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sea. Freddie’s suite had a very good view of the promenade which for better or worse lead to the ending of his stormy relationship with Peter Morgan.
    Freddie knew that at no time in South America would he be able to go on one of his fabled shopping sprees because of the security risk so he had resigned himself to staying in the hotel. After asking Peter to stay and keep him company, Peter replied that he would be going out for a short walk for a few minutes. Having nothing else to do, Freddie was viewing the scene in front of the hotel from his balcony when he saw Peter walking along the croisette next to the beach with a young man whom Freddie didn’t know.
    From their body language, Freddie could see that Peter’s companion was not a complete stranger. When Peter eventually returned, what finally finished it for Freddie was Peter’s denying that he had been walking along the beach at all.
    We were assuredly NOT amused.
    And so… Another one bites the dust.
    Is it a coincidence that once again at a time of emotional intensity vis-à-vis his creative work, that Freddie also played through the collapse of an emotional relationship with a lover? Were Freddie’s creative achievements highlighted or enabled by emotional upset? Over the period of years I knew him, there were many intense emotional moments. It was almost as though Freddie needed these surges of passion to start his creative juices flowing. There were many times that either because of the high-pressure of work he finished relationships or conversely engineered dramatic rows when he needed the extra boost to his energies whether that was touring or writing.
    Thus, the conflict engendered seemed to enhance both his abilities and his work. Sometimes it seemed he needed to have a self-administered injection of emotional pain. A fix, almost. Seeing Peter Morgan walking along with another man caused him sufficient anger to carry him through the super-human requirements which the next few days’ schedule necessitated. I don’t think it helped that Morgan’s companion was far younger and prettier than Freddie. In London it was well-known that Morgan was seeing the dancer Philip Broom-head who was also a friend of Freddie’s. Complicated stuff. It seemedto be a curse which dogged him, that of his lovers seeming to two-time him with younger and prettier boys. It had been the same with Tony Bastin who, I had discovered after the fact, had been seeing someone I knew, younger and prettier. Although Freddie might have allowed himself to be unfaithful, others were not allowed that privilege.
    Whatever. Peter Morgan was on the next flight back to London and thence to resume his job as a bouncer at the Heaven nightclub. I didn’t feel too sorry for him. Of all Freddie’s lovers in my experience, Peter had had the most lavished upon him in terms of travel. The previous Christmas, because of constant arguments with Freddie, he had been flown in and out of New York on Concorde at least three times. If only he could have been a little more kind. But, having said that, he finally misbehaved at a very convenient time to enable Freddie to erupt creatively on those South American stages.
    The way Freddie functioned follows the long trail of genius born from pain. Anger is the furnace which forges genius but it is also one of the fuels which drives the whole process of creativity forward. A prime example being that of Beethoven, who while having written so much amazing music being able to hear, composed some of his best work after going deaf. I’m sure he wasn’t pleased. And of course there were the last songs that Freddie wrote…
    The next city on the Gluttons tour was Rosario, still in Argentina. Not too much to say about Rosario out of the ordinary except that the gig was as extraordinary an event as Buenos Aires had been. Not as large an audience, a mere thirty-five thousand!
    We returned for one further show in Buenos Aires before flying down to Rio where Freddie had a