Jacky Gunn

Can't seem to get enough of Queen at the moment - listening to the albums (on vinyl!), watching video clips on YouTube and reading anything and everything I can find about the band and the four creative musicians who formed the original line-up (I don't count the current Queen + whoever tours): Brian, Freddie, Roger and John. The main reason for choosing this 'biography', however, was the subtitle on the cover: 'written in co-operation with Queen'. None of the muckraking and cashing in of the first book I bought, the 'definitive' (hah) biography of Freddie Mercury, just a straightforward and respectful account of the band's origins, written in 1992, the year after Freddie's death.

I found this vastly informative and interesting, obviously. From the quick sketches of the foursome's early lives - Brian constructing his own guitar while excelling at school, Freddie arriving in London from Zanzibar via India at eighteen and setting up a market stall with Roger, who hails from Cornwall, and John the long lost bass player with a handy talent for electronics - to the complicated history of record companies and contracts, Jacky Gunn, the Queen Fan Club secretary, covers all bases, with contributions from Brian, Roger and John. She notes in the afterword that nobody was aware of the full extent of Freddie's illness until the book was completed, so there are no morbid hints - just a very emotional and very final chapter.

Some highlights - Freddie accidentally drinking 'herbal' tea and getting off his head, Roger threatening a gang of skinheads with his 'licence' to practice judo (his student ID), the origin of Freddie's trademark half mic stick at a grammar school for girls, and three sets of behind the scenes photos. Well worth reading.… (más)