[BITList] Bohemian Rhapsody

Sun Nov 26 04:04:32 GMT 2017

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Mercury,  Freddie  [formerly Faroukh Bulsara]  (1946-1991), singer and song-writer, was born at the Government Hospital in Zanzibar on 5 September 1946, the eldest son of Bomi Bulsara, civil servant, and his wife, Jer. His parents were both from Bombay and were Zoroastrians. At five he was enrolled at the local missionary school, and his sister, Kashmira, was born in 1952. Two years later the family moved back to Bombay, and he was enrolled at St Peter's, a prestigious English boarding-school some 50 miles from the city. Here he took piano lessons, joined the school choir, and formed his first band, the Hectics. After O-levels, he returned briefly to Zanzibar before his family moved to England, settling at Feltham, Middlesex. Here he enrolled at Isleworth Polytechnic School, supporting himself in the holidays with a variety of jobs. Having gained an A-level in art, he took a course in graphic design at Ealing College of Art (1966-9). There he met an astrophysics student and guitarist, Brian May, and a dentistry student and drummer, Roger Taylor, both of whom were playing in a group called Smile. Mercury (he changed his name to Freddie Mercury by deed poll in 1970) briefly joined a Liverpudlian group, Ibex, and then Sour Milk Sea, before forming Queen in 1970 with May and Taylor. They were joined in 1971 by bass player John Deacon, and the line-up of the band remained unchanged for the rest of its history. Mercury also met Mary Austin, manager of the London boutique Biba, and lived with her for seven years. She was to be a lifelong friend.

Signed to EMI as a glam rock band, Queen scored its first success with 'Seven Seas of Rhye' (1973), which peaked at number ten in the British charts. The albums Queen (1973) and Queen II (1974) followed with limited commercial success, due perhaps to the somewhat peculiar mix of styles and references. Both were essentially hard rock, but are notable for early examples of Mercury's wit and innuendo. Titles such as 'My Fairy King' and 'The Fairy Feller's Masterstroke' (both composed by Mercury), combined with his use of falsetto, implied an underlying sexual ambiguity; this ambiguity, a characteristic of many glam rock musicians, stood in sharp contrast to the vigorous heterosexuality of traditional rock and popular music. The band also had its first American tour, supporting Mott the Hoople, but the audience initially regarded them as a joke, responding to the musicians' glam rock Zandra Rhodes silks, nail varnish, and make-up.

The band's first major success came in 1974 with the release of the Sheer Heart Attack album, which contained the number two British chart single, 'Killer Queen'. Written by Mercury and notable for its studio mix and feel for narrative, it gave Queen its first American top twenty hit and became the gay anthem for the winter of 1974, as well as gaining an Ivor Novello award for Mercury. The album cover was particularly striking, with a photograph of the members of the band collapsed in a heap, Mercury's trousers undone and black nail varnish on his left hand, against a black background with gaudy red lettering, which reinforced the ambiguities already surrounding Mercury's image as a macho rock hero, blending showmanship with high camp. Queen, however, was never perceived as a gay band, and Mercury's campery was regarded by its growing number of fans as evidence of a flair for theatricality, treading the line between the outrageous and bad taste. Mercury's adoption of the union flag, which was often emblazoned on his jackets or draped around his shoulders, and his wearing of a crown and ermine-trimmed robes, led to mass singing of 'God Save the Queen' even before the band recorded a version of it in 1975.

Queen's final breakthrough was made in 1975 with the release of A Night at the Opera, which took its title from the classic Marx Brothers film. The pre-release publicity for the album emphasized its production costs (£35,000), the three months it took to record, and the use of six different recording studios for its completion. Its most important track was 'Bohemian Rhapsody', which heralded what was to become Mercury's performance hallmark, an operatic vocal style. It lasted just short of six minutes (twice the length of an average single), had three tempo changes, and featured a pseudo-operatic passage of contrived pathos, so the record company was initially reluctant to issue it as a single; it was taken up by the disc jockey Kenny Everett, and reached number one in the British and number nine in the American charts. It won Queen its first platinum disc, gained a second Ivor Novello award for Mercury, and, at the 1977 Brit awards, was named joint best single of the preceding twenty-five years, with Procul Harum's 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was accompanied by one of the first promotional videos, with Mercury camping it up in a parody of Paderewski, hunched over a grand piano which he played with excessive gestures.

As Queen's popularity broadened, they became prime movers in 'stadium rock', spectacularly lit and costumed performances for huge audiences in increasingly large venues, such as football stadiums, giving full scope to Mercury's commanding stage presence and idiosyncratic use of his detachable microphone stand. He was able to project both music and image to vast audiences, many of whom could see the stage only by virtue of live-relay video screens, 'prancing down multi-layered catwalks in a sequinned, skin-tight jump suit and ballet slippers, preening his way through a myriad of costume changes and singing in his majestic, slightly frayed tenor voice'  (The Times). The appeal of the band was international: a concert in February 1981 at Sao Paulo, Brazil, was attended by a record audience for a rock concert, of 231,000 people.

