- BORN: 5th September 1946.
- BIRTHPLACE: Zanzibar.
- REAL NAME: Farookh Bulsara.
- HEIGHT: 5'9 1/2".
- HAIR: Black.
- EYES: Dark brown.
- FAV. SINGER: Jimmy Hendrix
- FAV. ACTRESS: M. Monroe.
- FAV. DRINK: Crystal Champagne
- FAV. FOOD: Indian.
- DIED: 24th November 1991
"Freddie Mercury"
"The life and times of the rock god!"
Freddie Mercury was born Farookh
Bulsara 5th September 1946. His birthplace was Zanzibar, an exotic
island off the east coast of Africa, famed for exotic spices. (In
1964 Zanzibar and Tanganyika, on the mainland merged and are now
called Tanzania).
His parents Bomi and Jer were both Persian. Bomi his father worked as
a civil servant, a clerk in the island's judiciary.
Freddie got his first taste of stardom when he won first prize in a
beautiful baby competition at just one year old.
When Farookh was 8 he was sent to St.Peter's boarding school in
Panchgani near Bombay. His friends there called him Freddie, a name
his family adopted.
Freddie's talent at sport was mixed, he hated cricket and long distance
running, but liked hockey, sprinting and boxing. Freddie's mother did
not like him boxing and wrote and told him so. And so he turned to table
tennis and became the school champion at the age of ten.
Freddie's talents were not confined to sport, at the age of twelve
he won the trophy for Best Junior All-Rounder. Among his other talents
were art and music, and he also joined the school choir. Freddie took
piano lessons on his mothers insistance, but soon grew to love and
enjoy playing.
It wasn't long before Freddie formed his first band, The Hectics, they
used to play at school dances and fetes.
Freddie was exposed to a mixture of music at school, he liked to listen
to mystical Indian music, but also liked to listen to his parents'
collection of classical music, as well as a smattering of rock and roll
that was beginning to take the West by storm. The influence of this
cocktail of styles was to be evident in the intricate compositions
Freddie would later pen for Queen.
The Bulsaras were Zoroastrians, followers of the prophet Zoroaster. He
was taught that celibacy and abstinence sap man's spirit and make him
susceptible to evil.
He became a full member of the religion at age eight, in the solemn
Navjote ceremony. In front of eternal fires he repeated the appropriate
prayers, accepting the teachings of the religion as revealed to
Zoroaster by the god Ahura Mazda. He was given a shirt known as sudreh,
made out of white muslin to symbolize purity. The high priest tied around
his waist a kusti, a cord woven from purest white wool. The young
initiate was showered with rose petals, coconut shavings and pomegranate
seeds.
In 1963 he and his family which included his sister Kashmira, moved to
Britain due to political unrest in their country, and made their new
home in Feltham, Middlesex, in a semi-detached house right in the
flight-path of Heathrow Airport. Freddie's parents stayed in this house
even when Freddie became a superstar, he was never able to persuade
them to move. 1964 was an exciting time in Britain. The swinging 60's
were under way. Exciting pop groups were emerging, and Freddie began
to get caught up in this new and groovy world.
Two years later, he enrolled in Ealing College of Art to study graphic
illustration. Here he met Tim Staffell who introduced him to Smile, his
band, with Brian May on the guitar and Roger Taylor on the drums.
Watching Smile made Freddie realise that he really wanted to be in a
band himself, so after he finished his diploma in graphic art and
design, he joined a band called Ibex, taking over lead vocals from
their guitarist, Mike Berstin. They travelled up and down the country
playing gigs in schools, colleges and pubs. The band was going nowhere
fast as they were making very little money. They would get about £25
for a gig, but the lighting show cost £15, but Freddie would not go on
without them. Their last gig was a disaster, it took place at the Wade
Deacon School in Widnes (just fifteen miles from where I live), all the
equipment packed in, and as Freddie was swinging the mike around the
heavy base fell off narrowly missing people, but since then he has never
used the stand, as we know.
