Mary Austin about their first meeting with Freddie:
«Freddie and I were introduced by Brian may at a band meeting when they were trying to come up with a name. Freddie proposed to call the group «Queen», and Brian – «Built Your Own Boat». It was at Brian’s house in Barnes.
Remember, Freddie was solid black hair that gave him the appearance of the gallant; he relied on the mantel-board. He was very proud of his new white shoes. Suddenly he turned to me and asked me what I thought of the names. I said, «I think the Brian Built Your Own Boat». But Freddie did it his way, as he did most of the time, and they called themselves «Queen.»
Although he looked very menacing, I found myself fascinated by this musician of artists, something resembling a wild beast. He wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met before. He was very confident, and I always lacked confidence. We started dating. I really liked it, and it all started from there»
I’ve seen people asking about Freddie’s living arrangements post-Mary (they were confused about the untrue lamp scene in the film) and here it is:
He spent most of his nights (in 1976) at Werter Road, Putney where his boyfriend David Minns lived with his friend David Evans. Sometime in late ‘76, maybe early ‘77, he bought the flat at Stafford Terrace.
He bought a flat for Mary on Phillimore Gardens, a road that is perpendicular to Stafford Terrace (meaning they couldn’t see in each other’s windows!)
Little known fact: He also rented a flat for himself and David Minns to share, in Dovehouse Street, Chelsea.
So neither Mary or David lived in Stafford Terrace with him. He liked to compartmentalise everything. Separate flats for all!
[Photo caption: POWER AND THE PASSION: Freddie Mercury’s music thrilled millions. Now his fans are mourning the death of a rock legend]
HE WAS SUFFERING, HE’S IN A BETTER PLACE NOW
By CHRIS HUTCHINS
FREDDIE Mercury dreamed of holding one last party. Arriving home at his Kensington mansion from dinner at a nearby restaurant on a cold night in February, the singer made a call to a showbusiness chum and said: “I’m planning a do — keep September 5 free.”
The date was the star’s 45th birthday and even then he knew that it would be his last — if he made it. Because Mercury was painfully aware that he had the Aids virus and that it was going to bring his fabulous life to an untimely end.
Tragically, that came true on Sunday, devastating friends like star-turned-impresario Dave Clarke, who had kept a bedside vigil.
Through tears he said: “He was a rare person but he suffered and when he slipped away I knew he was going to a better place.”
Back in February though, Freddie’s spirit was still strong enough to contemplate a birthday extravaganza. He telephoned his friend several more times over the next few days. He said he had told someone to ask Prince Andrew if he might borrow a state room at Buckingham Palace — fitting, he giggled, for the man who led Queen.
Then a worsening in his condition caused him to modify his plans. He mentioned to his friend that it might have to be a smaller event “perhaps at Claridge’s” and said he thought he would ask Lady Elizabeth Anson, who organises royal celebrations, to plan all the details.
Early in March Freddie called his friend again, this time to say that the party was in doubt. He sounded bitter and angry about having to cut himself off from the people he loved so much “because no one understands this sodding illness. I feel stigmatised, like a leper. I feel as if no one wants to have anything to do with me.”
By the summer’s end, Freddie realised that he was far too ill to party and his birthday would have to pass like any other day as he struggled to find the strength to soldier on.
His muscular body, which had served him well in the boxing ring as a teenager, was wasting pitifully away.
He resented the shocked looks on the faces of the decreasing number of visitors to his Georgian mansion who were permitted to share his [Turn to Page 22]
The insatiable quest for pleasure that drove Freddie to his death
[Photo caption: REIGNING IN SPAIN: Singing hit Barcelona with diva Montserrat Caballe]
[Photo caption: HOUSEWIVES’ CHOICE: Freddie dons a wig and vacuums the lounge in the video of Queen’s 1984 hit I Want To Break Free. But behind the singer’s camp antics is a serious message about domestic drudgery.]
[Photo caption: MY BEST FRIEND: With Mary Austin, his loyal companion for more than 20 years]
[From Page 21] tragic secret. The determination to succeed which had driven him to excel at the piano lessons he started aged seven, was leaving him as he gave in to the final realisation that he was fighting a losing battle.
Where once he had admired others only for their ability to match his excesses, Freddie began to tell those confidants who had managed to put an end to their life-sapping habits in time, that more than anything he lauded them for their restraint.
