# Inside Abbey Road, Brian May and Roger Taylor Made a Discovery That Stopped Them Cold: Five Unheard Tapes From Queen’s Earliest Days
**LONDON — They came to Abbey Road Studios expecting archival work. Instead, they found time capsules.**
While assembling a new collector’s edition of Queen II, Brian May and Roger Taylor made a discovery that stopped them cold. Five unheard tapes, sealed away for 52 years, had been sitting in the vaults all along — untouched, unlabeled, waiting.
The tapes dated from 1970 to 1972 — the period when Queen was still finding its identity. Freddie Mercury had recently joined. The name was new. The sound was forming. These were not finished masters or polished outtakes. They were rehearsals. Experiments. Moments captured accidentally while the band worked out what they wanted to become.
“We thought we’d heard everything,” May admitted. “Then we opened those boxes and realized we hadn’t even scratched the surface.”
The recordings capture Queen in transition — early versions of songs that would later appear on their first two albums, alongside material that never progressed further. Mercury’s voice, already unmistakable, still carried the rawness of a frontman discovering his power. May’s guitar experiments reveal embryonic versions of tones that would define a generation. Taylor’s drumming pulses with the same energy, already locked in.
But beyond the music, the tapes captured something else: the banter between takes. Freddie laughing. Brian suggesting changes. Roger counting in. The sound of four people becoming a band.
“We sat there listening in silence,” Taylor recalled. “For two hours, we just… listened. It felt like visiting ghosts.”
Some tracks will feature in the upcoming Queen II collector’s edition. Others may remain in the vault — too raw, too personal, too unfinished. But for May and Taylor, the discovery reaffirmed something they’ve always known: that Queen’s magic wasn’t manufactured. It was there from the beginning, waiting to be found.
