Read Online Freddie Mercury by Peter Freestone - Free Book Online

do all the chatting, making only occasional interjections. He knew he was expected to involve himself in the talking but did so as little as possible although he always knew that it was important for him to be seen to say something.
    Buenos Aires was hot and humid being close to the river. The Sheraton Hotel was right in the middle of the city but it was all very green and reminded us of Paris, lots of grand avenues and very expensive shops. The city of Evita. Freddie had been joined at this time by Peter Morgan, his current beau, one-time Mister UK with whom Freddie had had a tempestuous relationship for some months. Known also as Morgan Winner, Peter had achieved a certain notoriety because of a homo-erotic video he had made – one of the earliest.
    The first gig was within the first couple of days of our arrival in the Velez Sarsfield Stadium on February 28. Freddie was very apprehensive because of the size of the venue. Also, the rumours abounded that the crowd would get out of control because finally their dream had been realised – a Northern Hemisphere mega-band was playing in South America.
    Hyde Park in 1976 was the largest audience to which the band had played previously and Freddie knew that he had to forge an entirelynew performance to embrace the vastness of the next five outdoor dates which were scheduled over the next nine days, five dates which furnished a total audience of four hundred and seventy-nine thousand people.
    Freddie also knew that it was imperative for him to pace himself in these performances. But what sort of performance? And what pace? It was completely unknown territory for Queen. The world’s press were gathered and although Freddie hated this particular interface, he knew he also had to perform for the cameras again, albeit stills.
    The first gig went superbly. Freddie was elated with his performance and was awestruck by the reaction of the fans, the way the huge audience took over the singing of ‘Love Of My Life’ took his breath away! He wasn’t given a chance to ‘come down’ after the show before his next little adventure began, the journey from the stadium back to the hotel. Such was the apprehension of both the city’s authorities and the local police that the only way they considered the band leaving the stadium was in the back of a police van. The four members of the band, Jim Beach, Paul Prenter and some form of security presence were immediately bundled into the back of the van which was then escorted by five police cars and perhaps twenty police motorcycle outriders. The rest of the party followed in cars. The idea was to get the band party out of the immediate vicinity of the madding crowd, a route which took them out onto a nearby motorway. With sirens screaming and the procession hurtling along at eighty miles an hour, we went a circuitous route along the motorway. When the escort was satisfied that no one had followed, the convoy came to a halt and the band got into their separate cars, each having their own limousine. We then made our way back to the hotel.
    Freddie accepted that for once he had to rest because he knew he had to pull another cat out of the bag the next day. It took him a while to get over the excitement but it took the next day’s audience even longer to get over their excitement at seeing both Freddie and Queen and Argentina’s brilliant young football star, Diego Maradona on the same stage. Freddie, not being renowned for his sporting knowledge, knew he had to exchange shirts with this person as per time-honoured football ritual although Freddie did not actually realise who or what Maradona was. He was also quite surprised that footballers came in such small packages.
    Mar del Plata. Silver Sea. This is the main resort city of Argentina. Ican’t remember the name of the hotel but I remember Freddie likening it to a ship; the front of the hotel was like the bridge with huge extensions on the sides. It looked as though it was burgeoning out to