I think Shakespeare put it best in the sonnets: “Love is not love, Which alters when it alteration finds.” And that’s absolutely true. It is that journey. It’s not one I quite understood at the beginning, but when you read the sonnets and you reflect, you think, yes, that is love. It’s a wonderful emotion to feel, and a wonderful emotion to accept from another human being. But it took me a long time to understand that.’

A lot of the time itʼs how each musician is displayed on an album. If I had more songs than somebody else, it would make them a lesser musician. Thatʼs how near the mark it is. Iʼm always trying to make it very diplomatic, so I just say, no matter what it is, we all have even songs from now on. Like in the eighties, I always wrote, Brian and I always wrote far more, but now itʼs come to the stage where they all want to pull their weight… And I think that in this point in time, that is the only way for Queen to survive.It was the thing in those days, she says, to drop by the pub after work. ‘You’d wonder, is anyone there tonight? Just as one did in the ’60s. I really didn’t know Freddie very well at all.’ The front door leads out to the green gate to the grounds, which became a tourist hotspot and was covered in dedications from fans Performing in front of an crowd of 120,000, the August 9 concert at Knebworth Park was the final date of the band's highly successful Magic Tour and the last time the band would ever play with live with Freddie Mercury at the helm.

I’m 72, and next birthday I’m not going to be 50. I’m heading towards, hopefully, being an octogenarian and I just felt that this had to be done in my lifetime. Among the gathering of friends and celebrities, Mary, one notices, was always seated at his right hand. ‘That never occurred to me.’ She pauses. ‘I always thought it was because I was useful – it was closer to the kitchen.’ We don’t know the exact frames Freddie Mercury wears in the movie. Both pairs have a pretty standard aviator shape with the major difference being the lens. They also have both have a silver-colored metal frame. The party for the release of Jazz, for example, was on Halloween in 1978 in New Orleans, and featured a man who sat nude in a pile of chopped liver, lesbian double acts and transvestites. It was wild fun, but at a cost – a huge cost.It was Geldof who best summed up the mood of the event and Queenʼs impact on it. “Queen were absolutely the best band of the day,” he remembered. “They played the best, had the best sound, used their time to the full. They understood the idea exactly, that it was a global jukebox. They just went and smashed one hit after another. It was the perfect stage for Freddie: the whole world. And he could ponce about on stage doing We Are The Champions. How perfect could it get?” Queen’s ambiguous relationship with the press did have its advantages. The band threw parties to celebrate album releases and band milestones to which they felt free not to invite any members of the ‘fourth estateʼ. The parties grew in legend; they assumed the status of Bacchanals. While the more extreme stories of parties at which dwarves with bowls of cocaine on their heads circulated among the guest were never fully substantiated, those days were (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) wild times. Another style that Freddie Mercury embraced was the cat-eye sunglasses, which added a touch of retro charm and femininity to his look. These bold and dramatic frames not only defied gender norms but also showcased his fearlessness when it came to embracing unique and unconventional fashion choices. The cat-eye sunglasses became an iconic element of his style, leaving a lasting impression on fans and inspiring countless fashion enthusiasts. Mary Austin and Freddie Mercury in 1984; Austin today, photographed by Sophia Spring Courtesy of Sotheby's (L) and Sophia Spring (R)