May didn't realise Mercury was gay

Brian May has revealed that he did not realise Freddie Mercury was gay until several years after Queen formed.

The guitarist told the Daily Express that the famed frontman had a number of girlfriends during the band's early days.

"I don't think even he was fully cognisant in the beginning," May said of Mercury, who died of Aids in 1991 aged 45.

"You're talking to someone who shared rooms with Fred on the first couple of tours, so I knew him pretty well. I knew a lot of his girlfriends and he certainly didn't have boyfriends in those days, that's for sure. I think there was a slight suspicion but it never occurred to me that he was gay.

"In those days it was the fashion to be kind of dandyish and I suppose we had a hand in creating the fashion, so there was this doubt in people's minds as to whether you might be gay or not. It was a convenient little place to be."

May said that Mercury did not think of the issue as important, adding: "He loved music, he loved his work, and he didn't want anything to get in the way. Anyone who portrays Fred as purely a gay story is missing a lot of the point."