When Freddie Bulsara and his family arrived in London, fleeing the revolution in Zanzibar, “it was very hard.” He had 17 years old y had to wash dishes in the kitchens at Heathrow Airport. They settled in a terraced house, without central heatingin the neighborhood of Feltham. It was in that house that young Fred developed his immense musical talent and in which One day, seeing Elvis Presley On television, she swore: “One day I’m going to be like him,” like Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind.
It was a well-off family. They had a comfortable life in a nice apartment overlooking the sea in Stone Town, in the city of Zanzibar, Tanzaniaeast coast of Africa. Among their domestic employees was Sabine, the woman who was in charge of taking care of the children. The Bulsaras were Bomi and Jer (the father and mother), Indians of Persian origin, believers in Zoroastrianism, and their two children: Farrokh and Karishma. Bomi worked as cashier at the British government’s High CourtLittle Bulsara, who loved music, was sent to a boys’ boarding school in India (St. Peter’s School) when i was 8 years oldHer mother had a hard time, as she confessed in The Times: “I cried when we sent him therebut he adapted and blended in with the other kids.” That’s where adopted the name Freddie (the boys often took ‘English’ Christian names) and formed his first band, the Hectics. Return to Zanzibar in 1963, but it would be for a short time.
That placid and happy life ended in 1964. When the four Bulsara were forced to flee the country (which had become independent from the United Kingdom in 1963) after the outbreak of a revolt y a violent anti-Arab outbreak as a result of the accumulated tensions between the different ethnic groups and social classes. Some 17,000 people died in the clashes. They decided travel to londonwhere they bought a three bedroom townhouse at 22 Gladstone Avenue, a Felthama neighborhood west of the great metropolisThey chose that area because Jer’s sister lived there.
“Freddie, who was 17 at the time, was very excited and told me, ‘England is the place we have to go, Mum.’ But it was very hard”, the late Jer recalled in The Times. Bomi found work as a cashier and his wife as an assistant at Marks & Spencer. “The house It didn’t have central heating and we were not familiar with making fire with charcoal, they had to teach us how to light it,” Kashmira told BBC News remembering those early years. Fred was asked by his mother“’What are you going to do, son?’ and he answered me that I didn’t know. I remind you filling out job application forms and saying, ‘I hope they don’t call me.'”
In fact, the young man Freddie did know what he wanted to do. Study Graphic Art and Design at Ealing College and had to work, among other things, washing dishes in the kitchens at Heathrow Airportlocated a stone’s throw from his home in Feltham. He spent a lot of time at home “making sketches for his works at art school and sometimes he would ask me to model for him,” his sister told the BBC. “He I loved watching Tom & Jerry cartoons…and remained hours in the bathroom fixing her hair, at that time I was not very happy with him because There was only one bathroom”.
But above all, what the future rock megastar had crystal clear It was his passion for music. “Watching Elvis Presley on television, he vowed, ‘One day I’m going to be like him.’” Mrs Bulsara said in an interview with The Times. Jer evoked his son by writing songs“He used to write all his music before he went to college, put it under his pillow and tell me not to take anything out of it.” And I listened to music, especially Jimi Hendrix. He was captivated by her style and stage presence, even thoughHe had a photograph of himself on his bedroom mirror.
Freddie Mercury in concert / Brad Elterman
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It was in this terraced house in the that Freddie developed his immense musical talentAnd it was on the campus of Ealing Art College that he met Brian May y a Roger Taylor. May used to visit him, having also grown up in the Feltham neighbourhood, and recalled it thus on the BBC: “We would spend most of the day evaluating and analyzing every intimate detail the way Hendrix made his recordings in the studio – listening to Hendrix on a vinyl playing on Freddie’s Dansette record player. He would say, ‘Listen to this, this is what we have to do!’ And I said to him, ‘Well, “Can you sing?”
Freddie Mercury lived in that house No. 22 Gladstone Avenue, in Feltham until 1970. That’s why on September 1, 2016 A round blue plaque was unveiled on its facade with this inscription: “Freddy Mercury (Fred Bulsara) 1946-1991. Singer and Songwriter. Lived here.” And an event was held which was attended by Brian May: “The last thing we would have imagined is that I would be here right now, paying tribute to him with a blue plaque. It is an occasion happy with a touch of sadness why He should be here, he should continue to be here creating.”
“When we were kids We conquered the world in ways beyond our wildest dreams.” The Queen guitarist continued: “That’s why we’re here today. What I remember about Freddie is hard to sum up. He was a shy and embarrassed boy who still lived with his mother.although often I slept in other people’s houses to feel like I had become independent.“.
The Blue Plaque was unveiled A few days before Freddie Mercury would have celebrated his 70th birthday on September 5th. He died in 1991, at the age of 45.
