This weekend will mark the 40th Anniversary of Live Aid, which still remains the crowning jewel in rock and pop history. Fittingly, the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana represented the monarchy in front of almost 1.9billion viewers.
Almost 40% of the world’s population watched Queen’s spectacular performance, which has become an iconic moment in pop culture, but eagle-eyed viewers spotted that only two of the four band members took the opportunity to see in the royal VIP area.
John Deacon, of course, was famously shy and retiring, but nobody could accuse the band’s frontman of the same. Indeed, rumours persist to this day that Freddie Mercury dressed Princess Diana as a man and took her to a gay bar.
The Bohemian Rhapsody singer dazzled the Wembley Stadium crowd and global viewers, but apparently had somewhere else he would rather be, which included flirting shamelessly with another rock icon.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Express, Freddie’s close friend and long-term assistant, Peter Freestone, revealed that the star had ‘better’ things to do.
He said: “Even at Live Aid, you see Brian May and Roger Taylor in the royal box. Freddie didn’t go. He was more interested in being with friends backstage, talking with Elton John, hanging out with his people. His friends were always the most important to him.”
In fact, Freddie was also busy chatting up one another very famous male star, who hilariously described how shameless the Queen legend was, especially since the man’s wife was standing right next to him…
U2 frontman Bono was backstage at Wembley Stadium with his wife Ali Stewart, who he had married in 1982, when the outrageous encounter occurred.
Bono recalled: “I was walking with Ali and Freddie Mercury pulled me aside and said: ‘Oh, Bo-No….is it Bo-No or Bon-O?’ I told him, ‘It’s Bon-O’. He said, ‘Come over here with me. We’ve all been talking, Roger [Daltrey] and Pete [Townshend] and David [Bowie], and we all agree there’s no singers any more, everyone is shouting these days, but you’re a singer.’
“I was up against a wall and he put his hand on the wall and was talking to me like he was chatting up a chick. He had me laughing but I was shifting nervously at the time, with Ali and myself exchanging glances.”
Of course, it was all done with Freddie’s usual irrepressible sense of fun and playfulness. Once he embraced his sexuality, he famously delighted in teasing others and sometimes exaggerated his behaviour for effect, off-stage as much as on.
Bono added: “I thought, ‘Wow, this guy’s really camp.’ I was telling somebody later and he said: ‘You’re surprised? They’re called Queen!’ But I was really amazed. It hadn’t dawned on me.”
Freddie, of course, meant nothing by it. He was accompanied at Live aid by his partner Jim Hutton. By then his friends and peers had accepted his sexuality.
Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof even joked about why the concert was the ideal platform for Queen’s flamboyant superstar: “It was the perfect stage for Freddie: the whole world. And he could ponce about on stage doing We Are The Champions. How perfect could it get?”