Peter Straker

It was only recently (about a week ago), that I came across Peter Straker. I was making my usual Internet rounds when the photo of an album sleeve caught my gaze; it featured a charming androgynous creature that I hadn't seen before. I looked him up - and discovered that he is definitely interesting enough to merit a presentation. So, here we go...

Hailed as one of the great voices on the British stage today, Straker (born 7 November 1943 in Jamaica) has entertained audiences on stage and screen for over the last four decades. Peter first shot to fame in 1968 when he starred and stripped as 'Hud' in the London Production of the seminal musical Hair. Here he is, in the two most famous number from that musical: first, comes Aquarius:

... and here's Let The Sunshine In:

 He went on to appear in The Who's Tommy,  the legendary The Rocky Horror Show, The Wiz, Blues In the Night, and began a long association as The Phantom, with Ken Hill's The Original Phantom of the Opera. From the latter, here's To Pain My Heart Selfishly Dooms Me:

In Tommy, he originally had the part of the narrator. Then, in a new production of the musical, he was given the part of the Acid Queen. In his own words: "I’m playing a man dressed as a woman – called the Acid Queen. The director, Kerry Michael, offered me the role and I thought, 'Oh… a man’s never played that part before.'" ... "It’s not completely a drag act, no. I’m hoping the character comes across more as a man who likes women’s clothes. I suppose it’s a bit draggy, but the Acid Queen is much more of a cross dresser who likes putting on the makeup, but it’s still very much a man underneath, I hope. It’s a part the character assumes as a way of seduction; enticing people into noticing him. It’s like a witch doctor part – somebody who sets himself, or herself, up as a healer with the whole idea that Tommy will come and see her. With a bit of luck, she will be able to heal Tommy, with the result of becoming even more famous. I see him or her as a sort of shaman figure. I hope it’s slightly unnerving… I think she has drugged Tommy and she also tries to seduce him, with some sort of sexual healing with the hope it will awaken his senses and make him feel." Here's the song:

It seems that Peter was very good at it because the director wanted to add another song for him... And they managed to persuade Pete Townshend to write one. