WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:03.800 VOCALISES 2 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 3 00:00:03.800 --> 00:00:08.080 This programme contains some strong language from the start. 4 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 5 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:12.240 Freddie opened up his heart and gave it everything he had. 6 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:14.040 How long have we got? 7 00:00:14.040 --> 00:00:15.840 INDISTINCT REPLY 8 00:00:15.840 --> 00:00:17.240 Five minutes? Five seconds. 9 00:00:17.240 --> 00:00:19.960 He lived for his music, he loved his music. 10 00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:25.040 VOCALISES 11 00:00:25.040 --> 00:00:27.760 # Oo-oh-oh! # Oo-oh-oh! 12 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:29.960 OFF PITCH: # Oh-oh! FREDDIE LAUGHS 13 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:31.480 Ready to go and do this? 14 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:36.080 The '86 tour was really a high point for us. 15 00:00:36.080 --> 00:00:39.040 CROWD CHEERS 16 00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:41.440 I have nothing but great memories of that tour. 17 00:00:41.440 --> 00:00:42.560 # Day-doh 18 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:43.800 CROWD COPIES 19 00:00:43.800 --> 00:00:46.560 # Dee-doh day-day-day-day-day-day-day-doh 20 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:49.280 CROWD COPIES 21 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:54.680 # Daaaaaaaay-doh 22 00:00:54.680 --> 00:01:00.080 CROWD COPIES 23 00:01:00.080 --> 00:01:01.920 'UNDER PRESSURE' INTRO PLAYS 24 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:04.200 CROWD CHEERS 25 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:07.960 CROWD CLAPS IN TIME WITH BEAT 26 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:17.640 # Mmm num ba da 27 00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:19.520 # Dum bum ba be 28 00:01:19.520 --> 00:01:21.640 # Dum dum da ba bum bah 29 00:01:23.440 --> 00:01:26.240 # Pressure pushing down on me 30 00:01:26.240 --> 00:01:29.800 # Pressing down on you, no man ask for 31 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:33.240 # Ba ba beh 32 00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:34.640 # Ba ba beh 33 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:35.680 # De day da 34 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:38.560 We'd done the biggest tour ever of our lives 35 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:40.040 and Freddie said, 36 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:43.360 "I can't do this any more after this." And we went, "Oh." 37 00:01:43.360 --> 00:01:47.960 # Watching some good friends screaming, "Let me out!" 38 00:01:47.960 --> 00:01:51.680 He didn't at that point want to do any more live shows, 39 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:55.840 which sort of told us that there was something wrong. 40 00:01:55.840 --> 00:01:59.160 # Chipping around, kick my brains around the floor 41 00:01:59.160 --> 00:02:02.240 My mom visited him more time than Dad. 42 00:02:02.240 --> 00:02:05.720 And she rang me one day and said, "I think you should ring your brother 43 00:02:05.720 --> 00:02:07.840 "because he's very, very ill." 44 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:11.120 And I just said to him, "It's not Aids, is it?" 45 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:12.840 And he completely denied it. 46 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:16.960 But I knew that it was. 47 00:02:18.520 --> 00:02:21.480 There's been a lot of rumours lately. 48 00:02:21.480 --> 00:02:24.520 The rumours are that we're going to split up. What do you think? 49 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:27.880 CROWD ROARS 50 00:02:27.880 --> 00:02:29.360 They're talking from here! 51 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:33.920 So forget those rumours. 52 00:02:33.920 --> 00:02:37.440 We're going to stay together until we fucking will die. I'm sure. 53 00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:39.920 CROWD CHEERS 54 00:02:39.920 --> 00:02:41.720 # Like a blind man 55 00:02:41.720 --> 00:02:44.120 NEWSREADER: After months of speculation, the rock star 56 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:46.960 Freddie Mercury confirmed at the weekend that he had Aids 57 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:49.560 and he died last night at the age of 45. 58 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:06.840 # Insanity laughs under pressure we're breaking 59 00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:11.360 # Can't we give ourselves one more chance? 60 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:15.120 That dreaded new disease - Aids - has now reached Britain... 61 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:17.480 The judgment on homosexual promisc... 62 00:03:17.480 --> 00:03:21.760 ..killer plague afflicted on mankind by an outraged God... 63 00:03:21.760 --> 00:03:24.400 BRIAN MAY: There was this talk of, "Well, you know, he was gay. 64 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:26.760 "He kind of deserved it. You know, he lived that kind 65 00:03:26.760 --> 00:03:29.720 "of promiscuous lifestyle. It was going to happen." 66 00:03:29.720 --> 00:03:33.560 And we thought, "Oh, my God, you people have no idea." 67 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:38.720 We were very angry and we had to stick up for our friend. 68 00:03:38.720 --> 00:03:40.520 You know, our best friend. 69 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:45.920 So I remember thinking, "Well, we can do something about it." 70 00:03:45.920 --> 00:03:49.400 # This is our last dance 71 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:53.360 72,000 packed inside, tens of thousands are still arriving. 72 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:56.600 And half a billion people watching on TV, 73 00:03:56.600 --> 00:03:59.120 on satellite around the world. 74 00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:01.200 Good evening, Wembley and the world! 75 00:04:01.200 --> 00:04:04.120 # Under pressure 76 00:04:05.480 --> 00:04:08.400 # Under pressure 77 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:11.400 # Pressure # 78 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:14.720 CROWD CHEERS 79 00:04:19.960 --> 00:04:21.200 TAPE PLAYER CLICKS 80 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:26.520 Interview with Freddie Mercury, talking to David Wigg 81 00:04:26.520 --> 00:04:28.880 recorded in Britain. 82 00:04:28.880 --> 00:04:34.640 Um, first of all, what is the future of the band going to be? 83 00:04:34.640 --> 00:04:38.080 I did some major interviews with The Beatles 84 00:04:38.080 --> 00:04:41.280 and I was in Chelsea 85 00:04:41.280 --> 00:04:44.840 and Kenny Everett was having dinner with Freddie. 86 00:04:44.840 --> 00:04:49.600 And as I walked past the table, Freddie just said, "Oh, by the way, 87 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:51.720 "I did enjoy your interviews with the Beatles." 88 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:53.320 I said, "Well, thank you." 89 00:04:53.320 --> 00:04:55.120 He said, "You haven't done me yet!" 90 00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:57.200 I said, "Well," I said, 91 00:04:57.200 --> 00:05:00.360 "if you'd like me to, I'd be delighted, of course!" You know. 92 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:03.480 "Right, come up to Manchester next week and we're doing a show there, 93 00:05:03.480 --> 00:05:05.040 "and I'll see you after the show." 94 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:07.560 He was very much... Freddie was an instant person. 95 00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:09.960 He would make instant decisions like that. 96 00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:15.000 And we just got on from the start, you know. 97 00:05:41.160 --> 00:05:43.280 THEY LAUGH 98 00:05:43.280 --> 00:05:49.120 Life was for living, is what Freddie used to say. 99 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:50.680 Hello, boys and girls. 100 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:52.360 It's very nice to be in Japan. 101 00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:55.480 Thank you very much for the reception 102 00:05:55.480 --> 00:05:57.520 and the amazing welcome. 103 00:05:57.520 --> 00:06:01.240 And from me and the boys, from Queen, thank you very much. 104 00:06:01.240 --> 00:06:02.480 Sayonara. 105 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:04.400 # Can anybody... 106 00:06:04.400 --> 00:06:07.240 I was very close to Freddie in the beginning, and I used to share 107 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:09.040 rooms with him when we were on tour. 108 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:12.400 So there isn't a lot that I don't know about Freddie. 109 00:06:12.400 --> 00:06:14.000 # Find me 110 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.520 And he was very shy. Very uncertain of himself, 111 00:06:16.520 --> 00:06:19.160 uncertain of his sexuality, for sure. 112 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:21.840 # Somebody to 113 00:06:21.840 --> 00:06:25.320 I think there was a period where he felt that we might disapprove 114 00:06:25.320 --> 00:06:27.920 and the rest of the world might disapprove, 115 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:29.880 so I think he struggled with it. 116 00:06:32.080 --> 00:06:33.560 I know he did. 117 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:38.760 And eventually he was able to pluck up his courage and just completely 118 00:06:38.760 --> 00:06:40.520 be what he wanted to be. 119 00:06:40.520 --> 00:06:43.440 # Each morning I get up I die a little 120 00:06:43.440 --> 00:06:45.480 # Can barely stand on my feet 121 00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:49.920 # (Take a look at yourself) Take a look in the mirror and cry 122 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:52.360 # (And cry) Lord, what you're doing to me 123 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:54.480 He didn't want to go into big discussions 124 00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:56.440 about his private life, really. 125 00:06:56.440 --> 00:07:00.640 But when Freddie did talk about it to me, he said, 126 00:07:00.640 --> 00:07:03.240 "What I am is all in the songs." 127 00:07:03.240 --> 00:07:09.320 # Can anybody find me somebody to love? 128 00:07:09.320 --> 00:07:12.880 He was a very sexual animal. 129 00:07:12.880 --> 00:07:17.840 And once he came out, he went wild. He went wild. 130 00:07:17.840 --> 00:07:20.200 # ..every day of my life 131 00:07:20.200 --> 00:07:23.880 But the most important thing with Freddie was that the way 132 00:07:23.880 --> 00:07:27.480 he expressed himself, you couldn't help but realise, you know, 133 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:30.240 he was always searching for someone to love. 134 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:36.400 # Can anybody find me somebody to love? 135 00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:41.440 Modern medicine is on the march forward against disease around 136 00:07:41.440 --> 00:07:45.360 the world, but modern lifestyles bring problems of their own. 137 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:48.360 Nicholas Bulley has been examining this phenomenon, particularly 138 00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:52.360 the spread of a recently identified killer disease called Aids. 139 00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:56.680 Is it more a scare or a scourge? 140 00:07:56.680 --> 00:07:58.520 Aids is really a very alarming 141 00:07:58.520 --> 00:08:00.240 new disease, and it appears 142 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:04.320 to be a disease that is going to turn out to be universally fatal. 143 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:13.800 I first became aware of the disease we call Aids now in late 1981. 144 00:08:15.280 --> 00:08:19.440 I'd previously worked a couple of times in Brazil for an English 145 00:08:19.440 --> 00:08:21.120 professor of medicine in Brasilia, 146 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:24.880 and he described these extraordinary cases 147 00:08:24.880 --> 00:08:29.840 he'd been asked to see in New York. Very unusual infections in gay men, 148 00:08:29.840 --> 00:08:32.760 and he said, "Look, if I'm right, then this infection 149 00:08:32.760 --> 00:08:35.440 "is already occurring in London." 150 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:37.960 And then, at the end of 1982, 151 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:43.920 we admitted the first patient with Aids, as we now call it. 152 00:08:43.920 --> 00:08:49.720 We constantly then had increasing numbers of young gay men 153 00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:52.200 admitted with severe illness. 154 00:08:57.280 --> 00:09:00.920 I'd just come out the Air Force and I was 20...well, approaching 21. 155 00:09:01.920 --> 00:09:03.480 I met Paul, my boyfriend, 156 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:07.280 and we moved into Clapham Junction. 157 00:09:10.280 --> 00:09:13.280 # This thing called love 158 00:09:13.280 --> 00:09:15.560 # I just... 159 00:09:15.560 --> 00:09:18.600 I used to go to The Coleherne and it was a leather bar, 160 00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:21.760 and Freddie liked his... Leathers and feathers, I called him! 161 00:09:21.760 --> 00:09:24.800 # Get ready! 162 00:09:24.800 --> 00:09:26.480 I wasn't a big Queen fan. 163 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:29.240 Rock music wasn't my thing, but I obviously knew who he was. 164 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:31.400 # This thing called love 165 00:09:31.400 --> 00:09:36.880 May I introduce to you, Freddie... Good start! ..Mercury! 166 00:09:36.880 --> 00:09:38.560 Ladies and gentlemen... 167 00:09:38.560 --> 00:09:41.080 Freddie started seeing Kenny Everett. 168 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:43.840 # There goes my baby 169 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:47.160 They were great friends, and they'd go off and have a laugh and drinks 170 00:09:47.160 --> 00:09:50.080 at these various gay bars in Earl's Court. 171 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:51.560 Do your stuff, Freddie! 172 00:09:51.560 --> 00:09:55.360 It was an eye opener for me, being that young coming to London. 173 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:57.040 There was a lot of sexual energy. 174 00:09:57.040 --> 00:09:58.600 # I gotta be cool 175 00:09:58.600 --> 00:10:01.280 The Coleherne had a reputation for its, like, dark corners 176 00:10:01.280 --> 00:10:03.720 and things like that, and that was all new to me. 177 00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:07.720 Carefree sex, and, uh, I didn't embrace it. 178 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:11.520 But I didn't ignore it. CHUCKLES 179 00:10:11.520 --> 00:10:14.320 # Crazy little thing called love 180 00:10:16.680 --> 00:10:19.400 The value of the dollar is up around the world. 