| Kuijpy 19.05.2011 16:47 |
I was wondering about the thoughts of the Queenfans, about Freddies Illnes, Because it was very private till the last day, and the rumours are going back in 1986. Did u first discoverd when I Want it all came out? Of maybe the picture off Freddie in Greatest Hits 2? I am very curious.. |
| mooghead 19.05.2011 16:50 |
Curious about what? What is the question? |
| Gregsynth 19.05.2011 16:56 |
Freddie didn't find out until 1987 (when he got tested and it came back that he had AIDS). I never noticed he was "ill" until late 89/early 90 (those brit awards). No one knows when he got the actual virus--but a time-frame of the early/mid 80s seems to be the most common guesses. |
| Gregsynth 19.05.2011 17:04 |
link That was the first photo I've seen of Freddie after I found out that he had AIDS. He looks completely healthy--no signs of illness. If I didn't know anything about Queen/Freddie I wouldn't have known that he was sick. link This is the photo that I noticed that Freddie was indeed ill. The differences between the two pictures is noticeable. |
| pestgrid 19.05.2011 19:00 |
Wot Ive grown up with is that freddie contracted HIV in 1980-1983 sometime in New York.......it turned into full blown AIDS in 1986-1987.....freddie found out through Doctors 1987-1988....and threw himself into work until he could stand no longer or take the deep breaths to sing properly....1991.......to which he became a prisioner through the last few weeks barely awake most of the time......sorry....RIP Melina Mercouri......... |
| malicedoom 20.05.2011 07:30 |
Just curious - what makes you say New York? Also, for me, I thought Freddie looked 'weird' in the I Want It All video - something just wasn't right. He face was puffy and I thought the beard looked very strange on his face - and it was also odd to see him with extra weight on him (the I Want It All video is really the only time I can remember I EVER thought he looked like he was overweight in fact). But it was more or less easy to ignore because the song and the video were so damn good and it was just great to have them all back and making incredible music again. Thanks to Capitol Records totally dropping the ball on the rest of the release of The Miracle, we didn't even get to SEE the Breakthru video (the single was 'barely' released - a plain, generic labeled cassette single - tragic), and while I heard the rumors about Freddie, there was so little press for them here in the USA, I wasn't really sure WHAT to think. Then I saw a promo shot (courtesy of the official fan club magazine, which I subscribed to) of Freddie and Roger in the I'm Going Slightly Mad Video (where Freddie looked like he weighed around 85lbs) and realized the rumors were probably true. :( |
| Rubbersuit 20.05.2011 08:06 |
I didn't know anything was up until Brian was doing the US promo tour for Innuendo. Whenever Freddie was mentioned he got vague, that's when I figured out something was really wrong. You gotta understand though, I lived in North America (where Queen didn't get any press) and this was before the Internet. - so there was no speculation out there at all. |
| pestgrid 20.05.2011 08:41 |
There was a gang that used to go around all the clubs in New York and the gang was called the Five Daughters....who now are all dead...Im not saying anymore on this subject out of respect for them...but believe me...New York was the location where the disease was caught.....Even during The I want it All video he looks alot different...Slightly thinner.anybody who knew him off camera could tell you that........but with more anxiety or agitation(as if something was bugging him constantly-maybe a pain in his foot from a biopsy)...I will say from the magic tour to the barcelona sessions...his waistline did increase...but by the time they were filming the Breakthru video in the summer it was back down even thinner than the magic tour....watch the scandal video.....there is more truth in that video about pain and torment than said.... |
| malicedoom 20.05.2011 09:35 |
I hear you. I thought he looked great in Breakthru - at a good weight, etc. I even liked how the beard looked on him. But by Scandal... yeah... too thin, and not healthy looking at all. |
| PrimeJiveUSA 20.05.2011 10:27 |
Here in the U.S. the only thing I saw was the "I Want It All" video and the album sleeve...in both of those he looked heavy...I think he started to look noticebly heavier all the way back to the "Radio Ga Ga" video. Anyways...like the other American fans have stated, Queen were almost invisible here in the U.S. at the time. The first I read about Freddie possibly being "ill" was in Rolling Stone magazine in early '91. They were interviewing Brian and Roger at the "Queen Mary" launch party for "Innuendo" and asked if the rumors about Freddie being ill were true. At that point I hadn't even known there were rumors to that affect. Still on a high from the AMAZING "Innuendo" album, I became very concerned and rushed off a letter to the Fan Club asking if this were true(I had no other avenue at the time). Of course, there was no response. |
