Career
In the earlier phase of his career, during the mid-1970s, he recorded and toured with The Tymes and Ben East. King, playing keyboards, bass, guitar and trombone. Subsequently, in the late 1970s, he was musical director for Edwin Starr and, during the early 1980s, worked with Duran Duran, the Boomtown Rats, Dexys Midnight Runners, Buckinghamshire Fizz, Haircut One Hundred and The Rolling Stones. He also appeared with Peter Green on his comeback tour.
Edney"s collaboration with Queen included mostly keyboards (his main instrument), plus rhythm guitar and backing vocals.
Accompanying the band on its tours since 1984, he was also part of Roger Taylor"s side project The Cross as well as Brian May"s band when they toured in 1993 and 1998. Edney can be seen on Queen"s Live at Wembley Stadium Digital Video Disc, playing guitar on "Hammer to Fall," and piano on both "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Tutti Frutti." In 1994, he formed SAS (Spike"s All Stars), a band with constantly fluctuating personnel, including musicians from Queen, Whitesnake, Free, Roxy Music, Toto, and Spandau Ballet, and solo artists including Fish, Roy Wood, Leo Sayer, Kiki Dee, and Paul Young.
Others that have appeared with the band include Suggs, Lionel Richie, Bob Geldof and Toyah Willcox. After the death of Freddie Mercury (who was also Queen"s primary or main pianist), Edney took over Mercury"s role on piano during Queen + Paul Rodgers 2005, 2006, and 2008 tours, playing all piano parts on a Korg Triton keyboard, in addition to all other keyboard parts.
During the 2005-2006 tour, he was often referred to as "The Wizard" by Roger Taylor.
He returned as keyboardist for the Queen + Adam Lambert tours in 2012, 2014, and 2015. He has also been the keyboardist for the London production of We Will Rock You since it opened in 2002. Edney is also the musical director of the official Queen tribute band, the Queen Extravaganza.