181 00:10:19.400 --> 00:10:21.840 Interest rates are down by 40%. 182 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:24.000 The stock and bond markets surge upward. 183 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.520 Inflation is down 59%. 184 00:10:26.520 --> 00:10:28.560 Buying power is going up. 185 00:10:28.560 --> 00:10:31.640 Some economic indicators are down, others are up. 186 00:10:47.640 --> 00:10:49.000 LAUGHTER 187 00:11:02.680 --> 00:11:06.640 It was an enormous struggle to get governments to take the scale 188 00:11:06.640 --> 00:11:10.000 of this disease seriously. 189 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.080 And indeed, I remember a view that gay men 190 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:17.840 were not innocent victims - they'd brought this on themselves. 191 00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:21.000 Reverend Falwell, you say Aids is God's judgment 192 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:23.320 on homosexual promiscuity. 193 00:11:23.320 --> 00:11:26.920 I believe that God does not judge people, God judges sin, 194 00:11:26.920 --> 00:11:28.640 and I do believe that Aids - 195 00:11:28.640 --> 00:11:31.600 generally caused by homosexual promiscuity - 196 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:34.840 is a violation of God's laws, laws of nature and decency. 197 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:39.000 And, as a result, we pay the price when we violate the laws of God. 198 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:42.200 One of Freddie's friends in New York actually 199 00:11:42.200 --> 00:11:44.400 worked in St Vincent's Hospital, 200 00:11:44.400 --> 00:11:48.520 where a lot of people were being treated, 201 00:11:48.520 --> 00:11:54.760 so it registered that there was something out there 202 00:11:54.760 --> 00:11:56.640 that could kill you. 203 00:11:56.640 --> 00:11:59.960 But, you know, I think basically we all thought, 204 00:11:59.960 --> 00:12:02.640 "Well, hopefully it won't happen to me. 205 00:12:02.640 --> 00:12:04.360 "It just won't happen to me." 206 00:12:07.720 --> 00:12:13.960 In 1983, Paul and I, we went for an STD check. 207 00:12:15.400 --> 00:12:19.120 They took our bloods and we went back a few days later 208 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:22.560 and got the results of those, and, "Oh, by the way, 209 00:12:22.560 --> 00:12:25.560 "you've got this disease that's hitting New York." 210 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:31.200 Well, that dreaded new disease, Aids, has now reached Britain. 211 00:12:32.920 --> 00:12:37.480 Soon after we got the diagnosis, somebody found out. 212 00:12:37.480 --> 00:12:40.520 And the fact we were living in Clapham Junction, 213 00:12:40.520 --> 00:12:42.560 we were on the seventh floor, 214 00:12:42.560 --> 00:12:47.080 and we hadn't been in that flat long and we'd just got it exactly as... 215 00:12:47.080 --> 00:12:49.040 It was our first proper home. 216 00:12:51.400 --> 00:12:55.320 And somebody had painted on in capital letters 217 00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:58.280 with, like, whitewash paint, 218 00:12:58.280 --> 00:13:01.040 and it just said, "Aids queers" 219 00:13:01.040 --> 00:13:03.200 with an arrow, like this, 220 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:07.680 going up the seven floors. And then, when it hit our communal area, 221 00:13:07.680 --> 00:13:10.480 the arrow was pointing right at the door. 222 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:14.440 We only found out because we heard some scrubbing in the morning. 223 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:16.040 It woke us up. 224 00:13:16.040 --> 00:13:17.480 It was our neighbour next door. 225 00:13:17.480 --> 00:13:20.600 She was in her 80s, and she was there trying to scrub it off 226 00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:22.320 before we could see it. 227 00:13:25.520 --> 00:13:28.560 BRIAN MAY: While we were touring, we would call into radio stations and 228 00:13:28.560 --> 00:13:32.160 TV stations, and sometimes we would just do promo and not do the gigs - 229 00:13:32.160 --> 00:13:35.920 which is a bit arduous actually, because the gigs are the nice part. 230 00:13:35.920 --> 00:13:39.280 And I sat in a TV studio, and I'm not going to tell you where, 231 00:13:39.280 --> 00:13:43.520 and they said, "Oh, right, we'll play your new video down right now." 232 00:13:43.520 --> 00:13:47.360 # I want to break free. 233 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:49.120 # I want to break... 234 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:51.920 They put the video on and they went, "Oh, well, we'll stop 235 00:13:51.920 --> 00:13:54.320 "right there and we'll change the subject." 236 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:57.160 They went pale, they went ashen. 237 00:13:58.600 --> 00:14:01.080 They didn't understand that it was a pastiche of a soap, 238 00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:03.680 you know, Coronation Street. They don't have that in America. 239 00:14:03.680 --> 00:14:05.240 They didn't see the funny side. 240 00:14:05.240 --> 00:14:08.240 But even if they had, I don't think they would have approved. 241 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:10.360 And it was like, "We can't show this to our children. 242 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:13.360 "We can't show this to our audience. This is a terrible mistake." 243 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:16.000 # It's strange but it's true 244 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:19.480 I mean, it didn't go down well with MTV, 245 00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:22.120 which was obviously very narrow-minded. 246 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:25.280 It was one big joke, really, as far as we were concerned. 247 00:14:25.280 --> 00:14:26.720 We thought it was rather funny. 248 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:28.840 They really had this whole attitude of, 249 00:14:28.840 --> 00:14:31.920 "We cannot be seen to support this kind of thing." 250 00:14:31.920 --> 00:14:36.160 "This kind of thing" meaning cross-dressing. 251 00:14:36.160 --> 00:14:38.920 And it's funny - it makes you laugh now, 252 00:14:38.920 --> 00:14:40.880 but it made them drop the record. 253 00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:47.040 The thing with America is at the time, in the mid-'80s, 254 00:14:47.040 --> 00:14:50.360 the way that people had to be portrayed had to be so 255 00:14:50.360 --> 00:14:52.600 cotton-candy clean. 256 00:14:52.600 --> 00:14:57.760 You could not be seen to be gay or you could not come out 257 00:14:57.760 --> 00:15:00.880 during that period. It was completely hidden. 258 00:15:00.880 --> 00:15:04.120 # But life still goes on 259 00:15:04.120 --> 00:15:05.480 I've heard people say to me, 260 00:15:05.480 --> 00:15:07.680 "Oh, but Freddie denied he was homosexual." 261 00:15:07.680 --> 00:15:10.760 No, he didn't. Look at the interviews. Look at it. 262 00:15:10.760 --> 00:15:14.840 The NME asked him in about 1978. They said, "Are you gay?" 263 00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:16.840 And he said, "As a daffodil, dear!" 264 00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:19.280 That is not a man denying his sexuality. 265 00:15:19.280 --> 00:15:22.680 But the funny thing is, people didn't really hear it. 266 00:15:24.680 --> 00:15:26.880 Freddie Mercury was a raving queen, 267 00:15:26.880 --> 00:15:29.680 and he wouldn't mind anybody saying it. 268 00:15:29.680 --> 00:15:34.480 And it was quite amazing that most people didn't even think 269 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:37.280 that Freddie Mercury was gay. 270 00:15:37.280 --> 00:15:39.480 And then you look back at the history of rock and roll, 271 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:40.920 and you look at Little Richard... 272 00:15:40.920 --> 00:15:42.600 Let it all hang out! 273 00:15:42.600 --> 00:15:46.120 With the beautiful Little Richard from down in Macon, Georgia. 274 00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:49.560 Is Little Richard a man trying to hide the fact that he's gay? 275 00:15:49.560 --> 00:15:50.640 I don't think so. 276 00:15:50.640 --> 00:15:52.760 I am the king of rock and roll! 277 00:15:52.760 --> 00:15:55.120 Oh, oh, oh! My, my, my! 278 00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:57.800 I just had to do that and I feel so much better I got it out. 279 00:15:57.800 --> 00:15:59.800 And yet nobody talked about it. 280 00:15:59.800 --> 00:16:02.080 Little Richard screamed his passion 281 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:04.720 in a way that nobody had ever done it before. 282 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:09.320 It's incredible, and Freddie belongs to that genre completely. 283 00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:23.640 I grew up in Singapore and Malaysia, and I come from a family 284 00:16:23.640 --> 00:16:26.840 of very staunch evangelical Christians at the time, 285 00:16:26.840 --> 00:16:29.280 and there was a popular perception 286 00:16:29.280 --> 00:16:31.080 coming from America that 287 00:16:31.080 --> 00:16:33.000 a homosexual lifestyle was aberrant 288 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:35.120 or abnormal and not acceptable. 289 00:16:36.640 --> 00:16:41.560 But I persisted with exploring it until I came out to my friends. 290 00:16:41.560 --> 00:16:46.080 # I'd sit alone and watch your light 291 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:50.760 # My only friend through teenage nights... 292 00:16:50.760 --> 00:16:53.880 When you're a teenager growing up gay, you think you're 293 00:16:53.880 --> 00:16:56.160 the only person in the world. 294 00:16:56.160 --> 00:16:59.640 # I heard it on my radio # 295 00:16:59.640 --> 00:17:02.840 I remember Queen. To be honest, for me, that whole era of the '80s 296 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:07.000 where people were more androgynous looking and took their shirts off 297 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:11.040 like Freddie did kind of gave me hope that there are people being 298 00:17:11.040 --> 00:17:12.840 a bit wild and radical and different, 299 00:17:12.840 --> 00:17:16.520 and they look like they're OK so maybe I will be too one day. 300 00:17:18.560 --> 00:17:21.280 I was sitting in front of the TV on the floor, on the carpet, 301 00:17:21.280 --> 00:17:23.800 watching TV. I think it was the news or something. 302 00:17:23.800 --> 00:17:25.400 Good evening. 303 00:17:25.400 --> 00:17:28.880 Anything to do with HIV or anything to do with being gay, 304 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:31.720 I was hyper attuned to. 305 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:35.480 Rock Hudson is suffering from Aids and has been having treatment 306 00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:38.320 for more than a year. The confirmation came from Paris, 307 00:17:38.320 --> 00:17:41.160 where he's been in hospital since Sunday. 308 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:45.440 Rock Hudson was my dad's favourite actor and I remember him saying, 309 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:48.680 "Oh, my favourite actor is now Clint Eastwood." 310 00:17:48.680 --> 00:17:50.600 And it was just a throwaway comment my dad made, 311 00:17:50.600 --> 00:17:53.200 and I don't think he'd meant anything bad from it. 312 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:57.400 But, to be honest, as a teenage boy who was secretly gay, 313 00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:00.920 because I had that secret inside me, my heart went cold. 314 00:18:00.920 --> 00:18:07.520 Mr Rock Hudson has Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, 315 00:18:07.520 --> 00:18:14.520 which was diagnosed over a year ago in the United States. 316 00:18:14.520 --> 00:18:20.560 He came to Paris to consult with a specialist in this disease. 317 00:18:20.560 --> 00:18:24.320 I had the sort of double whammy of worrying about my sexuality 318 00:18:24.320 --> 00:18:27.440 and whether that would be accepted or whether that was acceptable, 319 00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:31.320 and also worrying about whether I would end up with HIV and die. 320 00:18:34.360 --> 00:18:38.040 # There's no time for us 321 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:44.160 # There's no place for us 322 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:51.040 # What is this thing that builds... 323 00:18:51.040 --> 00:18:56.400 A few of Freddie's friends actually died. 324 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:00.440 The closest was one of 325 00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:03.280 his friends from New York, John Murphy. 326 00:19:03.280 --> 00:19:09.680 # Who wants to live forever 327 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:16.400 # Who wants to live forever 328 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:21.000 And there were a couple more people who just... 329 00:19:22.560 --> 00:19:24.360 ..disappeared. 330 00:19:24.360 --> 00:19:27.600 # There's no chance for us 331 00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:33.280 # It's all decided for us... 332 00:19:33.280 --> 00:19:35.960 Within the past half hour, we've heard that the film star 333 00:19:35.960 --> 00:19:39.840 Rock Hudson has died at his home in California. He was 59. 334 00:19:39.840 --> 00:19:44.720 Rock Hudson dying actually did affect Freddie. 335 00:19:46.560 --> 00:19:49.840 REPORTER: News cameras were kept at a distance as the body was moved 336 00:19:49.840 --> 00:19:52.280 into the coroner's van, but there was trouble with two 337 00:19:52.280 --> 00:19:54.440 photographers for two London newspapers. 338 00:19:54.440 --> 00:19:58.480 They were trying to get shots of the body inside the van. 339 00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:05.240 # Who dares to love forever 340 00:20:05.240 --> 00:20:09.680 Hollywood is full of anxious people. The scourge of Aids, especially 341 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:12.400 of Rock Hudson's, has cut through the old myths 342 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:14.960 about everlasting youth and beauty. 343 00:20:14.960 --> 00:20:17.600 # Forever 344 00:20:17.600 --> 00:20:24.200 It made Freddie face the fact that instead of us being immortal 345 00:20:24.200 --> 00:20:26.840 and it happening to someone else, 346 00:20:26.840 --> 00:20:30.240 it was getting closer and closer to home. 347 00:20:30.240 --> 00:20:33.600 # Who waits forever anyway? # 348 00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:39.840 CHEERING AND APPLAUSE 349 00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:51.640 ROGER TAYLOR: Well, we did two Wembley shows and the Knebworth 350 00:20:51.640 --> 00:20:53.480 at the end of the '86 tour. 351 00:20:55.280 --> 00:20:58.760 BRIAN MAY: We'd sold out two nights at Wembley, which was extraordinary. 