MUD WRESTLERS AND MAD HATTERS

As we’ll see in the film, Freddie threw outrageous parties, and once I’d been accepted into his court the fun really started as he invited me along. One of the most memorable was in Munich, called the Black And White Drag Ball (left). The men had to dress as a female star and the women as a famous male, but everyone had to wear black and white only, although one married couple arrived as a zebra. He flew over all his friends from London and put us up at the Munich Hilton. Before the all-night party began two make-up artists arrived to transform his guests, who were then carried by horse and carriage to the party. Freddie, wearing a harlequin costume and military jacket, greeted everyone at the nightclub he’d hired and had decorated in black and white wallpaper. Some guests were wearing very little.

His personal assistant Peter Freestone, who used to work as a dresser for the Royal Ballet, vividly remembers another party in New York where mud wrestlers were recruited to entertain the guests.

Another, at London’s Kensington Roof Gardens, was staffed by people who were entirely naked except for body paint. ‘He just loved themes,’ Peter recalls, ‘hat parties in particular. Once I had to go out to buy a load of hats and feathers and plastic flowers for a Mad Hatter’s party at his home for his 40th. Then I’d spend hours decorating them so the guests could have something special to parade in. It was a hoot.’

Another birthday party I attended was at the fashionable Pikes Hotel,

Ibiza, where Wham!’s Club Tropicana video was filmed. Freddie took the place over, and to add to the fun he sent out an invitation to any overthe-top transvestites staying in Ibiza Town. Hundreds turned up! Even when part of the hotel’s thatched roof caught fire and the fire brigade turned up, the party continued till the next morning despite some rooms being filled with smoke – including mine! One guest had stupidly lit the tape of a floating balloon which had landed on the roof and set fire to it.

Freddie with dancer Wayne Sleep (left) at his Mad Hatter’s party