“Never go back to alcohol or drugs or to being promiscuous,” he urged them from his deathbed.
This was a very different Freddie Mercury to the one they once knew. If his house could talk, what tales of gay abandon it would have to tell.
More than anything else, the rock world knew him as the star who loved to party. Guests could have anything they desired as long as they arrived happy and remained deliriously so.
The highly-sexed singer wanted everyone around him to be as turned on as he was and he arranged every kind of titillation he could think of for his guests — gay and straight alike.
It had been his idea to hire a glamorous couple to expose their bottoms to guests arriving for a party at the Groucho Club last year to celebrate his Lifetime Achievement award.
At a celebration for Queen’s Wembley concert at Richard Branson’s Roof Garden, he booked girls who were adorned from head to foot only with body paint to act as lift attendants. He also hired a young man in chains and a leather jockstrap to run the ladies’ powder room. In the gents loo, guests were welcomed by a scantily-clad blonde who offered them a massage after they had washed their hands. Four caged, near-naked girls were the main attraction in the club’s gardens — much to Cliff Richard’s obvious surprise.
At one festival of fun in the very house where he breathed his last, Freddie engaged dwarves bearing small bowls to move among the assembled hedonists.
The bowls contained £12,000 worth of the best cocaine the star’s money could buy. When a dealer failed to obtain enough, a private plane whisked him to Marseilles to get more. Freddie had said: “I want the purest and I want the most.”
Servants
He told guests his parties were a throwback to his boyhood days when he was the young master surrounded by white-suited servants at his father’s mansion in Bombay.
Little Freddie grew up accustomed to being pampered, for these were the last, lingering days of the Raj and he could have anything he wanted.
Anything, he maintained, except the love he craved — for his father was a busy man and although Freddie always had someone on hand to tie up his shoelaces, there was rarely anyone there to kiss him goodnight.
Left to his own devices he created a fantasy world that he tried hard to turn into reality with the vast riches his talent and his monstrous drive provided.
The parties were a fantasy, a way of buying love for himself and his friends. He pushed everyone to the limit in his search for ongoing gratification.
When a party looked like breaking up, Fredie found a way to prolong it with the result that a “good event” as he called it, could last days, even weeks, with no expense spared.
On one occasion he spent £80,000 hiring Concorde to fly a large group of partygoers to New York where th fun went on for eight days. He had to be surrounded by people — he was both an exhibitionist and a voyeur.
Elton John, George Michael, Liza Minnelli, Mick Jagger, George Harrison, Rod Stewart, Barry Humphries and Duranduran were among those whose company Freddie enjoyed.
All of them agree that his friendship had to be experienced to be appreciated. He was full to the brim with both energy and love. The last of that seeped away on Sunday evening when Freddie — who liked to be called Mary in the confines of his own home — died in his £4 million house full of marble mahogany and memories.
Sixties star Dave Clarke was at his side.
“He was one of my dearest friends,” he said yesterday. ‘A very rare person and an amazing talent. He gave so much happiness to so many.
“He was also a very caring person, few people know about all the kindnesses he did. I don’t want to go into detail but he helped a lot of people who didn’t have much themselves.
"He’s gone now but he’s left an enormous legacy with his music. I worked with him in the early Seventies with Laurence Olivier on something for the musical Time and it was astonishing to observe him.
"He had an incredible personality and watching him work in a recording studio was just like seeing him perform at Wembley.
"It is a great loss and I’m stunned but I’m pleased to be able to say that the end was very peaceful. And, as I said, my friend is in a better place now”.
Clarke’s pointer to Mercury’s generosity is likely to be borne out if and when details of his will are published. Those close to his management suggest that, in anticipation of his demise, the star gave away almost half of his £20 million fortune this year. He bought ten small houses in west London to leave as homes for friends who had none.
The owner of one three-bedroom cottage in Chiswick was asked to “be out” when the prospective buyer called to view, but a neighbour recognised Mercury who later paid the asking price of £160,000 and the same amount for an identical adjoining house. Others who paid tribute to him yesterday include disc jockey and comedian Kenny Everett who said: “He burned the candle at both ends — and in the middle”. George Michael was told of Freddie’s death in Los Angeles where he is recording and was said to be “devastated.”
A friend said: “He is very upset because he always admired Freddie as a performer.”
Fellow star Phil Collins said: "I admired him and I admired his honesty in admitting he had Aids. It is all so sad.”