352 00:20:58.760 --> 00:21:01.040 And then there isn't another date available, so we go 353 00:21:01.040 --> 00:21:04.000 to Knebworth Park and we sell way over... 354 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:05.800 I don't know how many people were there. 355 00:21:05.800 --> 00:21:08.040 People have told me like 130,000 or something. 356 00:21:09.560 --> 00:21:11.760 It was a huge audience, I remember, 357 00:21:11.760 --> 00:21:15.160 and the set just seemed to float by in a dream. 358 00:21:17.600 --> 00:21:21.240 We'd done the biggest tour ever of our lives, and it was a great 359 00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:22.920 success and we were very happy. 360 00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:25.760 And Freddie said, "I can't do this any more after this," 361 00:21:25.760 --> 00:21:27.280 and we went, "Oh." 362 00:21:29.160 --> 00:21:32.560 After Knebworth, he just felt 363 00:21:32.560 --> 00:21:36.400 that it was taking a lot out of him. More than normal. 364 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:44.720 He was fairly firm, the fact that he didn't at that point want to do 365 00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:47.800 any more live shows, which sort of told us 366 00:21:47.800 --> 00:21:49.600 that there was something wrong. 367 00:21:54.520 --> 00:21:59.080 ANITA DOBSON: I met Fred in '86 and I got to see them play at Wembley 368 00:21:59.080 --> 00:22:03.400 just before they finished that tour. And then I got invited to the party 369 00:22:03.400 --> 00:22:07.560 afterwards, and it was at that party that Fred grabbed my arm and said, 370 00:22:07.560 --> 00:22:11.280 "Come and meet my Jim!" That was his boyfriend, Jim. 371 00:22:11.280 --> 00:22:13.640 And he was very proud of Jim. 372 00:22:13.640 --> 00:22:16.400 We spent ages talking together and then he took me back to his house 373 00:22:16.400 --> 00:22:19.480 afterwards, and that was really how our friendship started. 374 00:22:19.480 --> 00:22:20.800 It was that night. 375 00:22:25.880 --> 00:22:30.480 Well, he always said London was his home. 376 00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:34.360 When he got Garden Lodge, it was beautiful. 377 00:22:35.360 --> 00:22:37.880 And he made the garden into a Japanese garden 378 00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:39.880 because he loved going to Japan. 379 00:22:42.080 --> 00:22:46.160 He had also found Jim Hutton, 380 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:48.800 who was there living with him. 381 00:22:48.800 --> 00:22:52.720 They'd devised this thing to say that he was a gardener. 382 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:57.240 And I thought, "Well, he's obviously a very good gardener because he's there every time I go." 383 00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:00.200 So, yes, I put two and two together. 384 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:06.280 Peter Freestone - Phoebe, as we called him - was always there. 385 00:23:06.280 --> 00:23:08.280 And Joe, the cook. Our lovely Joe 386 00:23:08.280 --> 00:23:11.480 who used to cook wonderful, wonderful food. 387 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:16.240 I always enjoyed visiting him because he'd got a chef, 388 00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:17.760 he'd got a chauffeur. 389 00:23:17.760 --> 00:23:20.440 I liked all those things! But also, 390 00:23:20.440 --> 00:23:22.360 it was lovely to just sit down and 391 00:23:22.360 --> 00:23:25.040 have a chat as a brother and sister, 392 00:23:25.040 --> 00:23:28.080 and we would talk about all kinds of things, you know. 393 00:23:28.080 --> 00:23:32.640 He had his own family, the Bulsara family, who were...who are divine. 394 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:36.040 But he made another family for himself 395 00:23:36.040 --> 00:23:40.080 that was the family that he'd chosen. The friends from his world, 396 00:23:40.080 --> 00:23:43.880 his new world that he was in, where Freddie could be Freddie. 397 00:23:50.720 --> 00:23:56.560 Freddie loved Japan, and he felt that he still wanted to put things 398 00:23:56.560 --> 00:24:02.200 into Garden Lodge - some furniture, some porcelain, art. 399 00:24:02.200 --> 00:24:05.440 So he and Jim and Joe Fanelli 400 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:10.320 went off on a shopping trip! LAUGHS 401 00:24:10.320 --> 00:24:14.640 He thought that that would be the perfect place for him 402 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:16.520 to get back some energy. 403 00:24:17.880 --> 00:24:21.600 And when he came back, the Sun jumped on him. 404 00:24:24.840 --> 00:24:27.840 "Is this man dying?" I think it said. 405 00:24:27.840 --> 00:24:33.640 That's pretty close to scavenging carry on that you could get. 406 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:35.720 What kind of way is that to treat 407 00:24:35.720 --> 00:24:39.000 somebody who's brought a lot of pleasure to a lot of people? 408 00:24:40.600 --> 00:24:45.680 It sort of engendered absolute hatred in me 409 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:49.480 of the Murdoch press approach. 410 00:24:49.480 --> 00:24:51.720 Once again this morning, some of the popular press 411 00:24:51.720 --> 00:24:54.080 have been indulging in their latest pastime. 412 00:24:54.080 --> 00:24:57.200 Headlines like this - "Danger men in Aids alert." 413 00:24:57.200 --> 00:24:59.080 Talk about a gay plague. 414 00:24:59.080 --> 00:25:02.080 Freddie was a prime target. 415 00:25:02.080 --> 00:25:04.080 I mean, he didn't look sick. 416 00:25:04.080 --> 00:25:08.080 There was absolutely nothing wrong with him, but he was the famous 417 00:25:08.080 --> 00:25:11.960 person who they sort of knew was gay so maybe he had it. 418 00:25:21.600 --> 00:25:26.240 So I came out in 1985, when I'd just turned 16. 419 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:30.480 I'd started to explore my life as a young gay man in London. 420 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:32.080 You know, I made a few friends. 421 00:25:32.080 --> 00:25:35.280 I was going out, hitting the really small black gay scene 422 00:25:35.280 --> 00:25:37.440 in South London where I grew up. 423 00:25:39.080 --> 00:25:41.440 Just...I think it was a week after I came out, 424 00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:43.760 Rock Hudson died of Aids. 425 00:25:43.760 --> 00:25:49.520 I think I really became aware of it in late 1986, when my friends 426 00:25:49.520 --> 00:25:54.840 were telling me to go for HTLV-III tests, which had just become 427 00:25:54.840 --> 00:25:56.440 available in this country. 428 00:25:59.520 --> 00:26:02.920 I wasn't nervous and I wasn't anxious because I genuinely thought 429 00:26:02.920 --> 00:26:06.680 that I don't have this, because I'd only had a couple of lovers. 430 00:26:06.680 --> 00:26:10.400 And, in my mind, Aids was something that was happening across the pond 431 00:26:10.400 --> 00:26:13.560 and there was a narrative that if you avoided sex with Americans, 432 00:26:13.560 --> 00:26:16.920 which I did, and in my community if you avoided sex with white men, 433 00:26:16.920 --> 00:26:19.320 which I did, then you wouldn't get HIV. 434 00:26:19.320 --> 00:26:22.200 And if you were not having lots of sexual partners, 435 00:26:22.200 --> 00:26:23.760 you wouldn't get HIV. 436 00:26:23.760 --> 00:26:26.200 And I ticked all of those three boxes. 437 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:31.440 So I got my tests done at Westminster Hospital 438 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:34.480 and I saw a really, really lovely doctor. 439 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:36.720 Dr Dolman I think his name was. 440 00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:39.840 And he sat me down and said to me, you know, 441 00:26:39.840 --> 00:26:42.280 "Sadly, they've come back positive." 442 00:26:43.600 --> 00:26:47.440 And I sat stunned in absolute silence. 443 00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:53.520 I remember feeling like I was in a tunnel and everything 444 00:26:53.520 --> 00:26:58.440 was closing in on me, and I just felt that my future would be dark, 445 00:26:58.440 --> 00:27:00.960 would be filled with disease - 446 00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:04.120 a disease I didn't even understand but I knew it would be painful 447 00:27:04.120 --> 00:27:05.760 and it would be shameful. 448 00:27:08.360 --> 00:27:12.120 I was 17 and three months. 449 00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:17.560 # Oh, yes 450 00:27:17.560 --> 00:27:21.080 # I'm the great pretender 451 00:27:21.080 --> 00:27:23.280 # Ooh, ooh 452 00:27:23.280 --> 00:27:26.360 I was in that video dressed in a purple mini dress, I think, 453 00:27:26.360 --> 00:27:29.320 with a sort of yeehaw fringe. 454 00:27:29.320 --> 00:27:31.360 # My need is such 455 00:27:31.360 --> 00:27:33.080 And it was just a laugh with Freddie. 456 00:27:33.080 --> 00:27:35.920 # I pretend too much 457 00:27:35.920 --> 00:27:38.840 He said I've always fancied, you know, doing a version 458 00:27:38.840 --> 00:27:40.800 of The Great Pretender. 459 00:27:40.800 --> 00:27:43.640 He said, "It'll be a hit, darling." And that's exactly what happened. 460 00:27:43.640 --> 00:27:46.360 It came out. I think it was straight into, like, 461 00:27:46.360 --> 00:27:48.320 number five or four or something, 462 00:27:48.320 --> 00:27:49.640 bounced out and there we were, 463 00:27:49.640 --> 00:27:50.840 off and running. 464 00:27:50.840 --> 00:27:53.240 # I play the game 465 00:27:53.240 --> 00:27:56.840 Freddie had this mark on his hand 466 00:27:56.840 --> 00:28:00.360 and we could see he was worried. 467 00:28:00.360 --> 00:28:05.600 He then decided finally to go to the doctor 468 00:28:05.600 --> 00:28:08.760 because it was just getting bigger and darker. 469 00:28:08.760 --> 00:28:13.240 They did a biopsy and when the doctor called him, 470 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:15.320 Freddie would not take the phone call. 471 00:28:17.560 --> 00:28:20.800 He had all the excuses - oh, he was in the bath, 472 00:28:20.800 --> 00:28:22.840 he was out, he was somewhere... 473 00:28:22.840 --> 00:28:24.680 He just did not want to talk to the doctor 474 00:28:24.680 --> 00:28:29.440 so I had a very, very good idea that he knew that this was 475 00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:35.200 Kaposi's sarcoma, which was one of the first indications of Aids. 476 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:39.960 # I seem to be what I'm not 477 00:28:39.960 --> 00:28:44.160 We were seeing people being thrown out by their families, 478 00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:46.000 facing violence from their neighbours, 479 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:49.120 losing their jobs, the media attacking them. 480 00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:56.560 So I can only imagine what that must have felt like for a global 481 00:28:56.560 --> 00:28:59.720 superstar like Freddie Mercury. 482 00:28:59.720 --> 00:29:02.480 There was so much shame, there was so much stigma, 483 00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:04.640 there were no effective treatments, 484 00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:09.760 so in some ways it was safer to sit in ignorance, to sit in denial. 485 00:29:20.920 --> 00:29:24.040 Interview with Freddie Mercury in 1987 486 00:29:24.040 --> 00:29:27.880 on the occasion of his birthday, celebrated in Ibiza. 487 00:29:27.880 --> 00:29:29.880 What do you want to say? 488 00:29:30.960 --> 00:29:34.280 We were sitting around the pool and it really sent a chill 489 00:29:34.280 --> 00:29:38.920 through me because Freddie had a mauve mark on his cheek. 490 00:29:38.920 --> 00:29:43.400 And I knew that people get a sort of mauve mark 491 00:29:43.400 --> 00:29:45.160 anywhere on their body, 492 00:29:45.160 --> 00:29:47.400 it's a sign they could have HIV. 493 00:29:47.400 --> 00:29:51.000 And two hours later, I had to interview him. 494 00:30:38.880 --> 00:30:41.160 At the end of the interview, I said to him, 495 00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:45.880 "Freddie, I'm going to have to ask you something. Have you HIV?" 496 00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:49.400 And he said, "David, is that machine off?" 497 00:30:49.400 --> 00:30:51.920 I said, "Yes, it is off." 498 00:30:51.920 --> 00:30:56.760 "Well, if I tell you as a friend, David, will you promise me 499 00:30:56.760 --> 00:31:00.120 "you will not put it in the article?" 500 00:31:00.120 --> 00:31:02.680 And then I thought, "I know what's coming," so I said, 501 00:31:02.680 --> 00:31:05.400 "If you don't want to, then of course not, 502 00:31:05.400 --> 00:31:08.240 "but I just hope it's not what I think it is." 503 00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:13.280 And he said, "Well, I'm afraid it is, but I'm going to fight it. 504 00:31:13.280 --> 00:31:16.240 "We're going to find a cure. 505 00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:18.280 "End of subject." 506 00:31:18.280 --> 00:31:23.600 MARGARET THATCHER: Civilised society doesn't just happen. 507 00:31:23.600 --> 00:31:29.240 It has to be sustained by standards widely accepted and upheld. 508 00:31:29.240 --> 00:31:33.080 It is time that these things were said. 509 00:31:33.080 --> 00:31:35.480 # Well, I guess it would be nice 510 00:31:35.480 --> 00:31:37.960 # If I could touch your body... 511 00:31:37.960 --> 00:31:40.280 George, are you gay? 512 00:31:40.280 --> 00:31:43.520 Am I gay? That's a pretty...pretty direct first question! 513 00:31:43.520 --> 00:31:45.720 I've never said no. I've never said yes. 514 00:31:45.720 --> 00:31:47.520 The main thing I like to express 515 00:31:47.520 --> 00:31:50.240 is that I don't think it's anybody's business. 516 00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:52.960 In the 1980s, there was a culture war. 517 00:31:53.960 --> 00:31:57.160 I'm trying to make people more tolerant towards things 518 00:31:57.160 --> 00:31:58.520 which aren't harmful. 519 00:31:58.520 --> 00:32:01.760 More gay people were coming out and demanding our rights. 520 00:32:01.760 --> 00:32:05.240 The only people who have succour and comfort from your views 521 00:32:05.240 --> 00:32:08.600 are those who beat up, discriminate and practise abuse 522 00:32:08.600 --> 00:32:11.520 against the gay community. You ought to be ashamed... 523 00:32:11.520 --> 00:32:16.160 At the same time, the Aids pandemic generated a huge moral panic 524 00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:18.080 against gay and bisexual men. 525 00:32:18.080 --> 00:32:22.600 Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values 526 00:32:22.600 --> 00:32:26.840 have been taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay. 527 00:32:26.840 --> 00:32:28.240 # Faith, faith, faith 528 00:32:28.240 --> 00:32:31.360 During the 1970s, early 1980s, 529 00:32:31.360 --> 00:32:35.720 public opinion had been shifting in favour of accepting 530 00:32:35.720 --> 00:32:37.080 gay and lesbian people. 531 00:32:37.080 --> 00:32:42.040 But with the advent of the Aids pandemic, that went into reverse. 532 00:32:42.040 --> 00:32:44.800 The real thing is what is right and what is wrong. 