# data[].attributes.headline
Freddie performing Bohemian Rhapsody at live aid 

# data[].attributes.subject
Freddie performing Bohemian Rhapsody at live aid 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (Live Aid 1985)

# data[].attributes.body
All quotes are bolded to help with grading/number of quotes
All outside sources are below the main posts
All Entries are numbered 1-20
All entries are in chronological order from the start of the book to the end(the start of Freddie mercury's life to the end)

# data[].attributes.body
(Outside Source Final Source) A Day At The Races Album Creation And Origin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A Day at the Races is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 10 December 1976 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. Recorded at The Manor, Sarm East, and Wessex Sound Studios in England, it was the band's first completely self-produced album, and the first completed without the involvement of producer Roy Thomas Baker; engineering duties were handled by Mike Stone. It serves as a companion to Queen's previous album, A Night at the Opera, with both taking their names from Marx Brothers films and having similar packaging and eclectic musical themes.

The album reached the top of the charts in the UK, Japan, and the Netherlands. It reached number five on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and was Queen's third album to ship gold in the US, subsequently reaching platinum status in the country. In 2006, a listener poll conducted by BBC Radio 2 saw A Day at the Races voted the 67th greatest album of all time.

On 25 April 1976, the band settled back in London after a four-leg, six-month, and exhaustive tour of their highly successful album, A Night At The Opera, recorded during the oppressive summer of 1975. The band had decided to take a two-month hiatus. They only occasionally did business-related activities (like filming the promotional video for You're My Best Friend the following day). During June, the band was beginning to plan out the recording sessions for the album, visiting recording studios around Greater London to determine where they would produce the album. On 15 June, Roger Taylor and John Deacon visited Sweet Silence Studios in Denmark. The studio was completed only two months prior. They put the studio into consideration. This was because of the fresh environment of the studio.

After Taylor and Deacon returned from Denmark, rehearsals began on 17 June at Ridge Farm Studio, where the band had rehearsed for their previous album in July 1975. Due to equipment issues during the first week, the band hired Pete Cornish on 25 June to assist in equipment maintenance. Cornish and the band had previous involvement, as his company had helped repair and construct new equipment for the band in January 1972. Brian May traveled to Manhattan at the start of July (and is interviewed by Circus at The Sherry-Netherland Hotel sometime around 6 July) for unknown reasons, while the rest of the band were still in Ridge Farm, rehearsing for the album. He would return during the middle of the month.

Queen entered The Manor in Oxfordshire on 12 July to commence work on A Day At The Races. Absent was Roy Thomas Baker, who had helped the band produce their last four albums. This was because of a four-album contract he had signed with the band in 1972. This contract had expired after the release of the band's fourth album, and the band had decided to record the album by themselves, with the assistance of engineers Mike Stone and Gary Langan. Baker would travel to America to produce more material after signing a contract with CBS Records. On 19 July, May's 29th birthday, (according to a letter written for the fan club around this time) while the band were recording in The Manor, the band were mailed items related to penguins. A giant penguin ice maker was also shipped to the band. These items were mailed to the band because of May's interest in penguins.

On 21 July, Crystal Taylor, one of the band's roadies, who would later become Roger's personal assistant, arrived at The Manor to provide assistance with equipment and observe the session. He originally planned to stay a week, but on 28 July, the band asked him to stay another week. Around this date, work began to relax as the band had finished 6 songs. Those songs were "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy", "The Millionaire Waltz", "You Take My Breath Away", "White Man" (then titled "Simple Man"), "Drowse", and a shorter version of "Somebody To Love". As August entered, the band worked on the remaining songs of the album, and finished a longer version of "Somebody To Love". Work was still relaxed though, and the band would sometimes play billiards or card games during productive days. During a game of billiards on 8 August, between Roger and Crystal Taylor, Roger asked Crystal to be his personal roadie, to which Crystal accepted.

The band had booked to play two concerts on 20 and 21 August at the Playhouse Theatre in Edinburgh. The band even stated to Melody Maker that they would be debuting some of the material off of the album during those concerts. The band eventually cancelled those concerts because they weren't finished some of the material they wanted to debut at the concerts. Instead, the band opted to do a mini-tour of the country during September. The band had at least the backing tracks of "Tie Your Mother Down" (likely the overdubbed product), "Long Away", "You And I," and "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" recorded by 24 August, including the previously recorded material, before the band began to rehearse for their summer mini-tour the following day.

The summer tour made its start in Edinburgh, where "Tie Your Mother Down", and "You Take My Breath Away" were debuted to the audience. During the summer tour, the band moved production into Sarm East Studios and worked there in between concerts sporadically (attending approximately nine sessions) between 5 and 16 September to overdub onto the recorded backing tracks. It was during this period that predominantly guitar overdubs would be added onto "The Millionaire Waltz", which still wouldn't be finished after the end of the stint. Most of the songs that were initially recorded in July were finished off during this time, and the rest of the songs recorded in August that weren't performed live were put off until work on the album properly resumed.

Work on the album resumed on 20 September at Sarm. During this period in the album's production, the band started overdubbing what was left, and rough mixing some of the finished tracks. On 23 September, the band published a thank you message in the music press to their fans regarding their warm response to their concert at Hyde Park on 18 September (the final date of the summer tour). "Tie Your Mother Down" is mostly mixed on 26 September, and a mix of "Long Away" is worked on during the same day. The band completed a preliminary mix of "Somebody To Love" on 29 September. Work continued to be relatively sporadic for the next few weeks though. The band attended a party held by Aerosmith in London on 6 October.

