John Deacon

John Richard Deacon (born 19 August 1951) is an English retired musician who was the bass guitarist for the rock band Queen. He wrote several songs for the group, including Top 10 hits "You're My Best Friend", "Another One Bites the Dust" and "I Want to Break Free"; and co-wrote "Under Pressure", "Friends Will Be Friends" and "One Vision".

Deacon grew up in Oadby, Leicestershire, playing bass guitar in a local band, The Opposition, before moving to London to study electronics at Chelsea College. He joined Queen in 1971 on the strength of his musical and electronic skills, particularly the homemade Deacy Amp that guitarist Brian May used to create guitar orchestras throughout Queen's career. From the third album, Sheer Heart Attack, onwards, he wrote at least one song per album, several of which became hits. In addition to bass guitar, Deacon played guitar, keyboards, and piano on Queen's studio work.

After the death of lead singer Freddie Mercury in 1991 and the following year's Tribute Concert, Deacon performed only sporadically with the remaining members of Queen before retiring from the music industry in 1997 after recording "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)". He has not performed on any of the other projects that the two remaining members, Brian May and Roger Taylor, have put together. He remains involved in the financial aspects of the band.

Deacon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Queen in 2001 and into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003.

John Richard Deacon was born on Sunday, 19 August 1951 at St Francis Private Hospital, London Road, Leicester to Arthur Henry and Lilian Molly Deacon (née Perkins). He had an older brother, Robert, who died aged 6 in July 1953 and a younger sister Julie, born in January 1956. His father worked at the Norwich Union insurance company and in 1960 the family moved to neighbouring Oadby. Deacon was known to friends and his bandmates as "Deacs" or "Deacy".

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.