Queen singer Freddie Mercury shocked his bandmates in 1986 when he told them after their famous Knebworth gig that he did not want to perform live any longer due to his ailing health, a new documentary reveals.
Guitarist Brian May says in the upcoming Freddie Mercury: The Final Act, which airs on Saturday, how his friend told him and fellow bandmates Roger Taylor and John Deacon that he wanted to stop live performances.
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At the time of the gig, which was performed in front of a sell-out 200,000-strong crowd at Knebworth Park, in Hertfordshire, May and Taylor were unaware that Mercury was suffering from AIDS, which there was no treatment for at the time.
‘We had done the biggest tour ever of our lives and it was a great success and we were very happy. And Freddie said, “I can’t do this anymore, after this.” And we went, “oh”,’ May says.
Taylor adds: ‘He was fairly firm at that point about the fact that he didn’t want to do anymore live shows, which sort of told us that there was something wrong.’
The BBC programme also hears from others who were closest to Mercury, including his sister Kashmira Bulsara, long-time friend Anita Dobson and personal assistant Peter Freestone to recount their recollections of the singer’s final years.
Mercury, who was born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar in September 1946, passed away due to complications from AIDS 30 years ago yesterday, at the age of 45.
To mark the anniversary, fans left flowers outside his former home in Earl’s Court – an echo of how floral tributes piled up at the residence in the days after he passed away.
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