The band turned their attention to the lead single during mid-October, which was scheduled to be released in three weeks. They mixed the single from 18 to 24 October. "Somebody To Love", which was recorded in two separate parts, was mixed first. Parts 1 and 2 were fused together and completed on 22 October. They then turned their attention to "White Man", which was mostly mixed on 23 October and finished on 24 October. The band then moved to Wessex Sound Studios on 25 October to begin mixing the rest of the album. On 26 October, "Long Away" and "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" were mixed. On 28 October, while mixing tracks off of the album, the band were taken into a different room at Wessex to partake in a photoshoot. The photos from this shoot would end up on the inner sleeve of the album.

Pressure to complete the album was becoming more apparent, as the due date was coming close. After a day off at the end of the month, work immediately resumed. On 1 November, "You Take My Breath Away" was mixed, and finished off the following day. A tape of the still unfinished album was created on 5 November, with a different track-list and a lot of chatter and studio noise clearly not mixed out of some songs yet. "Teo Torriatte" wasn't even completed at this point, with some crucial overdubs still in need of being added. On 9 November, "Long Away", "Drowse", and "Tie Your Mother Down" were fully mixed at Wessex. These songs had been worked on during the previous three days.

On 16 November, "The Millionaire Waltz" and "You And I" were mixed at Wessex. On 17 and 18 November, "Teo Torriatte" was mixed at Wessex, and the album was mastered on 19 November, officially completing it. A pressing of the album was played to fans and music press at Advision Studios on 26 November. The album took approximately 16 weeks in total to record, the longest time the band had spent recording an album as of the time of its release.

"Tie Your Mother Down" was written by Brian May in Tenerife in early 1968, two years before the formation of Queen. At the time, he was working on his PhD in Astronomy. He wrote the song on Spanish guitar and thought he'd change the title and chorus later on, but when he brought it to the band for inclusion on this album, Freddie Mercury liked the original and it was kept the way it was written.

The song is preceded by an instrumental introduction consisting of a multi-tracked guitar part, reminiscent of the song "White Man", followed by a Shepard tone figure, which is reprised at the end of "Teo Torriatte" to create a "circle" in the album. The ascending scale of the second part of the intro was created by reversing a recording of a descending scale played on a harmonium.

The main bulk of the song can be described as heavy blues rock, featuring aggressive vocals by lead singer Mercury, as well as a slide guitar solo by May, who provided most of the backing vocals.

A music video was made for the song, directed by Bruce Gowers and based on a performance clip shot at Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York, in February 1977 during the band's US arena headlining tour. After its release in 1976, the song was played by Queen on every subsequent tour.

"You Take My Breath Away" was written by Mercury and based on the harmonic minor scale. He performed it by himself at Hyde Park before recording it, and all of the vocals in the version of the song on the album were performed by him, as was the piano part.

Unusual for Queen, Mercury's lead vocals were triple-tracked to achieve "a solo vocal that could hold its own against the chorus."

There is a vocal interlude between this song and the next in which a wash of vocals consisting of a loop of a multi-tracked Mercury repeating the words "take my breath" steadily increases in volume until it resolves into the echoed phrase "take my breath away" and fades out.

"Long Away" was composed and sung by May. He used a Burns Double Six 12-string electric guitar for the rhythm parts, instead of his Red Special; he had wanted to use a Rickenbacker because he admired John Lennon, but did not get along well with the thin neck of the instrument. The song was released as a single in the US, Canada, and New Zealand. but failed to chart anywhere.

"The Millionaire Waltz" was written by Mercury about John Reid (Queen and Elton John's manager at the time). Like " Bohemian Rhapsody", it is a multi-key and multi-metre song and features abrupt arrangement changes and May doing multi-tracked guitar choirs. Partway through, this 3/4 waltz is interrupted by a short 12/8 hard rock segment. It is a noteworthy example of John Deacon's "lead bass" playing, which can be heard quite prominently early in the song, when only Deacon and Mercury are playing (bass guitar and piano/vocals, respectively).

"You and I" is the only song on the album written by Deacon. It is in the key of D major, is mainly piano-driven, and features Deacon on acoustic guitar. The song was featured as the B-side for "Tie Your Mother Down", but was never played live.

"Somebody to Love" was written by Mercury. The song was inspired by gospel music, especially that of Aretha Franklin, and Mercury, May, Deacon, and Taylor all multi-tracked their voices to achieve the impression of a 100-voice gospel choir. Mercury's vocal part features a wide range of notes, going from an A2 (in the last choral verse) to a falsetto A5 (at the peak of his melisma on "ooh" over the choir break). Staying true to Queen's guitar-driven style, the track was also filled with intricate harmony parts and a solo by May.

The song was the biggest hit single from the album. It went to number two on the UK charts (kept from the number one spot by " Under the Moon of Love" by Showaddywaddy) and number 13 on the US singles chart.

"White Man" was written by May about the suffering of Native Americans at the hands of European immigrants, taking the viewpoint of native peoples. It is one of Queen's heaviest works, thematically and musically.

The song featured a notable vocal solo by Mercury on the A Day at the Races Tour, and both a vocal solo by Mercury and a guitar solo by May on the 1977-78 News of the World tour. On the later Return of the Champions (2005) and Rock The Cosmos (2008) Tours, the riff to "White Man" was used as an introduction to " Fat Bottomed Girls".

