Read Is This The Real Life? Online
Authors: Mark Blake
First published 2010 by
Aurum Press Limited
7 Greenland Street
London NW1 0ND
www.aurumpress.co.uk
Copyright © 2010 Mark Blake
The moral right of Mark Blake to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Aurum Press Ltd.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 84513 659 8
‘We all wanted to be Elvis’: Fred (né
Farrokh
) Bulsara (right) with fellow pupils and Hectics bandmates Victory Rana and Bruce Murray, St Peter’s School, Panchgani, India, circa 1958.
Courtesy of Bruce Murray
The ‘charmingly shy’ Fred Bulsara (third right), with his earliest friends in England, including Patrick Connolly (fourth right), Brian Fanning (second right) and Adrian Morrish (far right), Isleworth Polytechnic, 1965.
Courtesy of Adrian Morrish
Fred Bulsara and friends, impersonating The Shadows outside 42b Addison Gardens, Shepherds Bush (from left): Paul Humberstone, Richard Thompson, Bulsara, Tim Staffell (in Hank Marvinstyle glasses) and Chris Smith, circa 1969.
Courtesy of Mark Haywood
Fred Bulsara with fellow students (clockwise, from left) Tim Staffell, the late Paul Fielder and Chris Smith (back to the camera), Ealing Technical College And School Of Art, London, 1969.
Courtesy of Mark Haywood
Fred Bulsara (far right) on the weekend of his first gig as a lead singer, with members of Ibex and their entourage, including Mick ‘Miffer’ Smith (far left) and Ken Testi (third left, seated), Bolton, August 1969.
Courtesy of Mark Haywood
Four fifths of 1984 (from left): Richard Thompson, Tim Staffell, Brian May and John ‘Jag’ Garnham, at an airfield in Hertfordshire, 1964.
Courtesy of Richard Thompson
Sour Milk Sea, photographed for the
Oxford Mail,
March 1970. From left: Fred Bulsara (‘He told us his name was Fred Bull’), Chris Chesney (né Dummett), Jeremy ‘Rubber’ Gallop (seated), Paul Milne and Rob Tyrrel.
‘Super-brain’ Brian May (bottom, right) with 1984 bandmates (from top left) John ‘Jag’ Garnham and Richard Thompson and (bottom left) Dave Dilloway, circa 1968.
Courtesy of Richard Thompson
The Reaction, winners of the Cornwall Rock and Rhythm Championship, 1966. From left: Jim Craven, Geoff ‘Ben’ Daniel, Roger Brokenshire, Roger Taylor, Mike Dudley and John ‘Acker’ Snell.
Courtesy of Geoff Daniel
The Opposition: (from left) Nigel Bullen, Richard Young, Ron Chester, Dave Williams, and a 16-year-old John Deacon, photographed for the
Leicester
Mercury
, 1967.
The one that got away: bass player Tim Staffell, recording with Smile, Trident Studios, London, June 1969.
Courtesy of Mark Haywood