Tim Staffell

Timothy John Staffell (born 24 February 1948) is an English rock musician, visual artist, model maker and designer. He was a member of Smile, a band which included guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Upon Staffell's departure, Smile were joined by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon to form the band Queen.

Staffell was born in Ealing, London, England. He attended Hampton Grammar School and was the singer in a band called the Railroaders when in 1964 he attended a concert where he met fellow Hampton pupil Brian May. They then put together a blues-rock band called '1984' with John Garnham (guitar), Dave Dilloway (bass), John Sanger (keyboards) and Richard Thompson (drums). In 1965 Staffell began a graphics and drawing course at Ealing Art College where he became friends with Freddie Mercury, whilst May enrolled at Imperial College, London. 1984 were a support act for Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd and Staffell left it in 1968 not long after May left.

Staffell and May then put together a new band called Smile with Roger Taylor who auditioned to be their drummer. Staffell and May co-wrote the song "Doing All Right", which Queen included on their eponymous debut album. Following his tenure with Smile, Staffell joined Humpy Bong and then the experimental progressive rock outfit Morgan, with whom he released the albums Nova Solis and Brown Out (later retitled The Sleeper Wakes).

Staffell later decided to pursue a career as a model maker, designer, animator and commercials director. Among the projects upon which he worked were the BBC television adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and, for the inaugural series, he was the chief model maker for the first series of the children's TV show Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.

In 2001, Staffell returned to the music industry co-forming with Richard Lightman, long-time collaborator, a new blues-funk band called aMIGO, who draw inspiration from folk, Latin and rock.In 2003 they released one eponymous album, with re-recorded versions of the old Smile tunes "Earth" and "Doin' Alright", featuring his former bandmate Brian May on guitars and vocals. The album was self released and available on CD-R for a limited release run (less than 300 copies) and later released via iTunes.

In April 2018, Staffell was invited to record his part of the song "Doin' Alright" alongside the other Smile members, Brian May and Roger Taylor, for the upcoming soundtrack to the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, which tells the life story of Freddie Mercury. The song was credited to Smile, and titled "Doing All Right ... Revisited". The music score was released in 19 October 2018, and the movie premiere was three days later. The soundtrack debuted on the UK albums chart at number 5 on 26 October 2018.

The second Tim Staffell album Two Late was released on digital platforms on 26 October 2018, and it will be followed with physical limited release in the middle of November. Staffell confirmed that he is already working on his third solo album, with title Zero Margin. In July 2019, 'aMIGO' was re-released, remastered and containing a live studio version of the song 'Just Couldn't Say, by MOSCODISC as a Digipak