Spike Edney

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Philip 'Spike' Edney (born December 11, 1951) is a British musician who has appeared as part of numerous bands. His most notable collaboration has been with Queen since 1984, to the extent that he has sometimes been described as the fifth member of Queen. In the mid-70s he recorded and toured with The Tymes and Ben E. King, playing keyboards, bass, guitar and trombone. In the late 70s he was musical director for Edwin Starr. During the early 80s he worked with Duran Duran, the Boomtown Rats, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Haircut 100 and the Rolling Stones.

His work with Queen included mostly keyboards (his main instrument), plus rhythm guitar and backing vocals. He accompanied the band on their tours since 1984, and was an obvious choice for Roger Taylor's side-project The Cross as well as for Brian May's Band when they toured in 1993 and 1998.

In 1994 he formed the SAS Band (Spike's All Stars), a group with a constantly fluctuating personnel sometimes but not always including musicians from Queen, Whitesnake, Free, Roxy Music, Toto, Spandau Ballet and solo artists including Roy Wood, Leo Sayer, Dean Friedman, Kiki Dee and Paul Young.

As the late Freddie Mercury was Queen's primary pianist, he took over Mercury's role as such during Queen + Paul Rodgers 2005 and 2006 tours, playing all piano parts on a Korg Triton keyboard, in addition to all other keyboard parts. He has also been the keyboardist for the London production of We Will Rock You since it opened in 2002.