David Wigg:He had known since 1984 that he was HIV-positive, but he...

David Wigg: "He had known since 1984 that he was HIV-positive, but he had told no-one else"...source Daily Mail article by David Wigg himself.

1) This thread isn`t about the reliability of HIV dignoses in the early 80`s

2) This thread isn`t about his private life and health issues.

Well, "if" David is right...were there any affects on Mercurys/Queen decisions around 84 -86 ?
Maybe in lyrics or the length of touring especially on the Magic Tour( Prenter wasn`t hired- lowered personal risk) ?

Interesting. When was the article published?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2216408/BBC-documentary-goes-scenes-late-great-Freddie-Mercury.html

^ 2012 maybe it was just published on their website but Ià m not sure. You will find the particular quote at the end of the article.

Cool, thanks.

I doubt it would've affected Queen's touring decisions from 84-86, as he didn't tell the other members of the band until much later.

But again - who knows. We weren't there. What happens in the band stays in the band..

Interesting, thanks for the link.

I find it hard to believe he would have confided in a reporter.

David Wigg is a different breed of a reporter. Who knows what Freddie told him off the record.

Thanks for the link. Great story by Montserrat Caballe about her relation with Freddie.

I think it makes a lot of sense that he knew since probably late 1984 - all the info we have tallies with that. Barbara Valentin had made it clear that by 1985 he started showing symptoms, so I believe he probably had a very strong indication he was infected in 1984.

If they both knew by 1984, then its a little akward that candid '85 interview moment when Fred is pointing at God saying " he is looking after me".

[QUOTE] [b]musicland munich wrote:[/b]

David Wigg: "He had known since 1984 that he was HIV-positive, but he had told no-one else"...source Daily Mail article by David Wigg himself.

1) This thread isn`t about the reliability of HIV dignoses in the early 80`s

2) This thread isn`t about his private life and health issues.

Well, "if" David is right...were there any affects on Mercurys/Queen decisions around 84 -86 ?
Maybe in lyrics or the length of touring especially on the Magic Tour( Prenter wasn`t hired- lowered personal risk) ?[/QUOTE]

To answer your questions, I think the biggest of effect Freddie knowing he may have HIV, was on his own personal demeanour. This said, incredibly, even after "knowing" he had HIV in 1984, he still continued to party like mad until probably around 1986. They say his 1985 birthday party was his last "hurrah", but I'm not so sure (his 1987 Ibiza one was though). Freddie says in a few interviews how his mentality sort of changed, and he no longer felt he had to live up to the Freddie mercury image - I think this may have been influenced by his knowledge that he had HIV.

Re song lyrics, songs like WWTLF were not written by Freddie, so I don't think many songs on the AKOM album were influenced by his condition.

Re the length of touring, we know he knew it would be his last tour, so I think he wanted it to be their biggest and greatest ever. It certainly didn't make the tour shorter.

We can't be quite sure what Freddie knew or didn't know in 1984 - this may seem like an obvious statement, but what I mean is that this was a time of substantial confusion when it came to AIDS. There was no HIV test in existence till 1985, so he must have been diagnosed through his symptoms and the fact he was in a high risk group. But I doubt he had any defining symptoms in 1984 - he didn't get AIDS till 1986. So when Wigg says Freddie "knew", I think knowing here is a relative term. I think he wasn't 100% sure.

He certainly seemed to want to run away from the problem. If he knew so certainly in 1984, this leads to the opening of the can of worms labelled "why did he keep on having reckless sex, infecting others on the way?". And we don't want to open that can.

I know my last paragraph deviated from your question - my apologies.

Every official source says he found out in spring of 1987. I think up until then he didn't know for sure, but suspected it.

and that he would meet, live with a infect a new partner in 1985? I agree he probably knew, but didn't want to know. But as been stated, there was no test in 1984.

[QUOTE] [b]Costa86 wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]musicland munich wrote:[/b]

David Wigg: "He had known since 1984 that he was HIV-positive, but he had told no-one else"...source Daily Mail article by David Wigg himself.

1) This thread isn`t about the reliability of HIV dignoses in the early 80`s

2) This thread isn`t about his private life and health issues.

Well, "if" David is right...were there any affects on Mercurys/Queen decisions around 84 -86 ?
Maybe in lyrics or the length of touring especially on the Magic Tour( Prenter wasn`t hired- lowered personal risk) ?[/QUOTE]

To answer your questions, I think the biggest of effect Freddie knowing he may have HIV, was on his own personal demeanour. This said, incredibly, even after "knowing" he had HIV in 1984, he still continued to party like mad until probably around 1986. They say his 1985 birthday party was his last "hurrah", but I'm not so sure (his 1987 Ibiza one was though). Freddie says in a few interviews how his mentality sort of changed, and he no longer felt he had to live up to the Freddie mercury image - I think this may have been influenced by his knowledge that he had HIV.

Re song lyrics, songs like WWTLF were not written by Freddie, so I don't think many songs on the AKOM album were influenced by his condition.

Re the length of touring, we know he knew it would be his last tour, so I think he wanted it to be their biggest and greatest ever. It certainly didn't make the tour shorter.

We can't be quite sure what Freddie knew or didn't know in 1984 - this may seem like an obvious statement, but what I mean is that this was a time of substantial confusion when it came to AIDS. There was no HIV test in existence till 1985, so he must have been diagnosed through his symptoms and the fact he was in a high risk group. But I doubt he had any defining symptoms in 1984 - he didn't get AIDS till 1986. So when Wigg says Freddie "knew", I think knowing here is a relative term. I think he wasn't 100% sure.

He certainly seemed to want to run away from the problem. If he knew so certainly in 1984, this leads to the opening of the can of worms labelled "why did he keep on having reckless sex, infecting others on the way?". And we don't want to open that can.

I know my last paragraph deviated from your question - my apologies.
[/QUOTE]

I agree with you. I add another point of view too: if you watch the post-1986 videos you see Freddie was looking the camera in a very different way respect to all the pre1986 videos. He looks more sad from 1987 on, I think it is very clear on the Great Pretender video too.

[QUOTE] [b]ipeniemela wrote:[/b]

Every official source says he found out in spring of 1987. I think up until then he didn't know for sure, but suspected it.[/QUOTE]

What is an "official source" in this case ? I think all we have are statements from different people...that`s why I choose the words "if" David is right....