533 00:32:44.800 --> 00:32:48.920 Government is to ban the promotion of homosexuality in schools. 534 00:32:48.920 --> 00:32:52.280 ..clause 28 of the local government bill would make it an offence for a 535 00:32:52.280 --> 00:32:55.560 local authority intentionally to promote homosexuality. 536 00:32:55.560 --> 00:32:58.520 ..Anderton, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, last week 537 00:32:58.520 --> 00:33:03.000 castigated homosexuals as engaging in obnoxious practises and said 538 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:06.800 the alarming spread of Aids was made possible by our increasingly 539 00:33:06.800 --> 00:33:09.320 degenerate conduct as a human race. 540 00:33:09.320 --> 00:33:10.760 # Faith, faith, faith 541 00:33:10.760 --> 00:33:12.000 It was vicious. 542 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:14.160 "Lock them all up." "Gas the gays." 543 00:33:14.160 --> 00:33:15.960 "Put them on an island somewhere." 544 00:33:15.960 --> 00:33:18.360 It wouldn't have existed but for homosexual behaviour 545 00:33:18.360 --> 00:33:21.280 in this country, and let's say it straight out without any messing. 546 00:33:21.280 --> 00:33:24.960 Nobody knew anything apart from the fact that it impacted 547 00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:27.920 young gay men. So it's not about how much sex 548 00:33:27.920 --> 00:33:31.760 they're having, how they're having sex, it's who we're having sex with, 549 00:33:31.760 --> 00:33:33.360 right? People hated gay sex. 550 00:33:33.360 --> 00:33:37.400 They didn't like the idea of men engaging with sex with other men. 551 00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:42.560 It's like a gift from God because it's seen as a plague 552 00:33:42.560 --> 00:33:45.960 afflicted on mankind by an outraged god. 553 00:33:45.960 --> 00:33:50.240 A killer plague against permissiveness, against illicit... 554 00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:53.480 It's Old Testament, isn't it? It's biblical. 555 00:33:53.480 --> 00:33:56.040 # I gotta have faith, faith, faith # 556 00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:00.440 Richard was... 557 00:34:02.240 --> 00:34:04.320 He used to work in Heaven. 558 00:34:04.320 --> 00:34:07.760 They had a little leather concession shop next to the Star Bar. 559 00:34:07.760 --> 00:34:11.560 I wasn't working, and he said, "Oh, I can get you a job." 560 00:34:11.560 --> 00:34:13.720 And I said, "Why, where do you work?" He said, 561 00:34:13.720 --> 00:34:14.960 "I work for John Lewis." 562 00:34:16.760 --> 00:34:20.000 We didn't work together. I was in china and glass 563 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:23.320 and he was in fitted kitchens. He was on the floor below me. 564 00:34:24.720 --> 00:34:28.600 My parents just absolutely adored him. 565 00:34:28.600 --> 00:34:32.120 He was, like, 12 years older than me. 566 00:34:32.120 --> 00:34:34.520 And he knew upfront about me. 567 00:34:34.520 --> 00:34:37.720 Um, but he never took a test to begin with 568 00:34:37.720 --> 00:34:40.280 because he always suspected that he might have it. 569 00:34:40.280 --> 00:34:42.640 And I think a lot of people did back then. 570 00:34:46.440 --> 00:34:49.800 BRIAN MAY: These things were not really spoken of, but of course, 571 00:34:49.800 --> 00:34:52.480 we read the papers, we'd seen what happened to Freddie, 572 00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:56.600 we saw him disappearing and coming back with these, uh, 573 00:34:56.600 --> 00:34:59.440 kind of burns to his skin. 574 00:34:59.440 --> 00:35:01.120 # A new life is born... 575 00:35:01.120 --> 00:35:03.920 And I think we didn't like to ask 576 00:35:03.920 --> 00:35:06.040 because we didn't want to know, perhaps. 577 00:35:06.040 --> 00:35:08.800 And I think that went on a very long time. 578 00:35:08.800 --> 00:35:11.760 We made a whole album during that time. We made The Miracle album. 579 00:35:11.760 --> 00:35:13.040 Now! 580 00:35:13.040 --> 00:35:16.360 And Freddie at that time was still full of energy, but signs 581 00:35:16.360 --> 00:35:19.560 that something is attacking him because he's got this skin thing 582 00:35:19.560 --> 00:35:23.320 going on, and he disappears for his treatments sometimes. 583 00:35:23.320 --> 00:35:25.840 # I wake up 584 00:35:25.840 --> 00:35:28.440 # Feel just fine 585 00:35:28.440 --> 00:35:29.920 # Your face... 586 00:35:29.920 --> 00:35:33.400 We wanted to think it was something else, maybe to do with his liver 587 00:35:33.400 --> 00:35:36.840 or something and there was a certain amount of self-deception going on, 588 00:35:36.840 --> 00:35:39.320 and then I think in the end it became fairly obvious. 589 00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:42.640 And then, in the end, he sort of frankly told us. 590 00:35:42.640 --> 00:35:44.120 # Can't you see? 591 00:35:44.120 --> 00:35:49.000 The first time we really knew was when we got together in Montreux, 592 00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:50.800 and Freddie just sat down and said, 593 00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:53.480 "OK, you guys probably know what's going on with me. 594 00:35:53.480 --> 00:35:56.440 "You know what I'm dealing with. I don't want to talk about it. 595 00:35:56.440 --> 00:35:57.840 "I don't want to take any action 596 00:35:57.840 --> 00:35:59.960 "apart from carrying on the way we are. 597 00:35:59.960 --> 00:36:03.160 "I want to keep making music for as long as I fucking can, 598 00:36:03.160 --> 00:36:08.000 "and we will not dwell on it. We will just go on." 599 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:11.520 And so we all went, "OK." 600 00:36:11.520 --> 00:36:12.880 And that was it. 601 00:36:12.880 --> 00:36:17.760 Oh, I think our feelings were, "Goddamn it!" You know? 602 00:36:17.760 --> 00:36:22.200 "Poor Freddie. Let's all close ranks around him." 603 00:36:22.200 --> 00:36:24.240 He wanted to do nothing but work 604 00:36:24.240 --> 00:36:26.760 because that took his mind off things. 605 00:36:26.760 --> 00:36:29.440 # If I could only reach you 606 00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:32.080 # If I could make you smile 607 00:36:32.080 --> 00:36:34.440 # If I can only reach you 608 00:36:34.440 --> 00:36:37.840 There was a further discussion about what attitude we would have 609 00:36:37.840 --> 00:36:42.240 if we were questioned, and we all agreed we would just deny. 610 00:36:42.240 --> 00:36:46.080 To protect Freddie, we would just say, "Nope, nothing happening," 611 00:36:46.080 --> 00:36:48.920 and we felt quite comfortable about that. 612 00:36:48.920 --> 00:36:53.760 I was absolutely prepared to lie through my teeth 613 00:36:53.760 --> 00:36:56.000 right up to the last minute, you know? 614 00:36:57.680 --> 00:37:01.920 # Break through! # 615 00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:08.280 He did say that he has got an incurable blood disease. 616 00:37:08.280 --> 00:37:11.040 And I just said to him, "It's not Aids, is it?" 617 00:37:11.040 --> 00:37:13.480 And he completely denied it. 618 00:37:13.480 --> 00:37:16.720 But I knew that it was Aids. 619 00:37:16.720 --> 00:37:20.200 But he didn't want to talk about it so I respected his wishes. 620 00:37:23.960 --> 00:37:27.680 When we were in the studio, the studio doors were closed. 621 00:37:27.680 --> 00:37:29.960 We were in there and we had fun. 622 00:37:29.960 --> 00:37:33.520 # And you're rushing headlong, but there ain't no stopping 623 00:37:33.520 --> 00:37:36.480 # And there's nothing you can do about it... # 624 00:37:36.480 --> 00:37:39.120 It was a great time, it really was. It sounds strange to say that, 625 00:37:39.120 --> 00:37:43.040 but it really was. For us as a family, Queen as a family, 626 00:37:43.040 --> 00:37:44.760 it was fantastic. 627 00:37:44.760 --> 00:37:47.560 We were never closer than those times in Montreux. 628 00:37:47.560 --> 00:37:51.960 # Headlong # 629 00:37:51.960 --> 00:37:54.360 But by that time, Freddie was suffering. 630 00:37:56.800 --> 00:38:00.920 Wherever Aids comes from, and whoever it attacks, it produces the 631 00:38:00.920 --> 00:38:04.280 same catastrophic, fatal results. 632 00:38:04.280 --> 00:38:08.280 People with Aids lose several stone in weight and suffer many 633 00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:12.680 afflictions like diarrhoea and breathlessness and brain damage. 634 00:38:14.600 --> 00:38:18.440 Richard had CMV - cytomegalovirus, which was a virus that attacked 635 00:38:18.440 --> 00:38:22.640 all the internal organs and just literally ate away at them. 636 00:38:22.640 --> 00:38:25.240 And he was suffering. 637 00:38:27.320 --> 00:38:30.120 Freddie had problems with his eyes. 638 00:38:30.120 --> 00:38:35.600 He had to have Ganciclovir, which was a drip for one hour, 639 00:38:35.600 --> 00:38:38.280 three times a day. 640 00:38:38.280 --> 00:38:43.520 He had a Hickman central line put in. Joe and I were taught 641 00:38:43.520 --> 00:38:48.440 how to actually connect up the drip to give him his medication. 642 00:38:49.800 --> 00:38:54.640 When Freddie would see his own videos, he would say, 643 00:38:54.640 --> 00:38:57.720 "Oh, I was handsome then," and that is...that's very, 644 00:38:57.720 --> 00:39:01.880 very hurtful, that he knew what he was going through. 645 00:39:01.880 --> 00:39:05.360 Because I thought my brother was handsome. 646 00:39:05.360 --> 00:39:06.840 Still do! 647 00:39:06.840 --> 00:39:11.320 I really thought that was... That was so...so sad. 648 00:39:11.320 --> 00:39:16.360 This year's Special Award for an Outstanding Contribution 649 00:39:16.360 --> 00:39:19.200 to British Music goes to John Deacon, 650 00:39:19.200 --> 00:39:23.920 Brian May, Roger Taylor, Freddie Mercury - Queen. 651 00:39:23.920 --> 00:39:25.960 Accepting that award, it was quite hard. 652 00:39:25.960 --> 00:39:27.880 We knew that Freddie obviously wasn't well, 653 00:39:27.880 --> 00:39:29.240 and it was obvious to everybody. 654 00:39:30.800 --> 00:39:34.840 But, you know, rather than not accept the award, we just turned up 655 00:39:34.840 --> 00:39:36.640 and took it. 656 00:39:36.640 --> 00:39:38.200 "Thank you very much." 657 00:39:38.200 --> 00:39:40.720 Thank you. Goodnight. 658 00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:47.640 He was really in a lot of pain, and he never complained. Never. 659 00:39:47.640 --> 00:39:50.200 # Empty spaces 660 00:39:50.200 --> 00:39:52.880 # What are we living for? 661 00:39:52.880 --> 00:39:55.640 # Abandoned places 662 00:39:55.640 --> 00:39:57.240 # I guess we know... 663 00:39:57.240 --> 00:39:59.240 It's a strange story, The Show Must Go On, 664 00:39:59.240 --> 00:40:03.120 because I had the title and a few words and I had most of the tune 665 00:40:03.120 --> 00:40:05.880 and the chords and everything. 666 00:40:05.880 --> 00:40:08.040 And I called it The Show Must Go On, and I said 667 00:40:08.040 --> 00:40:10.880 to Freddie, "I'm calling this The Show Must Go On right now, 668 00:40:10.880 --> 00:40:12.920 "but do you think that's a bit too corny?" 669 00:40:12.920 --> 00:40:15.320 And he said, "No, no, it's not too corny at all. It's great. 670 00:40:15.320 --> 00:40:17.200 "We'll do it. Let's write some words." 671 00:40:17.200 --> 00:40:20.200 So we sat down and started writing some words, and we were writing 672 00:40:20.200 --> 00:40:22.520 a little story about this clown who's very sad 673 00:40:22.520 --> 00:40:24.800 but he paints his smile on so that he still looks happy. 674 00:40:24.800 --> 00:40:28.160 # Another hero 675 00:40:28.160 --> 00:40:31.080 At no point did I say to him, 676 00:40:31.080 --> 00:40:34.960 "Well, actually, I was writing this song about you, Freddie," you know? 677 00:40:36.120 --> 00:40:39.320 And he didn't ask. He didn't say, you know, "Who is this clown?" 678 00:40:39.320 --> 00:40:43.040 or whatever. The unwritten thing was that we didn't discuss 679 00:40:43.040 --> 00:40:44.320 the lower levels. 680 00:40:44.320 --> 00:40:47.440 # The show must go on 681 00:40:47.440 --> 00:40:50.800 When he came in, he wasn't in a great state. 682 00:40:50.800 --> 00:40:54.280 He was finding it hard to walk, even finding it hard to sit 683 00:40:54.280 --> 00:40:57.160 because he was in a lot of pain. I played him the stuff. He said, 684 00:40:57.160 --> 00:41:00.000 "It's brilliant. I will sing it, I will fucking go for it." 685 00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:01.720 He said, "Bring me the vodka!" 686 00:41:01.720 --> 00:41:04.480 I brought him the vodka and he pours himself a shot, 687 00:41:04.480 --> 00:41:07.280 knocks it down, and then he props himself up. 688 00:41:07.280 --> 00:41:08.320 Says, "Another one." 689 00:41:08.320 --> 00:41:10.440 Knocks another vodka back and says, "OK, go for it." 690 00:41:10.440 --> 00:41:12.720 and he went for it. And those notes came out of him, 691 00:41:12.720 --> 00:41:14.360 and I don't know where they came from. 692 00:41:14.360 --> 00:41:16.360 Those are very, very high notes - 693 00:41:16.360 --> 00:41:20.440 even for Freddie, who had a kind of operatic section to his voice. 694 00:41:20.440 --> 00:41:25.480 # My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies 695 00:41:25.480 --> 00:41:31.120 # Fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die 696 00:41:31.120 --> 00:41:35.920 # I can fly, my friends 697 00:41:39.080 --> 00:41:44.200 And his voice has that high, wonderful edge that Freddie's voice 698 00:41:44.200 --> 00:41:47.200 always has, but it has a different kind of timbre underneath it. 699 00:41:47.200 --> 00:41:48.560 You can hear it. 700 00:41:48.560 --> 00:41:50.840 # I'll face it with a grin 701 00:41:50.840 --> 00:41:53.200 # I'm never giving in 702 00:41:53.200 --> 00:41:56.600 # On with the show 703 00:41:58.920 --> 00:42:02.280 It's perfectly obvious to him what the endgame was going to be. 704 00:42:02.280 --> 00:42:05.000 But while he was still here and still capable, 705 00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:08.160 he did what he always did. He worked hard and he was brilliant. 706 00:42:10.680 --> 00:42:13.560 NEWSREADER: The Princess of Wales has given a warning 707 00:42:13.560 --> 00:42:17.520 of the dangers of growing prejudice against people with Aids. 708 00:42:19.400 --> 00:42:21.640 It was a very difficult time. 709 00:42:21.640 --> 00:42:24.400 I was a very junior doctor, so I was carrying out tasks 710 00:42:24.400 --> 00:42:26.320 at the order of my consultant. 711 00:42:26.320 --> 00:42:30.360 And it was very hard to get things done because the minute you said, 712 00:42:30.360 --> 00:42:32.480 "I've got an HIV-positive patient," 713 00:42:32.480 --> 00:42:35.480 you could hear the person sighing at the other end of the phone 714 00:42:35.480 --> 00:42:37.640 and then suddenly there would be no beds. 715 00:42:37.640 --> 00:42:41.440 And it was the same sometimes for investigations. 716 00:42:41.440 --> 00:42:44.480 If you needed a bronchoscopy, a test to look in the lungs. 