Peter Straker, now starring in the touring version of The Phantom Of The Opera, said: “Freddie is an inspiration to me.”
Gestures
“We worked together on three of my albums. He was a perfectionist and his inventiveness coupled with a meticulous attention to detail brought me enormous extra satisfaction.
"He loved parties and he celebrated his achievements with extravagant and sumptuous gestures, executed with enormous kindess.”
Sixties singing idol Sandie Shaw, now heavily involved with raising money for Aids charities, said: “This is so tragic.”
Sara Dallin of Bananarama added: “This is so sad, a great tragedy. He was a favourite performer.”
Musician-turned-politician Screaming Lord Sutch, who played on the same bills as Queen at colleges in the early Seventies, said: “We have lost a most original and entertaining singer who inspired many, many people.
He was a unique talent.”
He said Freddie ranked alonside the likes of Mick Jagger and Elvis Presley.
“We have no one else left like him except Mick Jagger. Like Presley he had the looks, physique, movement and that outrageous voice. It was almost like he had too much talent to pack into one body.”
Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballe said she knew she and Mercury would not be able to sing their hit Barcelona at next year’s Summer Olympics.
“We had discussed it in the past, but there was nothing definite,” Caballe told Spanish National Radio. “And I knew that surely he would not have been able to do it.”
The incongruous duo of the opera singer and the flamboyant rock star first performed Barcelona, written by Mercury in celebration of that city, at London’s Covent Garden theatre in 1987.
Caballe said she and Freddie had begun recording an album they were to have completed after the Olympics.
She had been in touch with him recently and found him “animated, withthat old sparkle in his eyes and with a tremendous desire to live through music.”
Francis Rossi, of Status Quo, said: “Freddie was one of the elite few who could really set a stadium alight.
"I am deeply upset to hear of the death of both a friend and a fine ambassador for British music.
"Along with millions of fans throughout the world I will miss his exceptional performance and brilliant voice.”
It is true the world will miss Freddie Mercury, especially his fans, the cocaine dealers and the partygoers.
“One way or another they all sampled something he had to offer.
[Photo caption: GLAM OPERA: Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody heralded the video age by transforming the medium into an art form]
TODAYComment
FREDDIE Mercury had the courage to admit that he was suffering from Aids and he wanted the world to focus on the agony this disease can cause.
What a fitting tribute it would be if his record company reissued Queen’s biggest hit, Bohemian Rhapsody, with all the proceeds going towards Aids research.
How much better to have a Christmas No 1 that would do some real good, rather than the latest pop sensation merely cashing in on a special time of the year.
Rock rhapsody that launched age of the video
QUEEN surged into the charts in the early Seventies. In two years they changed forever the way the rock industry presented and sold its stars.
Bohemian Rhapsody, a bizarre blend of pomp, multi-tracked vocals and operatic delivery, brilliantly caught the spirit of the time by mixing great rock musicianship with the showbiz pose of the glam-rock years.
Progressive rock fans were delighted as Queen wrapped the song up in a mini pop opera — all for the price of a single. The video helped keep Freddie and the band at the top for nine weeks at the end of 1975.
Rock critic Paul Gambaccini said: "Let us give them credit for the video revolution. Without Bohemian Rhapsody it would never have happened.”
In an interview on TV-am, Gambaccini added: “What a star Freddie Mercury was. He could hold an audience in the palm of his hand.”
Before Queen was formed, Freddie attempted a solo career. And if his stage name of Freddie Mercury was perhaps rather a surprising choice, think what might have been if he had stuck to his original solo name — Larry Lurex!
Here is the full list of his hit singles.
