I was fortunate enough to have seen Queen at Madison Square Garden. From up high in the rafters, we were poor newlyweds at the time, but we were there. As a Queen fan from Texas who was in the key demographic, I guess you cld say, at the time (grad from high school in 77, from college in 82 (five-year plan lol) - I was surprised to read that Queen apparently fell out of favor in America in the early 80's -?? Huh?? Not with my friends! I do remember the "new" Freddie with the moustache was not popular with some. In my memory, the rumors of Freddie being gay and his new look were simultaneous, and the particular look Freddie chose was equivalent, at least in America, to saying "I am gay." And not only gay, but "women need not apply," was the understood purpose of adopting that particular look. Freddie being gay, by itself, I can assure you, would have been a non-issue. There was already David Bowie and Mick Jagger, who we all assumed slept with everything that moved, which, if anything, enhanced their images, at least with my (Dallas area) crowd. If Freddie had allowed himself to be known as bisexual or gay, but kept either his earlier Killer Queen look, or his later 70's shorter hair/no moustache look, Freddie being bisexual or gay would have had zero negative impact on love from the TX college crowd, and, as I say, might have even enhanced love from the TX college crowd. I still loved Queen and Freddie, moustache or not, we spent money we didn't really have to travel and see them, I loved Freddie's voice, energy, the music of Queen, the Freddie-ness of Freddie. I did like his pre1980 look better, but Freddie was and remains Freddie to me (and to most, but not all, of my friends at the time). So I am always surprised when I read that Freddie tried to "hide" his sexuality - to us, his moustached look, that particular style of moustache combined with that specific haircut - he might as well have been wearing a t-shirt saying "I'm Gay" - it was exactly the same thing and, again, the trouble with some in the fandom was not that Freddie was gay, it was that that particular look was interpreted as "I'm gay, and all you women out there, you need not apply" - that was more the problem. It meant Freddie didn't want half of the fanbase, the problem was not (ever!) that half of the fanbase didn't want Freddie, if this makes sense. And again, I didn't feel that way, I ate pb&j for dinner for a month to see them.
I saw the Live Aid show (on tv), and I remember at the time thinking, with some bewilderment, is Queen trying out their new stuff during their Live Aid show -?! Although by the time of Live Aid I was immersed in the early years of corporate jungle-gym climbing, I didn't that I was *that out of touch. I remember thinking what was all this "ga ga, goo goo" just what the heck is going on?? I very specifically remember thinking, stop playing this, and start playing Seven Seas of Rhye (my second fav Queen song), while we were all clapping along anyway lol. And what song was in my head after - that's right - Radio GaGa. Queen Forever!
