Freddie Mercury may be the only artist ever to give Michael Jackson the elbow. The pair worked together on a track for Mercury’s debut solo album Mr Bad Guy, but the Queen frontman called a halt to recording sessions because the King Of Pop insisted on bringing his llama to the studio.
It’s one of a few anecdotal gems in this film (a snippet of the song they’d started, There Must Be More To Life Than This, is featured), which attempts to paint a portrait of Mercury away from the band with whom he first made his name. Almost inevitably, however, it covers a lot of ground previously well served in Queen documentaries, but it’s interesting to see how other band members viewed their singer’s extra-curricular activities.
When asked about Mercury’s increasing interest in the gay club scene, Roger Taylor suggests “we got more publicity from him growing a moustache than we would have if he’d committed suicide”, and there was tangible friction when the band learned that Freddie’s solo record deal was financially superior to their own. The singer’s obsession with ballet and opera offers up more meaty stories, but there’s little in the way of startling revelations.
