Freddie Mercury's earliest worn jacket in the collection - worn for first Queen rehearsals and photoshoots | 1970-1972

‘Queen As It Began’, Jacky Smith & Jim Jenkins’, Omnibus Press, Revised Edition 2022, illus. between pp. 198-199

‘Somebody To Love, The Life, Death And Legacy Of Freddie Mercury’, Matt Richards & Mark Langthorne, Blink Publishing, 2017 (paperback edition) illus. between pp. 136 & 137 – photograph of Freddie rehearsing with Queen at Trident Studios

‘Queen In Cornwall’, Rupert White, Antenna Publications, 2022 2nd Edition, front cover illustration and p.238 – Queen posing outside Imperial College, 1970 with Freddie wearing this jacket, Photograph by Douglas Puddifoot

‘Queen, The Complete Illustrated Lyrics’, Backbeat Books, 2012, p. 251 (illus.)

This jacket is one of the earliest garments included in the auction; worn by Freddie as early as 1970 during rehearsals at Imperial College, probably in the late spring / early summer. Freddie had recently joined the band, which until around the end of May was still called Smile. The Smile line-up of Brian May, Roger Taylor and Mike Grose played a gig at Imperial College on 9 May, 1970. Roger Taylor’s diary entry on 27 May records that they had decided to call themselves Queen, although they still seemed to have been billed as Smile, for example, the gig they played at Truro City Hall on 27 June where they were originally billed as Smile but played as Queen.

The Smile line-up of Brian May, Roger Taylor and Mike Grose played a gig at Imperial College on 9 May, 1970, after which Freddie came on board, and the new line-up started rehearsing at Imperial College which, in retrospect, was a momentous occasion, captured in black and white photographs taken by the group’s friend and photographer Douglas Puddifoot. Brian May has previously identified these photos as being taken …”at our very first rehearsal in a lecture theatre in Mech Eng [Mechanical Engineering] that I booked at Imperial College”. The photographs, which can be found on the internet, show the foursome in rehearsal, in discussion and posing outside, the latter illustrated in ‘Queen As It Began’, is credited as being the earliest photo of Queen - Freddie is wearing this jacket in all the photos over a Superman T-shirt (see lot 2141 for a similar but not identical garment). These rehearsals were for their gig on 18 July, as Brian recalls…”The first proper gig we did was at Imperial College in the Union Hall. I remember it very distinctly because I’d seen all sorts of people playing in there. I’d been part of the Entertainment Committee….We booked Jimi Hendrix….So for us it was a dream come true to actually play on that stage…..it was a major stepping stone for us.”

The jacket is again seen being worn during Queen’s rehearsals for their first album. Between October and December 1971 they were at De Lane Lea’s new state of the art studios in Wembley where they recorded five demo tracks. Between June and November 1972 they had transferred to Trident Studios in Soho, where the actual sessions for the album were recorded, a lengthy and probably frustrating process as the fledgling band were only allowed into the studio during so-called ‘Dark Time’ between the hours of 11pm and 2am when it wasn’t being used by other artists. Most of the work had been completed by July, and the mixing and mastering completed by November (the album was released in July, 1973).

This jacket was also worn by Freddie for Queen’s photoshoot with Douglas Puddifoot at Freddie’s flat in Holland Road, London, 17 March, 1973, some of the photos of which were used for the back cover montage of ‘Queen’, 1973, including those of Freddie wearing this jacket. One of the images of Freddie wearing this jacket was later used for the front cover image of the CD single ‘Let Me Live’, 1996.