Freddie Mercury: The Biography (17 page)

Mercury did most things to excess, and he often had a lot of fun doing them, as Trip Khalaf, the sound man assigned to tour
with Queen in the States, once recalled: ‘What a strange person Freddie was! I mean, he was a lovely person, but he wasn’t
one of us. He was a fascinating creature. On one hand he was completely ridiculous, but he
knew
he was completely ridiculous, and he enjoyed being ridiculous.’

What Mercury didn’t enjoy was any problem with his health, but with such a punishing tour schedule in America, it was not
unlikely that his throat condition would surface again. Immediately after that San Francisco gig, his throat problem re-emerged,
resulting in the cancellation of two gigs to allow him to rest. With the unexpected time off, he went sightseeing in Hollywood,
soaking up its glitz and glamour, before meeting up again with the others for the Canadian leg of their tour.

When Queen returned home in mid-March, it was to discover that their latest single ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, a typical hard
rocker of Brian May’s, hadn’t broken into even the top 30. With the advent of the punk movement, bands such as the Clash,
the Damned, X-Ray Spex and the Sex Pistols ruled the charts. The Pistols are in particular universally considered to have
single-handedly launched New Wave music in Britain, punk roots having been laid some years before in America. The movement
itself would die out in something like eighteen months, but its influence would be long-lasting.

The music press had been quick to latch on to punk, to the
exclusion of established bands such as Queen. Perhaps particularly Queen, since they were the extreme antithesis of the punk
philosophy. But, Freddie Mercury remained unconcerned about New Wave and almost seemed to go out of his way to offset its
grosser aspects.

He was even more showy on stage than ever. When Queen opened their European tour in Sweden on 8 May, he appeared at Stockholm’s
Ice Stadium sheathed in a replica of an almost diaphanous costume once worn by the dancer Nijinsky. And not content with the
impact that made, he took the final encore in a silver skintight leotard, so heavily sequinned that it blinded the audience
as he shimmied under the huge array of spotlights.

Throughout Denmark, Germany, Holland and Switzerland, there were continual gigs and parties. In Holland they were presented
with no less than thirty-eight awards, a tribute to their huge popularity in the Netherlands. On their return to Britain,
the UK leg of the tour began in Bristol, ending on 7 June at London’s Earls Court. But, just before that, they played two
dates in Liverpool, as Mercury’s first manager, Ken Testi, recalls.

‘By this time I had a famous club in Liverpool, called Erics, on Mathew Street, on the opposite side to where the Cavern had
been. The Sex Pistols, the Clash, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds etc., all played there. I gave Holly Johnson his first break at
Erics, and around 1977 it was a hot venue. Anyway, during Queen’s tour they played two nights at the Empire, and while they
were here they looked me up. Freddie, John and Roger arrived grandly at the club in three separate limousines, and it was
great to share an hour or two with Freddie again.’

But Ken Testi was conscious of a barrier between them, which now he concedes was inevitable but regrettable and attributed
to others. But whoever or whatever was to blame, as Chris O’Donnell had already experienced, Mercury had
changed from his Kensington market stall days – and not necessarily for the better.

Queen performed on two consecutive nights at Earls Court three days later. It was Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee year.
A huge fan of the monarchy, Mercury adored all its pomp and circumstance, and this must partly explain the lavish expense
this time on their stage effects at Earls Court. Besides the familiar smoke bombs, fireworks and elaborate lighting, a specially
designed rig, in the shape of a crown, had been commissioned at a cost of £50,000. Ascending dramatically amid the smoke of
dry ice, Mercury was in his glory, straddling the centre stage beneath it.

Such an ostentatious display at the height of punk was guaranteed to goad the critics, and in June
NME
attacked Mercury in a lengthy interview by Tony Stewart, entitled I
S
T
HIS
M
AN
A P
RAT?
Stewart criticised Mercury’s love of lavishly toasting his audience with champagne, as well as generally setting out to lampoon
him. But the foppish Mercury turned out to be a good match for Stewart, a fact that was clear in the text of the article.

