Brian May is not your usual rock and roll hell-raiser. The guitar demi-god from Queen was the son of a Ministry of Aviation draughtsman and electrical engineer and the young May was all about science. He worked his way from state school to grammar school to study University. Yet music had a hold over him. When he graduated he was offered a plum role at the Jodrell Bank Observatory by Sir Bernard Lovell but he turned it down to stay in London and work with his band Smile. That band would go on to transform into Queen. May’s iconic guitar, the Red Special, was handmade from scratch by his father and himself out of an old mantelpiece and various household items. Speaking about it in ‘Queen in Their Own Words’ May said: ‘The tremolo is interesting in that the arm’s made from an old bicycle saddle bag carrier, the knob at the end’s off a knitting needle, and the springs are valve springs from an old motorbike.’