Bohemian Rhapsody

Author: Lesley-Ann Jones
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1444733702
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 317

Book Description
'Exactly the sort of tribute Mercury himself would have wanted' SPECTATOR 'No one has captured better than Lesley-Ann Jones the magical, enchanting dualism of Freddie Mercury' THE TIMES 'Truly definitive, truly Freddie, an energetic, entertaining and essential account' SIR TIM RICE 'This book grabs you with its opening, then builds. Insight and anecdote in perfect harmony' SIMON NAPIER-BELL 'At last a massive tribute to a massive talent' STEVE HARLEY, COCKNEY REBEL This is the definitive biography of Freddie Mercury. Written by an award-winning rock journalist, Lesley-Ann Jones toured widely with Queen forming lasting friendships with the band. Now, having secured access to the remaining band members and those who were closest to Freddie, from childhood to death, Lesley-Ann has written the most in depth account of one of music's best loved and most complex figures. Meticulously researched, sympathetic, unsensational, the book will focus on the period in the 1980s when Queen began to fragment, before their Live Aid performance put them back in the frame. In her journey to understand the man behind the legend, Lesley-Ann Jones has travelled from London to Zanzibar to India. Packed with exclusive interviews and told with the invaluable perspective that the twenty years since Mercury's death presents, Freddie Mercury is the most up to date portrait of a legendary man.

Mercury

Author: Lesley-Ann Jones
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451663951
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 357

Book Description
The lead vocalist for the iconic rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury's unmatched skills as a songwriter and his flamboyant showmanship made him a superstar and Queen a household name. The author, a rock journalist, conducted more than a hundred interviews with key figures in Mercury's life, to offer this account of one man's legendary life in the spotlight and behind the scenes.

Freddie Mercury: A Kind of Magic

Author: Mark Blake
Publisher: Omnibus Press
ISBN: 1783237783
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Book Description
Freddie Mercury was rock’s most dazzling showman, a legendary entertainer who in 1991, at the age of just forty-five, became the first major music star to die of AIDS. Mercury’s soaring four-octave voice was a defining element in Queen’s unique sound, crucial to the success of the band’s fifteen studio albums, from Queen (1973) to Made in Heaven (1995). He was also a supremely talented songwriter and musician who wrote many of the band’s greatest hits, including ‘Killer Queen’, ‘We Are the Champions’ and their biggest triumph, the epic anthem ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. As a solo artist he released two acclaimed albums: Mr. Bad Guy in 1985 and the operatic 'Barcelona' with Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé in 1988. Mercury’s extraordinary charisma was perhaps best seen in his imperious live performances, in which he’d hold vast stadium crowds to rapturous attention. His outrageous theatrics, physicality and over-the-top costumes led one commentator to describe him as ‘a performer out to tease, shock, and ultimately charm his audience with various extravagant versions of himself’. He pushed the limits of camp in everything he did. His extreme behaviour, in a society in which being gay was only starting to be accepted, just added to Freddie Mercury’s allure. With expert understanding, Mark Blake traces Mercury’s life from his childhood in Zanzibar and India to his untimely death, and charts his astonishing achievements including in Queen’s world-conquering performance at Live Aid in 1985. In the year that marks what would have been his seventieth birthday, Freddie Mercury: A Life celebrates a remarkable life, lived to the fullest. Featuring revealing interviews with fellow musicians, producers and collaborators, and a detailed discography and timeline, this is a memorable tribute to a unique recording artist and an irreplaceable performer who rocked the world.

Somebody to Love

Author: Matt Richards
Publisher: Weldon Owen
ISBN: 1681884097
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 464

Book Description
For the first time, the final years of one of the world's most captivating rock showman are laid bare. Including interviews from Freddie Mercury's closest friends in the last years of his life, along with personal photographs, Somebody to Love is an authoritative biography of the great man. Here are previously unknown and startling facts about the singer and his life, moving detail on his lifelong search for love and personal fulfilment, and of course his tragic contraction of a then killer disease in the mid-1980s. Woven throughout Freddie's life is the shocking story of how the HIV virus came to hold the world in its grip, was cruelly labelled 'The Gay Plague' and the unwitting few who indirectly infected thousands of men, women and children - Freddie Mercury himself being one of the most famous. The death of this vibrant and spectacularly talented rock star, shook the world of medicine as well as the world of music. Somebody to Love finally puts the record straight and pays detailed tribute to the man himself.

