The way I look at myself, if I do, is that I'm a man of extremes and I think every character is made up of a load of ingredients and I just think I have a very soft side, and a very hard side.

- Freddie Mercury, musician

At School

Born on 5 September, 1946 to Bommi and Jer Bulsara, at almost seven pounds, Farokh Bulsara first found fame in a local photo of the year contest. His parents' religion was Parsee and they had emigrated to the island of Zanzibar, Tanzania so that his father could continue his job at the British Colonial Office. At the age of eight and a half he set sail, on his own, for eight weeks to St. Peter's Church of England boarding school in India; there he showed prominence in music, art and sports - it is also here that picked up moniker Freddie. He performed in a variety of plays, often playing women, as well as being an accomplished boxer and public singer - in 1961 he formed the band The Hectics with his friend Farang Irani and three other friends, he played piano. In 1955 he achieved the school's best all rounder cup. He left in 1963 after failing in the Class 10 examinations and by 1964 a bloody revolution occured in Zanzibar, forcing the family to leave to Feltham, England.

To England

Though his family feared coming to England, the strange culture and cold climate, Farokh relished in the new colours, fashions and hairstyles. Having no formal qualifications he could enrol in art college, so he chose to go to Isleworth Polytechnic School at 18, he left two years later with an A in art A level; after this he joined the Ealing School of Art¹ and became part of 1960s Bohemian London. He switched from graphic design to fashion halfway through his course but his penchant for music remained; at the time, however, everyone was into music and Farokh was quite shy so nobody thought he was that serious about it. He went back to art as a subject and left the school in June 1969 with a diploma in graphic art and design.

Farokh To Freddie

A band from Liverpool, called Ibex, came down to London in August and were looking for a better singer than the one they had, Farokh jumped at the chance. His campness earned him the name 'the old queen' in Ibex, it was also here that he picked up a microphone stand and the bottom fell off - this soon became his trademark image. Within 10 days he had learnt their set and added a few songs of his own, he then travelled to Bolton, Lancashire, in order to play his first public performance. After changing the bands name to Wreckage they saw little success and soon the band disbanded, he then went on to have a fleeting part in the band Sour Milk Sea; this band was broken up after the members became jealous of Farokh and Chris, the guitarist, moved in together with a local band called Smile.

He was a big fan of the music and style of Smile, but he was very keen to change their clothes and on stage appearance. Smile's lead singer, Tim Stafell, did not feel comfortable being a theatrical showman and left to join a band formed by The Bee Gees drummer called Humpy Bong; the guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor no longer had a singer for their band, but Farokh soon assumed the role in 1970. The first album the new band Smile wrote contained a song called 'My Fairy King'\which contained the lyric 'oh mother Mercury, what have you done to me?', afterwards Farokh claimed that that mother was his mother and so he would become Mercury. Soon he had changed his name legally to Freddie Mercury.

Love of My Life

With his persona, Freddie felt that he could be much more flamboyant on stage and remain gentle and shy as Farokh. At the time the band were interested in Kensington's underground fashion, there was a local clothes shop in Kensington which had many beautiful girls working there, one of which was Mary Austin who soon dated Brian May. Freddie soon showed an interest in her and Brian stepped aside and introduced Freddie to Mary, knowing how much he liked her and thinking that both being shy, they would be a good match. It took him about six months to pluck up the courage to ask her out on a date, five months after that they moved in together and though they broke up six years later after Freddie became to realise his bisexuality, they stayed the closest of friends until his death.

Queen

Smile, under Freddie's direction, soon changed the band's name to Queen and they advertised for a bassist. After going through several bass players that didn't work, John Deacon joined the band in 1971 and remained a fairly quiet member, not wanting to upset anyone. He decided on the name Queen for its obvious sexual connotations but also the regal majesty of it, Freddie also designed the band's logo based on astrological birth signs: a Q adorned with two fairies for Virgo (Freddie); two lions for the Leos (Roger and John) and a crab for Cancer (Brian), for extra artistic interest he put a phoenix above the Q. For a concert in 1973 he went to Zandra Rhodes, who had designed for T-Rex and the band soon gained a reputation for their relaxed glam rock style. The rest of that story, though, is better explained in the story of Queen.

Solo Projects

In the early 1980s Freddie went to New York² to escape Queen; they were not finished with eachother but they agreed on taking a break. Queen had just released the album Hot Space which was not well recieved by fans and took so long that Freddie ended up being a godfather after a bet with one of the producers who said a child could be concieved faster than this album would be made. He contemplated on the idea of a solo album in New York but ended up flying to Munich to record it as he was not treated like a celebrity there. The recording of Mr. Bad Guy, Freddie's first solo album, was an interesting affair and many thought that it would see the end of Queen. The year before it was released, however, Queen released another album, The Works to great acclaim and performed at Live Aid and were generally thought to be the best set of the day, dispelling any fans fears of retirement. In 1985 Freddie released his album which was adored by fans but a commercial flop; it sold 160,000 which is not a bad result, but for someone of Freddie's acolade it was a disappointment.

