FREDDY MERCURY

Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5, 1946 in Zanzibar. His father was a civil servant, working as a High Court cashier for the British Government. Freddie's sister, Kashmira, was born in 1952. In 1954, at the age of eight, Freddie was sent to St. Peter's English boarding school in Panchgani, about fifty miles outside Bombay. It was there his friends began to call him Freddie. St Peter's being an English school, supported English sports. Freddie despised cricket and long-distance running, but he liked hockey, sprint and boxing. At the age of 10, he became school champion in table tennis. Freddie was not only a good sportsman, his artistic skills were phenomenal. At the age of 12, he was awarded the school trophy as Junior All-rounder. He loved art and was always sketching and drawing for his friends and relatives. But he was absolutely crazy for music of any kind. He played records constantly, stacking the singles to play over and over. He was able to get mostly Indian music, but some Western music was available. He would sing along and dance to either. The principal of St Peter's noticed Freddie's musical talents, and wrote to his parents suggesting that they might pay a little extra on Freddie's school tuition fees to allow him to study music. They agreed and Freddie started to learn to play the piano. He became a member of the school choir and took part in school theatrical productions.

In 1958, Freddie, Derrick Branche, Bruce Murray, Farang Irani and Victory Rana, formed the a rock'n roll band,The Hectics, where Freddie was the piano player. They played at school dances, parties, and annual celebrations. In 1962, Freddie finished school, returned to Zanzibar and spent his time with friends hanging around the markets, parks and beaches. In 1964, many of the British and Indians, due to political unrest in Zanzibar, left their country. This was not under forcible pressure but many were driven out and the Bulsaras then migrated to England where they lived with relatives in Feltham,Middlesex, until they were able to find their own house. Freddie was seventeen and had decided he wanted to go to art college. He needed at least one A to get in. In September 1964, he enrolled at Isleworth Polytechnic.

During his vacation time, he took a variety of jobs to earn some money. One job was in the catering department at Heathrow Airport, and another was on the Feltham trading estate, where he worked in a warehouse lifting and stacking heavy crates and boxes. His fellow workers commented on his delicate hands, that were not meant for such work. They asked him what he did. He told them he was a musician just filling in to earn extra money. He had such a charm about him, that his co-workers would do the mass amount of his work. Freddie studied hard and easily achieved his A, he left Isleworth in the spring of 1966. His grade A pass and his natural skill ensured that he was readily accepted by Ealing College of Art. In September 1966, Freddie began graphic illustrating courses.

Freddie became an ardent Jimi Hendrix fan and he spent a lot of time sketching and drawing his hero, drawings he would frame and use to decorate the walls of his flat in Kensington. At that time, Kensington was an important place to be for the art crowd. It was the home of the famous Biba boutique and Kensington Market, which was the spot for the "in" crowd. A fellow student at Ealing College, was bass player Tim Staffell, with whom Freddie became good friends. As their friendship grew, Tim would take him along to rehearsals of his band called Smile, with Brian May on the guitar and Roger Taylor on the drums. Freddie really hit it off with Brian and Roger. He loved the sound that Smile had achieved. He had immense admiration and respect for Brian's guitar-playing. Inspired by Smile, Freddie began to experiment with music for the first time since leaving India. He initially began to practice with Tim, Nigel Foster and Chris Smith. "The first time I heard Freddie sing I was amazed," recounts Chris. "He had a huge voice. Although his piano style was very affected, very Mozart, he had a great touch. From a piano player's point of view, his approach was unique and quite fine. Freddie and I eventually got to write little bits of songs which we linked together. It made sense when you consider Bohemian Rhapsody. It was an interesting way of getting one piece in a different key signature to another. But I don't think we actually finished anything. Freddie certainly taught me a lot at those sessions. He had great, natural sense of melody. I picked that up straight away. For me it was the most interesting aspect of what he was doing."

