Sir Brian May admitted he initally “didn’t think” he could be with his now wife Anita Dobson because she “didn’t like Led Zeppelin” while acknowledging some of her interests didn’t agree with him when they first got together. He told OK magazine in 1998: “I guess I’m surprised that it’s lasted.

“We have an incredible attraction to each other, a huge need for each other, which no one else can fulfill, but all the time life is telling us that it doesn’t work, because we don’t like the same things, we don’t like to be in the same places! I didn’t think that I could ever be with someone who didn’t like Led Zeppelin!

The Queen guitarist added: “The stuff she likes I got dragged into by my heels – you know, the whole world of musical theatre made me physically ill – and still occasionally does. But I’ve got used to it now because of her. I’ve learnt so much; she has enriched my life beyond measure.”

Although the couple had been together over a decade at that point, it would be another two years before they tied the knot. In May 2002, despite the disdain he expressed for the theatre, Brian and bandmate Roger Taylor launched We Will Rock You – a jukebox musical featuring many of Queen’s biggest songs.

The book was written by Ben Elton and the show had backing from Hollywood legend Robert De Niro. At the time of its launch, it was the most expensive musical ever staged in the West End, at a staggering £6.5million.

It broke even just fifteen months after opening, and continued to run in the Dominion Theatre until 2014, making it the longest-running shows ever to play in the venue by a margin of nine years.

It ranks among the top 10 longest-running musicals in West End history and had been performed an astonishing 4,600 times before it’s closure. A touring version followed, and the show made a triumphant return to the West End in 2023 for a limited run.

Speaking when the show first launched, Brian said: “It’s not just like, let’s sling some songs into a story at all. It’s very much, I guess, we always took our work very seriously.

“So this is a genuine attempt if you like to make something which will stand for the rest of time as a musical, and perhaps some people in the future will forget that these songs ever had a life elsewhere. I don’t know.”