Freddie Mercury posing with young fans, including an 8-year-old Neville Kaye on the left, in October 1984 while Queen was staying in Sun City, South Africa, during The Works Tour.
Neville’s family was visiting Sun City on vacation from Johannesburg. While walking through the resort area, Neville’s mother spotted Freddie Mercury and guitarist Brian May walking right ahead of them. Neville, who was only 8 years old at the time, didn’t understand why his mother was suddenly so hysterical until she explained, “He is the one who sings ‘Radio Ga Ga!’”
“She asked me to run up to him and ask for his autograph but I was too shy so she ran up to him and was very polite,” Neville recalled. “I noticed Brian May walked away with something like ‘I’ll meet you later.’ So Freddie and my mom approached the pool area in the picture and my dad came up to meet him with my brothers. My dad, struck up a conversation with Freddie – I don’t remember what they spoke about.”
“After a while my dad asked if he would mind taking a picture of him and kids, he obliged and voila! Here it is. We never saw the concert or had tickets for that night, let alone knew Queen was there! When Freddie passed away in 1991 I had the picture enlarged and framed in my room.”
Neville Kaye went on to become a professional musician and guitar teacher based in Sydney, Australia, a career path no doubt influenced by his brief childhood meeting with rock royalty.
Leave a Reply