As a rock star, it’s hardly surprising that Freddie Mercury led a colourful life on and off stage. But even his Queen band members remember the late singer trying to shock them personally. This week’s episode of Queen The Greatest live features new interviews with Sir Brian May and Roger Taylor looking back at the star’s flamboyant and often outrageous behaviour, especially when it came to his show costumes.
“The clothes are part of it, and no one was more aware of that than Freddie. Freddie really pioneered a lot of stuff and we came out of an era which was called glam, where people in rock groups realised that they could dress up and look fancy and make a big splash. But it was all very kind of random.
“And what we tried to do was, I guess, call on the traditions of opera and other art forms and make the costumes speak for us, make them part of the storytelling. So Freddie, with his little wings on his suits and all his crowns and paraphernalia, also the black and white stuff, which we got into, and it's all designed to be dramatic. It's designed to accentuate our movements and accentuate the moods of the songs.”
“And I don't really like the word costume because with ‘costume’ I think of kids, or I think of pantomime or, you know, and this isn't costumes, this is meant to be rock and roll. So I don't really have a costume. And also, being drums, it's pretty sweaty. You need something where you can move that is not hampering you in any way. And I leave it to… I leave it to the sort of those people out the front, whoever they are, to ponce around in their frilly dresses.” (Express)
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