Today marks 31 years since the death of one of music’s most-loved icons.
Freddie Mercury - born Farrokh Bulsara in the now-defunct state of Zanzibar - died on November 24, 1991, due to complications from AIDS. Just over three decades later, his voice and legacy are still revered in British culture.
A recording of the Queen frontman interacting with a Wembley crowd played at the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, his life was the subject of the 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody, and football clubs across the country still belt out We Are the Champions whenever they clinch a league title.
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The lyricist is best known for dominating the international music scene for more than 15 years and so it's no surprise he had connections to Liverpool - a city rich in musical culture.
Freddie spent part of his formative years in the Mossley Hill area. It was never hinted at in the popular biopic film Bohemian Rhapsody, starring Rami Malek, but Freddie's time in the North would be influential in the formation of the band which would later become Queen.
In 1969, having graduated from art college, Freddie joined the blues-rock band Ibex, a Liverpool-based outfit that made the trip south in July of that year, desperately searching for fame and a record deal. Their stint in the capital was unsuccessful but they did happen to bump into Freddie who persuaded them to take him on.
Ken Testi, a music promoter and the Ibex manager in 1969, spoke to the Liverpool ECHO in 1991 about his experiences with Freddie and recounted the first time the future Queen frontman met Ibex. According to Ken, Freddie told the band: "You do realise I'm exactly what you're looking for. You've just got to make me your singer." Ibex returned to Merseyside with Freddie in tow, eager to make a return to the northern gig circuit.
Ibex were a Jimmy Hendrix-inspired four-piece, consisting of Mike Bersin, John ‘Tupp’ Taylor, Mick Smith, and Freddie on vocals, with roadie Geoff Higgins always in the picture. What we know of Freddie's time in London comes from Ken Testi as well as Liverpool historian, writer, and musician Mike Royden, a school friend of Ibex guitarist Mike Bersin.
In 2019, Mike said: “Freddie Bulsara's time in Merseyside is not spoken about very much. It's only hardcore Queen fans who know the story and there are so many different versions of it. I grew up with Mike Bersin and went to the same school as him. He was a cracking guitarist and looked like Jimi Hendrix on stage. We would get the coach from Halewood to Wade Deacon school in Widnes, and on the way, he would tell me what the band were doing.
"After leaving school, he went down to London to try and make it with the band, and that's where he met Mercury. Mike came back to Liverpool because he had some gigs lined up, so Freddie came up too. Among the places they played was our school, Wade Deacon, at our end of term do in 1969."
He added: "Freddie used to doss in Beechwood Avenue, Halewood, a few doors from my house, with Mike Bersin. Mike's mum often told the story of her coming downstairs to find Mike and pals all lying on the floor, crashed out after travelling from London or a gig, which included Freddie."
While living in the city, Freddie found a temporary home in the flat above Penny Lane's famous Dovedale Towers. At the time, the pub was run by the parents of Ibex roadie Geoff Higgins who offered the apartment to Freddie while he stayed in the North.
Formerly a church hall, Dovedale Towers already had its place in musical legend, having hosted one of John Lennon's earliest gigs when he performed with The Quarrymen in 1957. Though Freddie may not have been aware of the Lennon link to his new room he would have been fully indoctrinated by The Beatles' hit Penny Lane, where he now lived.
Freddie's relationship with Liverpool is said to have extended far beyond a brief spell with Ibex. Freddie made his first Ibex appearance at the Bolton Octagon on August 23, 1969, a show organised by Ken Testi, but his most famous performance with the band would occur two weeks later.
On September 9, 1969, Ibex performed at The Sink Club - now The Magnet on Liverpool's Hardman Street. At the time access to the club was only allowed to those carrying "exclusive" membership cards, consisting of a rubber plug on the end of a piece of string.
During the performance, Freddie was joined on stage, for the very first time, by his partner in Edwardian scarves, Roger Taylor, and Brian May, who were then part of the rock band Smile. It was here that the Queen we grew to love and adore first came together.
Some also believe that Freddie even got the band name Queen from his time in Liverpool. The Queen Insurance Buildings in Dale Street are thought to have given Freddie the inspiration he needed to design and illustrate the famous Queen band crest and logo.
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