My all-time hero, just beating Stan Laurel and constantly jostling for the top spot with my Mum, is Freddie Mercury. I love Elvis, John Lennon, had a brief liaison with Jim Morrison and got a huge man crush on Jarvis Cocker but for me Freddie Mercury was and still is the ultimate front man.
I loved him from the moment I first saw him. Nothing particular to look at; buck teeth, oversized moustache, notoriously shy off stage but when he got in front of a live audience, you couldn’t take your eyes off him. We all know about his amazing voice both live and on record but it’s the way he teased, tickled and eventually seduced the audience that first grabbed my attention. He went against convention. He did what he wanted to do and he didn’t care what was going on elsewhere on the music scene. Who else could have come up with Bohemian Rhapsody? Who else would place a crown on his own head and end the show with the National Anthem?
Queen were pretty much written off in the lead up to Live Aid in 1985 and you only need to hear the words of Brian May and Roger Taylor looking back at that time and they were pretty much on the verge of splitting up. And then they did that performance. And completely blew everybody else off stage; both here and across the pond in Philadelphia.
That was an amazing performance that day and obviously the band were on fine form and brought the crowd together for what was a emotionally charged day but I think the main factor was that the British public has just forgotten how good they were.
'Stick with me...Radio Ga Ga makes perfect sense.'
I saw them at Knebworth a year later and even though I was at the back of a 120,000 crowd, it remains the best live show from a band I’ve ever seen.
One of the main reasons I love Queen and Freddie in particular, is that they were never cool. They were the band that people may have liked but they’d keep it quiet. And then Freddie would strut across the stage and remind you that it was only a bit of fun really, this rock n’ roll business. Don’t take it too seriously and don’t be afraid to not be in with the cool crowd.
Freddie would have been 65 years old on Monday. Personally, I don’t think he would still be playing. I think he would have hung up his crown a while back. I like to think he’d be sat in his robe (upon a throne) in his castle, being fed grapes and fine wine by a group of beautiful young men, playing down his status as one of the greatest ever showmen and just immersing himself in a hedonistic and extravagant retirement plan.
Happy Birthday Freddie.
I miss you x