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Henry James "Jim" Beach (born 1942) is a British lawyer and the manager of the British rock band Queen.

Early career
Beach attended Cheltenham College before studying law at the University of Cambridge. He was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights Club whilst a student, performing in the 1964 review Stuff What Dreams Are Made Of at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as one of the musicians and a co-writer of the script. The 1964 review also featured future Monty Python member Eric Idle, Yes Minister co-creator Jonathan Lynn and future Goodies, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie

He worked as a lawyer with music and entertainment law firm Harbottle & Lewis after leaving university, but retained his interest in music by playing in a jazz band at night.

Queen
Beach was first introduced to Queen by EMI executive Bob Mercer in December 1974, at a time when the band needed a lawyer to assist in terminating their contract with Trident Studios. Beach successfully negotiated their exit from the contract after nine months of negotiations, allowing the band to sign directly with EMI Records in the UK and Elektra Records in the USA during August 1975. The exit from the Trident contract left Queen owing Trident around £100,000, Beach negotiated a cash advance from EMI Music Publishing which allowed the debt to be settled.

Queen appointed Elton John's manager and partner, John Reid as their new manager, signing a three year contract with him; they had also considered Don Arden, 10cc's manager Harvey Lisberg and Peter Rudge, who would later manage Roger Waters.

John Reid and Queen parted amicably in 1977, just before the end of their three year contract. Queen were keen to exit the contract, as the relationship between Freddie Mercury, Elton John and John Reid was becoming a fraught. The personal relationship between Elton John and John Reid was coming to an end around this time (their business relationship would continue until 1998) whilst the management of Elton and their record label, The Rocket Record Company, was taking up increasing amounts of Reid's time.

Jim Beach would again represent the band in legal matters when exiting from their contract with John Reid, and would continue to serve as the band's lawyer afterwards. Queen would initially manage themselves after Reid's departure, with John Deacon said to be especially interested and competent in the management of the group. Queen were aided by Reid's former Queen management assistants Pete Brown and Paul Prenter, but ultimately their attempt to manage themselves was short lived, and by late 1978, they had again sought a new manager. The decision was prompted in part by the 98% taxation on income from overseas, something that badly impacted artists such as Queen and required time consuming management to mitigate against.

Beach, the senior music partner with Harbottle & Lewis, was approached by Queen and encouraged by Bob Mercer to take over as Queen's manager, leaving Harbottle & Lewis late in 1978 to take up the role. Beach, in addition to managing Queen, would also take over management of the individual members of the band. He continues (as of June 2014) to manage Queen, the individual members and the estate of Freddie Mercury (for which he is one of two executors).

He would form Queen Productions, Queen Music and Queen Films on behalf of the band, allowing them to own and exercise more control over their own sound recordings, music publishing rights and music videos for the first time. This was similar to the companies and contracts Peter Grant and Steve O'Rourke had set up for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd respectively.

Other work
Beach has also worked as a film and television producer, where he primarily works in the area of music and arts documentaries with much of his output relating to his management of Queen. He won the 2013 International Emmy Award for best Arts Programming with Rhys Thomas for Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender. He produced the television coverage for many of Queen's concerts, The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992 and several of the 46664 Concerts (including the London based Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday Tribute) which aimed to increase awareness of and funds to treat HIV/AIDS.

He has worked on a smaller number dramatic releases, including working as executive producer on The Krays (1990), The Reflecting Skin (1990) and the Michael Winner film Dirty Weekend (1993). His theatrical productions include working on Queen musical We Will Rock You and on the Monty Python performances Live at Drury Lane and Monty Python Live at City Center. He will produce the Monty Python reunion shows to be held during July 2014 at the The O2 Arena.

Beach is involved with several music industry related charitable organisations, including 46664 Concerts where he is a director, and The Mercury Phoenix Trust where he is a trustee.

Personal life
His son Ol Beach is a member of the band Yellowire and formerly a member of the Wire Daisies. The Wire Daises vocalist Treana Morris was discovered by Queen's Roger Taylor and the band was signed to the digital record label Transistor Project, which Beach started with Blur's Dave Rowntree.