Around the recording of this album Freddie and his friend, Michael Jackson, attempted a duet for possible inclusion either one of their solo albums. 'There Must Be More To Life Than This' was written by Freddie and was sung solo on his album, 'State of Shock' was penned by Michael Jackson and Randy Hansen, but was later released with Mick Jagger. The reason neither record was released with the two together was because they were not happy with the results and at one point in 1993 it was denied the songs were even recorded; with the invention of internet downloading the two songs are becoming more known but Jackson still refuses to release them, as did Freddie.

In 1983, Freddie went to see Pavarotti perform in Covent Garden, that night he heard Spanish singer Montserrat Caballé. He was amazed by her voice and soon came in touch with her to have a meeting, they stayed up all night and on to six in the morning singing together and playing music. It was then that they came up with the idea of doing a song and they decided to make a duet; she then asked how many songs were on a rock album, when he answered ten then she decided they should make ten songs together. In the end they made eight songs on the album Barcelona in 1988 with the famous title track of the same name that went on to be the theme for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. It was not recieved well commercially but many critics found it interesting and experimental, it is certainly unique.

His Death

When he told his close family and friends that he was ill with HIV, he insisted that it should not be talked about or upset anyone. Queen came together and put aside their differences for two last albums, 'The Miracle' and 'Innuendo', which his loved ones think was one of the main reasons that kept him alive for so much long, it gave him something to do rather than become depressed about dying and acquiesce to it. The press had, for a long time, suspected Freddie had AIDS and the sleeve of The Miracle, where the four faces of the members were mixed together, and the last two music videos he made³, 'I'm Going Slightly Mad' and 'These Are The Days of Our Lives', were both shot in black and white, helped to confirm their suspicions; of course everyone who knew Freddie denied it emphatically. Towards the end of 1991 he became devastatingly ill, as time went on he knew his life was soon to end. Retiring to his lavishly furnished home in Kensington, London, Freddie barely left the 28 room building and had it converted into a clinic. On November 23 he released a public statement to the press admitting he was suffering with AIDS, within 24 hours he had died ot AIDS-related bronchial pneumonia.

On the day of his death, his doctor commented he had 'slipped back a little bit today.' His parents, Bommi and Jer, came to visit and made their farewells. His friend Dave Clark and long-term boyfriend, Tim Hutton, were changing his clothes when they noticed his chest had stopped moving. Mary Austen, who had spent most of the day at Freddie's bedside, had to return home on an errand and missed Freddie's passing by a mere ten minutes. On midnight of 24 November, 1991, a press release was issued informing the world of Freddie's death; the next day Elton John introduced a hastily-compiled film tribute to Freddie. Four days later his body was cremated after a small private funeral in the traditions of the Zoroastrian faith. Freddie had asked that money be donated to the AIDS charity, the Terence Higgins trust and that 'Bohemian Rhapsody' be re-released, with 'These Are The Days Of Our Lives' as a B-Side and that all the sales be donated to the trust; the song achieved Christmas number one, the second time it had hit the top spot.

After Death

A week after Freddie's death, Brian and Roger appeared on an early morning TV show, looking very drained, informing the world there would be a concert to 'celebrate the life of Freddie Mercury.' At the British Music Awards in February, 1992 they made concrete announcements while collecting a Brit Award for best single of 1991 and a posthumous award for Freddie. Without any announcements to what the concert would even be or who would be there, the tickets sold out within hours the next day. A Concert For Life: A Tribute For Freddie Mercury was held in Wembley Stadium on Easter Monday, April 20, 1992. The first half featured a variety of songs from Metallica, Extreme, Def Leppard and Guns N' Roses. Also Bob Geldof appeared to sing 'Too Late, God' which he told the crowds he wrote with Freddie, U2 appeared on video from California. The second half of the concert was Queen +, the three surviving members of Queen accompanied by different singers for each song, occasionally Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath for extra guitars. As well as a rock celebration, the concert raised awareness for AIDS and marked the opening of the Mercury Phoenix Trust, a trust that gives money to AIDS charities around the world.

In 1995 Queen came together to release Made In Heaven, an album that contained completed samples of work recorded before Freddie's Death. In 1997, moved by the death of Princess Diana, but also with reference to Freddie, the trio released their only song as a threesome, 'No-One But You (Only The Good Die Young)' which reached number 12 in the UK charts - though it was only released due to pressure from fans, originally it was only meant to be on the compilation album Queen Rocks.