Following four smaller gigs to finish the year, Queen entered 1974 not knowing what to expect and wondering whether this would be the year they finally got their break. Their debut album hadn’t set the charts on fire (in fact it wouldn’t reach its chart high of number 24 until February 1976 on the back of the success of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’) while their first single, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, had failed to even chart. The significant backing from Trident demanded that Queen have success and there was only so long before Trident would switch their allegiance to another band. None of Queen had made any significant money from their efforts – their salary was just £30 per week and they needed a hit. And they needed it fast.
Booked to headline the Sunbury Festival in Melbourne, Australia, in February, Queen’s beginning to the year started in disastrous fashion. Brian May suffered an infection in his arm following inoculations to visit Australia and became seriously ill, so much so that, for a while, it was feared that he would lose his arm as gangrene set in. With Brian barely recovered, Queen left the UK for Australia on 28th January, taking with them their own lighting rig and crew, but from the word go, the trip appeared jinxed. As well as Brian still recuperating, local Australian technicians were angered that Queen had brought their own crew. And local bands were mystified why a relatively unknown British band were headlining the festival instead of one of their own. In addition to Brian’s illness, Freddie had also developed an ear infection that required medication and meant that he was drowsy and couldn’t hear properly.
Being true professionals, Freddie and Brian took to the stage in Melbourne with Roger and John, but only after a significant delay – they required night to fall in order for their extensive and expensive lighting rig to provide optimum lighting. Consequently, the Australian crowd, already annoyed at having a Pommie band headlining, grew increasingly angry at the delay. Queen were doomed the moment they walked on-stage, and matters only grew worse when their elaborate lighting rig failed halfway through the set.
The following day the Australian press slated the band, so Queen decided to cancel their next show and fly straight back to the UK at their own expense. Naturally, this retreat only provided the Australian press with more ammunition, but Freddie had already told the crowd that, ‘When Queen come back to Australia we will be the biggest band in the world.’ That moment seemed an awfully long way off in February 1974. The Australian tour had been an expensive fiasco and the release of the single ‘Liar’ in the US had also been an unmitigated disaster when it sank without a trace.
But the break Queen needed arrived on 18th February 1974, thanks indirectly to an artist they’d go on to share a number one single with in 1981 – David Bowie. Bowie was scheduled to appear on BBC TV’s Top of the Pops on Thursday, 21st February 1974 to perform his single ‘Rebel Rebel’ but had to pull out at the last moment, prompting the show’s producer, Robin Nash, to hastily seek a replacement. He called Ronnie Fowler, then head of promotions at EMI. Fowler had a particular fondness for Queen, especially their planned new release, ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’, and suggested they fill the gap. Nash was only too happy to have secured a band and two days later, on 20th February, Queen prepared to appear on the show.
In the mid-1970s Top of the Pops would regularly get audiences of 15m. For Queen, this exposure would be invaluable, an incomparable showcase for them and their new single. None of the bandmates had a television at this point and so, on the evening of Thursday, 21st February, Freddie, Brian, Roger and John all ventured out to a local electrical goods shop to peer through the window at one of the televisions on display and watch themselves perform on Top of the Pops for the very first time.
Keen to exploit this fortunate break, EMI rushed out a single release of ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ two days later and within weeks the song had broken into the UK Top 10. With a running time of less than two minutes 50 seconds, this intricately woven song begins with a distinctive arpeggiated piano before the other instruments roar into the main body of the song. Composed by Freddie, he was asked in 1977 what the meaning of the lyrics were: ‘Oh gosh! You should never ask me that. My lyrics are basically for people’s interpretations really. I’ve forgotten what they were all about. It’s really factitious, I know it’s like bowing out or the easy way out, but that’s what it is. It’s just a figment of your imagination.’11
In the same interview, Freddie is asked whether he has a surrealistic approach to composition, but he preferred to call it ‘imaginative’: ‘It all depends on what kind of song really. At that time I was learning about a lot of things. Like song structure and as far as lyrics go, they’re very difficult as far as I’m concerned. I find them quite a task and my strongest point is actually melody content. I concentrate on that first; melody, then the song structure, then the lyrics come after actually.’
With ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ becoming a hit and entering the UK Top 10 singles chart, Freddie finally felt confident enough to concentrate solely on music as a career. Despite being the composer of this Top 10 hit, royalties were not yet coming in, and it would be some time before they did so, but as far as Freddie was concerned, he had hit the big time.
14
In the early 1970s, Freddie and Queen were beginning to establish a reputation on the live scene and had gained a reasonable following. During this period Freddie was renting a flat with Mary Austin. Though to all their friends and colleagues – even Mary herself – theirs appeared a normal heterosexual relationship, when she accompanied Freddie to Queen gigs in those early years, Mary would have to witness him being mobbed by girls once he left the stage.
‘Freddie was just so good on that stage, like I had never seen him before, as if it was something he’d stored up,’ she recalls. ‘For the first time I felt, “Here is a star in the making. He’s on his way. I don’t think he needs me anymore.” I didn’t feel tearful or upset. I was happy that it was at last happening for him because of his talent. When he came off the stage all the girls and his friends were crowding around him. He was so busy. I started to walk away and he came running after me. He said, “Where are you going?” I told him I was going home. But he wouldn’t let me go. That night, I realised that I had to go along with this and be part of it. As everything took off, I was watching him flower. It was wonderful to observe. There was something about seeing that happen that was exciting. I was so happy that he wanted to be with me.’1
Within a couple of years of meeting and moving in together, Freddie and Mary had moved out of their bedsit in Victoria Road and found themselves a larger, self-contained flat in Holland Road, which cost them £19 a week in rent. By now, Freddie’s determination and dedication were beginning to pay off: Queen had signed a record deal and had had their first hit single. As far as Mary was concerned, everything was going well: ‘I felt very safe with him. The more I got to know him, the more I loved him for himself. He had quality as a person, which I think is rare in life these days. One thing, which was always constant, was the love. We knew we could trust each other and we were safe with each other. We knew that we would never hurt each other on purpose.’2
But it wasn’t long before Freddie was secretly cheating on Mary. He had met David Minns, a 25-year-old openly gay record executive at Elektra Records. One evening the two of them were drinking together at a club on the King’s Road when Freddie shocked Minns with a display of public affection: ‘Freddie grabbed me and kissed me, and I was so shocked because I don’t kiss people I don’t know. Not in those days, anyway. And I thought that was a very odd thing to do because I had no idea that he may have been gay, or was. Let’s get this straight; he pursued me. Freddie was incredibly obsessive about people: he just wouldn’t leave you alone. He was very sweet, you know, just a very nice guy and I thought why not?’3
Freddie and David began an affair during which Freddie consistently told Minns that he and Mary were simply just friends, but he was soon to be found out: ‘Freddie had told me he shared a flat with Mary and that it wasn’t a relationship. One night we went back with Mary to Holland Road. Suddenly it occurred to me there’s