Freddie Mercury (6 page)

Freddie always accepted that part of being Freddie Mercury was that there would be people around to exploit him. Provided he knew it was going on, he accepted it because he knew he could always turn round and say, “No!” or, “Enough!” What hurt him most was when he was being used behind his back, betrayed and yet he didn’t know about it until after the fact. It hurt a lot because the only people who could be so exploitative were those whom he really trusted and who, in their turn, eventually abused that trust.

This was one reason why Freddie always found it so difficult to make new friends. Being thus in Freddie’s position, he rather lost friends over his lifetime. And to be seen to have had comparatively fewer very close friends at the end of his life, it explains why particularly in his last year, the press so often stated he was alone and unloved. The truth was, of course, the opposite. Despite the losses, Freddie always had a close-knit group of friends with him until the end. Of these, there were some who were kept at arm’s length because, in truth, he did not want to see them having to endure the pain and suffering which he was going through in the last year or eighteen months of his life.

And so another one bit the dust in Carolina. Bye-bye Tony Bastin.

August 17: Indianapolis, Indiana
              
18-19th (we stayed in NewYork)

It was during this stay in New York that Freddie met up with his own personal Viking. Thor Arnold is blond and big and beautiful and we met him in one of our usual haunts, whether The Spike or The Eagle or The Anvil or wherever is immaterial. Thor is a genuine, all-American boy. He lived, then, in Manhattan, near Greenwich Village and spent his day nursing the sick of NewYork for that was and is still his profession, though now he pursues it in San Diego.

Freddie and Thor had a great night, enjoying each other, but the following day, Freddie accepted it as something that had been and didn’t even think to follow the night up with any further dates. Life on the road is like that and try as you might, nobody could possibly keep in touch with all the people you meet and with whom you might wish to explore a friendship further.

August 20: Hartford, Connecticut
              
21: Day off in New York
             
22: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Surprise! As well as an outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease, Freddie and I were lucky enough to discover an outbreak of friendship. Early in the afternoon of the 22nd in Philadelphia, there was a knock on the door of Freddie’s hotel suite. I went and opened the door and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Thor Arnold standing there.

He came in and told Freddie that he wasn’t going to let things go just like that. Freddie was stunned because it must have been one of the first times that not only had someone taken it upon themselves to arrive at one of his shows under their own steam but that Thor had also done some research and had discovered where Freddie was staying. The surprise element as much as anything else really won Freddie over. Thor stayed for the show but then had to go straight back to New York.

Thus started what was to be one of the most enduring friendships I have known Freddie to have enjoyed and one which lasted until the end of his life. Thor introduced Freddie to three other friends of his in Manhattan, Lee Nolan, Joe Scardilli and John Murphy and more often than not it was always a crowd of six of us who went out whenever we were in New York. Freddie affectionately used to call the four Manhattan men, ‘my New York daughters’.

It was ‘The New York Daughters’ who were with him in a suite at the Berkshire Place Hotel in 1981 when Freddie’s monarchist tendencies surfaced on the occasion of the wedding of Diana Spencer to Charles, Prince of Wales. He insisted everyone stay up, got room service to provide us with a sumptuous breakfast so that we could toast the bride and groom as they walked out of St Paul’s. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he had tears in his eyes – other than those of laughter due to a multitude of comments being passed about anything from ‘the’ dress to how dreadful other people’s outfits were. I remember it was generally agreed by everyone that the reason why all the royal family disappeared into the vestry was so that they could ‘do’ lines of cocaine in private. After all, they all came out smiling and chatting to each other in a very animated fashion. More cause for falling on the floor, laughing. I don’t know what Charles and Diana’s wedding reception was like, if it was half as good as our celebration of their marriage, they’d have been more than happy.

August 23: Baltimore, Maryland
             
24: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
             
25: Day Off
             
26: Providence, Rhode Island
             
27: Portland, Maine

All the above gigs were played from our New York base at the Waldorf Astoria Towers.

August 28: Day Off (Travel Day)
             
29: Montreal, Quebec
             
30: Toronto
             
31-September 9 (Probably spent in NewYork)

Since Tony Bastin’s departure, there had been no permanent man in Freddie’s life and as Freddie had new friends to play with he decided to stay in New York. Whereas other married rock men who may have been fathers too might have wanted to return to London and their families for a while, Freddie while on tour was on tour and had little contact with London except the occasional cat-call. There was nothing at that point that tied him to going back to England.

September   10: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
                     
11: Day Off (Travel)
                     
12: Kansas City, Kansas
                     
13: Omaha, Nebraska
                     
14: Minneapolis, Minnesota
                     
15: Day Off (Travel)
                     
16: Ames, Iowa
                     
17: St. Louis, Missouri
                     
18: Day Off (Travel)
                     
19: Chicago, Illinois
                     
20: Detroit, Michigan
                     
21: Cleveland, Ohio

In Cleveland, Freddie was put in the same suite that Bette Midler had occupied fairly recently on her tour of America and where she had uttered the immortal line recorded on her famous live album of the time: “Hello Cleveland!”

The suite itself was done out in shades between pastel and lime green and anywhere that had a flat surface had lace on it. Even the piano had been painted to match. This was tacky with a capital T.

But this time, it was the kind of tacky which raised a smile.

We were very amused.

September 22: Day Off (Travel)
                   
23: Newhaven, Connecticut
                   
24: Syracuse, NewYork
                   
25: Day Off (Travel)
                   
26: Boston, Massachusetts
                   
27: Day Off (Travel)
                   
28-30: NewYork City, Madison Square Garden.