"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" was written by Mercury. It starts with a piano and vocal introduction by Mercury, and the bass and drums join in at the start of the chorus. Part of the bridge of the song is sung by Mike Stone (the lines: "Hey boy where'd you get it from? Hey boy where did you go?"). The recording is enhanced by multi-tracked vocals, as well as May's guitar choirs.

The song was performed live on Top of the Pops in June 1977, with Taylor singing Stone's part. Most of the track was a concert staple on the band's A Day at the Races Tour and News of the World Tour.

"Drowse" is the only song on the album written by Roger Taylor, who, in addition to playing the drums, did all of the vocals and played rhythm guitar; May played the slide guitar. Like " I'm In Love With My Car", Taylor's song on the previous album, "Drowse" is in 6/8.

The song has never been performed live, but it was rehearsed by Queen + Adam Lambert before their Rock Big Ben Live concert. It made an appearance on both the standard and deluxe editions of Queen Forever.

"Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" was May's tribute to the band's Japanese fans, and was performed live in Tokyo during the Jazz Tour in 1979, and again when the band visited Japan during The Game and Hot Space tours in 1981 and 1982, respectively. It has two choruses sung in Japanese, making it one of only three Queen songs in which an entire verse or chorus is sung in a language other than English (the others being " Mustapha", from and " Las Palabras de Amor" from ). The song features a piano, a plastic piano, and a harmonium, all of which are played by May.

The harmonium melody that ends the song is a longer reprise of the second part of the introduction to "Tie Your Mother Down", the first track on the album. May described it as "a never-ending staircase", otherwise commonly known, especially in music, as a Shepard tone.

In the UK, the first track from the album to be released as a single was "Somebody to Love", on 12 November 1976 (EMI 2565); it reached number two. "Tie Your Mother Down" followed on 4 March 1977 (EMI 2593), reaching number 31, and "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" on 20 May 1977, reaching number 17.

In the US, "Somebody to Love" was released on 10 December 1976 (Elektra E45362) and reached number 13. It was followed by "Tie Your Mother Down" (Elektra E45385) in March 1977, which reached number 49. Both of these were released in Japan, as was "Teo Torriatte", which was not released as a single in any other territory.

The album garnered mixed reviews from critics. The Washington Post described it as "a judicious blend of heavy metal rockers and classically influenced, almost operatic, torch songs." The Winnipeg Free Press was also appreciative, writing: " Races is a reconfirmation of Queen's position as the best of the third wave of English rock groups." gave the album a mixed review, writing: "With A Day at the Races, they've deserted art-rock entirely. They're silly now. And wondrously shameless."

In a retrospective review, AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine cited "Tie Your Mother Down" and "Somebody to Love", along with ballad "You Take My Breath Away", as the best tracks on the album, and said the album marked a point where Queen "entered a new phase, where they're globe-conquering titans instead of underdogs on the make". magazine wrote that "the breadth of its ambition remains ever impressive, as do tracks such as May's stomping 'Tie Your Mother Down' and Mercury's baroque one-two, 'Somebody To Love' and 'Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy'." Ben Sisario, writing in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), found the album "a little too predictable" and called it "a quickie sequel to Opera." Similarly, AJ Ramirez, writing for PopMatters, described the album as "a comparative comedown" and "a good but not stupendous record", while acknowledging the band were "now firmly in command of the mechanics of pop songcraft", which had yielded them more singles than any previous album.

In 2006, a listener poll conducted by BBC Radio 2 saw A Day at the Races voted the 67th greatest album of all time. The same year, in a worldwide and poll to find the "Greatest 100 Albums of All Time", the album was voted number 87. It was also featured in Classic Rock and Metal Hammer's "The 200 Greatest Albums of the 70s", being listed as one of the 20 greatest albums of 1976. ranked it No. 20 of 100 in a poll of "more than 100 actors, comedians, musicians, writers, critics, performance artists, label reps, and DJs, asking each to list the 10 albums that left the most indelible impressions on their lives." In the 1987 edition of The World Critics List, the BBC's Peter Powell ranked A Day at the Races the 6th greatest album of all time, and Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times included the record in his "The Great Albums" in 2006.

The album was reissued as part of the Hollywood Records remasters in 1991. It was also reissued by Parlophone in various European countries in 1993, remastered and sometimes with an altered track listing and timings (due to the placement of the beginning of "Tie Your Mother Down" in its own track, titled "Intro"). In 1996, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab issued a remaster of the album in the United States on both CD (numbered UDCD 668) and vinyl (numbered MFSL-1-256).

On 8 November 2010, record company Universal Music announced a remastered and expanded reissue of the album set for release in May 2011. This was part of a new record deal between Queen and Universal Music, which marked the end of Queen's almost 40-year association with EMI Records. All of the band's albums were remastered and reissued by Universal in 2011.

Original release

All lead vocals by Freddie Mercury unless noted.

Universal Music reissue (2011)

iTunes deluxe edition (2011)

Information is based on Queen's Complete Works and on the album's liner notes.
Track numbering refers to CD and digital releases of the album.

Queen

Additional personnel

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A Day at the Races is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 10 December 1976 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States.

# data[].attributes.body
(Outside Source #4) The Story Behind Bohemian Rhapsody

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
's epic rock song "Bohemian Rhapsody" began life sometime in the late 60s, when Freddie Mercury was a student at Ealing Art College, starting out as a few ideas for a song scribbled on scraps of paper.