In addition to his work with Queen, Mercury had a solo career which began in 1973 when he released a version of the Beach Boys' song 'I Can Hear Music' under the name Larry Lurex. His first solo hit was in 1984 with 'Love Kills' from the Giorgio Moroder soundtrack to the film Metropolis. His next single, 'I was Born to Love You', reached the British top twenty in 1985, and in 1987 a kitsch revival of the Platters' 'Great Pretender' reached the British top five. Later that year he teamed up with the opera singer Monserrat Caballe, whom he had long admired, for the top ten success 'Barcelona'. An album of the same title appeared in 1988, and Mercury and Caballe performed live at the Avinguda de Maria Cristina Stadium in Barcelona on 8 October 1988; it was to be Mercury's last performance on stage.

Meanwhile, Queen's hits continued unabated into the 1980s, including 'We Will Rock You', 'Radio Ga-Ga', and 'I Want to Break Free', which was reputed to have been adopted by the then incarcerated Nelson Mandela as the anthem of the African National Congress. The Game (1980) was Queen's first album to reach number one in the American charts, and one of its tracks, 'Another One Bites the Dust', by John Deacon, stayed at the top of the American singles charts for five weeks and sold 3 million copies. Like several other Queen songs, notably 'We are the Champions', it became a frequently sung anthem at sporting events. In November 1980 the single from Queen's Flash Gordon soundtrack album also broke new ground in incorporating snatches of dialogue from the film of the same name. A month later, when the band performed at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, Mercury was carried onto the stage on the shoulders of his minder, who was dressed as Darth Vader from Star Wars. By 1982 the band members were recorded as Britain's highest-paid executives. They were famous for their extravagant end-of-tour and album launch parties, where guests were flown in from around the world. In 1984 Queen was placed on the United Nations' blacklist, for having played for eight nights at Sun City, South Africa, during the anti-apartheid cultural boycott. Its members were ostracized and heavily fined by the Musicians' Union, and were not forgiven until their appearance at the Live Aid concert organized by Bob Geldof in 1985 for famine relief in Ethiopia. Their twenty-minute set was one of the highlights of the show, and successfully re-presented the band to a younger audience. They then contributed to the soundtrack for Russell Mulcahy's fantasy film Highlander, and the songs were released on A Kind of Magic, which topped the British charts in the summer of 1986 and reached the top ten in forty other countries.

In 1990 Queen was presented with a British Phonographic Industry award for its contribution to British music, and in 1991 released Innuendo, a celebration of the band's twentieth anniversary. Queen's last single, 'The Show Must Go On', and the accompanying video which showed excerpts from the previous twenty years, had a decidedly nostalgic feeling. Mercury had been ill for some time, and seldom left Garden Lodge in Logan Mews, the Kensington home which he shared with Jim Hutton and numerous cats during his last year. The day before he died, he issued a statement 'for my friends and fans around the world', confirming that he had AIDS and that he had 'felt it correct to keep this information private to date in order to protect the privacy of those around me'  (The Independent, 26 Nov 1991). He succumbed to bronchial pneumonia at his home on 24 November 1991. Hundreds of fans queued up outside Garden Lodge to pay their respects. His funeral took place three days later at the Kensal Green crematorium, attended only by close friends and family, and was conducted according to the Zoroastrian faith of his family. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was re-released as a double A-side with 'These are the Days of our Lives' on 9 December and returned to the top of the charts; the royalties were donated to the HIV and AIDS charity the Terrence Higgins Trust. Other tributes followed, including a concert at Wembley stadium on 20 April 1992, at which many major stars, including David Bowie, Elton John, and Liza Minnelli, performed. In 1995 Mercury's last seven songs were released from the archives, and the remaining members of Queen added their music and backing vocals. Made in Heaven went to the top of the charts. The sleeve for the album showed Brian May, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor in silhouette with their backs to the camera in the grounds of Mercury's Swiss home, Duck House, gazing across Lake Geneva past a statue of Mercury.

Sheila Whiteley 

Sources  D. Bret, The Freddie Mercury story: living on the edge (1996) + The Independent (26 Nov 1991) + The Guardian (26 Nov 1991) + Melody Maker (30 Nov 1991) + C. Larkin, ed., The Guinness encyclopedia of popular music, concise edn (1993), 1672 + The Times (26 Nov 1991) + S. Rider, Queen: these are the days of our lives (1992) + J. Hutton, Mercury and me (1994) + queen-fip.com [official Queen website], 20 May 1999
Archives  FILM BFINA, 'Freddie Mercury: the untold story', BBC1, 8 Dec 2000 + BFINA, documentary footage + BFINA, performance footage SOUND BL NSA, documentary recordings + BL NSA, performance recordings
Likenesses  P. Still, photograph, 1985, Redferns Music Picture Library, London [see illus.] · twenty-one photographs, Hult. Arch.
Wealth at death  £8,649,940: probate, 1992, CGPLA Eng. & Wales

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