March 23 of 1985, I met Freddie again. (Jim met him about a couple years before at a club, was told he was Freddie Mercury but didn’t quite know who he was at that time, nor did he think twice about it as he had another partner). The day started like any other. I made myself some supper, then headed out wearing jeans and a white vest. The look at the time was ‘High Clone,’ complete with mandatory mustache. I got the tube to Vauxhall and when the Market Tavern closed, I fell straight into the back of a minicab and went to Heaven. I arrived fairly late, after paying the cab I only had £5 to my name.

I went straight downstairs to the bar and ordered a pint of lager. ‘Let me buy you this,’ said a voice. I looked up. It was the chap from Cocobana in 1983. Freddie thing. I’d had a fair amount to drink. My tongue had loosened up. My defences were down. ‘No, I’ll buy you one,’ I said. ‘A large vodka tonic,’ came back the reply. He introduced himself as ‘Freddie’. I now knew he was Freddie Mercury, but still had little inkling who he actually was, nor what he did. It didn’t seem to matter.

Freddie asked me to join his crowd of friends, who were grouped in the middle of the bar. Joe Fanelli was there, Peter Straker, and a couple others. I haven’t got a clue what we talked about that night, I let them do most of the talking. Freddie and I danced, I was a bit of a raver in those days. I could tear the floor to bits along with anyone unlucky enough to be in my way. For a few good hours I threw Freddie across the dance floor. I think he admired my unselfconscious, bullish dancing. While Freddie told me the story of his life that summer we discovered there was a special chemistry between us. I fell in love with so much about Freddie, regardless of what he did for a living. He had those big brown eyes and a vulnerable, child-like persona. He was quite the opposite of the sort of man I’d ever fancied before… He appeared to be remarkably insecure but he was totally sincere and I was hooked!Jim Hutton

22 March 1976, Queen performed at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan “A Night At The Opera” Tour This is the first show of Queen’s nine total eveningsThe band arrived at 3:00 PM for soundcheck Freddie is in great voice tonight, but it is a bit of a difficult night for Brian. First, he breaks a string in the first chorus of ‘White Queen,’ and has to struggle through the next verse of the song before he take a quick break to switch to a spare guitar for the solo.Brian, after ‘White Queen’: “Thank you,

it’s good to back. It’s been too long. We’ve been away too long. You might remember this one from Sheer Heart Attack. This is Flick Of The Wrist.” For the encore, Freddie appears in a kimono, wearing it like a gown. He removes the kimono to reveal his red and white striped hot pants! The female fans, making up more than half of the audience, are delighted by his sexy appearance. Freddie, after the medley: “I hope you’re all having a good time! I bet you are. If I could do it in Japanese I could say, right now we’d like to feature Brian May on the guitar.” The audience responds very enthuasiastically nonetheless. “This is a song that we didn’t do last time, but we’re gonna do it now. A song called Brighton Rock.”