That year the Sex Pistols’ ‘God Save the Queen’ became a UK number one, outselling Rod Stewart two to one. Banned from the
airwaves, at least one major retailer refused to stock the single, and many distributors would not handle it. Their manager
Malcolm McLaren calls the number: ‘The most English, angst-ridden, toughest, mother-fucking rock song that’s ever been written,’
adding, ‘that was to me, punk rock at its best.’

Queen and the Pistols were to meet one day, in a recording studio. ‘In 1977, after the Sex Pistols signed with A&M Records,’
Malcolm McLaren recalled, ‘we all trucked off to Wessex Studios in north London. Queen were recording in studio one, and Chris
Thomas, the Sex Pistols’ producer, was in studio two. On entering studio one on his way next door, Sid
Vicious got down on his hands and knees and crawled through Freddie Mercury’s legs. That was the day the Sex Pistols finished
their second and most notorious single, “God Save the Queen!”’

The studio work under way was for Queen’s new album, although Mercury made time for another attempt at production; this time
for actor Peter Straker, a close friend. Straker, who had been cast in the original stage production of
Hair
and appeared regularly on TV, had decided to make a record. Mercury’s newly formed Goose Productions had invested £20,000
in Straker’s album,
This One’s On Me.
Mercury produced Straker with Roy Thomas Baker, but only as a one-off. When Straker went on to record more material with
Goose, Mercury’s role was purely financial. In addition to Goose Productions, in time he formed Mercury Songs, a publishing
company set up to handle his future solo work.

Queen recordings soon demanded his full attention, and on 7 October their tenth single was released. It was ‘We Are the Champions’,
a sturdy arm-locking anthem, written by Mercury. The simple but rousing chorus sounded as if it had been around for years
and was a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Its promotional video was, unusually, to be filmed in front of a live audience. Bruce
Gowers, the promo director of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ who had also shot their last three videos, was not available. So they enlisted
the services of Derek Burbridge to control the crowd of ‘extras’ hired through the Queen fan club for the shoot at the New
London Theatre Centre.

Released with Brian May’s ‘We Will Rock You’ as the B-side, ‘We Are the Champions’ was immediately panned by the critics.
But the fans took no notice, and it went to number two. Elektra also liked the new single enough to release it as a double
A-side. They correctly anticipated massive airplay and were rewarded by its huge success in the States. ‘We Are the Champions’
found favour throughout Europe, too, holding on
to the number one slot in France for an impressive twelve consecutive weeks. Today the song still features regularly at major
world sporting events.

When
News of the World,
the album from which the hit single had been selected, was released at the end of the month, it topped the charts in nine
countries. Two years on Mercury was still reaping awards for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, but he came to value most highly the one
he was to receive on 18 October, at a ceremony in Wembley Conference Centre, when ‘Bo Rhap’ tied jointly with Procol Harum’s
‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ to receive the Britannia Award for the Best British Pop Single of the Last Twenty-Five Years. Queen
received their awards from TV presenter Michael Aspel.

The financial rewards of their continuing success helped Queen out of their commitment to Trident. Finally they could buy
themselves out of the clause in the severance agreements that had given Trident a 1 per cent share of six future albums. But
any pleasure derived from this development was dulled by the band’s growing awareness of management difficulties.

As Pete Brown explains: ‘The problem was that Queen didn’t feel that John Reid was able to give them enough of his time, and
that didn’t suit them. When Queen were brought on board you have to understand that it was really the Elton John office. Reid
had been working at Tamla Motown and hadn’t been a manager before Elton picked him to handle his business affairs. He duly
set John up with an office, and all the staff had worked for Elton for a long time already, so their loyalties lay there.
If Elton had a tour, that took priority, and with the different personalities in Queen, you can imagine how that went down.’

It was Queen’s lawyer, Jim Beach, who negotiated their way out of the partnership, and with much less difficulty than freeing
the band from their ties to Trident. ‘Queen were doing an outdoor video shoot for “We Will Rock You” in Roger’s
garden,’ says Pete Brown. ‘It was unbelievably cold, with snow lying about a foot deep, which made it not a lot of fun for
everyone hanging about, as you do on film shoots. People were growing very touchy as the day wore on, and the light grew poorer;
then suddenly John Reid arrived and the band all piled into the back of Freddie’s limo. That’s when they signed the severance
papers.’

