Freddie Mercury (10 page)

I remember he flew Bill Reid and my friend Patrick Morrisey over on Concorde one Christmas. I think Freddie believed Concorde was the only transatlantic aircraft because it’s the only way he ever flew
from London to New York and vice versa. I don’t know how many times Freddie has been on the plane but I know I’ve been on it nine. Of course, if I was travelling alone, I would go on a non-Concorde flight. If only he’d had shares in British Airways.

The Japanese tour was an excuse – if excuse was needed – for another shopping expedition. And these dratted shows getting in the way! Freddie loved being in Japan and if having to perform in five different cities meant he could shop in five different cities, so be it. This was an unusual trip in that it did take in all the cities. Generally, any of Freddie’s private shopping trips and any length of stay in Japan usually just involved Tokyo. He indulged in his passion for lacquer boxes of which there was an amazing selection available. Each of the cities specialised in different forms of Japanese art and he was able to immerse himself in all things Japanese for a while. There was an ancient Japanese ethic of peace and calm which he perceived as well as the culture’s appreciation of beauty which enabled him in turn to find beauty in all things Japanese whether in the lines of the woodblock prints or the serenity of a Japanese garden which was all elemental rocks, pebbles and water.

In February, 1984, the band agreed to appear at the San Remo Song Festival, traditionally a resort which belonged to the blue-rinse and fur stole brigade. This was going to be an easy gig for them as they were only required to mime to backing tracks. This didn’t decrease the intensity of the fans’ activity and security was still as tight as ever. The invasion of the neon-coloured hairdos of the various rock bands’ followers finally eclipsed the blue rinses of the resorts usual clientele.

On the same bill were Culture Club, who were the new band of the era. George and Freddie had met on occasion before and really quite enjoyed each other’s company. George then, as now, had a brilliant wit which Freddie greatly appreciated. It seems ironic now considering what was to happen to George, but at that time he was very anti-drugs which made him something of a rarity in the music business.

Freddie had heard through the ever-growing grapevine of George’s dislike which extended to him forbidding any of his entourage holding stocks of illegal substances. Feeling that this enforced denial was unfair on the others, Freddie arranged a little afternoon tea for George and himself in Freddie’s suite while a separate small party was arranged in my adjoining room for the rest of the Culture Club party whose tastes extended to slightly more than tea
and cucumber sandwiches. The housekeeping must have thought it strange to see a queue of people outside my room, people coming in and going out in twos and threes, smiling a lot.

This festival is something that the band hadn’t done before and was perhaps seen as a warm-up for their second mimed appearance at the Golden Rose pop festival in Montreux later that year in May. It was eventually broadcast to over forty countries around the world. I think the obvious reason for both of these mimed appearances was so that the band could reach the massive audience that these televised broadcasts would attract. At this point,
The Works
had been released and these two festival appearances were the best possible promotion.

We rehearsed for
The Works
European tour in Munich on a Bavarian film studio sound stage just outside the city. Rehearsals were held over two weeks at which everybody appeared to be in a very good mood. One of the crew’s ways of relaxing followed the then trend for abseiling which they all took turns at down the outsides of the sound stages. Munich was a city that everybody liked for their own reasons. At that point, Freddie’s reasons were Barbara Valentin and Winnie Kirchberger and all those bars. Freddie’s partner of the time was expected to trail around after him as relationships never stopped Freddie from going out.

The set for
The Works
was a re-working of a scene from Fritz Lang’s
Metropolis
with gigantic wheels rotating at the back of the stage. It was daunting for Freddie with all the different levels and stairs but he loved the challenge. There were more places for him to pose. He seemed to have recovered from the ligament damage in his knee that he had sustained while indulging in some rather silly horseplay with his friends in the New York bar in Munich in April.

This accident had left him in plaster from mid-thigh to his ankle. He had lifted someone up and totally by accident someone else had knocked his knee sideways at which point he collapsed on the floor in agony. He was taken off to hospital where he was X-rayed and it was found the knee wasn’t broken. Much to his horror, he was told that his leg would be in plaster but even that impediment still didn’t totally stop him from going out in the evenings.

