Hi i'm Ashley, obsessed with 70's & 80's pop culture, classic rock, particularly Queen, Rush, Oingo Boingo, and the Beatles. I don't go on Tumblr as much as I used to but when I do it's to fangirl over Freddie Mercury of course ;)
I believe this is the only photo of Freddie I have seen when he did 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at The Royal Ballet gala in 1979.
I've seen most fans saying that this is Freddie from 1984 when Queen did 'I Want To Break Free' video (the ballet segment) but he just looked different there (the face, the hair line, the makeup)
source: Sotheby's
A deep dive into the new wave frontmen responsible for an era of neurodivergent rock
hey everyone! since we’re in the middle of autism acceptance month i thought i’d share this essay i wrote on the patron saints of autistic new wave (david byrne, gary numan & danny elfman) and how neurodiversity was what made new wave cool! check it out! 🎧⚡
Living On My Own playing from outside the Henderson’s night club in Munich, Germany on September 5th, 1985 where a crowd of people is dying to get inside to get a glimpse of Freddie Mercury’s 39th fabulous birthday party.
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF FREDDIE MERCURY (SPLENDID!)
[“I love George Michael. He has a sense of dignity.”]
• He was born on 5th September 1946 in Zanzibar and went to boarding school in Bombay until 1959.
• "My real name is Pluto" he once quipped - actually his real name is Bulsara. Frederick Bulsara.
"I'm an old slag who gets up every morning and scratches his head."
• In ver late '60s he went to Ealing Art College where he played "keyboards" in a couple of very "horrible" "progressive" bands, Wreckage and Sour Milk Sea.
• He used to run a stall in smelly Kensington Antique market, selling disgusting purple loon pants (flared trousers) and other hippie-type garments.
• At Queen's early "gigs", he used to serve popcorn, which he'd with his own fair hands, to the audience.
• He thought up the group name Queen all by himself: "It's regal and it sounds splendid." He also designed the Queen crest logo.
• In 1973 he recorded a version of The Beach Boys' "I Can Hear Music" under the name Larry Lurex in an attempt (failed) to cash in on the glitter-pop boom.
• In 1974 his voice packed up thanks to irritating throat nodules and laser beam treatment was prescribed — but: "I didn't like the look of the doctor." So he went to bed for three weeks, instead.
"I'm a mother figure to many people."
• For the cover of the band's second album, punningly-titled "Queen II", he thought it would be a splendid wheeze for the band to smear themselves with Vaseline and then get hosed down: "God, the agony we went through to have the pictures taken, dear!"
• His greatest hobby is shopping for exotic objects d'art. "All my money goes to Sotheby's. And Harrods. Cartier, Asprey and Christie's. The Japanese call it crazy shopping — I walk around like the Pied Piper with hordes of people following me."
• In 1975 he produced and played "piano" on a single called "Man From Manhattan" by Eddie Howell, whoever he might be.
• In 1976 he met Elton John who told him that he liked the Queen single "Killer Queen": "Anyone who says that goes in my white book — my black book is bursting at the seams."
"I think I'm going to go mad in a few years' time."
• He used to do an inimitable imitation of Shirley Bassey singing "Big Spender" whilst sipping champagne on stage.
• In 1980 he came up with the splendid wheeze of decking out the backstage waitresses at a Madison Square Gardens concert in highheels, bikini bottoms and nothing else!!!!
[“I am so depressed by these people who still won’t admit that everything we so simply drips with originality.”]