Freddie Mercury: An Intimate Memoir by the Man who Knew Him Best

Author: Peter Freestone
Publisher: Omnibus Press
ISBN: 0857121278
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
An intimate memoir of the flamboyant Queen singer by the man who knew him best. Peter Freestone was Freddie Mercury’s Personal Assistant for the last 12 years of his life. He lived with Mercury in London, Munich and New York, and he was with him when he died. In this book, the most intimate account of Mercury’s life ever written, he reveals the truth behind the scandalous rumours, the outrageous lifestyle and Mercury’s relationships with men, women and the other members of Queen. From the famous names – including Elton John, Kenny Everett, Elizabeth Taylor and Rod Stewart – to the shadowy army of lovers, fixers and hangers-on, Peter Freestone saw them all play their part in the tragi-comedy that was Freddie Mercury’s life. Freestone lived with Mercury in Europe and America for over a decade. From the East 50s apartment in New York to Kensington Lodge, the house in London where Mercury died – not to mention innumerable international hotel rooms and apartments in between – Freestone was always on hand to serve and protect the man he had first met in the Biba department store in the early 1970s. Then Queen was a largely unknown band. Soon it would be the most glitzy of glam rock bands. Freestone saw the fame arrive and with it the generosity, the excess, and the celebrity friends who came and went. “I was chief cook and bottle washer, waiter, butler, valet, secretary, amanuensis, cleaner, baby-sitter… and agony aunt,” he writes. “I shopped for him both at supermarkets and art markets, I travelled the world with him, I was with him at the highs and came through the lows with him. I saw the creative juices flow and I also saw the frustration when life wasn’t going well. I acted as his bodyguard when needed and in the end, of course, I was one of his nurses.” Freestone’s bet-selling account of a talented and extravagant star’s life and death is compelling, entertaining and ultimately, very touching. Illustrated with many photos from personal and Freestone’s own archives. Press Reviews“An entertaining and thought provoking read” – PRS for Music Sales “This collection of Freddie’s own words is the closest thing there is to an autobiography of a man with no regrets. The foreword is written by his mother” – reFRESH magazine, Leading Gay mag in the UK

Freddie Mercury in New York Don't Stop Us Now!

Author: Thor Arnold
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781645849483
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 102

Book Description
The years 1980 until 1993, a time we call the New York days, are the final unknown piece of the jigsaw puzzle that was Freddie Mercury's life. (Rock superstar and always dynamic front man of Queen). In fact, the movie Bohemian Rhapsody basically skipped over this important time of his life, moving from 1980 to 1984 in maybe fifteen to twenty seconds. My close friends Lee Nolan, Joe Scardilli, and John Murphy were eager to meet Freddie when he returned in 1981 after I had first met him in 1980. Freddie and his twenty-four-hour attendant and loyal friend, Peter Freestone, liked our group and wanted very much to be a part of it. At that time, many of New York City's residents and day-trippers from Long Island and New Jersey knew Queen's music but could not identify the band members. Freddie felt free and absolutely cherished this newly found and so-unavailable-in-Europe nonrecognition. He had recently grown a mustache, cut his hair short, wore jeans and tee shirts, and blended in perfectly with the gay culture in New York-we mostly all looked alike! Freddie loved being just "one of the boys." Unfortunately, John and Joe have passed on. Lee and I, however, continued the relationship beyond 1986 when we were invited several times to Freddie's beloved Garden Lodge in the heart of London. Lee was the constant photographer and has preserved a great many of these photos, which have never been seen prior to our book. One of the last things that Freddie repeated to Lee on our last visit, June 1991, was to "make these photos work for you, darling!" You will see wonderful photos of Freddie, off the stage and participating in the real world. You will see fun and excitement in his face at every turn of the page. Enjoy! Thor Arnold and Lee Nolan

Mercury and Me

Author: Jim Hutton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781526614506
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description

