September 1976 – Freddie Mercury with Mary Austin, Surrey, London, UK

Queen at the Kempton Park Racecourse at Sunbury-on-Thames for the ‘A Day At The Races’ album press launch. The event features a series of horse races and the winner of the main race, an obstacle course, receives £ 3,000 donated by EMI and Queen manager John Reid.

Freddie, Brian, Roger and John all placed bets on the same horse (they didn’t reveal this to each other). The name of the horse they all placed bets on was ‘Lanzarote’ ridden by Champion Jockey John Francombe (he’s the third most successful National Hunt jump jockey of all time).

Lanzarote won! Yay!

Five days before, ‘A Day At The Races’ was released (December 1976) Queen found out their album pre-sales were more than half a million, the highest orders EMI had ever received for any album (at that time)

Freddie Mercury became a student at Ealing Art College in September 1966, and spent the next five years before forming Queen trying to ‘make it happen. For the first year, he was one of just two male students studying fashion design. Former fashion students remember him making a voguish patchwork leather jacket and stealing one of his mother’s silk tablecloths and turning it into a shirt.

To supplement his grant, Freddie spent one summer holiday working as a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport. But manual labour didn’t suit him. When he discovered the college’s evening life-drawing classes required models, Freddie signed up, stripped off and earned £5 a time. ‘You were given a towel to protect your modesty’, recalled a fellow model, who wondered how many elderly ladies sketched a near naked Freddie Mercury in the late 1960s.

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I imagine all those old ladies drawing an almost naked Freddie! I also ask myself if someone has one of those sketches somewhere

“We were out to dinner in a flash London restaurant. In the table, next to us, was a the famous Formula One driver.

From the chatting going on across tables, it was ascertained that this F1 driver was going to a night club across the city, that Freddie, often, went to, so Freddie bondly said: ‘Hey, my Gemma’s a bit quick behind the wheel.

I bet we could beat you to the nightclub!’.

Freddie being Freddie. All i remember is going about 90 miles for hour the wrong way down, one ways stretts, lights flashing, and Freddie bouncing up and down, sat in the front passenger seat of the Roller, willing the car to go faster and faster, like some demented Roman chariot driver.

We beat the F1 driver, of course!!

Peter Jones worked for Freddie from 1978 to 1985 as personal assistant/ bodyguard/driver. Freddie also named him: Gemma

FREDDIE AND MISTER ITAMI

Mr. Itami was Freddie’s personal bodyguard in Japan for years.

Mr. Itami recalls how generous Freddie was, always buying him things whenever they went shopping together, and how shy Freddie was in the early years when they first met.

He and Freddie remained close until 1986.

“In Japan we needed protection because you couldn’t go down into the lobby of the hotel – it was infested by really nice people waiting for autographs. We each had a personal bodyguard, and mine was called Itami. He was the head of the Tokyo bodyguard patrol and his entire job was to pamper and cosset me throughout the tour and make sure no harm came to my person. He was very sweet and gave me a lovely Japanese lantern, which I treasure.” (Freddie Mercury, 1975)

“When we were reunited at the Plaza Hotel in Osaka on May 15, Queen’s last night, Freddie decided he wasn’t going out today. I happened to see Roger in the hall who said ‘I’m going to go out for a bit’. So, I decided to join him. We went into town, had a few beers, then came back to the hotel.

Then one of the staff comes to me and says ‘Itami-San! Freddie was looking for you, apparently he wanted to go out.’ I was like ‘this is bad!’.

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1 August 1986, Queen performed at Mini Estadi in Barcelona, Spain 
“Magic Tour” 

This is the first of three shows in Spain 

After ‘Another One Bites The Dust’: “Many people are saying that Queen are gonna break up. Do you understand what I’m saying? Many people are saying that Queen is gonna be kaputt. This is not true, okay? We will always be together as long as you give us such a lovely welcome.” 

During his solo spot, Brian tries out a harmonizer pedal (he used one during ‘Get Down Make Love’ in previous years). He later stated how exciting that moment was for him. What he plays are a few licks that would end up being on a track recorded during The Miracle era called ‘Chinese Torture.’ He would do this on each remaining night of the tour. 

The band plow through the middle section of ‘Now I’m Here’ with vigour. Building off that they lengthen the song before the breakdown like they had done on previous tours. Roger Taylor plays a ripping drum solo, and Freddie’s cue into the final fanfare is priceless – “shoot it out, motherfucker!” 

Brian says a few words to the audience in Spanish before ‘Love Of My Life,’ and in a response of gratitude, the audience start chanting his name in unison. Freddie responds, with mock jealousy, “I don’t like it! Too much adulation!” 

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“Many people are saying that Queen are gonna break up. Do you understand what I’m saying? Many people are saying that Queen is gonna be kaputt. This is not true, okay? We will always be together as long as you give us such a lovely welcome.”

1 August 1986, Barcelona, Spain

Magic Tour

Photo credit to Ferran Sendra