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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
David McLean

The Glasgow bootmaker who ordered Freddie Mercury to fit David Bowie with a pair of platforms

Freddie Mercury David Bowie WHO Glasgow Deep Purple London Santana

If not for Alan Mair, one of the best-known rock and pop collaborations of the 20th century might never have happened.

In the 1970s, Alan, a musician and former bootmaker who grew up in Glasgow and tasted UK-wide success with seminal '60s beat group The Beatstalkers, hired the then unknown Queen frontman Freddie Mercury to run his fashion boutique in London's Kensington High Street.

As if that wasn't sensational enough, Alan happened to know David Bowie and once asked Freddie to fit the Life On Mars and Space Oddity legend with a pair of platform boots.

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