Freddie Mercury

Author: Laura Jackson
Publisher: Piatkus
ISBN: 0748129073
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Book Description
**THE DEFINITIVE, UP-TO-DATE BIOGRAPHY OF FREDDIE MERCURY** 'An outstanding biography. . .a fitting testament to the creative genius' -- Daily Mail 'Touches all manner of intriguing rock 'n' roll debauchery. . .fascinating reading' -- Time Out This fascinating biography of Freddie Mercury has received outstanding acclaim from Queen and rock fans worldwide -- now revised and updated to coincide with the release of the film about his life, Bohemian Rhapsody. Born Farrokh Bulsara on the island of Zanzibar, Freddie Mercury rose to worldwide stardom as the lead singer of Britain's biggest music act of all time. In this bestselling biography, Laura Jackson reveals the reality behind Queen's flamboyant frontman and lead singer, as she looks behind his unique brand of showmanship to discover who Freddie Mercury really was. Featuring exclusive interviews with some of those closest to Freddie right up until his tragic death, original Queen members and many others -- including new and intimate stories from Tim Rice, Richard Branson, Cliff Richard, Bruce Dickinson, Mike Moran, Wayne Eagling, Zandra Rhodes and Susannah York -- this is the definitive biography of one of rock's greatest legends.

Love of My Life

Author: Lesley-Ann Jones
Publisher: Coronet
ISBN: 1529362342
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Book Description
'EYEWITNESS GOLD' SUNDAY TIMES WHO - OR WHAT - WAS THE REAL LOVE OF FREDDIE MERCURY'S LIFE? THE SENSATIONAL NEW BIOGRPHAY OF QUEEN'S FRONTMAN Millions of Queen and screen fans who watched the Oscar-winning film Bohemian Rhapsody believe that Mary Austin, the woman he could never quite let go of, was the love of Freddie Mercury's life. But the truth is infinitely more complicated. Best-selling biographer and music writer Lesley-Ann Jones explores the charismatic frontman's romantic encounters, from his boarding school years in Panchgani, India to his tragic, final, bed-ridden days in his magnificent London mansion. She reveals why none of his love interests ever perfected the art of being Freddie's life partner. In Love of My Life, the author follows him through his obsessions with former shop girl Mary, German actress Barbara Valentin and Irish-born barber boyfriend Jim Hutton. She explores his adoration of globally fêted Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé. She delves into his intimate friendship with Elton John, and probes his imperishable bonds with his fellow band members. She deconstructs his complicated relationship with the 'food of love' - his music - and examines closely his voracious appetite for - what some would call his fatal addiction to - sex. Which of these was the real love of Freddie Mercury's life? Was any of them? Drawing on personal interviews and first-hand encounters, this moving book brings to the fore a host of Freddie's lesser-known loves, weaving them in and out of the passions that consumed him. The result, a mesmerising portrait of a legendary rock star, is unputdownable. Love of My Life, published during the year of the 30th anniversary of his death and that would have seen his 75th birthday, is Lesley-Ann's personal and compassionate tribute to an artist she has revered for as long as she has written about music and musicians.

Freddie Mercury

Author: Alfonso Casas
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477321276
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Book Description
A beautifully illustrated biography of the iconic lead singer of the British rock band, Queen. The music of Queen and powerhouse lead singer Freddie Mercury are best experienced with the volume turned all the way up. Alfonso Casas’s Freddie Mercury delivers a sonorous homage to the formidable singer and the turning points that produced a game-changing body of music that continues to inspire fans around the globe. First published in Spain and now available worldwide, this luminous work covers Freddie’s three “births:” his birth as Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar; his adoption of the last name of Mercury and the launch of Queen with Brian May and Roger Taylor; and the emergence of the lasting legend after Freddie’s death at the age of forty-five. Casas’s evocative illustrations highlight the key moments in the singer’s transformation from child prodigy to superstar, bringing to life the bold innovator who broke free of his conventional upbringing. Chronicling events from Freddie’s marriage to Mary Austin and early fame in London’s 1970s glam scene, to the making of multiple megahits (including the six-minute chart-topper “Bohemian Rhapsody”), to his final years in a lasting relationship with Jim Hutton, Freddie Mercury is an exhilarating, poignant portrait of a creative genius who lived life to the hilt. “Through Casas’ evocative and vibrant illustrations, [Freddie Mercury] tells the story of Freddie Mercury’s three “births:” from his childhood, growing up as Farrokh Bulsara in Tanzania, to Queen’s launch to his death at 45.” —Alcalde “A beautifully illustrated biography of Freddie Mercury . . . Casas lovingly presents a creative take on the life of Freddie Mercury through the use of dozens of vibrant drawings.” —OutWord Magazine “[Freddie Mercury] is an appealingly modest book: Casas aims to let Mercury shine, but his striking illustrations shine in their own right as well.” —The Current