London: Frontman of Iconic rock band ‘Queen’ Freddie Mercury’s belongings, including T-shirt, cloak, piano, will be auctioned at Sotheby’s auction house, here.
Of the 1,400 belongings, some of the biggest items include his ‘Flash’ T-shirt, which he used in the 1981 Queen World Tour. This will be sold alongside his red vinyl trousers for an estimated 25,458 pounds .
Other items include jewel laden crown and cloak worn in his final stage appearance in 1986 which are expected to be sold for as much as 1,01, 835 pounds and some of his big stage dresses, furniture, old photographs, and lyrics for songs that never made it to the board as well as some more interesting items such as letters and books that reflected Freddie’s eclectic tastes and flair for grandeur.
It is unknown how much these will fetch, but it is safe to say that music enthusiasts, hardcore ‘Queen’ fans and collectors will pay a great price for these items, which can range from anywhere between 38,188 pounds to 1,14,565 pounds and possibly even 1,27,294 pounds for the lyric sheets that never made it.
The piano that Freddy used to compose some of ‘Queen’s biggest classics such as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Big Bottom Girls’ and ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, is likely to fetch 3.8 million pounds.
Mercury was well known for his amazing and diverse voice, particularly his high pitch and operatic vocals which even ended up influencing other big singers such as Robert Plant, Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio among others.
‘Queen’ was formed in 1970 in London, and since then the band began ruling the board with their unusual music style. While some of the band’s earliest and most iconic works such their debut album to their 1975 album ‘A Night At the Opera’ were primarily hard rock albums infused with strong elements of heavy metal, arena rock, progressive rock, art rock, jazz and even classical, the band expanded to a more mainstream approach. The band soon began going into pop rock territory but never lost its approach for the artsy style.
To date ‘Queen’ is considered one of the most influential bands of all time having sold over 300 million records worldwide and influenced various other big names such as ‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Metallica’, ‘Alice In Chains’, ‘Judas Priest’, ‘Guns’ N Roses’, ‘Nirvana’, ‘Foo Fighters’ and many more.
Mercury died on November 24, 1991.
–IANS