717 00:42:44.480 --> 00:42:49.160 And I remember very clearly being young, frightened, 718 00:42:49.160 --> 00:42:52.280 but feeling like I had to put an armour on, roll my sleeves up 719 00:42:52.280 --> 00:42:55.040 and go into battle. And that was to get a CT scan! 720 00:42:55.040 --> 00:42:56.360 LAUGHS 721 00:42:56.360 --> 00:42:59.200 Which is kind of ridiculous when you think about it now, 722 00:42:59.200 --> 00:43:01.880 but it literally was like that. 723 00:43:01.880 --> 00:43:04.840 HIV does not make people dangerous to know, 724 00:43:04.840 --> 00:43:08.840 so you can shake their hands and give them a hug. 725 00:43:08.840 --> 00:43:10.440 When Richard was in hospital, 726 00:43:10.440 --> 00:43:13.360 he was in there for a year and I was there every day with him. 727 00:43:13.360 --> 00:43:15.440 You start to notice what's going on in the ward. 728 00:43:18.160 --> 00:43:21.480 It suddenly hits. You see the nurses running somewhere 729 00:43:21.480 --> 00:43:24.080 and you know what's happening. 730 00:43:24.080 --> 00:43:28.640 And people were dying quickly and Joe Public didn't really know. 731 00:43:30.600 --> 00:43:32.840 I lost 95% of my friends. 732 00:43:36.120 --> 00:43:38.560 # Sometimes I get the feelin' 733 00:43:38.560 --> 00:43:42.400 # I was back in the old days, long ago 734 00:43:44.600 --> 00:43:49.120 I think Those Were The Days Of Our Lives was very poignant 735 00:43:49.120 --> 00:43:50.440 because of the video, 736 00:43:50.440 --> 00:43:52.960 because that was the last video Freddie did. 737 00:43:52.960 --> 00:43:55.280 # The days were endless, we were crazy... 738 00:43:55.280 --> 00:43:57.160 I think Roger Taylor wrote that. 739 00:43:57.160 --> 00:43:59.120 That was the last video he could do 740 00:43:59.120 --> 00:44:01.360 because he couldn't stand up for long 741 00:44:01.360 --> 00:44:04.280 and he was in great pain. 742 00:44:04.280 --> 00:44:06.760 # I just don't know 743 00:44:06.760 --> 00:44:09.800 Everybody around us that, you know, worked with us, 744 00:44:09.800 --> 00:44:12.000 some of them hadn't seen Freddie for a while. 745 00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:14.560 They were very visibly shocked. 746 00:44:14.560 --> 00:44:18.120 # Those were the days 747 00:44:18.120 --> 00:44:22.400 He could barely stand then, so that was a very brave thing to do. 748 00:44:22.400 --> 00:44:26.120 But he wanted to do it, and do it he did. 749 00:44:26.120 --> 00:44:28.880 He just looked very thin and gaunt, 750 00:44:28.880 --> 00:44:31.480 and the hollows seemed a bit more deeper. 751 00:44:32.680 --> 00:44:33.840 He knew what he was facing 752 00:44:33.840 --> 00:44:36.000 and he knew what he was looking at in the mirror. 753 00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:37.920 # I still love you 754 00:44:40.200 --> 00:44:42.520 It was a nice little sign off at the end, 755 00:44:42.520 --> 00:44:44.160 I thought was very moving. 756 00:44:44.160 --> 00:44:45.840 # I still love you # 757 00:44:45.840 --> 00:44:48.560 It was like a goodbye at the end, you know? 758 00:44:50.280 --> 00:44:52.920 I remember he said, "Darling, when I can't sing any more, 759 00:44:52.920 --> 00:44:56.040 "then I die, I'll drop dead. That's it." 760 00:44:56.040 --> 00:44:58.840 And I think when he'd finished and he'd sung as much 761 00:44:58.840 --> 00:45:02.240 as he could sing, he withdrew 762 00:45:02.240 --> 00:45:04.520 and he got ready to die. 763 00:45:08.200 --> 00:45:10.520 The documentary Aids Updates, 764 00:45:10.520 --> 00:45:15.200 it was a series of five ten-minute programmes over a week. 765 00:45:15.200 --> 00:45:18.840 I cry my eyes out and, you know, 766 00:45:18.840 --> 00:45:21.960 I just get hold of Stuart and I say, you know, 767 00:45:21.960 --> 00:45:24.840 "Stuart, I can't... I just can't cope." 768 00:45:24.840 --> 00:45:27.520 The idea of it was to dispel the myths. 769 00:45:27.520 --> 00:45:30.600 Richard was there straight away. He said, "Yes, we'll do it." 770 00:45:30.600 --> 00:45:32.560 I've made out a will. 771 00:45:33.960 --> 00:45:35.520 Erm... 772 00:45:35.520 --> 00:45:40.760 I've spoken to Stuart about funeral arrangements 773 00:45:40.760 --> 00:45:43.800 and how I want, um, 774 00:45:43.800 --> 00:45:45.960 basically how I want my funeral. 775 00:45:48.880 --> 00:45:50.600 He almost caught me out. I was in... 776 00:45:50.600 --> 00:45:53.040 You could smoke in the corridors of the hospitals then, 777 00:45:53.040 --> 00:45:55.400 and I was having a crafty cigarette. 778 00:45:55.400 --> 00:45:58.320 And I heard somebody shout, "Stuart!" 779 00:45:58.320 --> 00:46:02.040 And I dropped the cigarette, ran in there. 780 00:46:04.360 --> 00:46:08.520 SOBS 781 00:46:08.520 --> 00:46:09.800 I... 782 00:46:13.280 --> 00:46:14.640 I held him. 783 00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:19.040 Richard's head was here. I said, "Baby, let go. Let go." 784 00:46:19.040 --> 00:46:20.920 And he did. 785 00:46:20.920 --> 00:46:23.160 And I felt his breath, his last breath. 786 00:46:27.800 --> 00:46:33.720 The last two weeks of Freddie's life, there was the same people 787 00:46:33.720 --> 00:46:38.280 in Garden Lodge. There was Freddie, Jim, Joe Fanelli and myself. 788 00:46:38.280 --> 00:46:43.280 Joe Fanelli was diagnosed with HIV. 789 00:46:43.280 --> 00:46:46.440 Jim was diagnosed with HIV. 790 00:46:48.920 --> 00:46:51.400 He had already made the decision 791 00:46:51.400 --> 00:46:54.840 he would have no more drugs that were keeping him alive. 792 00:46:54.840 --> 00:46:57.960 The only thing that he would take 793 00:46:57.960 --> 00:47:00.000 would be painkillers. 794 00:47:01.000 --> 00:47:05.720 And for those last two weeks, he slowly let go. 795 00:47:08.440 --> 00:47:13.280 There was a huge press of media surrounding the house, you know, 796 00:47:13.280 --> 00:47:16.040 even photographing the groceries in the back of the car 797 00:47:16.040 --> 00:47:17.320 and, you know... 798 00:47:17.320 --> 00:47:19.640 Uh, it was all pretty sick, actually. 799 00:47:21.120 --> 00:47:24.600 I think I tried to run somebody over and failed. 800 00:47:25.920 --> 00:47:28.800 My mum visited him more times than Dad. 801 00:47:28.800 --> 00:47:30.720 I don't think Dad could take it 802 00:47:30.720 --> 00:47:34.680 because he looked like a skeleton towards the end. 803 00:47:34.680 --> 00:47:37.600 And I remember very clearly my dad 804 00:47:37.600 --> 00:47:40.760 was reading one of the many articles 805 00:47:40.760 --> 00:47:45.720 and tears were pouring down his face onto the newspaper, 806 00:47:45.720 --> 00:47:50.080 and he said, "This should have been me instead of Freddie." 807 00:47:50.080 --> 00:47:52.280 I remember that so clearly. 808 00:47:52.280 --> 00:47:53.880 It was so sad. 809 00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:05.440 And now, the shipping forecast. There are warnings of gales 810 00:48:05.440 --> 00:48:09.480 in Thames, Dover, Wight, Portland, Plymouth... 811 00:48:09.480 --> 00:48:15.360 Joe called me, I think, at about 5:30 in the morning 812 00:48:15.360 --> 00:48:19.960 and Freddie had basically gone into a coma. 813 00:48:19.960 --> 00:48:25.360 So we called the doctor and he made Freddie sort of comfortable. 814 00:48:27.120 --> 00:48:30.200 The doctor had literally just left the house 815 00:48:30.200 --> 00:48:33.640 and we went up, and Freddie had moved. 816 00:48:33.640 --> 00:48:35.800 You could see he had moved a bit. 817 00:48:35.800 --> 00:48:40.720 And as we were changing his T-shirt, 818 00:48:40.720 --> 00:48:45.560 we just looked and saw his chest had stopped moving. 819 00:48:49.920 --> 00:48:52.640 NEWSREADER: A day after revealing to the world that he had Aids, 820 00:48:52.640 --> 00:48:55.080 the rock star Freddie Mercury has died. 821 00:48:56.240 --> 00:48:59.640 The day he died, we spent the whole night at my house in Kensington 822 00:48:59.640 --> 00:49:04.000 at the time, and the three of us just trying to 823 00:49:04.000 --> 00:49:08.960 make sense of it. And then it came up on the news in the early morning. 824 00:49:08.960 --> 00:49:10.920 Good morning from Sarah and me. 825 00:49:10.920 --> 00:49:13.720 You're watching the BBC's Breakfast news. It's 6:30. 826 00:49:13.720 --> 00:49:17.200 The headlines this morning - Monday, the 25th of November. 827 00:49:17.200 --> 00:49:21.320 Maybe it shouldn't have been, but it was an awful shock. 828 00:49:21.320 --> 00:49:26.480 And Roger and John and myself got together, sat... 829 00:49:26.480 --> 00:49:30.600 Um, kind of had a cup of tea, 830 00:49:30.600 --> 00:49:34.200 not knowing what to say. And then we put the TV on. 831 00:49:34.200 --> 00:49:37.640 The pop star Freddie Mercury died last night in London. 832 00:49:37.640 --> 00:49:40.680 We almost stopped breathing because that's when we believed 833 00:49:40.680 --> 00:49:42.000 that it had actually happened. 834 00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:44.080 The fact that it was on the news made it real. 835 00:49:46.560 --> 00:49:48.880 I didn't really see much of Jim. 836 00:49:48.880 --> 00:49:53.240 I think, not being one that lived his life in the public eye, 837 00:49:53.240 --> 00:49:57.640 he didn't want any of that, so...withdrew. 838 00:49:57.640 --> 00:50:00.080 The lead singer with Queen, aged 45, 839 00:50:00.080 --> 00:50:03.000 had announced on Saturday he was suffering from Aids. 840 00:50:03.000 --> 00:50:06.440 It was announced before he died, but he didn't want to go through 841 00:50:06.440 --> 00:50:10.880 the misery of being the object of pity, or scrutiny, 842 00:50:10.880 --> 00:50:13.360 you know, when you're that sick, 843 00:50:13.360 --> 00:50:15.520 so he did announce it, 844 00:50:15.520 --> 00:50:18.280 and within 24 hours, he was gone. 845 00:50:18.280 --> 00:50:22.400 So I think that was probably perfect timing. 846 00:50:22.400 --> 00:50:24.320 Bloody good move, I thought. 847 00:50:27.600 --> 00:50:28.840 OK. OK? 848 00:50:28.840 --> 00:50:30.240 Yeah. 849 00:50:30.240 --> 00:50:31.840 Rolling? Rolling. 850 00:50:31.840 --> 00:50:35.600 Freddie Mercury, er, was an incredible, er, 851 00:50:35.600 --> 00:50:37.560 innovative singer 852 00:50:37.560 --> 00:50:40.040 and frontman for a band. 853 00:50:40.040 --> 00:50:42.880 He was a very dear friend of mine and it was a privilege 854 00:50:42.880 --> 00:50:46.480 to have known him for some of his life. 855 00:50:46.480 --> 00:50:51.240 The press was full of what a wonderful performer Freddie was, 856 00:50:51.240 --> 00:50:53.640 what amazing music he wrote. 857 00:50:53.640 --> 00:50:58.560 Everybody had been saying such wonderful things, nice things. 858 00:50:58.560 --> 00:51:00.760 How very quickly that changed. 859 00:51:02.760 --> 00:51:05.880 The press were pretty shitty, as they normally were. 860 00:51:05.880 --> 00:51:10.080 Freddie dying of Aids, Freddie sleeping around, 861 00:51:10.080 --> 00:51:12.120 so he got what he deserved. 862 00:51:12.120 --> 00:51:16.240 Yeah, I wouldn't single anybody out, except maybe The Sun, I think, 863 00:51:16.240 --> 00:51:18.840 were particularly awful about it. 864 00:51:18.840 --> 00:51:20.040 There was some nice press, 865 00:51:20.040 --> 00:51:22.080 there were some people who were very nice, 866 00:51:22.080 --> 00:51:26.200 but there were people who were unbelievably unsympathetic. 867 00:51:26.200 --> 00:51:30.840 730,000 people using the Aids helpline last year, 868 00:51:30.840 --> 00:51:33.080 those people seeking help and advice. 869 00:51:33.080 --> 00:51:35.640 We've got to be able to give it in school, but we've got 870 00:51:35.640 --> 00:51:37.880 to be able to give it as part of a total picture, 871 00:51:37.880 --> 00:51:41.400 so that we don't have a great hoo-ha when Freddie Mercury died, 872 00:51:41.400 --> 00:51:44.520 because he had such a bizarre, and, in my view, 873 00:51:44.520 --> 00:51:46.800 quite unacceptable lifestyle. 874 00:51:46.800 --> 00:51:48.920 There was this talk of, well, you know, he was gay, 875 00:51:48.920 --> 00:51:51.120 he kind of deserved it, you know, he lived that kind 876 00:51:51.120 --> 00:51:52.760 of promiscuous lifestyle. 877 00:51:52.760 --> 00:51:54.000 It was going to happen. 878 00:51:54.000 --> 00:51:55.680 You know, that, that... 879 00:51:55.680 --> 00:51:59.440 And we thought, Oh, my God, you people have no idea 880 00:51:59.440 --> 00:52:01.920 of what this disease really is, 881 00:52:01.920 --> 00:52:04.760 and obviously no feeling 882 00:52:04.760 --> 00:52:07.840 about the morality of what you're saying. 883 00:52:07.840 --> 00:52:09.440 Roger Taylor and Brian May are with us. 884 00:52:09.440 --> 00:52:11.000 The death of Freddie Mercury... 885 00:52:11.000 --> 00:52:16.920 Brian and I decided to say something on breakfast TV or something. 886 00:52:16.920 --> 00:52:20.240 It's been quite distressing to read some of the, erm, the reports 887 00:52:20.240 --> 00:52:21.320 in the press. 888 00:52:21.320 --> 00:52:24.600 Not quite sure what we want to do, but just to say that this press 889 00:52:24.600 --> 00:52:26.520 is disgusting, 890 00:52:26.520 --> 00:52:28.280 and what a terrible attitude, 891 00:52:28.280 --> 00:52:31.120 and, er, there we were, stuck with Paul Daniels. 892 00:52:31.120 --> 00:52:33.040 Paul Daniels is listening here. 893 00:52:33.040 --> 00:52:36.280 Were you a fan of Queen and of Freddie Mercury? 894 00:52:36.280 --> 00:52:37.520 Well, no, cos I... 895 00:52:37.520 --> 00:52:40.160 We were in a bit of a daze, to be honest. 896 00:52:40.160 --> 00:52:42.240 It hit us very hard. 897 00:52:42.240 --> 00:52:44.080 We were very angry, 898 00:52:44.080 --> 00:52:46.600 and we had to stick up for our friend, 899 00:52:46.600 --> 00:52:48.600 you know, our best friend. 900 00:52:48.600 --> 00:52:51.040 Freddie made one crucial decision before he died, 901 00:52:51.040 --> 00:52:53.600 which was to announce the fact that he did have Aids. 902 00:52:53.600 --> 00:52:57.960 It was a very brave, and, I think, well-timed act on his part, 903 00:52:57.960 --> 00:53:01.960 because it gave us and those close to us a kind of weapon 904 00:53:01.960 --> 00:53:03.560 erm, to talk about Aids, you know, 905 00:53:03.560 --> 00:53:06.240 it would have been very easy for him to put on his death certificate, 906 00:53:06.240 --> 00:53:07.720 pneumonia, you know, which he knew, 907 00:53:07.720 --> 00:53:10.080 and it could have perhaps sidestepped the whole thing. 908 00:53:10.080 --> 00:53:12.880 The fact that he announced it, and said, "Look, I've got this", 909 00:53:12.880 --> 00:53:16.240 and he was, there was no shame to that, I think is very important, 910 00:53:16.240 --> 00:53:19.480 cos there shouldn't be from this point, well, not from ANY point, 911 00:53:19.480 --> 00:53:21.720 any stigma to having this disease. 912 00:53:21.720 --> 00:53:24.520 It's nothing to do with, you know, somebody did something wrong. 913 00:53:24.520 --> 00:53:26.720 He's being punished. That's got to go. It has to go, 914 00:53:26.720 --> 00:53:29.120 you know, it's everybody's problem now. 915 00:53:29.120 --> 00:53:31.520 At that point, we thought we're not going to let Freddie 916 00:53:31.520 --> 00:53:33.800 be perceived in history as a victim, 917 00:53:33.800 --> 00:53:36.920 or as someone who threw himself in front of a train, 918 00:53:36.920 --> 00:53:39.480 and if we're going to talk about Aids, we should bring 919 00:53:39.480 --> 00:53:40.960 everything out into the open. 920 00:53:40.960 --> 00:53:43.920 Freddie isn't the only person who is being vilified... 921 00:53:46.480 --> 00:53:48.320 ..before AND after his death 922 00:53:48.320 --> 00:53:51.040 by people who think that Aids is some kind of revenge 923 00:53:51.040 --> 00:53:52.320 against gay people. 