I hope you are all good. When you read this I will be traveling back from Liverpool on a bus full of very tired and emotionally exhausted young rockers and their parents after the shows at the Cavern Club in Liverpool by the youngsters from Rock Camp CZ.
Alex asked if I met Freddie today, what I would ask him.
Where the *#@+ have you been, springs to mind. It’s a difficult one as would hope that I had been with him wherever or what ever he had been doing.
Marcin wanted to know why I chose the Czech Republic to live.
One of the reasons was that it was a place that I had NEVER been with Freddie. I wouldn’t be walking down a street or going into a shop with memories of being there with Freddie springing into my head. I think of Freddie everyday in connection with something I might be doing, I don’t need to be reminded everywhere I go that he isn’t with us anymore. Saying that, I have really fallen in love with the country and I have found some wonderful people here I am very happy to call my friends. It doesn’t mean that friends from the past mean any less, but they know that.
Carlos asked how the statement of Freddie having AIDS was released.
On Friday 22nd November Freddie asked Jim Beach to come to Garden Lodge. Jim arrived about 10.00 and went up to Freddie’s bedroom suite. Freddie and Jim talked together for about 4-5 hours. About 14.30 Jim Beach came downstairs and met Jim Hutton, Joe Fanelli and myself in the kitchen and told us about the discussion that Freddie and he had just had. He told us that a statement would be released saying that Freddie had AIDS. Jim wanted us to be prepared for what was going to happen as regards the press at the door, and that the friends and family would know we all had been lying about Freddie’s health. The precise wording was what had been decided by Jim and Freddie and it was released to the press at 20.00 that evening.
Nicole asked what Freddie really thought about Australia and New Zealand.
Sadly to say Freddie’s feelings for those countries were coloured by the totally un-necessary full body search he has when the band went on tour in the 70s. He was resolute he would never return for many years and rejected thoughts to include Australia and new Zealand in any tours until he was finally persuaded by the other guys and Gerry Stickells to go on the last tour. In the event, he did have a good time and his thoughts turned positive.
Aida wanted to know if Queen wanted to change the world.
I don’t think changing the world was ever their intention. Like all musicians they wanted to leave their mark on music for new generations, and I think they succeeded in that. For me the fact that some questions on this blog are from people who were born after 1991 is ample evidence.
Lori wanted more photos of Freddie’s birthday cakes.
There are quite a few on different sites on the internet so I will have to leave you to search them out. He preferred sponge cakes as opposed to fruit cake. He found Christmas and other celebration cakes too heavy, so we often added an iced sponge cake to the Christmas food lists, so he could still have some cake with tea on Christmas and Boxing Day.
Jim asked why Freddie’s Memorial has been removed by Feltham Council.
I think basically it wasn’t cared for very well and was starting to disintegrate. It was removed at the request of Freddie’s family and has been moved to place nearby, where it is still on display.
Anthony wanted to know if Freddie had a monthly budget and how well he knew his income and out-goings.
The immediate answer to that is no, there was no budget. If he wanted something, he got it. He left others, like his accountant and Mary to worry about the actual figures, and if there was something big he wanted to buy, he would check with them before he went out and bought it. He said quite often he didn’t know how much was in his bank account, but he was clever enough to have a very good idea of what was there. Don’t forget, there were usual monthly outgoings that he, like all of us had, electricity, telephone, rates etc, but all of that he considered mundane and left to others to sort out.
John asked about Freddie’s involvement in the business aspects of the band.
Freddie was an astute business man as well as an amazing creative human. He realised that Queen was a business as well as being entertainers. In interviews Freddie often states that he is 25% of Queen and accepted everything that went with it. Saying that, he often got very bored when the small details of a contact were being discussed, and he had other things he wanted to be getting on with. He always saw the BIG picture and left the smaller bits for the others to cover.
Some people have asked what Freddie’s favourite sandwiches were.
I will add them to the bottom of this blog. We made these sandwiches for Freddie, or more correctly Terry, to take to the studio, so that if Freddie got so involved in creating music he forgot to go out to eat, there would be something available for him. Nothing ever came back, generally eaten by everyone else in the studio, once Freddie had tried one!
Have a great week in all that you get up to and looking forward to seeing more of your questions.
Here are the sandwich ‘recipes’. We generally made these with white bread, but you can choose to your taste.
Cucumber
1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
Chicken
Cooked boneless chicken breast, sliced
Salt and pepper
Egg Mayonnaise
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped
Mayonnaise to taste The master preferred Hellmans and frowned upon ersatz ‘own brand’ alternatives.
Salad cream To Taste Heinz was the only one tolerated.
Salt and pepper
Tuna
1 tin tuna
Mayonnaise As above
Salt and pepper
Butter the bread! We were not expected to remove the crusts from the sandwiches once they had been made as it was obviously assumed that the bread was only of the freshest! The sandwiches were quartered and then packed into plastic bags according to genre and then, unceremoniously, into a carrier bag!
07
May 2013
by Phoebe Freestone