I don’t know whether my memory deceives me or not but I think it was at this set of Madison Square Garden gigs that the backstage entertainment which was always laid on both for the band and their guests was a troupe of female mudwrestlers who performed in what is commonly known in rock’n’roll as the ligging area. Or maybe it was the following visit… One ligging area is much like another. The same faces are seen in them all.

It was for big shows such as Madison Square that the band often flew their families out. I always had fun standing at the back of the stage with Chrissie May and Dominique Taylor, singing our hearts out during the choruses to all the songs. Freddie would laugh uproariously when Dominique told him why we all had sore throats and hoarse voices. Freddie was very, very fond of Dominique and their close friendship lasted even after Roger began living with Debbie. Freddie never involved himself in the domestic affairs of the other band members and never judged them. He knew his own personal life couldn’t bear too close scrutiny in terms of ‘family values’ and was therefore never going to throw a stone at someone else’s glass house.

October 1: Flew Back To London

And after all this, isn’t it amazing that Queen didn’t really make a vast amount of money from their tour? Touring, it must be remembered up until the stadium era, was always just an elaborate advertising campaign. Many bands in those days spent their lives in the dark whether it was in
the recording studio or out gigging or quite often when talking to their financial advisers – as has been oft brought later into the light.

The whole point of the exercise was to use the shows as giant promotions to sell records; usually in a show any band will perform all the old hits the crowd wants to hear with a liberal sprinkling of tracks from their latest album. Supporting (or opening) acts, of course, buy-in to a tour. They or their record companies pay for their protégés to open the show.

It was Freddie and Queen who were one of the first acts to depart from this philosophy. For example, when Freddie recorded both
Mr. Bad Guy
and
Barcelona
, he never toured as a solo artist to promote either of these albums and following the release of
The Miracle
, Queen never toured either. This didn’t prevent the albums going gold and silver all around the world thus indicating, in my view, that it is the quality of the music that eventually sells an album.

The European leg of this,
The Game
, tour started on Monday, November 17, rehearsing in Zurich.

November 23: Zurich, Hallenstadion.

Queen were supported on this part of the tour by the British band Straight Eight. Their manager was a woman who reminded me very much of Francesca von Thyssen although Francesca didn’t enter Freddie’s life until very much later. The choice of support act had been between Straight Eight and an unknown Birmingham band called Duran Duran also on EMI. Whether Straight Eight was chosen because they wouldn’t compete with Queen so much or because they were the better band, I really couldn’t comment. History seems to have made the choice.

November 24: Day Off
                  
25: Paris
                  
26: Cologne
                  
27: Leiden, Groenoordhallen.

We didn’t stay in Leiden after the show as we had flown from Cologne to Amsterdam on the 27th and we’d already checked in to a
hotel there, presumably due to the better quality of the nightlife. We drove to Leiden from Amsterdam and returned after the gig.

November 28: Day Off
                  
29: Essen
                  
30: Berlin

To disprove another myth, Freddie certainly never forced anyone to try drugs. I’d been working for Queen for just over a year at this point when I first introduced myself to cocaine in Freddie’s corner suite on one of the upper floors of the Hotel Kempinski in Berlin. I think my reaction to it was the same as everyone’s on their first try, “What’s it supposed to do?” little realising that I was probably talking nineteen to the dozen at the time. But no stars exploded, there was no sudden unaccountable rush of euphoria, just another night on the town. I only tried it once, thinking to myself that it was a waste of someone else’s money and saw no need to continue the experiment.

The first rule of travelling abroad is never to cross borders with drugs. As a rule of thumb, if you have to have drugs – which is entirely a personal choice – buy them in the country you’re in. Never buy too much because if you do, you have to flush the stuff away or give it away before entering the next country.

The following year, when Queen performed in Berlin, the gig was an outdoor venue in the forest and it was infested with mosquitoes. The dressing room was in an old military bunker and even in its depths there was no protection. I remember having to buy lots of mosquito repellent not only for the band but for the crew as well. I stood at the door of the bunker as the band were on their way to the stage, spraying them all over at the same time as wishing them well.

December 1: Bremen
                  
2-4: Days Off (Probably back in London)
                  
5-6: Birmingham, NEC.
                  
7: Day Off
                  
8-10: London, Wembley Arena.

The 8th was the day John Lennon was killed at eleven o’clock at night. During the following day, at the soundcheck, it was decided that Queen would perform Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ as a tribute.

December 11: Day Off
                  
12-13: Brussels

During the day, Freddie went shopping because art nouveau and art deco furniture and furnishings were available in very expensive antique shops. He bought a chandelier and a cabinet both reputedly by Majorelle, the latter which he kept and the former he later gave to Jim Hutton.

December 14: Frankfurt
15-17: Days Off
18: Munich

Little did Freddie know at this point, how much the city of Munich would figure in his future. He played one show only and left the following day.

December 19: Flew back to London for Christmas.

On returning to England, instead of being laid off as had happened after the Crazy Tour of England, I was asked if I wanted to remain on half salary and to come into the fan club in Queen’s premises just off Baker Street in Sussex Place. Barbara Szabo was the band’s bookkeeper. Although British, she had married a middle-European, hence the surname. Paul Prenter also worked from these rather cramped premises which, of course, included the fan club, which was being run by Amanda and Tony between the stewardship of Pat and Sue Johnson and later Theresa and Fiona Kennedy. At first I helped out packaging fan club merchandise and sending it off: T-shirts, scarves, badges and the like.