924 00:53:54.120 --> 00:53:57.280 # Is this the real life? # 925 00:53:57.280 --> 00:54:01.400 I felt that it was a waste of a lovely, talented life. 926 00:54:01.400 --> 00:54:03.760 # Is this just fantasy? # 927 00:54:03.760 --> 00:54:08.200 But also for those people who died in the same period as Freddie, 928 00:54:08.200 --> 00:54:12.760 it was such a bad stigma, and the shame behind it all, 929 00:54:12.760 --> 00:54:15.600 that a lot of families didn't understand. 930 00:54:15.600 --> 00:54:18.360 # Caught in a landslide 931 00:54:18.360 --> 00:54:19.760 # No escape from reality. # 932 00:54:19.760 --> 00:54:23.600 People died on their own, which I thought is such a shame. 933 00:54:23.600 --> 00:54:25.400 # Open your eyes... # 934 00:54:25.400 --> 00:54:29.800 Queen is to rerelease its best-known hit Bohemian Rhapsody next month, 935 00:54:29.800 --> 00:54:32.440 with the proceeds going to an Aids charity. 936 00:54:32.440 --> 00:54:35.880 You have doubts about everything. You think, are we capitalising on his death? 937 00:54:35.880 --> 00:54:37.400 Is this maybe a tasteless thing to do? 938 00:54:37.400 --> 00:54:38.760 And we thought, no, we put it out, 939 00:54:38.760 --> 00:54:40.560 and all the profits will go to charity. 940 00:54:40.560 --> 00:54:43.720 I think one of the results of his life can be that people 941 00:54:43.720 --> 00:54:45.760 have a different attitude to people being gay. 942 00:54:45.760 --> 00:54:47.040 I really hope so. 943 00:54:47.040 --> 00:54:50.440 Here's a guy who was strong, who was incredibly talented, 944 00:54:50.440 --> 00:54:52.720 quite magnificent in every way you can think of, 945 00:54:52.720 --> 00:54:55.120 and he was gay, and was quite public about it. 946 00:54:55.120 --> 00:54:57.720 So I don't think anyone can ever quite feel the same 947 00:54:57.720 --> 00:55:01.080 about that any more, and it's time, God knows, you know? 948 00:55:01.080 --> 00:55:03.720 # Too late 949 00:55:03.720 --> 00:55:05.840 # My time has come... # 950 00:55:07.120 --> 00:55:11.120 Obviously, the band was effectively finished at that point, 951 00:55:11.120 --> 00:55:14.400 so I remember thinking, well, what can we do? 952 00:55:14.400 --> 00:55:16.680 # Goodbye, everybody... # 953 00:55:16.680 --> 00:55:20.640 Well, we could have a concert to honour our friend, 954 00:55:20.640 --> 00:55:24.880 and I became sort of fixated with the idea of giving him 955 00:55:24.880 --> 00:55:26.560 a hell of a send-off, 956 00:55:26.560 --> 00:55:31.360 and at the same time, promoting awareness about HIV, Aids. 957 00:55:34.480 --> 00:55:39.000 I remember showing Brian, "Look, I reckon we can get this lot, here, 958 00:55:39.000 --> 00:55:41.280 you know, all these great artists". 959 00:55:41.280 --> 00:55:44.040 He said, "Well, I don't know". 960 00:55:44.040 --> 00:55:46.440 He didn't really believe in it, I think, at first, 961 00:55:46.440 --> 00:55:50.880 then it's, "Well, if you can get that lot, I'm in". 962 00:55:50.880 --> 00:55:54.560 I remember I went in to Harvey Goldsmith, the promoter, 963 00:55:54.560 --> 00:55:58.600 with our manager, Jim Beach, and he looked up, and we said, 964 00:55:58.600 --> 00:56:00.640 "We want Wembley Stadium". 965 00:56:00.640 --> 00:56:03.560 And he said, "Who's going to sing?" 966 00:56:03.560 --> 00:56:06.880 And so we said, "Well, I've got this list". 967 00:56:06.880 --> 00:56:10.600 And he just looked at me, and said, "You're mad". 968 00:56:10.600 --> 00:56:12.880 And I thought, "Well, are we? Maybe we are". 969 00:56:14.600 --> 00:56:20.280 I'm the wet nappy service that runs 24 hours a day, that's what I do. 970 00:56:20.280 --> 00:56:23.760 Booking Wembley Stadium, speak to the bookings department, 971 00:56:23.760 --> 00:56:26.800 and say is May the 4th available, 972 00:56:26.800 --> 00:56:30.200 and if they say yes, they send you a contract, 973 00:56:30.200 --> 00:56:32.160 and you have to pay them a load of money. 974 00:56:32.160 --> 00:56:33.200 That's it! 975 00:56:35.320 --> 00:56:39.480 Once that date's set, that show's happening, so then the question is, 976 00:56:39.480 --> 00:56:40.520 who do we get? 977 00:56:44.040 --> 00:56:47.320 Well, I think the first person I called was Elton, 978 00:56:47.320 --> 00:56:49.680 because I knew he was a shoo-in. 979 00:56:50.920 --> 00:56:53.840 Elton and Freddie were great friends, and I know Elton 980 00:56:53.840 --> 00:56:56.960 was particularly supportive in the last days. 981 00:56:56.960 --> 00:57:00.560 Just what you would want from a really good friend. 982 00:57:00.560 --> 00:57:02.320 And I rang up David Bowie. 983 00:57:02.320 --> 00:57:04.320 I said, you know, you can do Under Pressure. 984 00:57:04.320 --> 00:57:06.840 And he said, "Well, who would I sing it with?" 985 00:57:06.840 --> 00:57:10.040 And I thought, I know Annie Lennox loves David Bowie. 986 00:57:10.040 --> 00:57:12.160 He said, "Well, I'll do it with Annie". 987 00:57:12.160 --> 00:57:13.760 So I rang up Annie, 988 00:57:13.760 --> 00:57:17.600 and I said, "Bowie will do it". She said, "I'll do it". 989 00:57:17.600 --> 00:57:18.960 Two psychiatrists... 990 00:57:18.960 --> 00:57:21.680 No, rather, two psychics pass each other on the street, 991 00:57:21.680 --> 00:57:23.880 and one says to the other, 992 00:57:23.880 --> 00:57:26.400 "You're doing all right. How am I?" 993 00:57:26.400 --> 00:57:28.800 And it kind of went on from that. 994 00:57:32.320 --> 00:57:34.360 First of all, how are the rehearsals going here? 995 00:57:34.360 --> 00:57:36.760 They're going tremendously well, I mean, er, 996 00:57:36.760 --> 00:57:40.720 I think Queen themselves have taken on an incredible amount of work. 997 00:57:40.720 --> 00:57:44.560 # Mm ba-ba, mm ba-ba 998 00:57:44.560 --> 00:57:46.440 # Bada-boom ba-bai-ya... # 999 00:57:46.440 --> 00:57:50.880 You know, we'd lost Keith Moon, so I knew what they were going 1000 00:57:50.880 --> 00:57:53.440 to be going through, emotionally, themselves, 1001 00:57:53.440 --> 00:57:55.520 and it's incredibly traumatic, 1002 00:57:55.520 --> 00:57:56.680 I can't tell you. 1003 00:57:56.680 --> 00:57:57.960 # Pressure 1004 00:57:57.960 --> 00:57:59.920 # Pushing down on me 1005 00:57:59.920 --> 00:58:01.800 # Pressing down on you 1006 00:58:01.800 --> 00:58:03.840 # No man ask for 1007 00:58:03.840 --> 00:58:05.000 # Under pressure... # 1008 00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:08.120 David Bowie's doing it, and then Roger Daltrey's doing it, 1009 00:58:08.120 --> 00:58:09.440 Robert Plant's doing it. 1010 00:58:09.440 --> 00:58:12.720 All kinds of people who were really heroes to us. 1011 00:58:12.720 --> 00:58:16.520 # It's the terror of knowing what this world is about... # 1012 00:58:16.520 --> 00:58:18.800 And then a lot of people who were there, younger than us, 1013 00:58:18.800 --> 00:58:22.560 to who Freddie had been a hero, so, Extreme, Metallica, 1014 00:58:22.560 --> 00:58:24.080 Guns N Roses, 1015 00:58:24.080 --> 00:58:27.080 and everybody said, "Ah! Guns N Roses will never turn up!" 1016 00:58:27.080 --> 00:58:28.640 # People on streets...# 1017 00:58:30.120 --> 00:58:31.640 Everybody was there. 1018 00:58:31.640 --> 00:58:35.280 It was just like a sort of fame fest. Ha-ha! 1019 00:58:35.280 --> 00:58:38.120 I'm doing I Want To Break Free. 1020 00:58:38.120 --> 00:58:39.880 I'm doing that on my own, 1021 00:58:39.880 --> 00:58:42.320 and I'm doing a duet with George Michael. 1022 00:58:42.320 --> 00:58:44.640 I'm doing These Are The Days Of Our Lives. 1023 00:58:44.640 --> 00:58:46.280 They offered me this song, 1024 00:58:46.280 --> 00:58:48.080 I Want To Break Free, 1025 00:58:48.080 --> 00:58:50.960 and I said to Roger Taylor, 1026 00:58:50.960 --> 00:58:55.040 "I hope you don't think that this is really bad taste, 1027 00:58:55.040 --> 00:59:00.480 "but do you think it would be really good if I had a vacuum cleaner 1028 00:59:00.480 --> 00:59:05.040 "on the stage, and put rollers in a net in my hair, 1029 00:59:05.040 --> 00:59:06.840 "like Freddie on the video?" 1030 00:59:06.840 --> 00:59:09.800 And Roger Taylor was so lovely, and he got hold of me, 1031 00:59:09.800 --> 00:59:11.080 and he just said, 1032 00:59:11.080 --> 00:59:14.920 "Bad taste is what this band is all about, darling!" 1033 00:59:14.920 --> 00:59:17.440 And it was so lovely, and that's it, 1034 00:59:17.440 --> 00:59:19.880 that was that. 1035 00:59:19.880 --> 00:59:24.440 I think at rehearsals, there was a definite feel of respect 1036 00:59:24.440 --> 00:59:25.960 and a responsibility. 1037 00:59:25.960 --> 00:59:27.880 # Pressure... 1038 00:59:27.880 --> 00:59:29.120 # Pressure. # 1039 00:59:29.120 --> 00:59:32.400 It's scary enough to play with Queen anyway, and also thinking 1040 00:59:32.400 --> 00:59:34.920 that you're taking the place of someone that was such 1041 00:59:34.920 --> 00:59:36.640 an incredible performer. 1042 00:59:39.520 --> 00:59:42.240 Queen were the first concert we ever saw. 1043 00:59:42.240 --> 00:59:43.480 We were 11. 1044 00:59:43.480 --> 00:59:46.000 I mean, we were enthralled. 1045 00:59:46.000 --> 00:59:50.840 So George's only stipulation was that he wanted to sing 1046 00:59:50.840 --> 00:59:52.240 Somebody To Love. 1047 00:59:52.240 --> 00:59:55.080 # Each morning, I get up, I die a little 1048 00:59:55.080 --> 00:59:58.280 # Can barely stand on my feet 1049 00:59:58.280 --> 01:00:02.040 # Take a look in the mirror and cry 1050 01:00:02.040 --> 01:00:04.720 # Lord, what are you doing to me? # 1051 01:00:04.720 --> 01:00:08.200 "I look in the mirror every morning and I cry and cry. 1052 01:00:08.200 --> 01:00:10.880 "Please, God, send me someone to love". 1053 01:00:10.880 --> 01:00:12.280 # Lord! 1054 01:00:12.280 --> 01:00:13.960 # (Somebody) Oh, somebody 1055 01:00:13.960 --> 01:00:18.520 # (Somebody) Can anybody find me 1056 01:00:18.520 --> 01:00:21.400 # Somebody to love? # 1057 01:00:21.400 --> 01:00:24.040 He had the world at his feet, 1058 01:00:24.040 --> 01:00:26.960 sold a hundred million records by this time. 1059 01:00:26.960 --> 01:00:28.760 # I work hard (He works hard) 1060 01:00:28.760 --> 01:00:30.360 # Every day of my life... # 1061 01:00:30.360 --> 01:00:34.400 But he never found love, and that was tough for him. 1062 01:00:34.400 --> 01:00:37.640 # (At the end of the day) I take home my hard-earned pay... # 1063 01:00:37.640 --> 01:00:42.640 I was very close to George, and George was a very complicated guy. 1064 01:00:42.640 --> 01:00:48.120 We all knew that George was gay, and at the time, he clearly hadn't 1065 01:00:48.120 --> 01:00:50.320 come to terms with it himself. 1066 01:00:50.320 --> 01:00:54.000 # Can anybody find me 1067 01:00:54.000 --> 01:00:56.160 # Somebody to love? # 1068 01:00:56.160 --> 01:00:58.920 So, when I was 19, I came out to various friends, 1069 01:00:58.920 --> 01:00:59.960 and one of my sisters, 1070 01:00:59.960 --> 01:01:02.000 and I said I was going to talk to my mum and dad, 1071 01:01:02.000 --> 01:01:04.920 and was persuaded, in no uncertain terms, 1072 01:01:04.920 --> 01:01:07.400 that it really wasn't the best idea. 1073 01:01:07.400 --> 01:01:11.280 There was this sort of weird stigma attached to it all, 1074 01:01:11.280 --> 01:01:14.320 and it was like because he was this sex symbol 1075 01:01:14.320 --> 01:01:17.680 that he couldn't come out of the closet. 1076 01:01:17.680 --> 01:01:21.280 This was one lie that I'd been kind of trying to tell people 1077 01:01:21.280 --> 01:01:24.280 in my own way for years and years, and I don't think 1078 01:01:24.280 --> 01:01:26.120 I would have had the same career. 1079 01:01:26.120 --> 01:01:30.160 My ego might not have been satisfied in some areas quite as much, 1080 01:01:30.160 --> 01:01:32.280 but I think I would have been a happier man. 1081 01:01:36.280 --> 01:01:40.480 The week of rehearsals, we were there four days out of five, 1082 01:01:40.480 --> 01:01:43.000 and that's where that video comes from, me and him, 1083 01:01:43.000 --> 01:01:45.600 behind Roger's drum kit, 1084 01:01:45.600 --> 01:01:50.560 watching Bowie and Annie Lennox, that was the last day, 1085 01:01:50.560 --> 01:01:52.600 and when they finished, 1086 01:01:52.600 --> 01:01:55.240 he did his rehearsal, yet again. 1087 01:01:55.240 --> 01:01:58.440 Four days in a row. No-one did that. 1088 01:01:58.440 --> 01:02:02.720 # Can anybody find me... # 1089 01:02:02.720 --> 01:02:05.160 There's a definite feeling when George went out and did 1090 01:02:05.160 --> 01:02:07.480 Somebody To Love that he'd absolutely nailed it. 1091 01:02:07.480 --> 01:02:11.960 # Somebody t-o-o-o-o-o-o-o... # 1092 01:02:13.880 --> 01:02:16.920 There weren't any tantrums, there wasn't anything like that. 1093 01:02:18.440 --> 01:02:20.760 # (Find me somebody)... # 1094 01:02:20.760 --> 01:02:24.120 Nobody was more important than anybody else. 1095 01:02:24.120 --> 01:02:27.160 There wasn't one person who was making a fuss, 1096 01:02:27.160 --> 01:02:29.160 cos there's always usually one. 1097 01:02:31.560 --> 01:02:38.160 L-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-v-v-v-v-e? # 1098 01:02:42.160 --> 01:02:43.200 All right! 1099 01:02:43.200 --> 01:02:44.360 CHEERING AND APPLAUSE 1100 01:02:44.360 --> 01:02:47.080 The old school building in Notting Hill has become Britain's 1101 01:02:47.080 --> 01:02:50.320 first purpose-built Aids hospice. 1102 01:02:50.320 --> 01:02:52.200 I'd been working at... 1103 01:02:52.200 --> 01:02:54.000 Well, not working, I'd been volunteering 1104 01:02:54.000 --> 01:02:55.760 at London Lighthouse. 1105 01:02:55.760 --> 01:02:57.360 People with HIV could... 1106 01:02:58.680 --> 01:03:05.360 ..go for respites, go for security, go for counselling, 1107 01:03:05.360 --> 01:03:07.600 and their friends could go along to visit them. 1108 01:03:07.600 --> 01:03:09.320 It was a safe place. 1109 01:03:09.320 --> 01:03:13.520 And I managed to get tickets through one of my friends who worked there. 1110 01:03:15.160 --> 01:03:19.200 I've never been a concert-goer. Apart from Tina Turner, bizarrely. 1111 01:03:19.200 --> 01:03:20.360 And so I had to go to Wembley - 1112 01:03:20.360 --> 01:03:22.240 I'd never been to a football match at Wembley, 1113 01:03:22.240 --> 01:03:24.000 so I wasn't aware of the space of it. 1114 01:03:26.160 --> 01:03:28.840 And when we got there, it was like, wow. 1115 01:03:28.840 --> 01:03:31.280 CROWD ROARS 1116 01:03:31.280 --> 01:03:32.440 A very good afternoon. 1117 01:03:32.440 --> 01:03:35.160 PRESENTER: Freddie Mercury died of Aids in November of last year. 1118 01:03:35.160 --> 01:03:37.480 Love and respect for the man, together with a passionate 1119 01:03:37.480 --> 01:03:39.720 commitment to do something about the disease, 1120 01:03:39.720 --> 01:03:42.280 has led to this event. Some of the great names in world... 1121 01:03:42.280 --> 01:03:46.680 We had great seats and I felt privileged to be there. 1122 01:03:46.680 --> 01:03:51.480 72,000 packed inside, tens of thousands are still arriving 1123 01:03:51.480 --> 01:03:55.240 and half a billion people watching on TV, on satellite 1124 01:03:55.240 --> 01:03:57.040 around the world. 1125 01:03:57.040 --> 01:03:59.880 In a way, the concert is quite important for us cos it's our way 1126 01:03:59.880 --> 01:04:01.760 of saying goodbye to Freddie as well. 1127 01:04:01.760 --> 01:04:03.920 And I think we need to do that before our minds 1128 01:04:03.920 --> 01:04:05.320 can really move on. 1129 01:04:09.920 --> 01:04:12.120 Good evening, Wembley and the world! 1130 01:04:12.120 --> 01:04:14.400 CROWD CHEERS 1131 01:04:15.400 --> 01:04:18.560 We are here tonight to celebrate 1132 01:04:18.560 --> 01:04:23.560 the life and work and dreams of one Freddie Mercury. 