Queen are seen in rare images shared today by photographer Peter Hince, who was their head roadie from 1975 to 1986.
He also lifts the lid on what became a roller-coaster ride with the band – and reveals he found Freddie “intimidating”.
Nicknamed Ratty for his long, greasy hair, Peter recalls seeing Queen in action for the first time in November 1973, the year their first album came out.
“I was a roadie for Mott the Hoople and they were the support,” he says. “We were all in jeans and big coats, and Queen came on in their satins and ladies’ blouses. We thought, ‘Who the f*** are they?’.
“But in rehearsals, they went for it. Fred was playing to an imaginary audience even then, running up and down the stage.”
When Peter became Queen’s roadie in early 1975, the LP Night at the Opera – featuring Bohemian Rhapsody – was about to win them global fame.
“I was a bit intimidated by Fred at first,” says Peter. “You had to be on your toes. I did all his cues, sorted his mic, got his drinks and I’d have to catch his tambourine. You had to watch him like a hawk.
“Queen were so driven. On stage, the energy was palpable. When Fred was on form, hairs on the back of your neck would rise and you’d think, ‘Wow’.”
Recalling filming the We Will Rock You video in the snow in winter 1978, Peter shudders.
“It was shot in the garden of Roger’s new house. The owners hadn’t moved out so we couldn’t go inside. Fred didn’t want to do it much. He had his Rolls and driver and he was knocking back brandies. He borrowed my roadie gloves as it was so cold.”
Peter has fond memories of 1979 in Munich, where Queen recorded The Game. “It was the first time they had gone into a studio with no deadline,” he says. “We had breakfast at 2pm as we didn’t go to bed till 8am, because we’d be clubbing.”
But as the band’s fame grew, so did Freddie’s tantrums and outlandish demands.
“After a gig in America he said, ‘I will not have that at a Queen show, the front row were fat and ugly’,” Peter recalls. “He once wanted to be carried on stage the way Cleopatra was by Nubian slaves. I said, ‘Fred, I’m not wearing pants and oiling up to carry you on stage’.”
And Peter recalls of New York’s Madison Square Gardens in 1980: “There was an end-of-tour party and everyone was there, including Andy Warhol. The manager said we’d have mud-wrestling ladies, so Fred said, ‘I want gay dwarves with moustaches in leather shorts to serve the drinks’.”
By Live Aid in 1985, tensions were mounting. “They’d come back from Japan after The Works tour and been going 15 years non-stop,” says Peter.
“John wasn’t happy, Fred had done a solo album, Roger had solo projects and there was a real chance they’d have broken up.”
But their Live Aid turn was huge. Peter says: “When Fred started Bohemian Rhapsody, people went crazy. I thought, ‘Wow, you’ve really done it, Fred.’ We came off and Elton said, ‘You f***ers, you stole the show’.”
Off-stage, Freddie was very different. “He was happiest at home with his cats, playing Scrabble or watching telly,” says Peter, who last saw the star at a party in 1990.
“We’d play table tennis. He was so good he’d use his left hand and still win.
“Fred used to say he was just a musical prostitute but I don’t think he meant it. I’ve heard Somebody to Love on an ad for Carpet Warehouse and I don’t think he’d be very happy about that.”
