Bohemian Rhapsody.- Queen, the finest of all 1970s rock bands.

Bohemian Rhapsody. - Queen, the finest of all 1970s rock bands.

One was studying to be an electrical engineer, another wanted to be an eminent doctor or something to do with astrophysics and we were never quite sure what the other one wanted to do with his life. But the other, most famously of all, was an airport baggage handler.  He would become Freddie Mercury.They would go on to become one of the most legendary and monumentally epic rock bands the 1970s would ever produce. They were simply electrifying, explosive, prodigiously prolific and astoundingly creative, boiling over with an outrageous lyricism the like of which will never be seen again.

Bohemian Rhapsody was not only the story of Queen. It was the most painful and revealing insight into the life of Freddie Mercury, the son of a family from Zanzibar and a man whose tortured soul would be cruelly and forensically exposed by a global media desperate to break Mercury's raging ego before finally discovering that the rock star had fallen victim to the stigma almost horribly attached to homosexuality and then dreadful homophobia.

The story of Bohemian Rhapsody, now a most eagerly awaited movie, starts in the quiet and unfashionable back streets of London suburbia where four young men are eventually thrown together in the toughest of pubs and clubs before gigging, giggling, gossiping and then falling out with each other almost immediately when the young Freddie is told that he'll never get anywhere with those teeth. Then, in one of the most miraculous strokes of good fortune, Queen reached the most royal heights of fame and celebrity. And then it all blossomed into life.

The irony of course is that for all of his wildly decadent excesses and promiscuous gay relationships , Freddie Mercury almost married a woman At the start Mercury had fallen head over heels with his first love Mary Austin and there must have come a point during those heady periods in his life when he would indeed  marry the girl his doting family had always dreamed of. But this was just an optical illusion and in a passionate kiss with one of his many male hangers on, Mercury would overnight find the life of a gay man an altogether more desirable proposition.

But against the stormiest and most turbulent of backgrounds, both Mercury, John Deacon, Brian May and Roger Taylor would strike out into that big wide world, conquering firstly the USA, then as graphically illustrated in the film, the rest of the world. There were furious arguments with management, hissy fits of pique and slammed doors. There were the hundreds of bottles of booze and whatever else Freddie could get his hands on.

Of course the underlying theme quite predominantly was the formation and development of Bohemian Rhapsody, a single so stunningly exquisite to the ears that Britain must have thought it had stumbled on some remarkable art movement. Bohemian Rhapsody was, and will perhaps always remain, one of the most unforgettable rock anthems ever to caress the ears of rock fans and connoisseurs of rock music, a vast, sprawling musical tapestry that broke all records and boundaries.

And so it was that Bohemian Rhapsody was born, conceived and executed in a remote Welsh farmhouse completely cut off from all civilisation. In the most basic but well furnished of recording studios, Queen, led by the strutting and stomping Mercury, went to work on Night at the Opera followed in no time at all by A Day at the Races, both Marx Brothers films from the very early 20th century.

It was in their secret Welsh hideaway that Bohemian Rhapsody would take shape. A small corner of Wales would become the  fertile breeding ground of so many more hit singles and truly evocative lyrics that would roll off their screeching guitars and pounding drums. With almost eye popping wizardry the whole concept of Bohemian Rhapsody would be carefully pieced together like the most complex of puzzles. Operatic voices would be allowed to fade in and out and all manner of technical jiggery pokery followed.

Eventually, after the fiercest of verbal punch ups with the most arrogant looking of all record producers, Freddie proudly stubbed out his cigarette onto a pile of the producer's paperwork. Mercury was now utterly smug and satisfied, that sense of triumphant vindication almost etched on his face. Mercury had insisted that Bohemian Rhapsody would be released pronto and so it was in the winter of 1975.

Visiting Capital Radio station in London, Mercury persuaded hilarious DJ Kenny Everett  Bohemian Rhapsody into taking the single and playing it at once. Everett would play it every day for the duration of that year and the rest, as they say, is history. It was the most victorious conversion service ever performed between a rock star and a bubbly disc jockey. The cynics came out of the woodwork and roasted Bohemian Rhapsody. It would never work and Mercury was just a day dreaming idealist with delusions of grandeur.

But to this very day Bohemian Rhapsody continues to be hummed, chanted and was cross pollinated into another blockbusting film, forever more nostalgically remembered as one of the most incredible of all rock songs. Of course it defies any logical translation or understanding but for those who want to believe that it is rock meets grand opera then so be it. The meaning and context of the words in the song seem to assume a poetic symmetry even though Galileo and Fandango are almost inexplicable.

