Freddie Mercury: The Biography (35 page)
Read Freddie Mercury: The Biography Online
Authors: Laura Jackson
Couple Sacha Baron Cohen’s stock-in-trade brash comedy with Freddie’s flash flamboyance and leave out the intense human tragedy
of his illness and death, and it would be easy to anticipate a gag-filled depiction of a wildly outrageous rock star. But
Peter Morgan emphasised from the start that he planned to pen a drama that would at times be painful in its portrayal of the
reality behind the dazzling public face of Queen. Graham King of GK Films enthused to
Rolling Stone:
‘Peter Morgan is going to write an amazing script. Sacha fits the bill. All the ingredients are there.’
Both Queen and solo Freddie Mercury songs will feature in the film but it was unclear in the months following the breaking
news if Sacha would be performing the songs or lip-synching to Mercury’s vocals.
King called Queen’s music a brand all of its own; a statement that is hard to argue with. Not only does the RIAA estimate
Queen’s total global record sales at 300 million, Queen is officially Britain’s biggest music act, having taken that mantle
from the Beatles. Although Freddie, so much the linchpin of the band, died in 1991, he manages to live on strongly through
Queen’s commercial success and the generations of new devotees that stream nightly out of the
We Will Rock You
stage musical at the Dominion Theatre, the entrance doors to which are dominated overhead by a figure of Freddie in full
throttle.
Outwardly outrageous yet inherently insecure, Mercury had myriad unfathomable facets and to capture truly his complete essence
in something like two hours of screen time will
undoubtedly prove a stiff challenge. But as a colossus of rock in his own lifetime, for Freddie to be immortalised in a major
motion picture will thrill Queen and film fans around the world and will propel his star to even dizzier heights that may
even have satisfied the mercurial man himself.
FM = Freddie Mercury; MA = Mary Austin; JD = John Deacon; KE = Kenny Everett; JH = Jim Hutton; IC = Imperial College; BM =
Brian May; RT = Roger Taylor; BV = Barbara Valentin
Academy Awards (Oscars)
87
,
161
,
220
,
251
AC/DC
177
Acid Test parties
10
AIDS
28
,
142
,
144
,
192
–
3
,
205
,
218
,
225
,
240
deaths associated with
192
,
205
,
235
FM denies having
210
,
213
,
232
,
234
,
235
FM receives treatment for
235
,
240
FM stops taking medication for
240
FM’s fear of
211
FM’s official statement on
241
,
256
press coverage about
204
,
211
,
218
,
235
,
239
public awareness of
246
,
249
,
252
AIDS Awareness Day
246
albums (FM):
The Freddie Mercury Album
256
albums (movies):
albums (Queen):
A Day at the Races
113
The Game
145
Greatest Hits II
240
A Kind of Magic
196
A Night at the Opera
102
–
3
,
105
,
106
,
110
The Works
168
All American Alien Boy
107
‘All the Young Dudes’
250
American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR)
250
Andrews, Anthony
191
Andrews, Bernie
66
Andrews, Georgina
191
‘Another One Bites the Dust’
147
,
179
Ant, Adam
161
Anvil Studios, London
148
Apollo Theatre, Glasgow
89
‘April Lady’
21
Ashton, Sir Frederick
139
Ashton, Mark
62
Aspel, Michael
126
Austin, Louie
55
Austin, Mary:
FM’s love for
1
,
18
,
19
,
27
,
34
,
44
–
5
,
53
,
90
,
93
,
110
,
114
,
142
,
144
–
6
,
155
,
159
,
183
,
198
,
248
JH introduced to
183
son’s birth
234
Ayres, Kevin
48
Bad Company
260
Baker, Ginger
14
Baker, Roy Thomas
58
,
60
,
65
,
86
,
107
,
125
,
137
‘Bamalama’
60
Barcelona
88
,
207
,
208
–
9
,
215
,
217
,
224
‘Barcelona’ (single)
210
–
12
,
215
,
217
–
18
,
220
,
221
,
226
,
227
Barcelona Opera House
224
Barclay James Harvest
16
Bastin, Tony
141
,
143
,
148
,
151
,
156
,
158
,
183
,
205
Bates, Simon
ix
,
162
–
4
,
184
,
227
,
238
,
250
Bauer, Bernd
198
BBC
ix
,
66
,
68
,
79
,
115
,
174
,
185
,
186
1992 Olympic Games coverage
217
Queen at the Beeb and
230
see also
Radio One; TV and radio programmes
Beach, Jim
90
,
96
,
126
,
127
,
131
,
136
,
150
,
152
,
164
,
182
,
187
,
188
,
207
,
214
,
216
,
220
,
235
,
239
–
42
Beatlemania
49
,
177
Beatles
10
,
26
,
46
,
62
,
100
,
142
,
150
,
252
,
257
,
262
Beatles (White Album), The
43
Bee Gees
34
Beeb
see
BBC
Black Sabbath
38
‘Blag’
21
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (single)
97
–
105
,
125
,
139
,
140
,
151
,
153
,
246
‘Best Ever Record’ placing of
100
Britannia Awards and
126
Christmas number one record held by
244
FM’s death and
244
FM designs cover concept for
103
Ivor Novello Awards and
110
KE promotes
99
Magic Johnson Aids Foundation and
246
number one for first time
103
–
5
,
106
number one for second time
244
OTT branding of
102
re-release of
244
resentment surrounding
201
‘Show Must Go On, The’ and
246
‘These Are the Days of Our Lives’ and
244
THT and
244
200-copy limited edition of
137
‘Worst Ever Record’
100
Britannia Awards
126
Bolan, Marc
80
‘Born to Rock ’n’ Roll’
202
‘The Jean Genie’
79
Boy George
174
Brainsby, Tony
ix
,
39
,
70
–
1
,
73
,
74
,
82
,
89
,
91
,
99
,
101
,
103
–
4
,
134
,
176
Branson, Sir Richard
ix
,
111
,
113
Bray Studios, Berkshire
249
‘Breakthru’
230
British Broadcasting Corporation
see
BBC
British Colonial Office, Zanzibar
2
‘British Eurovision Violence Contest’
143
British Library
ix
British Phonographic Industry (BPI)
233
,
246
British Red Cross
38
British Video Awards
204
Brown, Errol
105
Brown, Lindsay
56
Brown, Pete
ix
,
95
,
97
,
99
,
104
–
5
,
108
–
9
,
116
–
17
,
126
–
7
,
135
–
6
,
146
bubblegum rock
see
glam rock Budokan Martial Arts Hall, Tokyo
93
–
4
,
149
death of
259
FM statue unveiled by
258
illness of
224
Bulsara, Farrokh (‘Freddie’) (FM)
2
,
3
,
15
,
39
Becomes ‘Freddie’
3