| john bodega 20.05.2011 12:06 |
"I never noticed he was "ill" until late 89/early 90 (those brit awards)." Weren't you like, a tiny kid back then?? |
| brians wig 20.05.2011 13:33 |
Until the Brit Awards in 89, he hid it pretty well. From that night on though the speculation began, and the bastard English press hounded him for the next two years. |
| Kuijpy 20.05.2011 18:39 |
I was born in 1989, so i dont know anything about Freddie or Queen. So i was just wondering, that the rumours about his illnes were so long, from 1986 to 1991. And backwards we can all see that Freddie lied to us, when you see him in the Scandal video, of ever worser in The Miracle video. So i was just wondering when You just find out that there was something wrong with Freddie. |
| pestgrid 20.05.2011 18:57 |
this is my final post of this subject as it is raw to my nerve..plus its not right talking about someones illness like this...it was his struggle which he did it his way.......I was 13 when he died and will never forget that day....no one knew in 1986 of any type of illness he had...not even Fred....a handful of close people found out through Freddie persoanlly and they know how it affected him from how they knew him before.....it matters not as past is past....and his spirit will never die nor his voice as his songs are timeless....and it still pains me to this day as it did back in November 1991, that this world has lost a very rare individual who will and can never be replicated......a true one of a kind...who most of the world never knew but thru his voice and music, shared a small slice of his magic..but never experienced the true person underneath the face of Freddie Mercury.....but I do find it interesting how the Americans and British both percieve him..and how Queens music is regarded.........I was born in 1977 and grew up in Houston,Texas.....but then came over in 1989 with mother as close relatives were finding out about his condition......so my teenage years where plagued with rumours about him.......and still 20 years later....the time and dates of certain events are still questioned as if it is the Kennedy Assassination......?....Long Live the Spirit....... |
| drmurph 21.05.2011 06:50 |
I was 13 when The Miracle came out and at the time I really liked freddie's "new style" the beard/stubble and shirt & tie. I was completely oblivious to him being ill, thought nothing of the band not appearing in the miracle (except end) and innuendo also not having a video player at the time didn't really see the other videos more than once on TOTPs or something. It came as a great shock to me (and I probably didn't even recognise the huge significance until the tribute concert) to hear he was dead. It's only looking back where you see the signs, making the whole situation all the more tragic. |
| queenUSA 21.05.2011 07:43 |
Kuijpy wrote: "And backwards we can all see that Freddie lied to us..." _________________________________________ I think it's too strong to use the word LIED. It seem very judgemental and like a criticism. The environment and social stigma, paranoia, fear, panic .... etc back then for persons with AIDS/HIV was very intense. Here in America you had nurses even refusing to work with these patients and also funeral homes not wanting to process their bodies. Thank God persons like Princess Diana and Mother Theresa had the courage to step forward and hold babies with HIV - showing that you would not immediately self-destruct by doing so. Showing compassion! Having to address his illness openly would have made it very hard for himself, his bandmates, family, friends, etc. He would of rather spent that time writing, singing and performing (Barcelona). That was the best healing he could have for himself since no cure was in sight. I read that he made the choice to stop taking AZT, knowing that that was his only defense, the only treatment available - so the lyric in The Show Must Go On about "my body's aching to be free" is especially poignant. It's painful to think about this fantastic artist and musical hero of ours in this terrible terrible situation - with no way out. It hurts very much - how it all ended. A boy from Zanzibar making it all the way to London, destiny bringing him together with Brian, Roger and John, super stardom and then in just barely 20 years time it ends for him. I'm glad he made it in the music biz and got to sing, dance and be as wild as he wanted on stage, to travel the world and have adoring fans everywhere. He so deserved all of it and he's still bringing us joy everyday. |