Queen guitarist Brian May remembers the brilliant singer and songwriter giving them the first glimpse in the early 70s of the masterpiece he had at one time called "The Cowboy Song," perhaps because of the line "Mama... just killed a man."

"I remember Freddie coming in with loads of bits of paper from his dad's work, like Post-it notes, and pounding on the piano," May said in 2008. "He played the piano like most people play the drums. And this song he had was full of gaps where he explained that something operatic would happen here and so on. He'd worked out the harmonies in his head."

Mercury told bandmates that he believed he had enough material for about three songs but was thinking about blending all the lyrics into one long extravaganza. The final six-minute iconic mini rock opera became the band's defining song, and eventually provided the title of the hit 2019 biopic starring Rami Malek as Mercury.

The recording of Bohemian Rhapsody

Queen first properly rehearsed "Bohemian Rhapsody" at Ridge Farm Studio, in Surrey, in mid-1975, and then spent three weeks honing the song at Penrhos Court in Herefordshire. By the summer they were ready to record it; taping began on August 24, 1975 at the famous Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales. It was a moment that May described as "just the biggest thrill."

The innovative song began with the famous a cappella intro ("Is this the real life?/Is this just fantasy?") before embracing everything from glam-metal rock to opera. A week was devoted to the operatic interlude, for which Mercury had methodically written out all the harmony parts. For the grand chorale, the group layered 160 tracks of vocal overdubs (using 24-track analogue recording), with Mercury singing the middle register, May the low register, and drummer Roger Taylor the high register (John Deacon was on bass guitar but did not sing). Mercury performed with real verve, overdubbing his voice until it sounded like a choir, with the words "mamma mia", "Galileo" and "Figaro" bouncing up and down the octaves. "We ran the tape through so many times it kept wearing out," May said. "Once we held the tape up to the light and we could see straight through it, the music had practically vanished. Every time Fred decided to add a few more 'Galileo's we lost something, too."

The references in Bohemian Rhapsody

Mercury had supposedly written "Galileo" into the lyrics in honor of May, who had a passionate interest in astronomy and would later go on to earn a Ph.D. in astrophysics.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" brims with imaginative language and is a testament to Mercury's talents as a songwriter. Scaramouche was a buffoonish character in 16th-century comedy commedia dell'arte shows; "Bismillah", which is taken from the Quran, means "in the name of Allah"; Beelzebub is an archaic name for Satan.

"Freddie was a very complex person; flippant and funny on the surface, but he concealed insecurities and problems in squaring up his life with his childhood," said May. "He never explained the lyrics, but I think he put a lot of himself into that song."

The reaction to Bohemian Rhapsody

After the final version was completed - following some refinements at Roundhouse, Sarm East Studios, Scorpio Sound, and Wessex Sound Studios - there was a feeling that Queen had created something special. "Nobody really knew how it was going to sound as a whole six-minute song until it was put together," producer Roy Thomas Baker told Performing Songwriter magazine. "I was standing at the back of the control room, and you just knew that you were listening for the first time to a big page in history. Something inside me told me that this was a red-letter day, and it really was."

The song, which appears on the album , was finally released on October 31, 1975, and the impact was instantaneous. "I was green with envy when I heard 'Bohemian Rhapsody." It was a piece of sheer originality that took rock and pop away from the normal path," said Björn Ulvaeus of .

Though the group's record company were initially reluctant to issue "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a single, Queen were united in insisting that it was the right choice, despite exceeding the three-minute running time expected of most single releases. The band were told the song had no hope of getting airplay, but they were helped by Capital Radio DJ Kenny Everett, a friend of Mercury's, who played it 14 times in one weekend and started the buzz that eventually ended with the single going to No. 1.

The groundbreaking video

Queen also hired director Bruce Gowers to shoot a groundbreaking video, which features the band recreating their iconic pose from the cover of their Queen II album. The promo, which cost £3,500 to make in just three hours at Elstree Studios, was a superb piece of rock marketing, celebrated for its eye-catching multi-angle shots capturing Mercury in his favorite Marlene Dietrich pose. The band had fun making the video, and Gowers recalled: "We started at seven-thirty, finished at ten-thirty and were in the pub 15 minutes later."

On November 20, 1975, the new video was premiered on Top Of The Pops to huge media and public interest. Queen watched the program in their Taunton hotel room. "Bohemian Rhapsody" became the band's first US Top 10 hit. In the UK, it went to No. 1 for nine consecutive weeks, a record at the time, even holding off the surprise Laurel And Hardy novelty hit "The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine", which had to settle for the No. 2 spot. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is still the only song to have topped the UK charts twice at Christmas. It was also the first Queen single to be released with a picture sleeve in the UK. The B-side, incidentally, was Taylor's "I'm In Love With My Car."

The legacy of the song

Mercury's ambitious song, which earned him an Ivor Novello Award for songwriting, quickly became a highlight of Queen's live show after being unveiled on the A Night At The Opera Tour of 1975 (the closing night of which is captured on their A Night At The Odeon DVD, the deluxe box set of which features the band's very first live performance of the song, recorded during the soundcheck).

"Bohemian Rhapsody" opened their celebrated Live Aid set in July 1985 and it has remained remarkably popular. In 2004, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame, and Mercury's vocal performance was named by the readers of Rolling Stone magazine as the best in rock history. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the third best-selling single of all-time in the UK and, in December 2018, "Bo Rhap" - as it is affectionately known among Queen fans - was officially proclaimed the world's most-streamed song from the 20th Century, passing 1.6 billion listens globally across all major streaming services. A mere seven months later, on July 21, 2019, the video surpassed one billion streams on YouTube.

