Peter Freestone on Bohemian Rhapsody at Dutch Queen Day

Invisible Woman wrote:About movie, if it's biographical movie then it's necessary to present the life of that person and not just what would be pleasing to a wide audience or just what is commercial.

Have you seen Peter's interview? He refers to people having that opinion by telling them that after all it's a multi million dollar movie made to please general public, not only Queen die hard fans. I think it's pretty logic that not every detail can be covered and artistic decisions were made where to focus/cut.

@stevendabudgie: We have at least three sources of close friends who claim he knew pre 1987: Barabara Valentin, David Wigg and Mary Austin. That makes the 1987 theory pretty much refuted. The fact that Freddie lived in denial and neither told his bandmates nor his partners before he received the confirmation that it developed into AIDS even strengthens their statements

Very few biopics are 100% accurate, The Elephant Man's got his name wrong, Houdini's changed how he died, several of Bruce Lee's are total fiction.

Freddie knew he had aids in November 1991 but made the decision not to tell the rest of the band till backstage after the tribute concert.

The person who told me this worked for Queen for over 10 years so it must be true. A FACT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!

@user1 I really don't want to go into discussion about this but I just have add this.
David wrote in one article that Mary and Freddie were over twenty years in " on-off " relationship and how she lived with Freddie in Garden Lodge, nurse him trough the illness but it's not true. He also wrote that her rivals had attacked her for jealousy because she had inherited a great wealth. ( some other threads here have links for this article )
Creating a public image about something or someone is a very important part of a show-business.
Perhaps his articles and statements about Freddie's knowing are actually based on her statements.


On the other hand, men who lived with him at house (Jim, partner; Phoebe, personal asistent and close friend) said that before 1987 he didn't have a conffirm. They also said that after the story about HIV in the tabloid he was worried and probably thought about his own health.

None of us can say what the real truth is.
So, it remains for us to decide which of those persons will believe and which theory seems more probable. As long as someone really proves what the truth is.
That's all from me about it.

Regarding his wish to keep on living life as normal as possible it totally makes sense NOT to tell the ones around him in his house until it couldn't be hidden anymore (=1987).

If you want to cherrypick the source you like best because it supports your personal view on your idol: I wont stop you :)

Have you lived in the 80's in a western country and were old enough to watch TV? Anyone who did this will remember the massive amount of HIV/AIDS press coverage and hysteria from '83/'84 on. Lots of people who didn't live a life like Freddie were afraid to catch it. It was compared to black death and many people thought the whole mankind would be erased from this planet. There is absolutely zero chance a gay man who lived as promiscuous as Freddie didn't know ("to know": see my posting from a few days ago) anything about his infection and got badly surprised in 1987.

Apart from stating that, all I can to do is to quote myself:

user1 wrote:
Fun fact: we don't know anything "for sure" as this would only be possible by seeing his first few test results. As long that this isn't the case, we have to take a look at the big picture.

Back to topic: The story as presented in the film makes sense and can be true as many different statements support it. There is no conspiration to "erase Jim out of Freddie's life"

@ user1 As I said, I don't have an idol.
About movie, we comment on what we have heard or read about it. I didn't mention any conspirancy. I said how it seems to me now, based on information about the movie, information which we know.

If David Wigg knew Freddie was ill by 1984, why did he clumsily ask him about “the AIDS thing” in 1987 when Freddie definitely knew he was suffering from it? If he was in the know about this big secret, does he ask that question on tape?

I don't know, either he felt he HAD to ask that in his interview because there were speculations in newspapers from 1986 on (-> "[...] Which is a very topical, magazines want me to") or he hoped for an honest answer which would have made quite a fuss as you can imagine. From what we know Freddie never talked much about it and basically stated it towards a few people once and then it's never been discussed again. So if David knew, he perhaps saw it as the right time to bring the topic up again (as he had an "excuse" for that).

http://www.ultimatequeen.co.uk/freddie-mercury/miscellaneous/david-wigg-interviews.htm

Invisible Woman - just dropping by briefly to agree with you on the David thing. A lot of things he wrote have mistakes in regarding small things like Mary's age, the length of Freddie and Mary's relationship, the nature of it etc. So yes his information probably does come from Mary whose memory isn't exactly sharp. (Remember she has several different recollections of Freddie's coming out story!) It's entirely possible she gave Wigg the 1984 date for knowing he was ill and he's just parroting.

With the Barbara Valentin thing, a lot of what she's claimed has been called out as bullshit by other people who knew Freddie so what's to say the 'I noticed AIDS symptoms in 1984' isn't also bullshit. I mean this is the woman who claimed he tried to throttle her, then retracted it, then claimed he tried to drown her. I'd take what she said with a pinch of salt. She could have just been in some kind of 'I was closest to Freddie' pissing contest with Mary.

Peter Fresstone, the movie, Freddie's HIV-status - there's zero news in any of that and it is being discussed over and over again.
What we know and must not repeat anymore: Freddie was gay, Freddie enjoyed having gay sex. Freddie did contract HIV and he died from an AIDS related disease.
The remaining two Queen boys want to make some more money by financing a movie which includes info that most people already know.
Peter Freestone is on Queen's payroll again. He has got nothing new to tell anybody because he has told these Freddie-stories so many times, that I feel sorry for the man. He must feel completely empty inside.
Let's talk about May's, Deacon's or Taylor's lifes for a change, won't we? Or do we fear that they are rather boring compared to Mercury's?
Or let's talk about your latest HIV-antibody-tests.

user1 wrote:

The Real Wizard wrote:

Mercury knew on the Magic tour, and Mary knew by Knebworth.

We know those two things for sure, but anything beyond that is conjecture.

You seem to only consider one source/interview that you take for granted and regard everything else as conjecture. Using this logic, I could even regard the one source as faulty. Which I don't. :)
Fun fact: we don't know anything "for sure" as this would only be possible by seeing his first few test results. As long that this isn't the case, we have to take a look at the big picture.

I see and respect your logic. But in this case, this is an eyewitness account of literally the only person (besides his doctors) who would've known at that point.

She says she was sidestage at Knebworth, and as soon as Mercury got off, he said he was done. That sounds pretty solid to me.

@ captainjory: You can think of David, Barabara and Mary what you want, just have a look at Freddie's wild life between 1978 and 1985, the death of many hard clubbing gays from the early 80s on, the HIV/AIDS press coverage and his various physical symptoms (tongue, KS), he must have had at least (!) a strong suspicion in Summer '85. Of all theories and statements floating around, the 1987 one is the unlikeliest and just implausible.

The Real Wizard wrote:
She says she was sidestage at Knebworth, and as soon as Mercury got off, he said he was done. That sounds pretty solid to me.

I totally agree with you on that. It just doesn't rule out the possibility (supported by various statements) he already got tested in summer 1985 (Prior to Live AId? Who knows. At least much earlier than Summer 1986) but lived in denial and hoped for the best because tests were so unreliable at that time.

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@user1
@TheRealWizard

Tour manager Gary Stickells also said that on the Magic Tour they knew that Freddie was sick

stevendabudgie wrote:

@user1
@TheRealWizard

Tour manager Gary Stickells also said that on the Magic Tour they knew that Freddie was sick

I had not heard this before. Do you have a source?

Did Gary know it was HIV related, or did he believe at the time that it was general illness?