# Ancient Web: Brian May World Kept Its 1999 Fan Awards and WebRing Oliver Tamminga's Brian May World began in March 1999 and preserves a Queen fan network built with web awards, photo galleries, music quizzes, a guestbook and personal correspondence. 2026-09-23 :: Switchboard Tech Services ![Ancient Web: Brian May World Kept Its 1999 Fan Awards and WebRing](https://switchboardtechservices.com/static/images/defaults/articles.webp) Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). Before musicians had a thousand official social accounts, a fan could make a serious commitment to one artist and become a useful stop on the wider fan circuit. [Visit Brian May World](https://www.brianmayworld.com/). Oliver Tamminga's website is dedicated to Queen guitarist Brian May. Its [about-my-site page](https://www.brianmayworld.com/my_site.htm) says he launched the project in March 1999, then moved to his own domain after receiving encouraging mail and web awards. The homepage records an exact revision history: version one began March 29, 1999, while version two arrived on September 17, 2000. The menu promises interviews, photographs, concert reports, a quiz, polls, Queen conventions, collecting rarities, the Red Special guitar and tributes to drummer Cozy Powell. One section even deals with Queen references in *The Simpsons*. These are the unmistakable choices of an enthusiastic fan editor rather than a record label's marketing department. ## A visitor counter, a guestbook and ten awards Tamminga keeps the old recognition system in plain view. The main page advertises ten international web awards and quotes an [Intermusic.com](http://Intermusic.com) assessment from March 2001. It also displays a hand-maintained visitor tally referring to nearly 399,000 visits before September 7, 2007. Those figures are the site's own claims and records, not a verified traffic audit. An invitation to sign the guestbook sits beside a mailing-list signup. The footer includes links to a Queen WebRing, complete with previous, next and random-site navigation. That is the older fan network in miniature: independent pages connecting readers to one another, without a single company owning the discussion. Tamminga's [site history](https://www.brianmayworld.com/my_site.htm) thanks people whose contributions helped the project grow. He also notes that photographs appearing on the site reached the limited-edition booklet for Queen's *Greatest Hits III*, illustrating how volunteer fan publishing sometimes intersected with official releases. Some linked bulletin boards and RealVideo features may not still function, and the page's long-abandoned advertisements should not be mistaken for current recommendations. What remains is unusually complete evidence of the site's early layout, dates and community ambitions. [Explore the original homepage and fan links](https://www.brianmayworld.com/). Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). - Categories: [Ancient Web](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/categories/ancient-web/) - Tags: [#ancientweb](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/ancientweb/), [#fansites](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/fansites/), [#webrings](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/webrings/), [#queen](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/queen/), [#brianmay](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/brianmay/) [Articles RSS](https://switchboardtechservices.com/feeds/articles.xml "Subscribe using an RSS reader") --- Canonical URL: https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-brian-may-world-kept-its-1999-fan-awards-and-webring/ Language: en-us Content type: article Author: Switchboard Tech Services Published: 2026-09-23T05:07:51+00:00 Modified: 2026-10-18T21:01:02.840952+00:00 Description: An independent Brian May fansite survives with its original owner history and characteristic turn-of-the-millennium community links.