QUEEN SINGLES - Chart position
Seven Seas Of Rhye (1974) - 10
Killer Queen (74) - 2
Now I’m Here (75) - 11
Bohemian Rhapsody (75) - 1
You’re My Best Friend (76) - 7
Somebody To Love (76) - 2
Tie Your Mother Down (77) - 31
Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy (77) - 17
We Are The Champions (77) - 2
Spread Your Wings (78) - 34
Bicycle Race (78) - 11
Don’t Stop Me Now (79) - 9
Love Of My Life (79) - 63
Crazy Little ThingCalled Love(79) - 2
Save Me (80) - 11
Play The Game (80) - 14
Another One Bites The Dust (80) - 7
Flash (80) - 10
Under Pressure + David Bowie (81) - 1
Body Language (82) - 25
Los Palabras De Amor (82) - 17
Backchat (82) - 40
Radio GaGa (84) - 21
I Want To Break Free (84) - 3
It’s A Hard Life (84) - 6
Hammer To Fall (84) - 13
Thank God It’s Christmas (84) - 21
One Vision (85) - 7
A Kind Of Magic (86) - 3
Friends Will Be Friends (86) - 14
Who Wants To Live Forever (86) - 24
I Want It All (89) - 3
Breakthru’ (89) - 7
The Invisible Man (89) - 12
Scandal (89) - 25
The Miracle (89) - 21
SOLO SINGLES
Love Kills (84) - 10
I Was Born To Love You (85) - 11
Made In Heaven (85) - 57
Living On My Own (85) - 50
Time (86) - 32
The Great Pretender (87) - 4
Barcelona + Montserrat Caballe (87) - 8
[Photo caption: STAGE ACT: Gymnast]
[Photo caption: STAGE ACT: Rocker]
[Photo caption: STAGE ACT: Shocker]
Mary tells of final weeks of anguish
MARY Austin, the woman who shared much of Freddie Mercury’s life and nursed him through his final weeks, has spoken of his “incredible suffering”.
Mary, his loyal companion for 21 years, had been with Freddie during the day but left his bedside just ten minutes before he died.
“I spent from 9.30am to 12.30pm with him at the house. I finally missed him by about 10 minutes,” she said.
Mary had an on-off relationship with Freddie for 21 years and although she married another man and had his child, she and Freddie remained close friends and the star was godfather to her child. She had visited him almost every day during the last months of his illness.
“He faced it with incredible bravery but he did suffer, mentally and emotionally as well as physically.
"He suffered a lot especially in the last few days. He couldn’t eat, and he was under heavy sedation.
"When I went round, sometimes we would talk if he had the energy but he was under such sedation. He would listen, or sometimes, we would just sit.”
On the night he died, Mary received a call at her home — just ten minutes’ walk away from the star’s £5 million Kensington mansion — but when she arrived, he was already dead.
Mary had to break the news to Freddie’s parents.
Courage
“He became very ill very quickly and he didn’t really want them to see him. I think his parents did accept him. They were very close. But Freddie was always away. He saw them more in the last five years when he came back to London.”
His mother had seen him eight days before he died.
Mary met Freddie in the days before his music fame, when she was a manageress in the plush London boutique Biba.“He used to come in all the time. He finally plucked up the courage to ask me out. It seems strange now; I didn’t even know he liked me until then.
"The more I knew him, the more I grew to love him as a person. He was very talented. There was a lot of sharing and bonding between the two of us.
She said she never regretted that they had not married. "I never stopped loving him and I don’t think he did either. I think he had got positive feelings about me. He trusted me. You don’t need a piece of paper to be married — it is in the heart and our marriage was in the heart.”
Mary said she was still trying to come to terms with her friend’s death. “Even though we knew the end was coming, it has still come very much as a shock. I am still finding it hard to find words for myself — let alone to share.”
“I thought it would be difficult but when you really love somebody, you can be strong and I was strong for him.”
Mary hopes that those who knew Freddie or admired his music will work together to campaign for Aids sufferers and to help fight the disease.
“I would like to see more and better education about what Aids can do. Having witnessed the suffering it causes, I hope some of Freddie’s friends and fans will get involved in the campaign against Aids.”
Mary: “Freddie’s male friends were jealous of me, his gay friends were jealous of me, his staff was jealous of me, his bandmates were jealous of me.”
Meanwhile,
Jim: never said one word about wanting to stay at Garden Lodge, was surprised that he even got £500k as he didn’t expect or want anything.
Phoebe: “The house was lifeless without Freddie, I didn’t want to stay there.”
The band: literal multi-millionaires for whom the one-third of Freddie’s royalties from Innuendo must’ve been like a drop in the ocean.
Honestly, this woman’s ability to cry bloody victim all the fucking time for decades is astonishing. But even more astonishing is the extent to which her fans are willing to go to justify that her behaviour was “understandable”. I am really yet to see a single valid defence of any of her questionable actions.
Also, this article was printed in April, 1992 - just a month after Phoebe, Jim and Joe were asked to vacate the Mews. While not allowing them the opportunity to grieve properly, she was victimising herself in the press. Fucking great.
