Freddie Mercury - 10 facts - Fun Fair - the Rock Band official site

Many of us know this person well, at least in the field of his songs. Regarding the 'other side' of his life there are a lot of rumours, 'hot facts' and so on. Unfortunately, the public popularity gives a good base for such 'researches'. But today we just want to look at some simple facts of life of this truly outstanding musician, rock singer and songwriter. The facts like this one :)

Freddy's still a baby. Picture taken from here.

1 Real name – Farrokh Bulsara, well known fact. But what is the meaning of this name? Iranian name 'Farrokh' means "happy", "fortunate". 'Freddie' is more european-like 'Farrokh' equivalent. Friends started to call him like that at school, and soon it was adopted in the family. Full pseudonym 'Freddie Mercury' came out a long time after, when new-born Queen was making it's first steps in music.

Freddie and Kashmira

Little Farrokh Bulsara and his sister Kashmira. Picture from here .

2 First band – five friends (Freddie Bulsara, Derrick Branche, Bruce Murray, Farang Irani and Victory Rana) from st. Peter’s Boy School, India, decided to form a band. ‘the Hectics’ was the name, 1958-62 was the time they played at boarding school events, not open to the wide public. Freddie surely occupied the piano. His friends are told to appreciate his unique ability to reproduce popular radio tunes on the instrument.

Five bravehearts from school in Panchgani, India. Photo source.

3 Diploma in Art. Rock hero, stage star, what about college degree? Yep, it's the Ealing College of Art, graduated 1969, Diploma in Art and Graphic Design. The same college as Pete Townshend from The Who. Time to use the skills came in 1975-ì, when Freddie designed Queen logo: a crowned Q letter is held by two fairies (Virgo, Mercury), two Leos (Deacon, Taylor), a crab lies on the Q (Cancer, Brian May). The upper part is occupied, likely, by Simurgh, the fabulous bird. Maybe today he would became a higly-paid logo designer, logo looks great :)

Queen logo

No better picture. Copyright - Freddie. Image from here.

4 Need to make living – yes, drawing is not enough to feed yourself. As a student Mercury had a part-time jobs in Fetlham, where he lived with his family, and also in the Heathrow airport. After graduating from college Freddie and his friend Roger Taylor desided to open a stall on London's Kensington market (a three-storeyed indoor market, this historical place was demolished in 2001). They sold artwork donated by college friends, victorian clothes (much more profitable), fur, hats and so on.

There's an interesting legend regarding this time. Scot's rocker Alan Mair in his interview to The Daily Record recalls the times of the The Beatstalkers (his band of the time) split-up. He also had a stall on Kensington market, where he sold leather boots and clothes. Mair had a nice customers like Rolling Stones, Santana, and always 'a special guest' David Bowie. The stall was right opposite to the Mercury-Taylor's point, so eventually Freddy was engaged as a Mair's shop assistant.

And there was a day, Queen's Seven Seas of Rhye charted, and Space Oddity by Bowie was number 1. David occasionally went into market, with no money in pockets. He told so to Alan, who gave the answer like - "You're number one, what's the problem, don't tell me you don't have money. Come in, Freddie will fit you up". The resulting picture was incredible, two top music stars in the shop, one for shop assistant, and the other has no money at all. Mair wishes he had a camera that day.

Alan Mair (second from the left) in the 'Scottish beatles' - The Beatstalkers - crew.

5 Unknown pseudonym – no Freddie Mercury but Larry Lurex! This name was used on Trident records vinyl in 1972 featuring two tracks: "I Can Hear Music" (cover for hit by The Ronettes and The Beach Boys) and "Goin' Back" (originally by Dusty Springfield and The Byrds). The purpose of the disk was mailny recording style - reproducing Phil Spector's 'Wall of sound' style. Mercury did the lead vocals, Taylor and May played. The vinyl came out before Queen first album and was not in the charts. But just for small moment Mercury was not himself, but a strange character, born from Gary Glitter and lurex yarn.

6 Mercury, the guitarist – the Crazy Little Thing Called Love song (from The Game album) was composed and recorded by Mercury almost in no time. Brian May was almost late for it - he only caught for the solo and backing vocals. By that time Freddie had already composer rhythm guitar part on acoustic Martin D-18 and also did the arrangements for other instruments. The result was #2 in UK and #1 in US for the song, not bad for the first guitar try. Later playing live he always started this song as a guitar player.

7 Moustache and stand – trademark Freddie's look on stage was created not only by, but surely with help of his moustache, very recognizable. Highly discussed (up to derivation from Glenn Hughes of Village People), but Mercury payed no attention to that - and even said so to the audience. And a short-cut mic stand also has a story - the lower part is said to fall down at one of the early Queen shows, so Mercury decided to stay away from this unstable element :) And now see this:

Toy Mercury, 5 years and upper. Arms and legs movable, moustache,stand, sings We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions and Radio Ga Ga. That's how the glory and the name turns into business.

8 Cat's daddy – cats are the Freddie's most adorable and belovable creatures. Tom, Jerry, Goliath, Tiffany, Miko, Romeo... you just dont' remember them all. His passion was so big that he even called them while on world tour and talked on phone for hours. The last video clip These Are the Days Of Our Lives features Mercury in waistcoat painted with images of all his cats. And his favourite, Delilah, got a song dedicated to her on Innuendo album.

9 Unknown duets – shaded by shinig Barcelona with Montserrat Caballe, Under Pressure with David Bowie, stay unpublished works. For example Mercury and Michael Jackson! There was a big piece of work planned, songs were to be included on Mercury's Mr. Bad Guy solo album. But they were not. Only the draft recordings (hear below). And the 'most unknown duet' prize goes to Fish, the Marillion vocalist who sang Tutti rutti with Mercury at Mungersdorfer Stadion in 1986.

10 the Last song. The last ever composition made by Mercury was lyrical Winter's Tale, recorded in Montreaux, two weeks before his death, later included on Made In Heaven album. After that Freddie recorded only fist vocal part for the Mother Love by Brian May, who had to finish the song by himself/ The last ever video featuring Freddie was These Are the Days of Our Lives, saying "I still love you" in the end.