THE KING OF ROCK IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING.

25 November, 1991. Half asleep and cycling along on my morning paper round in the dawn light, i pulled the next customers' paper from my bag, and as i was about to post it, the headline caught my eye and shook me awake: Freddie Mercury, flamboyant frontman of rock legends Queen was dead from AIDS, aged 45, barely 24 hours after announcing his illness to the press. Now, i wasn't a huge fan of the band or anything, though i had listened to the Greatest Hits album and watched the VHS of their recently released Greatest Hits 2, both belonging to my parents. So i was well acquainted with their hits. But this was a big deal - someone whose music i knew and liked was gone. It was all people talked about at school for weeks afterwards, and some of the lads who could play instruments performed a tribute to him in the Christmas show. Within a couple of months, Greatest Hits 2 joined EMF, Cathy Dennis, and the debut album by the King of surreal light entertainment, Vic Reeves, on my stereo and walkman. I purchased the re-released "Bohemian Rhapsody" which was that years Christmas No. 1. And when i went on a school trip to Eastern Europe in Feb 92, that tape of Queen was all i played. I've never owned any albums of theirs other than Greatest Hits, but their music will always remind me of that winter.

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