While he was thus plastered, his old friend Elton John was in town performing and insisted on Freddie coming to a show. Because of his obvious disability, Freddie was planted on the side of the stage behind
the PA system and, throughout the show, Elton was threatening to drag Freddie out on stage but in the end had to make do with dedicating ‘I’m Still Standing’ to Freddie, a dedication delivered with a wicked grin. Not long after the plaster had been removed, Freddie actually worked on the video for ‘It’s A Hard Life’ and the only noticeable moment when he favours his damaged leg is in the last shot where he sits himself down on the steps.

The tour started at the indoor Foret Nationale in Brussels. The band were there for one show and used the afternoon before the show to film footage for the ‘Hammer To Fall’ promo. The show itself was then filmed so that crowd scenes could be included in the video. There followed nine shows in Britain and Eire. The Wembley show was the first time Freddie wore the infamous wig’n’boobs. He had time to put these on as ‘I Want To Break Free’ was scheduled to be the first encore. The display went down so well that Freddie decided that he would continue using it in all the following shows. It was my job to make sure that prior to the short time it was on stage, the wig looked decent. The second of these Wembley concerts fell on his thirty-eighth birthday and as the next day was a day off, he had a party in Xenon, the nightclub of the moment. There are photographs I’m sure you’ve all seen of Freddie blowing out the candles on the huge Rolls Royce cake which was presented to him that night.

This was the occasion where the birthday cake was stolen. It was in fact stolen by one of the acts who had been axed from performing at the celebration cabaret because of the large gay content of their show. The act were so pissed off that although they were compensated, they decided to steal the cake on their way home. Sweet revenge!

The tour reverted to the European continent, embracing Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and Holland. One incident that really stands out in my mind took place in the Europehalle, Hannover. As usual, throughout the show, security for each member of the band is positioned around the stage.

I was stationed at the door-flap of the dolls’ house talking to Freddie’s bodyguard, when we both saw him fall. At first, neither of us could be sure whether it was intentional or not but then we saw him in pain. We both ran on and, between us, picked him up and brought him back to the dolls’ house.

As you can imagine, there was total confusion as the band were just
over halfway through the show. Freddie decided immediately that he couldn’t let the fans down and just leave. So, with rapid discussion with the rest of the band, the band crew and Gerry Stickells, he decided there were about three more songs that he could perform while sitting at the piano. As there were never doctors or first aid people specifically assigned to the band on duty backstage, Freddie intuited that it was a repeat of the old Munich ligament injury to his knee. There was no point in him taking painkillers and so, between the security man and myself, we carried Freddie back on stage and placed him on the piano stool. I can only guess at Freddie’s feelings at that point, but I could feel the wave of emotion from the crowd as we carried him on and he then explained what had happened and what was to happen. They roared their approval at his courage. The show, after all, must go on!

After the three songs, Freddie was carried straight into a car and taken directly to hospital where X-rays showed that the damage wasn’t as bad as Freddie had thought, that he would be able to continue the tour, very heavily bandaged, provided he didn’t put too much pressure on the joint.

It was from this point on that a newcomer was included in Freddie’s entourage, namely Dieter Briet, a qualified physiotherapist who had come highly recommended to Freddie in Munich. Dieter was tall and thin and gangly. He and his family lived on the outskirts of Munich and the poor man spent much time trying to interest Freddie in the benefits of actually partaking in sports. In the beginning, he didn’t realise that Freddie’s sports were played mainly in the bars and at home at night and very much in private.

Dieter’s love of sports was to be rewarded in the following section of the tour which took us to Sun City in Bophuthatswana, one of the South African homelands, now Northern Transvaal. Dieter’s main job was an hour and a half before the show to manipulate Freddie’s leg and, obviously, to be around during the show. Much of Dieter’s free time, however, was spent windsurfing on a massive man-made lake that was part of the hotel complex, a pastime he very much enjoyed. He was even trying to encourage Freddie onto a board. He didn’t succeed.

