Blue Plaque unveiled on Freddie Mercury's first London home
THURSDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 2016
FREDDIE MERCURY AWARDED
ENGLISH HERITAGE BLUE PLAQUE
- New plaque marks family home of Queen frontman -
- Beloved musician remembered ahead of what would have been his 70th Birthday -
- Freddie Mercury’s sister unveiled the plaque alongside Queen guitarist Brian May -
A Blue Plaque marking the first home Freddie Mercury lived in when he arrived in England has been unveiled.
The Queen frontman moved to the semi-detached home in Feltham, west
London, after his family left Zanzibar in 1964 when Mercury was 17.
The singer was living in the house when he met two other members of the band - Brian May and Roger Taylor.
Kashmira Cooke, his sister, said he "secretly would have been very proud and pleased" to receive the honour.
Mercury's parents, Jer and Bomi Bulsara, decided to leave Zanzibar as the country was becoming independent from Britain.
They moved to 22 Gladstone Avenue in autumn 1964 choosing the area because Jer had a sister who already lived in Feltham.
Yet everything was not straight forward for the family.
"The house had no central heating... We were not familiar with coal
fires and had to be shown how to light it," Kashmira Cooke said.
She said her brother spent much of the time in the house "sketching for
his college art work" and "listening to music, particularly Jimi
Hendrix".
"He spent hours in the bathroom grooming his hair. At the time I wasn't
best pleased as there was only one bathroom," she said.
Away from the house he studied Graphic Art and Design at Ealing College of Art and worked in kitchens at Heathrow Airport.
Guitarist Brian May said he visited Freddie Mercury in Gladstone Avenue shortly after the pair first met.
"We spent most of the day appreciating and analysing in intimate detail
the way that Jimi Hendrix had put his recordings together," he said.
The Blue Plaque was unveiled days before Mercury would have celebrated his 70th birthday on 5 September.
He died in 1991 at the age of 45.
English Heritage Blue Plaque facts
Image copyrightEnglish Heritage- The scheme began in 1866 after the idea of erecting "memorial tablets" was first proposed by William Ewart MP in the House of Commons in 1863
- The first plaque was for the poet Lord Byron, although this was lost when the building it was on was demolished in 1889
- More than 900 plaques have been unveiled across London
- An official plaque can only be proposed for a person who has been dead for at least 20 years
- A plaque put up in Chalk Farm in 1937 to mark Karl Marx's final address had to be taken down because it was repeatedly vandalised
English
Heritage celebrated the life and career of Freddie Mercury today (1
September 2016) with a blue plaque at the singer and songwriter’s first
home in England, a modest, inter-war terrace house in Feltham, West
London. Freddie’s parents bought the house in 1964 after the family left
Zanzibar for the UK and Freddie was still living there when he first
met his future Queen band mates, Brian May and Roger Taylor. Other
musicians to be honoured with English Heritage Blue Plaques include
Freddie’s idol, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Freddie Mercury’s sister, Kashmira Cooke, unveiled the English Heritage Blue Plaque and said:
"Mum and I are so proud and pleased that English Heritage is honouring
our Freddie with a Blue Plaque, and that he will be amongst other famous
names for ever. Secretly he would have been very proud and pleased
too."
Freddie’s
parents, Jer and Bomi Bulsara, chose Feltham as Jer already had a
sister living in the area and the family moved into number 22 Gladstone
Avenue in autumn 1964. Seventeen
year old Freddie took an A-level in art at Isleworth Polytechnic
followed by a Diploma in Graphic Art and Design at Ealing College of
Art, supporting himself with a variety of jobs, including washing dishes
in the kitchens at nearby Heathrow Airport. It was while studying at
Ealing that Freddie met future Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer
Roger Taylor.
Kashmira
recalls how while living on Gladstone Avenue, her brother was always
sketching for his college art work – sometimes calling on her to model
for him – or tapping his fingers and humming as if thinking of his next
song. A natural musician, Gladstone Avenue was where Freddie really
began to explore his musical talent, listening to the likes of Cream and
his hero, Jimi Hendrix in his bedroom at the back of the house; there
is a 1968 photograph of Freddie in his bedroom posing in the manner of
Hendrix with a borrowed Fender Stratocaster. Kashmira also remembers how
he loved watching Tom & Jerry cartoons and collecting cuttings of
Andy Capp comic strips from the daily newspaper and how he spent hours
grooming his hair – much to her annoyance as the house had only one
bathroom.