"It is one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it," Mercury said. "I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them."

Listen to the best of Queen on Apple Music and Spotify.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Bohemian Rhapsody': The Story Behind Queen's Classic Song

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
's epic rock song "Bohemian Rhapsody" began life sometime in the late 60s, when Freddie Mercury was a student at Ealing Art College, starting out as a few ideas for a song scribbled on scraps of paper.

# data[].attributes.body
Mary Austin and Freddie Mercury (Outside Source #3)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Mary Austin and Freddie Mercury in 1984. Picture: Getty

She was the one woman who Freddie Mercury truly loved.

Mary Austin may have been quite different from the flamboyant frontman of Queen, but she was one of the most important people in his life.

The softly spoken working-class girl was brought up by her deaf parents, and remained by Freddie Mercury's side until his death in 1991.

Mary is one of the main characters in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, in which she is played by actress Lucy Boynton.

The real-life Mary Austin still lives in the West London mansion where Freddie died from an AIDS-related illness in 1991. It was only last year that she finally took down tributes to the late singer.

1. Who is Mary Austin?

Freddie Mercury and Mary Austin in 1977. Picture: Getty

Freddie Mercury and Mary Austin were so close, that at one stage Freddie asked her to marry him, and he also left her half of his £75million estate, including the £25million Georgian mansion in Kensington.

They did in fact date, and although they split up as romantic partners, they remained very close friends.

Freddie once said: "All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary, but it's simply impossible. The only friend I've got is Mary, and I don't want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage."

"We believe in each other. That's enough for me. I couldn't fall in love with a man the same way as I have with Mary."

While Mary was not involved in making the new film starring Rami Malek as Freddie, she is said to have given her approval.

2. How did Freddie Mercury meet Mary Austin?

Freddie first met Mary in 1969, five years after moving to England.

Aged 24 at the time, he had just finished art college, and a 19-year-old Mary was working in a West London fashion boutique, and love soon blossomed.

They soon shared a small flat near Kensington Market, where Freddie had a clothes stall with Queen drummer Roger Taylor.

3. When did Freddie Mercury and Mary Austin split up?

Picture: Getty

While there had been rumours about Freddie's sexuality, the constant presence of Mary meant his sexuality was not seriously questioned for some time.

He dedicated the song 'Love Of My Life' to her, and proposed in 1973.

Mary said: "I was speechless. I remember thinking, 'I don't understand what's going on'. It wasn't what I'd expected at all."

However, Freddie could not ignore his attraction to men and started having affairs.

He is said to have told her that he was bisexual in 1976. Mary later said: "I'll never forget that moment. I remember saying to him, 'No Freddie, I don't think you are bisexual. I think you are gay'."

They soon broke up and she soon moved into a nearby flat, and Freddie started hosting wild parties. However, Mary remained close, and even worked for his management company.

4. How much money did he leave her?

Freddie signed a will in September 1991, that gave half of his vast wealth to Mary and the rest to his parents and sister.

Most of his friends, including lover Jim Hutton, were given £500,000 each or a house.

Mary was Freddie's bedside holding his hand when he passed away at the age of 45.

She later carried out his wish to secretly scatter his ashes. While there have been various rumours about where she took the ashes, such as Kensal Green Cemetery or the cherry tree in his garden, she has never revealed the whereabouts.

5. Where is Mary Austin now?

Mary Austin in 2005. Picture: Getty

Mary chose not to marry painter Piers Cameron, the father of her two children, Jamie and Richard, and divorced her husband Nick Holford.

She later explained: "I lost my family, really, when Freddie died. He was everything to me, apart from my sons. He was like no one I had met before."

Mary, now 67, is said to live a private life behind the spiked walls of the London mansion, where fans still make regular visits to pay their respects.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Who is Mary Austin? Meet the woman Freddie Mercury asked to marry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
She was the one woman who Freddie Mercury truly loved. Mary Austin may have been quite different from the flamboyant frontman of Queen , but she was one of the most important people in his life. The softly spoken working-class girl was brought up by her deaf parents, and remained by Freddie Mercury's side until his death in 1991.

# data[].attributes.body
Smile Band (Outside source #2)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Smile were an English rock band based in London, and the predecessor to rock band Queen. The band was formed in 1968 by Brian May, who went on to become Queen's guitarist. It included Tim Staffell as lead singer and bass guitarist, and later, drummer Roger Taylor, who also went on to play for Queen. They recorded only six songs and disbanded in 1970. These songs were titled "April Lady", "Step on Me", "Polar Bear", "Earth", "Blag", and "Doin' Alright" (later re-recorded by Queen for their self-titled debut album in 1973). These songs exist on the vinyl LP Ghost of a Smile. "April Lady" was dedicated to Roger Taylor's girlfriend at the time.

In 1968, Brian May, a student at London's Imperial College, and Tim Staffell formed a group when May placed an advertisement on the college notice board for a " Ginger Baker type" drummer, and a young dental student named Roger Taylor auditioned and got the job. Smile were signed to Mercury Records in 1969, and had their first experience of a recording studio in Trident Studios that year. Staffell was attending Ealing Art College with Farrokh ("Freddie") Bulsara, and introduced him to the band. Bulsara soon became a keen fan.

