29 years without Freddie Mercury

👍👍👍

Keep rocking up there Fred!

🎤🎤🎤

Lovely words.

Gads, can't believe it was 29 years ago.

I was 8 years old at the time, my parents having just separated and my mom moving herself, my sister, and me from our beloved hometown to my grandparents' house a half hour away. This particular night I was feeling particularly melancholy and sought out my mom for affection; she was working in her office (which also doubled as her bedroom) and as I sat onto her bed, VH-1, which she must have been watching, or at least had on in the background, announced the death of some vocalist from some band. I gawked at the screen and saw this strange-looking man with star-shaped sunglasses and buck teeth was singing a song I had known for practically my entire life, even though I had never paid attention to music before! This wasn't a song – this was a chant! We chanted this in gym class, or on the recess field, or before my piano recitals! Okay, that last one isn't true, but I didn't play any sports as a child, and this was a sports anthem.

Anyway, I asked my mom who this man was, and she explained to me as best as she could what little she knew about the man and the band he was in. I had completely forgotten my melancholy blues; I was now transfixed by this man and his music. She handed me a cassette with four bright boxes on it, each one containing a face. I couldn't tell which one the star-shaped sunglasses man was; she pointed at the one in the red box, with the mustache. "Oh yeah, now I see – it's the eyes," I probably thought. Not realizing she had to get back to work, she ushered me out of her room, telling me she liked the second side better than the first. I went back to my room, set the cassette down, and immediately forgot about it.

Nearly two years later, my mom had finally saved up enough for a new construction townhome, and at the end of my 4th grade year we moved into our new home. On my 10th birthday, my mom, who was happily house poor, had scrounged enough together to get me four gifts: three cassettes and a cassette player. I was over the moon! Finally, some real music! Well, almost: cassette one was a compilation of Charlie Brown/"Peanuts" songs ("Happy Anniversary, Charlie Brown!"), but whatever, what's better than jazz and "Peanuts"? Cassette two was Eric Clapton's "Unplugged", which was all over the place in 1993 and I had become mildly obsessed with 'Tears In Heaven' earlier in the year. Cassette three was a strange green sleeve with a robot figure gazing up to the heavens as limp, dead bodies slip from his hand. I looked at the track list; I only recognized two songs, but they were the only two songs that mattered. I thanked my mom and ran upstairs to test out my gifts.

Of those three tapes, I wore only one out. By the end of the summer my mom was begging me to listen to another album, and would take me to our local record store (Trac Records) so I could explore more of this band's discography. By the end of the year, I had a good portion of their discography, several books and magazines, and was wondering if there was still any way I could learn more about this band. For some reason, I wanted to write a book about them – but I wouldn't actually seriously think about it for another half dozen years or so. (I still had a lot of learning to do.) I had moved on to other bands as well, but kept this initial band deep in my heart, as I still do to this day.

Thanks, Freddie.

I hope they do something to celebrate him for the 30th Anniversary, but from what Brian said about commemorating the date, that might seem unlikely.

I remember reading on BBC Ceefax when Fred made the statement the night before his death (although we didn't know that at the time), and going to bed in a semi state of shock. The next morning, the shock turned into grief - a grief I'd never experienced before over the death of a 'celebrity'. He truly was a part of my life and it did feel like the death of a family member. I remember going to work and every radio station was playing non stop Queen songs, all day long. I don't remember that ever happening before or since, not even for Lennon or Elvis, or more recently, Michael Jackson or Bowie.

His art and his voice are missing...

On November 23rd 1975 his masterpiece started nine week a run at No#1

Was working in London when that horrible day happened and went down to Garden Lodge to pay my respects.
29 years! Jeez seems so long ago now.

Phoebe mentioned 10 November as when Freddie left Montreux. If this is accurate then I think it **is** news.

i live in the heart of Worcestershire and (back then) commuted to London - some weeks I drove down Monday and stayed all week, others, I caught the train daily.

That particular week, I was just hitting the roundabout for the M42 (J3) to head South around 5:30am. The radio played Queen song after Queen song...no gaps, no DJ talking..nothing.
Thing is, being caught in the working a long way from home thing for so long, the whole Freddie thing has more or less escaped me*. Then around the hour, the news came on...first item: "Freddie Mercury has died" (of AIDS-related complications) - I pulled over and listened - on the M40 hard shoulder. When the news finished I drove on - in a bit of a bewildered daze. I really didn't know. What followed was the second-most surreal journey of my entire life.


* I remember the Brits some time before and remember thinking he looked unwell, and remember saying "maybe it's cancer" (he did smoke a lot).

I can't remember feeling maudlin or depressed about it at all. Just that (for me) the singer in the band I'd grown up listening to was no more. "Time to put away childish things". I was 29 after all. Time for my life to move on.

And, I should qualify all of this by saying that I don't identify with any kind of "29 Years Without Freddie" thing. It just doesn't register with me like that. To be honest, Nov 24th is just another day. Really.

I find all of the famous deaths of recent years (2016-to date) much more significant - as this indelibly marks my own advancing years and mortality.

Yes, he was rather upstaged by Freddie, much as Farrah Fawcett Majors was by Michael Jackson.

it's a "thing" - and no denying it: [upstager first]
Johnny Cash/Warren Zevon
Robin Williams/Lauren Bacall
David Bowie/Alan Rickman [although this is a close-run thing]
Dennis Hopper/Gary Coleman

starting a list today...i was really asking for it eh? my list was a literal Kiss Of Death