Henry James Beach (born 9 March 1942), known as Jim Beach or "Miami" Beach, is a British lawyer and band manager, best known for being the long-time manager of the

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

Queen, its individual members and the comedy group

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over fou ...

. He was nicknamed "Miami" by

Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in th ...

, a play on his surname. He took over as manager of the band in 1978 after he had acted on their behalf as a lawyer. Beach is co-founder of Transistor Project, together with Blur's Dave Rowntree. Beach is also the co-founder of the Mercury Phoenix Trust, which promotes AIDS prevention worldwide. Beach lives in

Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approxi ...

, Switzerland.

Early life

Beach was born in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of ...

. He was educated at

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent SchoolDay and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Huggett ...

and

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light sid ...

, where he read law. He was a member of the Cambridge

Footlights Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, commonly referred to simply as the Footlights, is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England, founded in 1883 and run by the students of Cambridge University. History Footlights' inaugural ...

and in 1963 went on a road tour of England and Scotland with

Eric Idle Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English actor, comedian, musician and writer. Idle was a member of the British surreal comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band The Rutles, and is the writer of the music and lyrics for the Broadw ...

and

Graeme Garden David Graeme Garden OBE (born 18 February 1943) is a Scottish comedian, actor, author, artist and television presenter, best known as a member of The Goodies and a regular panellist on ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. Early life and education ...

as the piano player.

Family

He is married to Claudia Beach and has a daughter, Matilda, and a son, Ol. Ol Beach is the frontman for the band Yellowire and was formerly the keyboard player for the rock band Wire Daisies, discovered by Queen's Roger Taylor.

In popular culture

Beach was a producer in the 2018 film ''

Bohemian Rhapsody "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen (band), Queen, released as the lead single from their fourth album, ''A Night at the Opera (Queen album), A Night at the Opera'' (1975). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, the s ...

''. He was portrayed in the film by Tom Hollander.

References

1942 births Queen (band) English music managers Living people Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge English expatriates in Switzerland People from Montreux Golden Globe Award-winning producers {{UK-music-bio-stub