Dr Brian May said: “It isa
pleasant duty to help install this little reminder on Freddie’s
parents’ house in Feltham. It was here that I first visited Freddie soon
after we had met through a mutual friend. We spent most of the day
appreciating and analysing in intimate detail the way that JimiHendrix
had put his recordings together in the studio - listening to Hendrix on
vinyl played on Freddie's Dansette record player - which had stereo
speakers on opposite sides of the box! Feltham was the childhood
neighbourhood for both of us but we never knew it until we met in the
cause of music.”
Sir Peter Bazalgette, English Heritage Blue Plaques Panel Member, said: “Before
Freddie became Freddie Mercury, this small house was where he lived and
took the first steps towards stardom. English Heritage’s blue plaques
celebrate the great men and women whose achievements endure and Freddie
Mercury – singer, songwriter and producer – was certainly one of our
greatest musical talents. He was truly a champion.”
Attending the unveiling, the Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP, Secretary of State for Culture, said:
“Freddie Mercury is a global icon whose music touched the lives of
millions of people around the world. I am delighted that one of
Britain's most influential musicians will be recognised through the Blue
Plaque Scheme - a small but important reminder to people of the impact
he had both in London and well beyond.”
Freddie
Mercury’s charisma, unfailing talent and commanding stage presence
established him as one of our all-time greatest musicians; when Mercury
performed audiences were captivated. English Heritage is delighted to
commemorate his life and legacy with a blue plaque in a year that would
not only have seen his 70th birthday but one that also sadly marks the
25th anniversary of his death, on 24 November 1991.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the English Heritage London Blue Plaques scheme. It is generously supported by David Pearl, the Blue Plaques Club, and members of the public.
- Ends -
For
further press information and images, please contact Alexandra Carson
in the English Heritage press office on 020 7973 3263 or at alexandra.carson@english-heritage.org.uk.
Freddie Mercury
Born
Farrokh Bulsara on 5 September 1946, Freddie Mercury spent his early
childhood on the island of Zanzibar. When his father was offered a job
in Bombay, he was sent to St. Peter’s boarding school in the Indian hill
town of Panchgani, which was run on the lines of a British public
school. There he participated in theatrical productions, took piano
lessons, became a member of the school choir, and started his first band
– The Hectics – in 1958. The Bulsaras moved to England in 1964. Known
as Fred to his friends while studying, working and playing music, it
was in 1970 that he changed his last name to Mercury, and with Roger
Taylor and Brian May started a new band with himself as lead vocalist,
suggesting the name of Queen.
Queen signed to EMI records in 1972, and scored their first single success with Seven Seas of Rhye (1974). Killer Queen (1974), reached number two in the UK, and the epic Bohemian Rhapsody
(1975) stayed at number one in the UK charts for a then record nine
weeks and it remains the third bestselling UK single ever. It is also
the first UK single ever to reach No 1 on the charts twice, again in
November 1991. This ‘six-minute opera’ was accompanied by a seminal
video, which is thought by some to have inaugurated the modern era of
music video.
Queen’s 1981 Greatest Hits
maintains the crown of Britain’s most popular album of the last 60
Years of the Official Albums Chart and stands alone as the first and
only album to have sold over 6 million copies in the UK (6.1 million
sales to date). Greatest Hits II
was released just before Mercury died in 1991; it reached number one in
the UK charts and has sold 16 million copies worldwide. After his
death, Bohemian Rhapsody was re-released as a double A-side with These are the Days of our Lives. It debuted at number one, and raised over a million pounds for the Terence Higgins Trust. A memorial concert
for AIDS awareness took place in front of 72,000 people at London’s
Wembley Stadium on 20 April 1992, featuring an array of stars. The
profits from the concert were used to launch the Mercury Phoenix Trust,
the AIDS charity set up in his memory.
History of London’s Blue Plaques Scheme
The
London-wide blue plaques scheme has been running for 150 years. The
idea of erecting 'memorial tablets' was first proposed by William Ewart
MP in the House of Commons in 1863. It had an immediate impact on the
public imagination, and in 1866 the (Royal) Society of Arts founded an
official plaques scheme. The Society erected its first plaque – to poet,
Lord Byron – in 1867. The blue plaques scheme was subsequently
administered by the London County Council (1901-65) and by the Greater
London Council (1965-86), before being taken on by English Heritage in
1986. www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/
English Heritage
Registered charity no. 1140351
__._,_.___
View attachments on the web | Reply via web post | • | Reply to sender | • | Reply to group | • | Start a New Topic | • | Messages in this topic (1) |
Have you tried the highest rated email app?
With 4.5 stars in iTunes, the Yahoo Mail app is the highest rated email
app on the market. What are you waiting for? Now you can access all
your inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, AOL and more) in one place. Never delete
an email again with 1000GB of free cloud storage.
.
__,_._,___
<Freddie Mercury_ Final Press Release[1].doc>
No comments:
Post a Comment