The band went to Sun City because they had secured a record-breaking run, another notch on Queen’s bedpost of achievements. It was also one of the few places within reach of the boycotted South
Africa where the band knew they could perform to multi-racial audiences. This was the only opportunity that many South Africans – be they Cape Coloured, Indian, Chinese or white as well as the native black population – would have to see Queen or any other of the Western mega-bands in the foreseeable future. Providing, of course, that they could afford it!

Had the band known before how much international fuss would be caused by this visit, they probably would still have gone ahead with the engagement because as far as they were concerned it was a chance to give enjoyment and entertainment to people who, because of the Musicans’ Union ban, had been completely ignored. Who, we wondered, gave the Musicians’ Union the right to decide what and who the people in South Africa could see? Although he would never have thought of it or mentioned it, it is ironic to remember that Freddie himself had been born and brought up in Zanzibar and partially educated in Africa, like Gandhi. If anything, Freddie could have been said to have been making a statement and taking a stand with his South African fans.

As far as politics was concerned, Freddie had an abhorrence of bands like U2, for example, who used their fame and celebrity status to put over their political views. Freddie was aware that he could say anything and it would be reported round the world and could be construed (or misconstrued) in any way that a particular party or media organ might want. To my knowledge, he never once went to vote at any election be it parliamentary or local even though he was always on the electoral roll. Because Garden Lodge was my home and I was therefore registered to vote in that constituency, I always voted. He was always interested in my voting and in what was happening generally in politics but he himself remained aloof. Had he voted, it would have been for a Conservative government as he had already lived through a period where his income had been taxed at 83% by a Labour administration which had tempted many of his peers to a life abroad as he himself had done for several years. However, he never publicly voiced any of his own political opinions as he regarded political opinions as relevant only to the individual and to tell the truth politics never figured very highly in his thought processes. As far as the annual budget meant, he waited for his accountant John Libson to explain to him what the salient points were regarding his own position.

The band had been booked to do eleven shows in Sun City
although in the end, they performed only seven. This was entirely due to Freddie’s vocal chords. He’d always had little nodules on them but while surgery had been mooted at various times, he had never wanted to do anything about the condition for fear of losing what he already had. This time, after the first show, his throat had really tightened up. A doctor was called in and gave Freddie that panacea of all evils – some steroids – and told him he couldn’t sing for a few days. Freddie, being Freddie, took the advice but at his own pace and, therefore, performed a show when he shouldn’t have done. This necessitated a further break.

The hotel was part of the Sun City complex which consisted of two main areas, one being the hotel and a few one-arm bandit machines and then, a very short drive away, the Superbowl which incorporated the remainder of the gambling facility and also a theatre with shows that would rival the Paris and Las Vegas experiences. Freddie rarely left his hotel room while in Sun City so it really was no more than a luxurious prison. He was worried about his voice and as has been shown earlier he hated the thought of letting down the fans. If there was any chance of performing, he would. Freddie had persuaded Winnie Kirchberger to leave his Munich restaurant for a while and come with him to South Africa and so he wasn’t alone. Freddie even persuaded the hotel management to provide a small two-burner gas cooker so that Winnie could rustle up lunch for Freddie. It was really very sweet, seeing Freddie being taken care of by someone who was fond of him and Freddie was delighted. He invited ‘guests’ for lunch on at least two occasions when ‘my husband, the chef’ was cooking.

I, who was therefore let out of the luxurious prison, had many a fun adventure in Sin City – sorry, Sun City – but thought it politic not to tell Freddie too much!

Although the band toured a couple of times in Australia, it was not a frequent port of call for them. One of the reasons – it has to be said – was Freddie’s aversion to full-strip body searches to which he had been subjected on his first visit to that continent. Although I wasn’t actually present, he often told the story of how he got very drunk with Tony Hadley before appearing one night on the tour.