ROCKFIELD Studios founder and owner Kingsley Ward has recalled how Queen created Bohemian Rhapsody there exactly half a century ago.

The band had recorded Killer Queen a year earlier in Monmouth, and returned to the rural studios in 1975.

Kingsley told BBC Radio Wales he found Brian May playing frisbee outside and mentioned that they didn't seem to have done much after staying there for a week.

The guitarist told him singer Freddie Mercury was inside "writing something", and later found the frontman working at the piano on a new song he called 'Freddie's thing'.

"I had no idea… but it was Bohemian Rhapsody," Kingsley told BBC Radio Wales on the anniversary of the rock operetta's completion.

May and Queen drummer Roger Taylor marked the milestone last month by appearing with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the Last Night of the Proms Finale, giving their first ever symphonic performance of the song.

And in all the history at Rockfield, including legendary recordings by the likes of Oasis, Black Sabbath, Coldplay, Robert Plant and many more, Kingsley said that being one of the first to hear Mercury's piano and vocal solo is one of his favourite memories.

"I remember that particular solo because it was so outstanding," he said.

But the first time he actually heard the song in full, was on the radio driving down the M4 motorway.

"The whole song was done [in the studio] in three sections, and when it left here I only ever heard the sections. They were never actually put together as a unit," he said.

"I was amazed when I heard it. I thought it was fantastic.”

Rockfield, which has been undergoing a studio refit in the Coach House over recent weeks, host occasional tours, including the chance to sit at the piano where Freddie composed the monster hit.

See https://rockfieldmusicgroup.com and its Facebook page for more information.