Skiffle, stars, and 3-D
A postwar baby, Brian May was born July 19, 1947. In his boyhood home on Walsham Road in Feltham on London’s western side, he was an only child, the offspring of Harold, an electronics engineer and senior draftsman at the Ministry of Aviation, and Ruth. (Harold had served as a radio operator during World War II.)
The seeds for all of May’s enduring interests came early. At age 6, Brian learned a few chords on the ukulele from his father, a music enthusiast. A year later, he awoke one morning to find a Spanish guitar “hanging off the end of my bed.” At age 7, he began piano lessons and started playing guitar with enthusiasm. His father’s engineering genius came in handy for repairing and fixing up equipment, as the family was of modest means. “We were very, very poor,” says May.
As he explored music, Brian also developed scientific interests. “In the school library there was this little book called The Earth,” he says. “It was written by the man who is now Sir Patrick Moore, who has become a good friend in recent times. It had a picture of Earth on the cover and gave a history of Earth from its formation all the way through the beginnings of life, and I was just enthralled. I read it from cover to cover again and again.”
The discovery of Moore, England’s famous astronomy television presenter, led to Brian staying up late to watch Moore’s show, The Sky at Night, on the BBC. “I begged my parents to stay up far enough into the night,” he says, “and I just became captivated by the whole story of the universe. It’s been a lifelong passion, something that’s never left me. There’s always a part of me who just likes to go out and gaze up at the heavens if I’m fortunate enough to have a clear sky.”
