Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury (53 page)

Freddie with Annie Lennox at the Ivor Novello Awards, 21 April 1987.

Freddie’s “proudest moment,” with opera star Montserrat Caballé at the
Barcelona
album launch, 1988.

Freddie at home with one of his many beloved cats, 1988.

Freddie poses for a portrait with one of his favorite cats, in the grounds of Garden Lodge.

Roger Taylor, Freddie, Rod Stewart, and four hundred friends celebrate Queen’s Twentieth Anniversary at London’s Groucho Club, 1990. The cake was in the shape of a Monopoly board with Queen hits pasted into all the squares.

Freddie with Liza Minnelli at the Groucho Club party for Queen’s Twentieth Anniversary, 1990.

Freddie’s forty-fourth birthday party, Garden Lodge, September 1990. From left: Piers Cameron (Mary Austin’s then partner and father of their sons), Mary, Peter Freestone, Freddie, Joe Fanelli, Barbara Valentin, Dave Clark.

Flanked by Mary Austin and Barbara Valentin, Freddie celebrates his forty-fourth birthday. Behind them, Joe Fanelli and Dave Clark look on. The cake is a replica of India’s Taj Mahal, one of Freddie’s favorite monuments. He liked the notion of “a queen buried in the Taj Mahal.” The track “The Miracle” features the lyric “All God’s creations, great and small / The Golden Gate and the Taj Mahal, that’s a miracle.”

Freddie’s final journey: to West London Crematorium, Kensal Green, Wednesday, 27 November 1991.

Flowers left outside Freddie’s former home in Logan Place, following the news of his death.

Tributes at Freddie’s home on the third anniversary of his death.

Freddie Mercury tribute concert, Wembley Stadium, London, 1992.

Opera diva Montserrat Caballé with Freddie’s parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, at the unveiling of their late son’s commemorative statue, 25 November 1996, Montreux, Switzerland.