Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury Read Online Free PDF

phones back then. I was worrying about Dave Hogan and Richard Young in the pit. I had Bob and Harvey to fret about. It was all going on, I had a lot on my mind. I knew the band were going down well, sure. The crowd was going nuts. Everyone backstage stopped talking to watch them. That was bizarre. Never normally happens . . . Who came on before or after Queen? Hardly anyone remembers. What do I remember? That Freddie Mercury was the greatest performer on the day. Perhaps the greatest performer ever.”
    David Wigg, the veteran journalist then writing for the Daily Express , had long been a close personal friend of Freddie’s.
    “I was the only journalist allowed to join Freddie in his dressing room as he prepared for Queen’s performance at the biggest show in the world,” he says. “He was very relaxed, and looking forward to getting out there to do his bit.”
    “We are playing songs that people identify with, to make it a happy occasion,” Freddie had explained.
    Freddie and David discussed the reasons behind Live Aid, and talked about Freddie’s own experiences in childhood.
    “He said that he first became aware that he was luckier than a lot of children when he attended an English boarding school in India, and discovered through a boy’s eyes the plight of the country’s poor.”
    “But,” Freddie had insisted, “I’m certainly not doing this out of guilt. I don’t feel guilty just because I’m rich. Even if I didn’t do it, the problem would still be there. It’s something that will sadly always be there. The idea of all this is to make the whole world aware of the fact that this is going on. By making this concert we are doing something positive to make people look, listen, and hopefully donate. Neither should webe looking at it in terms of us and them. When people are starving, it should be looked upon as one united problem.”
    Freddie openly admitted to “Wiggie” that when he saw TV film of Africa’s starving millions, he had to switch off his set.
    “It disturbs me so much, I just can’t watch it. Sometimes I do feel helpless, and this is one of those times I can do my bit. Bob has done a wonderful thing, because he actually sparked it off. I’m sure we all had it in us to do that, but it took someone like him to become the driving force, and actually get us all to come together.”
    For one concertgoer, that day was the more overwhelming for the fact that this was his first rock experience. Jim Hutton, the humble hairdresser who became Freddie’s partner shortly before Live Aid, went on to share the rest of Freddie’s life. Little could he have known that day that, just six years later, he would be helping to prepare his lover for burial. Conveyed to the concert in grandeur as Freddie’s other half in the star’s own limousine, it was the first time Jim had ever attended a gig of any kind, let alone watched Queen play live.
    “Talk about chucking me in at the deep end,” laughed Jim. “I was a bit blown away by all the glamorous superstars, to be honest. Every member of the band had his own trailer. All the wives were there, as well as Roger’s and Brian’s children. Freddie knew everyone. He took me to meet David Bowie, who I’d actually met before, when I cut his hair. He even introduced me to Elton John as ‘my new man.’ Freddie didn’t need time to get ready, he was just going on stage in what he was wearing when we left home—a white vest with a pair of faded jeans. He also had on a pair of his favorite trainers, a belt, and a studded amulet. When it was their turn to go on, he knocked back another large vodka tonic and said, ‘Let’s do it.’
    “I walked with him to the stage, and kissed him good luck. Not that he needed it. To hear them playing those songs live—a bit of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ with Freddie on the piano, ‘Radio Ga Ga’ with the crowd clapping wildly in unison, ‘Hammer to Fall,’ then Freddie on his guitar for ‘Crazy Little Thing Called