Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury (49 page)

“Freddie Mercury was an awe-inspiring performer,” commented King, “so with Sacha starring in the role coupled with Peter’s screenplay and the support of Queen, we have the perfect combination to tell the real story behind their success.”

Morgan’s script returns the band to the early eighties, when Queen had damaged their profile in America, and were well in decline. Their best years apparently over, each member was pursuing solo projects. Then Geldof announced Live Aid, Queen embraced his vision, and went out at Wembley Stadium to stun the world. Reawakening to their collective power, they plan and embark on a massive worldwide “comeback” tour, and look forward to a healthy second inning. But Freddie falls to AIDS, and the dream is dashed . . . At the time of publication, no release date had been confirmed.

Since Freddie’s passing, Queen’s global reputation and impact have soared, in no small way thanks to the phenomenal success of their stage musical
We Will Rock You
. Set in a futuristic parallel universe in which rock music has been banned and where the Bohemians, a gang of music-loving rebels, hold out for a hero, it was written by comic Ben Elton to classic Queen tracks. Since it opened at London’s Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road, in 2002, the “jukebox theatre” production has played to consistently full houses, and shows no signs of losing pace. Twenty-seven international versions have been staged; it won the BBC Radio 2 Olivier Audience Award in March 2011, and will extend to a long-awaited movie version in 2013.

We Will Rock You
may not be to everyone’s taste. Indeed, Brian and Roger stand accused in some quarters of having “sold out.” Who cares? Queen don’t. The show’s enduring popularity speaks for itself. As Roger says, “Fuck ’em if they don’t get it.”

Says Paul Gambaccini, “
We Will Rock You
’s vital role has been in bringing Queen’s sensational music to millions of young people who weren’t born when Freddie was alive, and when the original band were still touring.”

How would Freddie himself feel about the fact that Queen are even bigger today than they were during his lifetime?

“He would love it,” insists Paul Gambaccini. “He would
just love
it. He’s bigger than Liza Minnelli: what a kick he would have got out of that. He loved the divas. Adored them. Liza, Montserrat: he worshipped these women. He would be thrilled that the outsized projection of himself is so greatly esteemed. I mean, I get Facebook requests from young European men on the grounds that they know I knew Freddie. Peter Freestone is an idol of this group. It’s a career. They do the dress-ups, the tributes, the Freddie for a Day (when fans all over the world dress as their idol on Freddie’s birthday to raise money for the Mercury Phoenix Trust), the works. It’s fascinating. None of them was alive, or they were not aware, when Freddie was active. They are reacting to the historically preserved Freddie Mercury, not to a man they would have known for themselves.”

*   *   *

Those still living get on with what will never be ordinary lives. John Deacon is today a quiet family man, the years of Queen madness consigned to the top shelf of his troubled mind. Brian, who has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for Services to the Music Industry, is into second wife Anita, his three adult children, astronomy, and preserving foxes. Roger, post-Debbie, married his young girlfriend Sarina after six years together, and had five children at last count. Music remains a priority for both Roger and Brian.

Incredibly, Queen have overtaken the Beatles to become the official UK album chart leaders. In 2006 their
Greatest Hits
album was
Britain’s all-time best-selling album, with sales of more than 5,407,587 copies. Their
Greatest Hits II
album ranked seventh, with sales of more than 3,631,321 copies. The band have released a total of eighteen Number One albums, eighteen Number One singles, and ten Number One DVDs worldwide, making them one of the world’s best-selling rock acts. Their total album sales have been estimated at over 300 million worldwide—including 32.5 million in the United States alone. Queen is also the only group in which every member has composed more than one chart-topping single. “We Will Rock You” was adopted as the anthem of both the New York Yankees and Manchester United football club. “We Are the Champions” remains the most played Queen song of all time, chanted by sports fans everywhere. Freddie himself described it as “the most egotistical and arrogant song I ever wrote.”

“I feel that Freddie is still here, in some ways, because his music is still here,” says his sister Kashmira. “He was my brother, but a megastar, too. Simply speaking, I don’t know what it was like to have an ordinary brother. That’s because my own brother was so extraordinary.”

*   *   *

“Freddie was my best friend,” Roger Taylor told me in a candid moment. “I have never got over his death. None of us has. I think we all thought that we would come to terms with it quite quickly, but we underestimated the impact his death had on our lives. I still find it painful to talk about. Our present and our future without Freddie are impossible to contemplate. I deal with it day by day.”

The Freddie he misses is the soul behind the superstar: a deeply human man who fell for a fantasy. To the disapproval of some, it was to the delight of millions. It was on his terms. Offering no apology, he expected no sympathy. If he felt trapped, at times, by the contradictions that shaped him, his songs set him free.

To the tearful clown who had the last laugh . . . and to Brian and Roger, venturing onwards, in his memory. Can anyone fault them as keepers of the flame? Not I.