The group's biggest public performance was on 27 February 1969 at the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child. Held at the Royal Albert Hall, May, Taylor and Staffell performed as a trio on guitar, drums and bass respectively.

Smile gigged quite a bit on the London scene, according to Time Out's listings. On 19 April, they played at the Speakeasy and on 31 May, appeared at the Whisky-A-Go-Go.

In March 1969, the band played at a venue known as PJ's, using claims to have previously been played on BBC Radio 1 to secure an audience. It seems likely that the claims were fictitious, however. Shortly after they were given a one-off recording deal by Mercury Records to record three tracks, "Earth" (Staffell), "Step on Me" (May), and "Doin' All Right" (May/Staffell). These were recorded in June 1969 at Trident Studios in Soho.

Ultimately this U.S. promotional recording was never published commercially, however, in September of the same year, Mercury Records commissioned them to record three more songs: "April Lady" (Stanley Lucas), "Blag", and "Polar Bear", a "gentle song about a polar bear" written and led by May, at De Lane Lea Studios. Again, the record was not released at the time.

When Staffell left in 1970 to join another band, Humpy Bong, Smile effectively disbanded. Bulsara persuaded May and Taylor to continue, and at about the same time, changing his surname from Bulsara to Mercury, joined the band as lead vocalist, from which emerged " Queen". This new band tried a number of bass players during this period, namely Mike Grose, Barry Mitchell and Doug Bogie, none of whom fit with the band's chemistry. It was not until February 1971 that John Deacon completed the lineup, and they began rehearsing for their first album. This definitive lineup lasted until Mercury's death in 1991, their last album being Made in Heaven, released posthumously in 1995.

For their debut album, Queen recorded "Doing All Right". According to the book Queen: The Early Years, Staffell has been well compensated through royalties from the sale of the album, given his co-songwriting credit for the song with May. Queen also recorded the song for their first BBC recording session with John Peel. That session, along with their third session, have been released in the UK as (Band of Joy Records) in 1989, and in the U.S. as Queen at the BBC ( Hollywood Records) in 1995. Also in 1995, Queen issued their " Let Me Live" singles, one of which features three of the first session BBC recordings, including "Doing Alright".

Smile reunited for several songs on 22 December 1992. Taylor's band The Cross were headliners and he brought May and Staffell on to play "Earth" and " If I Were a Carpenter". May also performed several other songs that night.

In 2018, Smile reunited once more in Abbey Road to re-record "Doing All Right". This release was used in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody movie.

Two legitimate releases of the six Smile tracks have since been issued:

Gettin' Smile (LP) from Japan, released 23 September 1982, on Mercury Records. The sleeve contains notoriously inaccurate lyrics and songwriting credits for the songs. This release was used for all subsequent bootlegs which contain the songs.

Ghost of a Smile (CD) from the Netherlands, released in 1997, on Pseudonym Records. The CD booklet is comprehensive and features new liner notes by Staffell. All the tracks were newly remastered. The album also features two versions of the Eddie Howell/Freddie Mercury collaboration "The Man from Manhattan" (no relation to Smile, except that May plays guitar on it).

There is a bootleg album of their early tracks circa the Smile-era titled Pre-Ordained. Most of them also appeared on the 1995 Italian bootleg .

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Smile were an English rock band based in London, and the predecessor to rock band Queen. The band was formed in 1968 by Brian May, who went on to become Queen's guitarist. It included Tim Staffell as lead singer and bass guitarist, and later, drummer Roger Taylor, who also went on to play for Queen.

# data[].attributes.body
More in depth response and information about freddies childhood

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
September 5, 2010 saw The Mercury Phoenix Trust launch 'Freddie For A Day', a major annual initiative designed to celebrate Freddie's life each year on his birthday and to support the on-going work of the Trust. The project encourages fans to dress as Freddie for a day and in doing so raise funds for MPT through sponsorship. No one could have imagined the extraordinary response which resulted, with fans from 24 countries around the world, from Argentina to Ukraine, seizing on the idea to pay their own special tribute to Freddie.

Some sent pictures strutting their stuff at home, singing into a microphone in their bedroom. Others took the plunge and spent the whole day as Freddie, including one US enthusiast who dressed herself as 'Slightly Mad' Freddie and then spent her day at the local mall and then at Columbus Zoo in Ohio with a penguin and a gorilla. Another took a TGV trip from France to Switzerland dressed in a harlequin leotard. The stories of extraordinary and fun days spent come in their hundreds, and as a result, Freddie For A Day is now an annual event.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
September 5, 2010 saw The Mercury Phoenix Trust launch 'Freddie For A Day', a major annual initiative designed to celebrate Freddie's life each year on his birthday and to support the on-going work of the Trust. The project encourages fans to dress as Freddie for a day and in doing so raise funds for MPT through sponsorship.

# data[].attributes.headline
#14 There must be more to life than this (Freddie and Michael Jackson)

# data[].attributes.subject
#14 There must be more to life than this (Freddie and Michael Jackson)

# data[].attributes.body
In the year 1983 Freddie was toying with the idea of working with other musicians and was even quoted saying"I'm always quite interested in working with other musicians like Michael Jackson." One day Freddie and Michael Jackson were in the same city at the same time and ended up collaborating creating the song There Must Be More To Life Than This.