1133 01:04:23.560 --> 01:04:25.920 CROWD CHEERS 1134 01:04:25.920 --> 01:04:29.640 You have to have something that attracts people to hear 1135 01:04:29.640 --> 01:04:33.520 the message that needs to be said, and nothing on this planet 1136 01:04:33.520 --> 01:04:35.080 will ever beat music. 1137 01:04:36.480 --> 01:04:40.360 They're number one all over the world right now. 1138 01:04:40.360 --> 01:04:43.480 Please welcome on stage Def Leppard! 1139 01:04:43.480 --> 01:04:45.840 CROWD CHEERS 1140 01:04:45.840 --> 01:04:48.160 Good evening! 1141 01:04:48.160 --> 01:04:50.280 Are you all enjoying yourselves? 1142 01:04:52.280 --> 01:04:53.480 It unites people. 1143 01:04:53.480 --> 01:04:57.160 MUSIC: Now I'm Here by Queen 1144 01:04:57.160 --> 01:05:00.360 # Here I stand Here I stand 1145 01:05:00.360 --> 01:05:02.680 # Looked around, around, around... # 1146 01:05:02.680 --> 01:05:06.840 'Essentially, what we have with this show is the celebration 1147 01:05:06.840 --> 01:05:09.040 'of the life of a musician' 1148 01:05:09.040 --> 01:05:14.040 who just happened to be gay, who died of the consequences of Aids. 1149 01:05:14.040 --> 01:05:17.040 # Now I'm there Now I'm there... # 1150 01:05:18.200 --> 01:05:22.440 That in itself is incredible and juxtaposition in 1992, 1151 01:05:22.440 --> 01:05:25.960 because it was improving, but it was still a homophobic world. 1152 01:05:25.960 --> 01:05:29.360 # Just a new man 1153 01:05:29.360 --> 01:05:32.320 # Yes, you made me live again... # 1154 01:05:32.320 --> 01:05:35.400 'And I think that fact that you've got this, what you might call, 1155 01:05:35.400 --> 01:05:39.240 very heterosexual rock opening up the show for the first hour, 1156 01:05:39.240 --> 01:05:42.000 I think that juxtaposition is actually beneficial. 1157 01:05:42.000 --> 01:05:45.320 # A baby I was when you took my hand 1158 01:05:45.320 --> 01:05:48.280 # The light of the night burned bright... # 1159 01:05:48.280 --> 01:05:51.720 'If you'd have just been an entirely gay collection of musicians, 1160 01:05:51.720 --> 01:05:52.920 'it wouldn't have worked.' 1161 01:05:52.920 --> 01:05:55.320 # But you knew my name on sight... # 1162 01:05:55.320 --> 01:05:59.520 If you look back at how the show flowed and who performed on it, 1163 01:05:59.520 --> 01:06:01.840 it doesn't really make any sense. 1164 01:06:01.840 --> 01:06:04.280 Please welcome Metallica. 1165 01:06:04.280 --> 01:06:08.160 'The last thing you'd expect is a band like Metallica 1166 01:06:08.160 --> 01:06:10.240 'to be playing an Aids awareness show' 1167 01:06:10.240 --> 01:06:11.680 and a tribute to Freddie Mercury. 1168 01:06:11.680 --> 01:06:14.480 # Don't I love you so... # 1169 01:06:14.480 --> 01:06:18.360 Here for Aids awareness is Guns N' Roses. 1170 01:06:18.360 --> 01:06:20.640 This is Guns N' Roses, 1992. 1171 01:06:20.640 --> 01:06:23.600 They were completely off their face. 1172 01:06:23.600 --> 01:06:27.000 I remember seeing Duff, bless him, sat on the stairs. 1173 01:06:27.000 --> 01:06:28.360 He couldn't even speak. 1174 01:06:28.360 --> 01:06:29.880 He couldn't speak. 1175 01:06:29.880 --> 01:06:32.160 And this is an hour before they went on. 1176 01:06:32.160 --> 01:06:33.920 How are you feeling before you go on? 1177 01:06:33.920 --> 01:06:36.040 I just woke up. You just woke up? 1178 01:06:36.040 --> 01:06:39.200 And I'm thinking, "Oh, boy, I can't wait to see this." 1179 01:06:39.200 --> 01:06:41.640 Yet when they went on stage, he was amazing. 1180 01:06:41.640 --> 01:06:44.800 # Whatever comes of you and me 1181 01:06:44.800 --> 01:06:46.680 I'd love to leave my memory... # 1182 01:06:46.680 --> 01:06:49.000 'There would have been a lot of heterosexual people 1183 01:06:49.000 --> 01:06:50.280 'that loved Queen that went,' 1184 01:06:50.280 --> 01:06:52.240 "Oh, I'm not keen on the gay lifestyle bit." 1185 01:06:55.000 --> 01:06:58.280 But to the majority, most people just didn't care. 1186 01:06:58.280 --> 01:07:00.440 They were there to celebrate Fred. 1187 01:07:00.440 --> 01:07:02.760 Thank you! See you soon, all right? 1188 01:07:02.760 --> 01:07:04.120 Goodnight! 1189 01:07:04.120 --> 01:07:06.960 BIG ROCK CRESCENDO 1190 01:07:06.960 --> 01:07:09.800 CHEERING FADES 1191 01:07:11.840 --> 01:07:17.360 I first discovered Queen in my last years at school. 1192 01:07:17.360 --> 01:07:22.120 Everybody at school was saying how I looked like Freddie Mercury. 1193 01:07:22.120 --> 01:07:23.640 The man changed my life. 1194 01:07:23.640 --> 01:07:28.080 From being a 16-year-old blood getting mick took out of him 1195 01:07:28.080 --> 01:07:30.360 for goofy teeth and Bugs Bunny 1196 01:07:30.360 --> 01:07:33.200 to being a good-looking chap who could go round town 1197 01:07:33.200 --> 01:07:34.960 and sing and dance. 1198 01:07:34.960 --> 01:07:37.120 It just changed me completely. 1199 01:07:38.760 --> 01:07:40.000 Are you ready? 1200 01:07:41.200 --> 01:07:43.520 MUSIC: Another One Bites the Dust by Queen 1201 01:07:45.160 --> 01:07:47.160 'There was this one' 1202 01:07:47.160 --> 01:07:50.040 guy who was dressed like Freddie on someone's shoulders. 1203 01:07:50.040 --> 01:07:51.160 Do it! 1204 01:07:52.440 --> 01:07:55.720 He encapsulated that audience for me. 1205 01:07:55.720 --> 01:07:59.360 Every gesture, every motion, it was bleeding out of him. 1206 01:07:59.360 --> 01:08:02.400 MUSIC: Keep Yourself Alive by Queen 1207 01:08:03.520 --> 01:08:06.920 He just looked and then he did, like, a double take... 1208 01:08:06.920 --> 01:08:08.600 # Keep yourself alive Come on 1209 01:08:08.600 --> 01:08:09.800 # Keep yourself alive... # 1210 01:08:09.800 --> 01:08:12.160 ..and he just started laughing, and I remember that 1211 01:08:12.160 --> 01:08:13.720 like it were yesterday. 1212 01:08:13.720 --> 01:08:16.360 MUSIC: Radio Ga Ga by Queen 1213 01:08:16.360 --> 01:08:18.520 # All we hear is... # 1214 01:08:18.520 --> 01:08:22.520 You could see individuals celebrate the music and, you know, 1215 01:08:22.520 --> 01:08:24.680 lose themselves and express themselves. 1216 01:08:24.680 --> 01:08:25.720 Sing it! 1217 01:08:25.720 --> 01:08:29.360 # All we hear is radio ga ga 1218 01:08:29.360 --> 01:08:30.800 # Radio, what's new...? # 1219 01:08:30.800 --> 01:08:34.960 'It wasn't just another singalong - it was more than that.' 1220 01:08:34.960 --> 01:08:36.480 It was visceral. 1221 01:08:36.480 --> 01:08:42.840 # Someone still loves you. # 1222 01:08:44.800 --> 01:08:45.840 Thank you! 1223 01:08:47.560 --> 01:08:49.960 'Of course, we were the beginning of the event,' 1224 01:08:49.960 --> 01:08:52.240 and it was that way throughout the whole day. 1225 01:08:52.240 --> 01:08:53.400 Goodnight! 1226 01:09:00.120 --> 01:09:02.400 CROWD CHEERS 1227 01:09:04.280 --> 01:09:06.080 CROWD CHANTS "FREDDIE, FREDDIE!" 1228 01:09:06.080 --> 01:09:10.120 I think I learned that day just 1229 01:09:10.120 --> 01:09:15.120 what an incredible force he was, 1230 01:09:15.120 --> 01:09:19.520 not just his voice, but the man himself. 1231 01:09:23.320 --> 01:09:27.000 All right, we're about to go in to the second half of the concert 1232 01:09:27.000 --> 01:09:30.760 in which the three members of Queen will perform with a remarkable 1233 01:09:30.760 --> 01:09:33.240 series of collaborators. 1234 01:09:33.240 --> 01:09:37.280 There was an energy that day that was unbelievable. 1235 01:09:38.440 --> 01:09:41.200 Next, the lead singer from The Who, Roger Daltrey, 1236 01:09:41.200 --> 01:09:44.680 along with Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon from Queen. 1237 01:09:44.680 --> 01:09:46.760 MUSIC: Pinball Wizard by The Who 1238 01:09:49.440 --> 01:09:51.600 And it was because of one person. 1239 01:09:53.560 --> 01:09:56.800 They lost Freddie, so I can imagine what they were going through. 1240 01:09:56.800 --> 01:10:00.320 It must have been incredibly traumatic, but I'm sure that once 1241 01:10:00.320 --> 01:10:03.960 they heard their music again, even though it's being done 1242 01:10:03.960 --> 01:10:07.880 differently by me and the other artists, it must have just 1243 01:10:07.880 --> 01:10:09.120 given them a lift. 1244 01:10:09.120 --> 01:10:10.520 MUSIC: I Want It All by Queen 1245 01:10:10.520 --> 01:10:12.880 # I want it all 1246 01:10:12.880 --> 01:10:18.000 # I want it all I want it all 1247 01:10:18.000 --> 01:10:19.680 # And I want it now... # 1248 01:10:22.400 --> 01:10:26.240 I think for the boys, it was a catharsis. 1249 01:10:26.240 --> 01:10:30.240 It was a way of saying goodbye, but saying goodbye in front 1250 01:10:30.240 --> 01:10:35.160 of everybody, saying this was someone we loved deeply. 1251 01:10:35.160 --> 01:10:38.520 Our next guest is Mr Paul Young. 1252 01:10:38.520 --> 01:10:40.480 I did feel the sense of loss in the stadium. 1253 01:10:40.480 --> 01:10:44.320 I mean, I felt that the fans were there to celebrate Freddie. 1254 01:10:44.320 --> 01:10:48.000 # All we hear is radio ga ga... # 1255 01:10:48.000 --> 01:10:49.280 'But I did feel it' 1256 01:10:49.280 --> 01:10:51.160 from the band as well. 1257 01:10:52.760 --> 01:10:55.080 It was like my childhood was all coming on stage - 1258 01:10:55.080 --> 01:10:58.120 all the singers that I'd idolised. 1259 01:10:58.120 --> 01:11:01.840 # Pray tomorrow takes me higher 1260 01:11:01.840 --> 01:11:05.800 # Pressure on people, people on streets... # 1261 01:11:05.800 --> 01:11:08.240 When you say stepping into his shoes, that really brings 1262 01:11:08.240 --> 01:11:10.960 it home, you know, cos that's what we were trying to do. 1263 01:11:10.960 --> 01:11:13.040 'Please, give me a break!' 1264 01:11:13.040 --> 01:11:15.440 I was not trying to be Freddie Mercury. 1265 01:11:15.440 --> 01:11:17.560 'You do your best. That's all you do.' 1266 01:11:17.560 --> 01:11:20.200 # I want it all 1267 01:11:20.200 --> 01:11:24.640 # I want it all I want it all 1268 01:11:24.640 --> 01:11:27.160 # And I want it now... # 1269 01:11:27.160 --> 01:11:30.200 I know it sounds really, really corny, 1270 01:11:30.200 --> 01:11:34.760 but it was really like he was watching and if he'd have been 1271 01:11:34.760 --> 01:11:37.680 there, he's have been saying, "No, do it like that and you do 1272 01:11:37.680 --> 01:11:41.080 it like that," so you were trying to listen to what he would say. 1273 01:11:41.080 --> 01:11:43.800 # I want to break free from your lies 1274 01:11:43.800 --> 01:11:49.400 # You're so self satisfied I don't need you... # 1275 01:11:49.400 --> 01:11:50.920 'And you really wanted to' 1276 01:11:50.920 --> 01:11:54.400 make him feel proud and you wanted to make Queen feel proud. 1277 01:11:54.400 --> 01:11:55.920 # God knows. # 1278 01:11:55.920 --> 01:11:58.560 You know, it's all about the band, as well. 1279 01:11:58.560 --> 01:12:01.480 And they played so well, Roger and Brian and John. 1280 01:12:01.480 --> 01:12:03.320 And I'm just pleased for them. 1281 01:12:03.320 --> 01:12:05.200 It's going to be a very emotional day for them. 1282 01:12:05.200 --> 01:12:08.080 MUSIC: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen 1283 01:12:11.840 --> 01:12:14.840 # Mama 1284 01:12:14.840 --> 01:12:17.440 # Just killed a man... # 1285 01:12:17.440 --> 01:12:21.160 Well, it was obvious why it was important for Elton to perform 1286 01:12:21.160 --> 01:12:25.200 because he was the most vocal of all the gay musicians. 1287 01:12:25.200 --> 01:12:30.680 # Mama, life had just begun... # 1288 01:12:30.680 --> 01:12:36.440 Elton and Freddie were very close, and I remember Elton 1289 01:12:36.440 --> 01:12:38.840 during the rehearsals being just very sombre. 1290 01:12:38.840 --> 01:12:41.280 # Mama 1291 01:12:41.280 --> 01:12:42.960 # Oooh... # 1292 01:12:42.960 --> 01:12:49.000 With Axl Rose, he had the reputation for turning up at a gig 1293 01:12:49.000 --> 01:12:53.120 and then going on stage two hours late, and all the rest of it, 1294 01:12:53.120 --> 01:12:56.320 and there was a lot of controversy about Axl. 1295 01:12:56.320 --> 01:13:00.920 Axl said some fairly unwise and could be construed as 1296 01:13:00.920 --> 01:13:04.080 homophobic statements. 1297 01:13:04.080 --> 01:13:08.480 'And one of my real dreams at the time was to get them together' 1298 01:13:08.480 --> 01:13:10.280 on Bohemian Rhapsody. 1299 01:13:10.280 --> 01:13:14.960 # Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go... # 1300 01:13:14.960 --> 01:13:18.120 But we never knew if Axl was actually going to turn up, 1301 01:13:18.120 --> 01:13:24.280 cos he didn't turn up to rehearsals and he was famously unpredictable. 1302 01:13:24.280 --> 01:13:26.680 It was such a dangerous thing to do at the time. 1303 01:13:26.680 --> 01:13:30.400 Axl Rose and Elton John, you know what I mean? 1304 01:13:30.400 --> 01:13:33.120 You'd imagine it to be the biggest road crash ever. 1305 01:13:33.120 --> 01:13:37.840 # I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all... # 1306 01:13:37.840 --> 01:13:40.040 We left our door open so that we could see 1307 01:13:40.040 --> 01:13:42.040 who was milling around outside. 1308 01:13:42.040 --> 01:13:45.480 We saw Elton walk past our door and then he kind of must have done 1309 01:13:45.480 --> 01:13:49.160 a John Cleese and he stopped and walked backwards and kind 1310 01:13:49.160 --> 01:13:51.720 of just leaned in and went, "Hello, boys." 1311 01:13:51.720 --> 01:13:54.600 Then he came in a little while later and he went, "What's going on?" 1312 01:13:54.600 --> 01:13:57.760 He says, "I've got to sing a duet with this guy in four hours' time, 1313 01:13:57.760 --> 01:13:59.560 "and he won't open his door." 1314 01:13:59.560 --> 01:14:02.840 # I see a little silhouetto of a man... # 1315 01:14:02.840 --> 01:14:05.640 Apparently, he knocked on the door and his security guy just opened 1316 01:14:05.640 --> 01:14:08.120 the door a little bit and said, "Axl's sleeping," 1317 01:14:08.120 --> 01:14:09.400 and he shut the door. 1318 01:14:09.400 --> 01:14:11.840 It's like, you don't shut the door on Elton John. 1319 01:14:11.840 --> 01:14:14.760 And he vented his spleen in our dressing room. 1320 01:14:14.760 --> 01:14:17.760 "I've got to do a duet. He's not opening the door. 1321 01:14:17.760 --> 01:14:19.400 "I'm Elton John!" 1322 01:14:19.400 --> 01:14:22.000 Fucking hell! It was really funny, actually. 1323 01:14:22.000 --> 01:14:23.240 # Let me go 1324 01:14:23.240 --> 01:14:24.360 # Ah 1325 01:14:24.360 --> 01:14:26.200 # No, no, no, no, no, no, no... # 1326 01:14:26.200 --> 01:14:27.240 And I'm thinking, 1327 01:14:27.240 --> 01:14:30.320 it'll be interesting to see how this works out. 1328 01:14:30.320 --> 01:14:32.360 And I just sort of looked round, 1329 01:14:32.360 --> 01:14:34.120 thinking, is he going appear? 1330 01:14:35.080 --> 01:14:37.920 And he suddenly appeared like a whirling dervish 1331 01:14:37.920 --> 01:14:39.520 in a Scottish kilt. 1332 01:14:43.880 --> 01:14:47.200 And he was absolutely fantastic, I thought he was electric. 1333 01:14:47.200 --> 01:14:51.920 # So you think you can stop me and spit in my eye 1334 01:14:53.720 --> 01:14:58.480 # So you think you can love me and leave me to die 1335 01:14:58.480 --> 01:15:02.400 # Oh, baby 1336 01:15:02.400 --> 01:15:05.560 # Can't do this to me, baby 1337 01:15:05.560 --> 01:15:10.640 # Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here... # 1338 01:15:10.640 --> 01:15:14.440 If there was anybody in the crowd that wasn't keen on him doing it, 1339 01:15:14.440 --> 01:15:17.720 they didn't seem to show it cos I've never seen a reaction like it. 1340 01:15:19.640 --> 01:15:23.080 But then there was this, like, total kind of polar opposite of when it 1341 01:15:23.080 --> 01:15:25.200 goes down to the end section. 