UK 1974 BPI Silver Disc

The UK 1974 BPI Silver Disc for Queen’s debut album, certified in 1974 by the BPI — the British Phonographic Industry — and presented to EMI Records to mark the album’s UK sales performance. It’s a modest-looking award compared to some of the later, flashier pieces in the collection, but it dates from the very start of the band’s recorded career, when nothing about their success was yet guaranteed.

For years this disc hung on the walls of EMI’s Abbey Road office — the label routinely rotated its wall of awards, retiring older, less prominent discs to make room for new ones as they came in. When this one came down, an EMI employee received it as a gift directly from the company, and I was lucky enough to acquire it from him some years later. As a genuine BPI UK official award, it also comes with an original metal plate that was used to press the first Queen LP.

This piece is part of “Keep On Rockin’ — the 2019 Exhibition.” See the full exhibition here.