Still from Bohemian Rhapsody, there followed the amiable 'You're My Best Friend', the rousing We Are The Champions, the ferociously ambitious I Want to Break Free, the audience participation driven 'We Will Rock You', the tongue in cheek 'Radio Ga Ga', the yearning and aching 'Somebody to Love' and packed stadiums seething with Queen hysteria. At the very beginning there was the very introductory Seven Seas of Rhye and Killer Queen. It was almost as if Freddie, John, Brian and Roger were collectively dipping their toes into the the hottest waters.

Behind it all there was the almost heartbreaking decline of Freddie Mercury a man now so torn and chronically unsure of himself that even the loving support of the rest of the band couldn't soften the blows that had been rained down on him almost constantly. There was the relationship with a girl he could never possibly commit himself to and the procession of boyfriends who were always waiting in the wings ready to satisfy all of Freddie's cravings and needs.

Now there were the riotous parties, the champagne lifestyle and the adulation of his male lovers, Mercury being carried across a room like some Roman emperor feted with grapes and wine until the small hours of the morning. His life had one been one drunken orgy, a hedonistic feast that seemed to go on for ever, devilish debauchery and ecstatic extravagance in every conceivable corner of Mercury's house.

Then, after much celebrating, carousing and cavorting, Mercury once again alienates the rest of his Queen colleagues and hitherto friends. Mercury had been given one last chance and the ultimate ultimatum. You either do it the way the band want to do it or that would be the end of Queen. So it was that Freddie Mercury jumped back onto the bandwagon and, inspired by the fans he'd always respected, made one last final appearance before the personal curtain came down on him.

During the 1980s, AIDS, a fatal, sexually transmitted disease that would claim the lives of millions, would sweep the world with a rampant mercilessness that showed no signs of letting up. Freddie Mercury, after innumerable liaisons with men of his own age, would be diagnosed with AIDS and the fans who had travelled around the world with Queen were shocked into a stupefied silence.

In 1985 it was announced that on a June afternoon at the old Wembley Stadium, the cream of the rock and pop fraternity would gather together for the biggest and boldest of live concerts of all time. A severely conscience stricken Bob Geldof, the lead singer of the punk band The Boomtown Rats wanted Queen to be one of the main headline acts. This was Live Aid, a concert on the behalf of the dying and criminally starved. It was horrific and to all intents unforgivable, a crime against humanity and something Mercury could easily identify with.

Without any hesitation at all Mercury, rather like a wounded animal, roared back into the limelight he'd always attracted and never rejected. He pulled on that now iconic white vest and with moustache bristling, lips  pouting like Mick Jagger, Wembley Stadium would become Freddie's domain, his empire and his place of rock knighthood. Nobody could now stop Freddie Mercury. It was somehow meant to be.

So it was that Mercury swaggered, stomped again around the stage almost categorically as if none should ever come anywhere near him and then the microphone would go on its most intriguing of journeys. The hips would be thrust one way and then quite brazenly the other. The piano keys would be hammered with an almost bitter animosity and heartfelt intent. The eyes would close and the thousands who had crowded into Wembley that day were sent into the most hypnotic trance.

But when Live Aid was all over and Freddie Mercury had left the stage for good, some of us felt almost dumbfounded. The man who once  bestrode the grandest stages of rock music, the man who was so determined to seal his place in the history of his profession and the man who had given everything was now dying.

And yet our minds went back pleasantly to that memorable winter just before Christmas 1975 when a supposedly crazy piece of rock -cum-opera was launched upon our young, unsuspecting ears. We didn't know it at the time but we were about to witness a defining moment in our adolescence. It was a moment when a wonderful disc jockey named Kenny Everett showed an unwavering faith in a six minute single that none of us could have imagined for a minute would have the devastating impact it did.

Bohemian Rhapsody reached Number One in the charts and would remain there for so long that it had to be physically hauled away from the top spot. Besides, the spring tulips were beginning to appear and the roses had to be pruned. But Bohemian Rhapsody had secured its place in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and there were poor boys from a poor family who could hardly believe what they were hearing. Now their lives had assumed a new wealth and affluence because Freddie Mercury had said so.

When Freddie Mercury died on the 24th November 1991, a small part of us briefly thought that they would never hear a pop song quite as unchallengeable in its magnificence. so glowing in its brilliance, a piece of music that transcended any genre, deserving to be recognised for ever more,  always  playing on every radio station and somehow belonging in the realms of rock music nobility.

It hardly seems like 27 years since Mercury's passing but we will never forget the airport luggage handler who totally transformed the landscape of rock music. We will recall those mad, staring eyes, that all pervasive stage presence, the way he commanded that stage and above all his love of life, love of music and above all the way he seized every day of that life. There will never be anything remotely as good as Bohemian Rhapsody and of course nothing really matters to us. Rock on Queen!