1342 01:15:27.360 --> 01:15:30.840 # Nothing really matters, 1343 01:15:30.840 --> 01:15:34.440 # Anyone can see 1344 01:15:34.440 --> 01:15:38.400 # Nothing really matters... # 1345 01:15:38.400 --> 01:15:42.120 The two of them come together, and my memory serves me right, 1346 01:15:42.120 --> 01:15:44.240 for a brief second, they held hands. 1347 01:15:44.240 --> 01:15:48.920 # ..to me. # 1348 01:15:50.400 --> 01:15:52.680 'And the two of them went down the front and held hands 1349 01:15:52.680 --> 01:15:53.920 'at the end of the song. 1350 01:15:53.920 --> 01:15:55.080 'That wasn't rehearsed. 1351 01:15:55.080 --> 01:15:57.960 'There's a lot you see in that concert which was not rehearsed. 1352 01:15:57.960 --> 01:16:00.920 'It wasn't rehearsed because Axl wasn't at rehearsals.' 1353 01:16:00.920 --> 01:16:02.560 And it's momentous. 1354 01:16:02.560 --> 01:16:08.960 # Any way the wind blows... # 1355 01:16:10.840 --> 01:16:13.680 CROWD CHEERS 1356 01:16:25.680 --> 01:16:30.240 It's very hard to quantify what impact the concert had. 1357 01:16:30.240 --> 01:16:32.680 ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome 1358 01:16:32.680 --> 01:16:34.960 the remarkable Elizabeth Taylor? 1359 01:16:34.960 --> 01:16:37.480 But what I can say with utmost 1360 01:16:37.480 --> 01:16:40.520 certainty is it did open up a public 1361 01:16:40.520 --> 01:16:43.000 conversation and together with 1362 01:16:43.000 --> 01:16:47.800 the actions of HIV and Aids, organisations began to shift 1363 01:16:47.800 --> 01:16:49.680 public attitudes. 1364 01:16:49.680 --> 01:16:55.280 We are here to celebrate the life of Freddie Mercury. 1365 01:16:56.800 --> 01:16:58.520 It was tricky for us. 1366 01:16:58.520 --> 01:17:01.120 On one level, we're saying, 1367 01:17:01.120 --> 01:17:04.160 this is celebrating his life, this is the strong statement. 1368 01:17:04.160 --> 01:17:06.680 And on the other hand, we're thinking, ouch, you know, 1369 01:17:06.680 --> 01:17:12.040 this actually does hurt us. And it was bound to do. 1370 01:17:12.040 --> 01:17:14.960 # Day dum 1371 01:17:14.960 --> 01:17:16.800 # Day de day de day dum. # 1372 01:17:18.040 --> 01:17:23.000 We are here also to tell the whole world 1373 01:17:23.000 --> 01:17:30.440 that he, like others we have lost to Aids, died before his time. 1374 01:17:30.440 --> 01:17:34.120 Freddie's tribute, to me, was like a tribute to Richard as well, 1375 01:17:34.120 --> 01:17:37.320 and the thousands that had died before him. 1376 01:17:37.320 --> 01:17:40.120 # Ay dum. # 1377 01:17:40.120 --> 01:17:42.600 He's one of the people that I thought about for a long, long 1378 01:17:42.600 --> 01:17:47.360 time because he kind of represented a cohort of patients that died. 1379 01:17:47.360 --> 01:17:52.440 Some when I was with them alone late at night in a high dependency ward 1380 01:17:52.440 --> 01:17:56.160 trying my best, but it didn't work. 1381 01:17:56.160 --> 01:18:00.560 Each day around the world, 1382 01:18:00.560 --> 01:18:05.360 5,000 people are infected with HIV, 1383 01:18:05.360 --> 01:18:07.840 the virus that causes Aids. 1384 01:18:08.960 --> 01:18:13.400 Tonight, we're here to send them a message that we care. 1385 01:18:13.400 --> 01:18:16.760 It wasn't that long after that effective treatment arrived. 1386 01:18:17.800 --> 01:18:21.760 I would think, Oh, Freddie and this gang of guys, mostly guys, 1387 01:18:21.760 --> 01:18:25.480 would be still alive today if they had these treatments. 1388 01:18:25.480 --> 01:18:28.560 But they didn't - they were just a few years too early. 1389 01:18:28.560 --> 01:18:32.880 But I'm also here with a message for each 1390 01:18:32.880 --> 01:18:38.040 and every one of you - protect yourselves, love yourselves, 1391 01:18:38.040 --> 01:18:39.920 respect yourselves, 1392 01:18:39.920 --> 01:18:44.640 because I will keep on telling you until you do and I won't give in. 1393 01:18:44.640 --> 01:18:50.560 And I won't give up because the world needs you to live. 1394 01:18:50.560 --> 01:18:53.760 HUGE CHEER 1395 01:18:58.960 --> 01:19:03.440 It happened with Anselmo across a lobby. 1396 01:19:03.440 --> 01:19:07.520 So I met him in that lobby 1397 01:19:07.520 --> 01:19:09.080 and I didn't understand why 1398 01:19:09.080 --> 01:19:10.160 the click happened. 1399 01:19:10.160 --> 01:19:12.120 This is a man in a Brazilian hotel. 1400 01:19:12.120 --> 01:19:14.360 I'm never going to see him again. 1401 01:19:14.360 --> 01:19:16.520 Why did that happen? 1402 01:19:16.520 --> 01:19:19.640 This was the first love of my entire life. 1403 01:19:19.640 --> 01:19:23.840 This was the first person I ever shared my life with. 1404 01:19:23.840 --> 01:19:27.000 It was love at first sight. 1405 01:19:27.000 --> 01:19:30.840 He was a fashion designer, very talented man. 1406 01:19:30.840 --> 01:19:35.480 At the time, I was married and we hid Anselmo 1407 01:19:35.480 --> 01:19:37.720 as my wife's cousin. 1408 01:19:37.720 --> 01:19:40.400 And he was everything to George. 1409 01:19:40.400 --> 01:19:44.440 I was 27 and I'd just started my first proper relationship, 1410 01:19:44.440 --> 01:19:47.000 which is pretty old, isn't it, really? 1411 01:19:47.000 --> 01:19:51.960 I went out for dinner with George, and he was very quiet on me. 1412 01:19:53.040 --> 01:19:54.800 He goes, "Anselmo's got Aids." 1413 01:19:58.280 --> 01:19:59.520 Thank you very much. 1414 01:19:59.520 --> 01:20:01.880 There's something I'd like to say. 1415 01:20:01.880 --> 01:20:04.280 I think many of us have something to say today. 1416 01:20:06.440 --> 01:20:09.320 I couldn't believe he had found someone to love. 1417 01:20:10.960 --> 01:20:13.680 And now he was going to lose that person. 1418 01:20:15.400 --> 01:20:17.640 It was heartbreaking. 1419 01:20:17.640 --> 01:20:22.640 The conservative estimate for the year 2000 1420 01:20:22.640 --> 01:20:28.080 is 40 million people on this planet will be infected with HIV? 1421 01:20:29.520 --> 01:20:33.640 And if you think, or any of you out there, really think 1422 01:20:33.640 --> 01:20:37.600 that those are all going to be gay people or drug addicts, 1423 01:20:37.600 --> 01:20:40.480 then you're pretty much lining up to be one of those numbers. 1424 01:20:41.680 --> 01:20:43.880 CROWD CHEERS 1425 01:20:46.760 --> 01:20:50.520 So, please, for God's sake, and for Freddie's sake, 1426 01:20:50.520 --> 01:20:53.520 and for your own sakes, please be careful. 1427 01:20:53.520 --> 01:20:55.040 All right? 1428 01:20:55.040 --> 01:20:56.800 Thank you very much. 1429 01:20:56.800 --> 01:20:59.880 This song is one of my favourites. 1430 01:20:59.880 --> 01:21:02.000 It's called Somebody To Love. 1431 01:21:02.000 --> 01:21:04.360 MUSIC: Somebody To Love by Queen 1432 01:21:08.840 --> 01:21:12.120 # Each morning I get up I die a little 1433 01:21:12.120 --> 01:21:14.520 # Can barely stand on my feet 1434 01:21:14.520 --> 01:21:15.840 # Take a look at yourself 1435 01:21:15.840 --> 01:21:18.600 # Take a look in the mirror and cry 1436 01:21:18.600 --> 01:21:19.720 # And cry 1437 01:21:19.720 --> 01:21:22.000 # Lord, what you're doing to me 1438 01:21:22.000 --> 01:21:25.160 # I have spent all my years in believing you 1439 01:21:25.160 --> 01:21:28.880 # But I just can't get no relief, Lord! 1440 01:21:28.880 --> 01:21:30.200 # Somebody Somebody 1441 01:21:30.200 --> 01:21:32.080 # Ooh, somebody Somebody 1442 01:21:32.080 --> 01:21:36.080 # Can anybody find me 1443 01:21:36.080 --> 01:21:38.400 # Somebody to love...? # 1444 01:21:38.400 --> 01:21:42.680 "Please God. I cry and cry. Send me someone." 1445 01:21:42.680 --> 01:21:45.280 And he did, but he was dying. 1446 01:21:47.880 --> 01:21:49.760 I want to hear every single person. 1447 01:21:51.040 --> 01:21:53.480 See every single pair of hands. 1448 01:21:53.480 --> 01:21:55.120 Three, four! 1449 01:21:55.120 --> 01:22:01.520 # Find me somebody to love Find me somebody to love 1450 01:22:01.520 --> 01:22:03.680 # Find me somebody to love... # 1451 01:22:03.680 --> 01:22:06.320 The sound of his voice is coming out in the monitors all around me, 1452 01:22:06.320 --> 01:22:09.600 and there were moments on that night when we had that crystal clear 1453 01:22:09.600 --> 01:22:11.680 razor edge just like Freddie. 1454 01:22:11.680 --> 01:22:14.960 And it was a real chills-up-the-spine moment 1455 01:22:14.960 --> 01:22:16.240 for all of us. 1456 01:22:16.240 --> 01:22:23.440 # Can anybody find me... # 1457 01:22:23.440 --> 01:22:25.200 When he sings the chorus... 1458 01:22:25.200 --> 01:22:28.320 # ..somebody to... # 1459 01:22:28.320 --> 01:22:30.920 ..and he puts the mic out to the audience. 1460 01:22:30.920 --> 01:22:32.120 Come on! 1461 01:22:32.120 --> 01:22:33.400 Ah! 1462 01:22:33.400 --> 01:22:36.920 AUDIENCE: Love! 1463 01:22:36.920 --> 01:22:38.160 He spun around... 1464 01:22:38.160 --> 01:22:39.200 Yeah! 1465 01:22:41.960 --> 01:22:43.920 ..cos he knew he had the audience. 1466 01:22:43.920 --> 01:22:46.520 # Somebody to love... # 1467 01:22:48.160 --> 01:22:52.520 I spoke to Anselmo after the performance and I said to him, 1468 01:22:52.520 --> 01:22:55.080 "You know that song was for you." 1469 01:22:56.080 --> 01:23:00.360 And he was like, "No, no." I said, "Anselmo, that was yours." 1470 01:23:00.360 --> 01:23:03.680 # Find me, fine me, find me... # 1471 01:23:03.680 --> 01:23:09.520 And 11 months later, literally to the day - we knew it was coming, 1472 01:23:09.520 --> 01:23:12.640 of course we knew - he died. 1473 01:23:13.720 --> 01:23:16.440 # Anybody, anywhere, anybody find me 1474 01:23:16.440 --> 01:23:18.440 # Somebody to love 1475 01:23:18.440 --> 01:23:20.320 # Yeah, yeah 1476 01:23:20.320 --> 01:23:26.720 # Love! # 1477 01:23:29.800 --> 01:23:31.480 BIG ROCK CRESCENDO 1478 01:23:31.480 --> 01:23:33.200 CROWD ROARS 1479 01:23:33.200 --> 01:23:35.760 Thank you very much. Goodnight. Take care. 1480 01:23:47.920 --> 01:23:53.240 I think there is - I know there is - one person in the world 1481 01:23:53.240 --> 01:23:58.760 that Freddie would be very proud to have stand in his footsteps tonight. 1482 01:23:58.760 --> 01:24:01.760 Ladies and gentlemen, Liza! 1483 01:24:01.760 --> 01:24:03.720 CROWD CHEERS 1484 01:24:08.560 --> 01:24:10.400 She was very emotional about it. 1485 01:24:10.400 --> 01:24:11.920 She loved Freddie. 1486 01:24:11.920 --> 01:24:14.920 MUSIC: We Are The Champions by Queen 1487 01:24:14.920 --> 01:24:18.200 # I've paid my dues 1488 01:24:19.320 --> 01:24:21.640 # Time after time 1489 01:24:23.160 --> 01:24:25.760 # I've done my sentence 1490 01:24:27.240 --> 01:24:30.200 # But committed no crime 1491 01:24:31.520 --> 01:24:34.320 # And bad mistakes 1492 01:24:35.800 --> 01:24:38.160 # I've made a few 1493 01:24:39.680 --> 01:24:41.760 # I've had my share of sand 1494 01:24:41.760 --> 01:24:43.360 # Kicked in my face 1495 01:24:43.360 --> 01:24:46.520 # But I've come through 1496 01:24:46.520 --> 01:24:50.920 # And we mean to go on and on and on and on 1497 01:24:50.920 --> 01:24:56.760 # We are the champions, my friends 1498 01:24:58.880 --> 01:25:04.440 # And we'll keep on fighting till the end... # 1499 01:25:04.440 --> 01:25:07.600 I thought it was just a wonderful day. 1500 01:25:08.840 --> 01:25:12.760 The warmth was sort of infinite. 1501 01:25:12.760 --> 01:25:15.680 I remember feeling totally exhausted at the end. 1502 01:25:15.680 --> 01:25:19.160 # ..No time for losers 1503 01:25:19.160 --> 01:25:24.680 # Cos we are the champions 1504 01:25:24.680 --> 01:25:28.120 # Of the world... # 1505 01:25:28.120 --> 01:25:31.800 Freddie opened up his heart and gave it everything he had. 1506 01:25:33.400 --> 01:25:36.520 He lived for his music, he loved his music. 1507 01:25:36.520 --> 01:25:40.640 And he was proud of himself as a musician above everything else. 1508 01:25:40.640 --> 01:25:48.040 # We are the champions We are the champions 1509 01:25:48.040 --> 01:25:51.560 # No time for losers... # 1510 01:25:51.560 --> 01:25:55.320 'We are light years in terms of treatment from where 1511 01:25:55.320 --> 01:25:57.680 'we were because we have the medication' 1512 01:25:57.680 --> 01:26:00.160 so I know I'm not going to die tomorrow. 1513 01:26:00.160 --> 01:26:05.160 But I still meet people who get diagnosed, and it's devastating. 1514 01:26:05.160 --> 01:26:06.880 I would say to them, 1515 01:26:06.880 --> 01:26:10.600 "Know that there is a world where you will be loved 1516 01:26:10.600 --> 01:26:13.560 "and you'll be taken care of without any judgment." 1517 01:26:15.080 --> 01:26:19.160 The antidote to shame is light, isn't it? Empathy. 1518 01:26:19.160 --> 01:26:22.680 So if the secret stops being a secret and everybody can see it, 1519 01:26:22.680 --> 01:26:27.160 and we get some love and acceptance, that is powerful. 1520 01:26:27.160 --> 01:26:28.600 That is powerful. 1521 01:26:28.600 --> 01:26:31.600 # Cos we are the champions... # 1522 01:26:31.600 --> 01:26:34.560 I wish Freddie could have seen that outpouring 1523 01:26:34.560 --> 01:26:36.800 of love and acceptance. 1524 01:26:36.800 --> 01:26:38.400 Thanks, Freddie! 1525 01:26:38.400 --> 01:26:41.720 We just wanted to let you know we were thinking about you. 1526 01:26:41.720 --> 01:26:43.600 Stay safe! 1527 01:26:43.600 --> 01:26:47.960 # ..of the world! # 1528 01:27:29.640 --> 01:27:30.960 MUSIC: A Winter's Tale by Queen 1529 01:27:30.960 --> 01:27:32.240 Yeah, look at that intro. 1530 01:27:34.440 --> 01:27:39.480 # Red skies are gleaming, oh... # 1531 01:27:40.600 --> 01:27:44.560 When he was in Montreux, he sat on the balcony and the view 1532 01:27:44.560 --> 01:27:47.920 is amazing overlooking the lake and the mountains 1533 01:27:47.920 --> 01:27:49.720 and the chimney tops. 1534 01:27:49.720 --> 01:27:51.560 # Smoking chimney-tops... # 1535 01:27:51.560 --> 01:27:52.800 # Chimney tops. # 1536 01:27:52.800 --> 01:27:53.960 # Am I dreaming? # 1537 01:27:53.960 --> 01:27:55.600 # Am I dreaming? # 1538 01:27:56.840 --> 01:27:58.160 # Am I dreaming? # 1539 01:27:58.160 --> 01:28:00.200 SHE HUMS ALONG 1540 01:28:00.200 --> 01:28:04.360 That would have been the last song that Freddie would have written 1541 01:28:04.360 --> 01:28:05.640 before he died. 1542 01:28:05.640 --> 01:28:07.840 # The nights draw in... # 1543 01:28:09.560 --> 01:28:13.920 # There's a silky moon up in the sky... # 1544 01:28:13.920 --> 01:28:15.480 Yeah! # Yeah... # 1545 01:28:15.480 --> 01:28:19.680 Although his body was failing him, his voice was so strong. 1546 01:28:19.680 --> 01:28:22.280 # Am I dreaming? # 1547 01:28:24.000 --> 01:28:26.680 # Am I dreaming? 1548 01:28:26.680 --> 01:28:28.760 # Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa 1549 01:28:28.760 --> 01:28:31.080 # Dreaming... # 1550 01:28:31.080 --> 01:28:35.120 It must have been hard when you know that you're going to die. 1551 01:28:35.120 --> 01:28:37.800 How do you cope with that? 1552 01:28:37.800 --> 01:28:41.080 By writing a lovely song, maybe. 1553 01:28:41.080 --> 01:28:46.760 And it's lovely that he's left this legacy for us all. 1554 01:28:46.760 --> 01:28:48.520 # Dreaming 1555 01:28:48.520 --> 01:28:50.720 # A breathtaking scene 1556 01:28:50.720 --> 01:28:54.960 # With the dreams of the world 1557 01:28:54.960 --> 01:29:02.200 # In the palm of your hand. # 1558 01:29:02.200 --> 01:29:04.400 MUSIC CONTINUES