STAR OF INDIA

Sunday Times Magazine 17th November 1996

Freddie Mercury was one of the most electrifying performers in rock. But just as he tried to hide his homosexuality, he managed to avoid claming the crown of Britain's first Asian pop star. This revealing set of photographs, published exclusively, is part of an exhibition that is about to travel the world. Waldemar Januszczak profiles an immortal showman

Saturday evening arrives, and Britain falls into its weekly stupor in front of the telly. Luckily it's time for Gladiators, where a sprightly contestant is getting the better of Warrior on the bash-your-brains-out beam. As 300lb of brightly Lurexed behemoth plunges earthwards, the audience cheers, the contestants cheer, Ulrika and John cheer, we at home cheer, and somewhere up in heaven Freddie Mercury prepares to lead the lot of us into a mighty chorus of celebration. Because - ugh, ugh, ugh - Another One Bites the Dust. Now, I am as delighted as the next Gladiator-baiter that Warrior has had his butt bounced. Yet, having just met Freddie's delightful family, I cannot for the life of me understand how a sweet Indian schoolboy from Zanzibar managed to sneak himself so successfully into the lumpen heart of middle England. Certainly, the fact that Freddie Mercury was Britain's first Indian pop star is too little known and appreciated. In my view it explains a lot, and adds considerably to his achievement. If nothing else, it makes it easier to understand how he ended up wearing some of the things he did - the red outfit covered in all-seeing eyes, for example, which he donned for the video of It's a Hard Life, and which one wag complained made him look like a giant prawn. Freddie himself always played down his Indian origins. In the few interviews he gave, he remained deliberately unclear about them. In the official history of Queen, told breezily by Jacky Gunn and Jim Jenkins, and promising "Exclusive Interviews With The Band", it is firmly stated that Freddie was born of Persian parents, which sounds pleasantly exotic but is stretching the truth as mightily as Freddie sometimes stretched the seat of his hot pants as he posed on the world's largest stages. In fact, his parents were from Gujarat in western India, and they were Parsees, Indian followers of

STAR OF INDIA
Sunday Times Magazine 17th November 1996
Freddie Mercury was one of the most electrifying performers in rock. But just as he tried to hide his homosexuality, he managed to avoid claming the crown of Britain's first Asian pop star. This revealing set of photographs, published exclusively, is part of an exhibition that is about to travel the world. Waldemar Januszczak profiles an immortal showman

Saturday evening arrives, and Britain falls into its weekly stupor in front of the telly. Luckily it's time for Gladiators, where a sprightly contestant is getting the better of Warrior on the bash-your-brains-out beam. As 300lb of brightly Lurexed behemoth plunges earthwards, the audience cheers, the contestants cheer, Ulrika and John cheer, we at home cheer, and somewhere up in heaven Freddie Mercury prepares to lead the lot of us into a mighty chorus of celebration. Because - ugh, ugh, ugh - Another One Bites the Dust. Now, I am as delighted as the next Gladiator-baiter that Warrior has had his butt bounced. Yet, having just met Freddie's delightful family, I cannot for the life of me understand how a sweet Indian schoolboy from Zanzibar managed to sneak himself so successfully into the lumpen heart of middle England. Certainly, the fact that Freddie Mercury was Britain's first Indian pop star is too little known and appreciated. In my view it explains a lot, and adds considerably to his achievement. If nothing else, it makes it easier to understand how he ended up wearing some of the things he did - the red outfit covered in all-seeing eyes, for example, which he donned for the video of It's a Hard Life, and which one wag complained made him look like a giant prawn. Freddie himself always played down his Indian origins. In the few interviews he gave, he remained deliberately unclear about them. In the official history of Queen, told breezily by Jacky Gunn and Jim Jenkins, and promising "Exclusive Interviews With The Band", it is firmly stated that Freddie was born of Persian parents, which sounds pleasantly exotic but is stretching the truth as mightily as Freddie sometimes stretched the seat of his hot pants as he posed on the world's largest stages. In fact, his parents were from Gujarat in western India, and they were Parsees, Indian followers of