with, but they weren’t the right people. Whilst looking through the local paper, he found a “musician wanted” ad, and attended one audition, but didn’t get the gig.In the early months of 1971, John was introduced to Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen. They had gone through a number of bass players, and had just lost another. They asked John if he was interested in auditioning. Soon enough, he was arriving where they were rehearsing, and brought his bass, and the soon to be legendary, Deaky Amp. He began to learn to play a few of their songs that the band had been playing. A few days later, John Deacon became the fourth and final member of Queen.
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