Peter Freestone on Bohemian Rhapsody at Dutch Queen Day

Hmmm..."The production company was meticulous and exhaustive" I guess that this image of Freddie singing '39 in his white Zandra Rhodes wingsuit (c'74), John Deacon equally dressed c '74 and the glorious splendour of the tackiest, spangly backdrop. They must have done a mystery charity tour of Cornwall organised by Roger's mum to raise some quid for the Girl Guides. Bonus Lucky door prize was a shag with Roger. And, using artistic license, '39 is about time travel so Fred and Deaky got caught in some temporal wormhole.
It all makes perfect sense really!

@The Real Wizard


Sorry, false memory. He told her in 1985 he had taken an HIV test and confessed to her 18 months later the result was positive

I wonder if telling everyone he had AIDS at Live Aids (you know, to the truck driving casual fans) will make them reconsider the party line that it was a masterful performance and they'll just be repulsed? I know how the populace works.

From what I understand the test in 1985 took months as it wasn't always accurate, they would do it at least twice before you'd get the results. It's possible if he was tested first in late 1985 he wouldn't have confirmed results until some point in 1986.

David Wigg even stated: "Freddie lived with the knowledge he was HIV-positive for seven years before his death. I knew and kept his secret." That would be 1984.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1358188/Freddie-Mercurys-friend-David-Wigg-reveals-flamboyant-stars-vulnerable-loneliness-haunted-him.html

There wasn't even a test for it in 1984. Late 1985 is the absolute earliest he could have had it confirmed, the most likely was sometime in 1986.

^I'm not even debating, but he probably felt sick before the end of 1985 even if there was no information about what it could have been back then.

@emrabt: 1984 only can't be true if you refer to a proper test, not only discovery of HIV/AIDS symptoms. However I don't see your "late 1985" as the absolute truth as well as I couldn't find any evidence that the test first results took months. I only found sources who state that a few months after the first infection had to pass before the test was exercisable. As he started his promiscuous behaviour around 1978/79 the time after infection until testing probably wasn't relevant anyway.

it's totally possible that a rich rock star belonged to the first persons who chose to test their blood and that he got positive HIV results prior to Live Aid or even simply discovered HIV/Aids indications on his body without a proper test and knew it while singing there (and Peter Freestone refers to the day Freddie told it to him). Even if the tests weren't reliable if you count one and one you know that a second test probably won't give you a different result. And we're speaking about "know it" only here. If you regard his highly risky behaviour there's a big chance he even supposed to have nearly no chance not to have caught "the new disease" much earlier.

http://cvi.asm.org/content/23/4/249.full
https://aaimedicine.org/journal-of-insurance-medicine/jim/1994/026-01-0013.pdf

@Golden Salmon: Exactly, it's totally possible that he made his assumptions before doing a proper test.

I'm not sure of the exact dates but for a large portion of 1985 the HIV test was only used on blood collected for tranfusions, and not on individual people to diagnose HIV, which is why i said late 1985.

That's indeed what it was meant for

"blood donation centers began using the test in April of 1985 and by the end of July, the blood supply was declared free of AIDS."

http://time.com/4377408/history-hiv-testing/

So it's unlikely Freddie would have had a test before Live Aid which was July as according to your source it's when it was still being used at bloodbanks.

Unlikely but not impossible.

Basically there a four possible dates one could refer to if you take an example of a gay promiscuous man in the 80's anyway.

A) the "new disease" turns up, many gay promiscuous people die under terrible circumstances you think/worry about your own risky behaviour but you don't "know" anything for sure
B) your own body shows strange symptoms that make you worry
C) HIV test positive
D) HIV caused AIDS

A) definitely applied to Freddie before Live Aid, we don't know about B) or C), D) couldn't be tested at that time.

According to QueenAnimals.ru, Roger didn't encounter the rooster until shortly before they went on stage at Knebworth in '86.

I've been mildly skeptical about that site in the past, however...

What rooster?

My favourite moment of the trailer....