# data[].attributes.body
Jones, Lesley-Ann. Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury. Touchstone, 2012.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Freddie on his 4th birthday in Zanzibar 

# data[].attributes.body
Freddie was very secretive about his background and according to Qeens first publicist, Tony Brainsby(Quote 1 pg 28)"He never even told me his real name. He was fairly dark-skinned, a cross between oriental and Asian, so there was no disguising the fact that he came from somewhere off the beaten track." Freddie was born in a Zanzibar Government Hospital on Thursday, September 5th, 1946 to Jer Bulsara, With the original name Farrokh Bulsara, As a child, Farrokh attended the Zanzibar missionary school from the age of five.

# data[].attributes.headline
#2 Panchgani (boarding schools and education)

# data[].attributes.subject
#2 Panchgani (boarding schools and education)

# data[].attributes.body
At the time in Zanzibar the education standard was not so great. As a result Freddie's parents sent him away to school in India . According to Freddie(Quote 2 pg. 37)."I was a precocious child, and my parents thought boarding school would do me good.so when I was about seven, I was put in one in India for a while .it was an upheaval of an upbringing, which seems to have worked, guess." This happened about the same time his parents were transferred for work to the island of Pemba. At the time they felt as if this was the best solution, and that this would take him to a place where he could study properly.

# data[].attributes.body
In the fifties with everything going on in the world including the nationalist advances against British rule. Britannia's loss of India and Pakistan in 1947 independence of Burma and Ceylon in 1948 and china's social revolution. Zanzibar was not immune.in 1964 the Shirazi party was installed as the first president of Zanzibar. but according to the book(Quote 3 pg 51), thousands were slaughtered in bloody street battles. The Bulsaras and many like them ran for their lives. leaving Zanzibar with a few suitcases between them." the Bulsaras fled to England where relatives had offered them refuge.

# data[].attributes.body
The idea of the band that made Freddie mercury so famous was conceived when Freddie was in collage. Brian May who was also in collage at the time liked the idea and joined forces with Freddie to create the band. Freddie is quoted saying(Quote 4 pg. 59) "The very earliest traces of the band go back to a group called smile. i used to follow Smile a lot, and we became friends. I used to go to their shows and they used to come to see mine." Freddie would tag along at jam sessions with the band and their singer Tim Staffell. Upon Tim Staffell's departure from the band Freddie would become their lead singer along with john deacon joining the band as their bass player to form Queen.

# data[].attributes.headline
#5 Freddie Struggling with his Identity 

# data[].attributes.subject
#5 Freddie Struggling with his Identity 

# data[].attributes.body
During the early days of Queen Freddie started to struggle with his sexual orientation. (Quote #5 pg. 72) "even though he'd already had girlfriends, in particular, a young woman called Rosemary Pearson, some remember him showing a passionate interest in meeting gay men but never having the confidence to act on it."At around the same time, Freddie began to worry constantly about the impression he was making on his friends. Freddie would from time to time retreat into his shell and become quiet and reclusive.

# data[].attributes.body
(Quote #6 pg. 83) Freddie is quoted saying "All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary, but it simply impossible, to me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe in each other, and that's enough for me. I couldn't fall in love with a man the same way as I did Mary." Mary Austin was Freddies most intimate and close partner. Mary was one of Brian mays girlfriends that split up from brian and ended up together with Freddie. "the attraction between them was immediate, mutual and would last a lifetime.

# data[].attributes.body
EMI was the ultimate record label in the seventies. The chief A&R man for EMI at the time, and the person who would decide whether the label should sign Queen, was Joop Visse.(Quote #7 pg. 109) "Joop was the guy who found three of EMI's most successful  acts  of the era and sighed them all at the same Time."

# data[].attributes.body
(Quote #8 pg. 131) Freddie quoted "Bohemian Rhapsody was something that I'd wanted to do for a long while, actually, it wasn't something I'd given much thought to on previous albums, but I just felt that when it came to the fourth album I was going to do it." Bohemian Rhapsody was one of the most groundbreaking and amazing tracks of all time. And according to Udiscovermusic.com “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the third best-selling single of all time in the UK and, in December 2018, “Bo Rhap” – as it is affectionately known among Queen fans – was officially proclaimed the worlds most streamed song of the 20th century passing 1.6 billion listens globally across all major streaming services,

# data[].attributes.body
(Quote #8 pg. 148)Freddie quoted saying "Bohemian Rhapsody was one of the first videos to get the kind of attention that videos get now, and it only cost about five thousand pounds. We decided we should put "Rhapsody" on film and let people see it. We didn't know how it was going to be locked upon, or how they were going to receive it to us it was just another form of theater. But it went crazy. We recognized that a video could get a lot of people in a lot of countries without you actually being there, and you could release a record and a video simultaneously. it became very fast and it helped record sales greatly."

# data[].attributes.headline
#10 Champions (A Day At The Races Album)

# data[].attributes.subject
#10 Champions (A Day At The Races Album)

# data[].attributes.body
in February 1976 all of queen's four albums reached the top twenty. Queen was getting ready for live shows in japan and Australia where their records and gigs were on fire. Their return to Britain saw them back in the studio to begin work on their fifth album to be produced by the band themselves, having parted amicably from Roy Thomas Baker. This next album would be entitled (A Day At The Races). Freddie was quoted saying (Quote #9 pg.158) " The album A Day At The Races ends with a Japanese thing a track from Brian called "Tep Torriatte" which means "let us cling together"it's a very emotional track, one of his best. Brian plays harmonium and some lovely guitar. it's a nice song to close the album."

