Talking about John Deacon

Freddie Mercury: "John is the anchor of the band." ('70s)

"If God forsakes us now the rest of the group won't do anything unless John says it's all right."

"He's sort of quiet, lots of people think that. Don't underestimate him, he's got a fiery streak underneath all that. I talk so much anyway, he like to let me do all the talking. But once people crack that thin ice, then he's alright. (You can never stop him talking then)." (1976)

Brian May: "John's got a good business mind. He also has a complete sense and understanding of rhythm and how rock and business work together." ('80s)

"John, too, the archetypal quiet bass player - he can be incredibly considerate and inexplicably rude, make someone curl up and die with a couple of sentences. He's very strange, but he's the leader on the business side, studies the stock market, understands the deals." ('90s)

"Well, John was always into funk and always liked sparseness and tight drum sounds and just funky music. He liked R&B and black music, and he only kind of suffered rock and roll because he was in a rock and roll band [laughs]. He's a great bass player, I think much better than people realize. He's very inventive and very lyrical, but also very funky." (1998)

Roger Taylor: "We thought he was great. We were all so used to each other, and were over the top. We thought that because he was quiet he would fit in with us without too much upheaval. He was a great bass player too - and the fact that he was a wizard with electronics was definitely a deciding factor,"

Jenny Hayes(One of the Opposition's go-go dancers): ""I don't remember him doing anything, what a boring character! There's no point in pretending he was anything else because he wasn't. I mean, he always seemed very nice, but he was just a bit quiet. I don't have any remarkable memories of him. The clearest memory I have of him is being in a dressing room and everybody getting changed after the show and larking about. John never said a word. He never said anything, never spoke. Ever so strange. He just got on with it, did it, but you're talking about a completely unremarkable character."

Clive Castledine(First bass player of the Opposition): "John was quite keen. I was amazed with his academic background that he stuck with music. He was extremely intelligent and worked very hard at school. I think he took to learning the guitar in possibly the same way he looked at education. He was keen and did it properly."

Richard Young(the Opposition's first guitarist/vocalist, and later keyboardist.): "He is basically shy. I suppose he was quieter than the rest of us -- but he was fairly static with Queen if you look at him on stage."

Ron Chester(Guitarist of the Opposition): "John was quiet by nature. His sister, Julie, was the same. Once he got going, though, he wasn't any different from anybody alse. But on first approach, you really had to coax him out of his shell. We'd have to pick him up. He couldn't walk down the road to meet us."

Dave Williams(Guitarist of the Opposition): "He was very confident. But in a laid-back sort of way. He didn't have a problem with anything. 'Yeah, I can do that,' he'd say. We used to call him Easy Deacon, not because of any sexual preferences, but because he'd say something was easy without it sounding big-headed. I remember saying to him once, 'I'm going to have to knock off the gigs a bit to revise for my 'A' levels. What about you?' 'No,' he said, 'I don't need to. I've never failed an exam yet, and I've never revised for one.' Ultimately, he was just confident, with a phenomenally logical mind. If he couldn't remember something, he could work it out. And, of course, he got stunning results."

Nigel Bullen(Opposition's drummer): "He was really enjoying it. There was a definite change. He became very trendy, grew his hair long. He was the same academically, he still sat down and did his work, but he came out of himself socially which was good. He was holding his own among it very well." (during his college days)

Norman Sheffield(Trident): "He's the deep one. He tends to be good for the others as a stabilising influence. He acts more maturely than the others possibly because his musical involvement is not as deep as the other three...he tends to be the spokesman for the band in private, although he is the least receptive in public. In private he is only half the musician; in public, the musician comes to the forefront."

Dave Thomas(Their early manager): "He is very independent within the group. He was always the first one out of bed in the morning, whereas you might have to call the others at ten am, and then at ten fifteen am, then ten thirty am or later before they'd get up (especially Brian May who hates getting up in the morning) but if you gave John a time for departure next morning, he'd be there in the hotel lobby ready and waiting five or ten minutes early. He is very quiet and very strong, and always very sane. He's a smoothing influence over the other members of the band. If there were rows during a sound-check, it would be John who would approach the matter analytically...and outside music, he had a great passion for Queen's Park Rangers, which used to give him something different to think about. He didn't have the total obsession with music, though you still knew that his heart was totally in it. Of them all, I think John's the one that I can see getting a cottage in the country and living a very quiet, peaceful life when the time comes for him to do it."

Julie Webb(English journalist): "He's one of those clever buggers who manages to avoid getting quoted at all costs." ('80s)