As a penalty for opting out of their contract in advance of the agreed expiry date, Queen had to pay a substantial sum of
money to John Reid Enterprises, as well as signing over a sizeable percentage of royalties on existing albums.

Years later, when referring to Mercury’s grasp of finances, Elton John commented that his friend wouldn’t know the price of
a pint of milk but could tell you, to a penny, the cost of a bottle of nail varnish. And Mercury himself often airily claimed
never to concern himself with the extent of his wealth, maintaining that as long as he had enough money to go shopping he
was happy. But in reality Mercury wasn’t anything like so naive. He was fully conscious of the fact that once again they had
had to shell out big. He was equally aware that while the downside of this latest severance with John Reid did not impoverish
Queen, it did leave them with the continuing headache of making the correct decisions concerning future management.

After much discussion, the band unanimously agreed that they would try to manage themselves. They would be assisted by Pete
Brown and Paul Prenter – both of whom remained with Queen, although they had been employed originally through John Reid –
as well as Jim Beach and Gerry Stickells. And this new arrangement came into effect just prior to Queen’s tour of America,
their second that year.

Joining the band this trip was Bob Harris. He was working on a Queen documentary and intended to gather more footage for it,
as well as holding interview sessions with Mercury and
the others. ‘The idea was to knock all this together with the tour film and do a retrospective at that point,’ says Harris.
‘But, in fact, what ended up happening was that on my return to London I went to an editing room in Wardour Street, with only
an editing engineer in my innocence, and, of course, progress was extremely slow. I just didn’t have the time with all my
other commitments, and eventually Queen took back the film. Bits and pieces of it have emerged in various videos over the
years.’

More successful was the tour itself, which began in Portland, at the Cumberland County Civic Center, on 11 November. That
night, for the first time on tour, Mercury sang his tender ballad ‘Love of My Life’. The audience joined in, and thrilled
that they sang so well, Mercury stopped and let the fans carry on alone. From then on, this became a feature of every gig.
As Mercury said, no matter where they performed the number, the fans automatically knew their role without him having to say
a word.

Witnessing this first-hand, Bob Harris agrees that ‘Freddie was one of the most generous performers in the business. It was
no ego trip when he got the crowd to sing back to him. He actually wanted them to communicate with him that intensely.’ This
is something that is made especially clear from video footage. Here Mercury can be seen, looking like a doting tutor, as he
watches and listens intently to the crowd. His eye contact with the vast audience is acute enough, one imagines, to pick out
a single person in the back row not joining in.

By the time they reached New York on 1 December, it was clear that this was the tour that marked Queen’s conquest of North
America. Back in February they had played the prestigious Madison Square Garden, at which time Mercury had vowed to better
Yes’s record there of three consecutive sold-out nights. They would do five in a row, he said. Eleven months on, although
they fell short of that pledge, Queen were still
booked to headline for two consecutive nights. Both shows turned out to be very special.

Soon afterwards, Queen paid a return visit to the Stadium in Chicago. It was a bitterly cold night, but in contrast to Chris
O’Donnell’s recollections of Mercury keeping fans freezing in the snow, Bob Harris has happier memories. ‘It was an amazing
experience,’ he recalls. ‘The stadium was the one used by the Chicago Bears, and because it was so bitter we were all presented
with a beautiful team jacket. I wore mine until it literally disintegrated. We went from there – and temperatures of minus
fifteen degrees – to Las Vegas just three gigs later and a wall of heat. We’d arrived a few days before Queen were due to
play, and so had a bit of a holiday. Roger, his minder and I one day worked our way down two strips, frequenting every hotel,
casino, bar and club in our path.’

In contrast, Mercury preferred to enjoy himself out of the limelight, as this second lengthy US tour provided him with the
opportunity to scour the gay scene. In public he maintained the distinction drawn between his ‘secret’ homosexuality and self-confessed
bisexuality. He was now approaching superstar status and to have admitted openly to being gay could have jeopardised his popularity.
Despite his camp behaviour, and the fact that he saw his bisexual image as creating an appropriate mystique, he had a strong
female following, many of whom continued to see him as a red-blooded macho man. Either not hearing or choosing to ignore any
talk to the contrary they happily fantasised about Queen’s energetic lead singer and his raunchy routine with the sawn-off
mike stand.