# data[].attributes.body
(Freddie is Quoted Saying pg 193) "We went to South America originally because we had been invited down they wanted four wholesome lads to play some nice music. by the end of it I wanted to buy the entire continent and install myself as president. the idea to do a big south American Tour had been in our minds for a long time but a queen on the road is not just bad it involves a vast number of people and costs a lot of money for us to tour in the end we said: " F*** the cost, darlings, let's live a little!" At this point, Queen has already been to five of the six possible continents and decided they might as well do a tour of South America due to their large following in Argentina and Brazil.

# data[].attributes.body
(Quote 10 pg. 171 final Quote) Freddie is quoted saying I like Munich. I was there so long that after a while the people didn't even consider that I was around. I have a lot of friends over there and they know how I am, but they just treat me as another human being. And they've accepted me that way. and that to me is a very good way of relaxing I don't want to have to shut myself up and hide that's not what I want I'd go spare I'd go mad." The Munich scene was laid back and relaxed Freddie felt able to experiment openly without people headlining his every move another thrill for the whole band was that Munich's disco club scene was then in its heyday. so in general this time in Freddie's career was a time when he was able to explore places around him and have fun. as well as a place for his bandmates like Roger and Brian to settle down for a bit as they work on their new album.

# data[].attributes.body
(Freddie is Quoted saying pg. 221) I'm very happy with my relationship at the moment. And I honestly couldn't ask for better it's a kind of solace, yes that's a good word we won't call it mesopause! I don't have to try so hard I don't have to prove myself now I've got a very understanding relationship it sounds so boring but it's wonderful." according to his partner at the time Jim Hutton."Freddie was the love of my life there was no one like him he always said that you must get on with life I know that when I die Freddie will be on the other side waiting for me." After his relationship with Mary Austin stopped working he moved on and ended up getting together with the man Jim Hutton. they would be together until the end of freddies life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Freddie Performing for almost 80,000 people at live aid 

# data[].attributes.body
(Freddie is quoted saying on page #9) "By making this concert, we are doing something positive to make people look, listen, and hopefully donate. when people are starving it should be looked upon as one united problem sometimes I do feel helpless. This is one of those times I can do my bit." In 1985 Freddie performed for his largest audience yet. An Audience of close to 80,000 people and more than 1.9 BILLION WORLDWIDE tuning in to watch him perform to raise money for starving people in Africa at the time.

# data[].attributes.body
(Freddie Quoted Saying) "I want to go to places iv'e never been. To me its all about people music should go all around the world. i want to g o to Russia and china and places I haven't seen before its to late before i end up in a wheelchair and cant do anything ill still be wearing my same tights, too I can imagine them wheeling me on stage in a wheelchair up to a piano and still singing bohemian rhapsody." A Kind Of Magic, Queens fourteenth album and the highlander sound track were released at the end of may 1986 to mark the start of their European tour as expected it soured to number one.

# data[].attributes.body
For Freddie's fortieth birthday Quoted on pg. 276 " he was scrubbed, fragrant and sporting a floral shirt and tight pale denim jeans his impeccably groomed hair revealed a small threadbare path just beginning to shine at the crown."

# data[].attributes.headline
#18 Barcelona Album/Solo Albums/The Band 

# data[].attributes.subject
#18 Barcelona Album/Solo Albums/The Band 

# data[].attributes.body
(Freddie is quoted saying on pg. 287)"With the Barcelona album, I had a little bit more freedom and a bit of scope to actually try out some of my crazy ideas Montserrat kept telling me that she found a new lease on life and newfound freedom those were her own words and I was very taken by it she told me on the phone she lives the way our voices sound together and I was smiling from my a** to my elbow." in the year 1998 Freddie decides he wants to move along with his solo career and collaborate with Opera singer Montserrat Cabelle to create an operatic song with the title Barcelona. The rest of 1988 was spent quietly on separate pursuits the band conveyed in January 1989 to finish the miracle album. The year 1990 Queen gathered at mountain studios to produce their new album Innuendo.

# data[].attributes.headline
#19 Made In Heaven(Freddie at the end of his life)

# data[].attributes.subject
#19 Made In Heaven(Freddie at the end of his life)

# data[].attributes.body
By this point in Freddie's life, sighs have started to show that he was ill. On pg. 302 Freddie is recorded saying "what you have to understand dear kash is that what i have is terminal." Aswell as "I'm going to die." Freddie at this point was working with seen on his last and final Album Made In Heaven. On his last birthday he released the single These Are The Days Of Our Lives. which in the music video showed how far his disease progressed. at this time he was also stuck inside his house due to the press camping outside his door trying to get a picture of him to confirm that he was ill.in the text it says "Ge was going to decide when to die, for weeks twenty four hours a day the press had camped his doorstep he was a prisoner in his own home nothing could be done about it except perhaps what he did do which was to let go he'd had enough not oldy was Freddie losing his sight but the will to live was ebbing away.

# data[].attributes.body
Freddie mercury Died on November 24th 1991 to bronchial pneumonia AIDS at his home in Kensington. Before his death he was quoted saying that "get it over and done with so that everyone could get back to normal." Freddie never wanted people to go around tearing hair out or gnashing teeth. Get on with life that's what its for." Freddie was cremated at west London crematorium, Kensal Green at ten a.m. on wednesday,27th of November. "It was all perfect just the way Freddie would have wanted it"