Freddie sang with a band called Sour Milk Sea for a while, but when
they broke up he formed his own band called Wreckage, that band lasted
only a short while also, as did Larry Lurex.
Freddie was spending more and more time now with Roger Taylor, and they
both decided to open a stall on Kensington Market, selling paintings
and artwork mainly donated by friends at college. They later started
selling clothes which was more profitable, they sold Victorian clothes,
furs, hats and other items.
In April 1970 Tim Staffell decided to leave Smile, and it was a unanimous
decision that Freddie join them as lead singer.
Freddie decided to change the name of the band to Queen, Brian and Roger
were not keen on the idea, but he talked them into it eventually, he
also changed his last name to Mercury. In 1971 John Deacon joined the
band and Queen were complete.
Freddie, who had left college with an Art and Design Diploma came up
with the now famous Queen logo. The birthsigns of all four were used,
two lions (Leo for Roger and John), holding up a Q around a crown, a
crab (Cancer for Brian) on top, and two fairies (Virgo for Freddie),
playing at the bottom, and behind a phoenix rising.
Freddie has always been considered the frontman of the band; indeed,
with his flamboyant style and his unmistakable voice, he was a natural
choice. He had a diverse style in the writing of his music, from the
famous operatic Bohemian Rhapsody, to the stadium rock classic We
are the Champions.
Freddie was always a showman especially on stage, he would appear wearing
leotards, catsuits, velvet trousers, hot pants, shorts, tights and leather.
He was once challenged by Rob Halford, the lead singer with Judas Priest
to prove he was manly enough to wear all his leather gear, by racing
him round Brand's Hatch on racing bikes. Freddie accepted the challenge
as long as Halford danced with the Royal Ballet, as Freddie had done,
the challenge was dropped.
Part of Freddie's leather outfit was either red or blue knee pads. When
Queen played at the Liverpool Empire, he wore one red and one blue so
as to keep both Liverpool and Everton fans happy.
In September 1975, Queen performed to over 200,000 fans at Hyde Park.
He dressed in a skin tight white leotard, and at half time changed
into a black one. At the end of the concert the fans refused to leave
whistleing and stamping and demanding an encore, the group were under
strict instructions from the police that no encores must be made, Freddie
was adamant that he was going back on, but when the police said they
would arrest him, he changed his mind, it would not be a good idea to
be thrown in jail dressed as he was.
In 1980, Freddie changed his image. He decided to adopt what some might
say a gay look. He cut his hair and grew a macho moustache and stopped
painting his fingernails. As a result the band's offices were flooded
with gifts of nail polish and razor blades. At the first gig of that
year's American tour, the audience bombarded the stage with disposable
razors.
Freddie also had a musical career independantly of Queen. His most
famous were his collaborations with Montserrat Caballe. Freddie had
been an opera lover for quite a while, but had always preferred the
male voice, however in May 1983 he went to a performance of Verdi's
Un Ballo in Maschera at the Royal Opera House. Pavarotti was singing
the male lead, and the female soloist was Caballe, Freddie was awestruck
by the beauty and power of her voice. Two months later they met at the
Ritz in Barcelona, Freddie played some of his music to her, and they
decided to record some songs to-gether, including the world famous
Barcelona. Freddie was reported to have said that this was one of the
most fulfilling experiences of his life.
Freddie's partying was legendry. It became standard for the group to
throw extravagant parties after each concert. However Freddie's birthday
bashes were the most wild and extravagant affairs. It was quite normal
for him to splash out £30,000 on drinks and entertainment. With one
party reputedly costing £200,000.
On Freddie's forty-first birthday, he hired the exclusive Pykes Hotel
in Ibiza for his 500 guests. A DC-9 was also hired to bring his friends
in from England, the plane only just made it, landing with only one
engine. A huge firework display blazed Freddie's name across the
Mediterranean sky, and he was treated to a 20' birthday cake.