Freddie left college in June 1969, with a diploma in graphic arts and design, and a few commission jobs for adverts in local newspapers. He moved into Roger Taylor's flat and that summer opened a stall with Roger at Kensington Market, initially selling art work by himself and fellow college students. Later, he sold Victorian or whatever clothes, new or secondhand, he could lay his hands on. In the summer of 1969, Freddie was introduced to a Liverpool band called Ibex. Ibex was a 3 piece band, with guitarist Mike Bersin, John 'Tupp' Taylor on bass and Mick 'Miffer' Smith on drums. They also brought with them their apprentice manager, roadie and general security, Ken Testi. They had a part-time bass player, Geoff Higgins, who used to travel down for occasional gigs. Geoff would play bass when Tupp, a great Jethro Tull fan, wanted to play flute. Freddie had such enthusiasm, that just ten days later, he'd learned the band's set, brought in a few new songs, and traveled to Bolton, Lancashire, for a gig with them, this was his debut public performance. The first date was August 23rd. On the August 25th, Ibex appeared in the first Bluesology Pop-in, an open air event in Bolton's Queen Park. And the concert was covered in Bolton's Evening News. The paper even featured a photograph of Freddie.

Around the end of October, 1969, Ibex underwent a mini upheaval at Freddie's instigation. He began canvassing the idea of calling the band Wreckage, but nobody else was very enthusiastic. He phoned Mike Bersin one night and told him the others don't mind and how did he feel about it. Mike said that if the others agreed then he was fine with it. But when Mike talked to the others, Freddie had phoned them all up and had the same conversation with them. Along with the name change went the departure of drummer, Mike 'Miffer' Smith. He was replaced by Richard Thompson. The end of the 1960's marked the end of Wreckage. Gigs were few and far between. John Taylor, Richard Thompson and Freddie remained in London, Mike Bersin continued his college courses. Inevitably, the band petered out.

Freddie found himself in another band, Sour Milk Sea. The band he was auditioning for knew he was the right man. Freddie had a great voice, with terrific range. Not only did his voice make his performances so attractive to people but he knew how to front a show. It was his way of expressing that side of his personality. It was his charisma, his pure natural gift that was in perfect harmony with his voice, his appearance, his delicate taste and his musicianship that made him fantastic. But after only two months, the band broke up after a dispute between Freddie and Jeremy Gallop. In April 1970, Freddie re-joined the band, Smile, as lead singer. He changed the name to Queen and his last name to Mercury.

In 1970, Freddie met Mary Austin. They lived together for seven years and remained good friends until his death. In 1971, John Deacon joined the band and Queen was complete. Freddie designed the band's logo using their birth signs: two fairies for him (Virgo), two lions for Roger and John (Leo) and a crab for Brian (Cancer). Freddie wrote the first Queen song the first big hit, Killer Queen and the most famous Queen song that was on the top of charts for over 9 weeks, Bohemian Rhapsody. Freddie has always been considered the front-man of the band. In 1975, Queen toured Japan. They were taken by surprise at the strength of their reception. Freddie fell in love with Japan and became a fanatical collector of Japanese art.



On October 7th, 1979 Freddie performed with the Royal Ballet. He had never done any ballet before, but it was something he had always wanted to try. The songs he had chosen to perform to were Bohemian Rhapsody and Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Songs were played by the orchestra with Freddie doing live vocals. Freddie's first dance was Bohemian Rhapsody, and he performed with skill in front of a packed house of enthusiastic ballet enthusiasts, who loved him, and he received a standing ovation for both his cameo performances. In 1980, Freddie changed his image. He cut his hair and grew a moustache. At the end of 1982, Queen all agreed they wanted to take break from each other. Freddie had been thinking of making a solo album and he had time to do something about it. He booked studio time at Musicland in Munich and began work in early 1983. During that time he was introduced to Georgio Moroder, who was working on a re-release of the 1926 Fritz Lang silent science fiction film Metropolis. He wanted to put a contemporary musical score to the film. He asked Freddie to consider collaborating on a track for the film to which Freddie agreed. The result of this collaboration was the song Love Kills. On September 10, 1984 Freddie's first solo single was released. It was the track, Love Kills.

July 13, 1985 was a special day for Queen and Freddie. It was the day of their memorable performance at Live Aid, a show at Wembley Stadium, in front of 72,000 people. Live Aid was broadcast to over one billion people worldwide. Queen secured their place in history, as every media person, journalist, fan and critic unanimously agreed: Queen stole the show. The early part of 1987 was slow for Queen, in March Freddie flew to Barcelona. There he met with Montserrat Caballe. The Spanish diva loved his music and they began to work on an album, Barcelona, together which came out October 10th. October 8th was the last time Freddie performed on stage. He didn't want his fans or others to know he was dying from AIDS. He finally announced the fact the day before he died. On November 4th, 1991, Freddie died of AIDS related bronchial pneumonia.