At a Royal Ballet gala he met Prince Andrew, who had to fish out
Freddie's white silk scarf from the drinks and wring it out. When the
Prince asked Freddie to sing, he said he would if the Prince would
swing from one of the chandelier's first, Prince Andrew refused
unfortunately, he also turned down an invitation from Freddie to join
him and some members of the Royal Ballet on a visit to the gay nightclub
Heaven.
Freddie was also a shopaholic, the group's tours to Japan gave him the
opportunity to indulge in his fetish for shopping. He would buy armfuls
of kimonos and other silks, he also built up a fabulous collection of
Japanese art. Later on he would make lightning trips to Japan, a place
he really loved, just to go shopping. On one of his trips to Tokyo one
of the city's biggest stores, the Shibuya Seiba, closed whole floors so
Freddie could have a completely personal service. On another occasion
he spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on a 144 piece dinner service
handpainted with miniature copies of Constable paintings, each serving
plate cost £20.000. He also spent thousands on Japanese koi carp, to
fill the pond at his Kensington home. The jewellers Cartier would stay
open late so Freddie could buy gold and jewellry unhindered. He also
amassed one of the best private collections in Britain, Japanese wood-
cuts, works by Victorian masters and impressionist paintings, among them.
Another of Freddie's luxuries was his Kensington Mansion, Garden Lodge
cost him £500,000 cash, he was later offered a million pounds for it, but
would not sell. It has eight bedrooms, four marble bathrooms, a jacuzzi
and a minstrel's gallery. Freddie's bedroom was the most special room
in the house, it was made from three rooms, had an emperor size bed which
had to be lifted up to the top floor with a crane, surrounded by a
colonade of Romanesque columns. Above the bed was a lighting system
controlled from a console, this could create different effects, such as
dawn, dusk, a sunset etc. One of the bathrooms was in black marble shot
through with gold. The refurbishing took years, but when Freddie went
for a weekend to see how it felt, he never moved out, bringing with him
his beloved cats, Oscar, Delilah and Tiffany. The mansion would become
a sanctuary for Freddie towards the end of his life, as he put his days
of partying and high living behind him.
One of Freddie's most intimate relationships was with Mary Austin, she
was a rock he could cling to throughout his stormy life. He met her in
the sixties, in a boutique she worked in called Biba, it took him
almost six months to pluck up the courage to ask Mary out, but then
she became his constant companion. They lived to-gether for seven years,
but remained good friends untill the end.
Later in his life, he was diagnosed with having AIDS, but he never told
anyone, but people were beginning to suspect something was wrong. His
appearance in public was rare, and he became a recluse in his Kensington
home. Freddie also kept his secret from other members of the band and
it was only 24hrs before the end that he announced to the world that he
had AIDS. The end came quickly, his parents did not even have time to get to
his bedside.
On the bitterly cold evening of Sunday November 24th 1991, at approximately
7pm GMT, at the age of 45 he passed away due to the effects of the disease.
Freddie was cremated at a private ceremony, conducted in his parents
Zoroastrian faith, four hearses being used just to carry flowers.
The resting place of his ashes was kept secret for obvious reasons, but
are most likely with his parents, but we will probarbly never know for
sure.
The night after Freddies death, the BBC broadcast a tribute to him, it
was introduced by one of his closest friends, Elton John, with :-
"Freddie Mercury was an incredibly innovative singer and frontman
for the band. He was a very good friend of mine and it was my privelege
to have known him for some of his life. He was very funny, extremely
outrageous, very kind and he was a great musician, one of the great
frontmen of rock'n'roll bands... Quite simply, he was one of the most
important figures in rock'n'roll in the last twenty years. I will miss
him, we will all miss him, for his music, his humanity...We will
remember that Freddie Mercury was something special."
__________________
"My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies,
Fairytales of yesterday will grow but never die.."
__________________
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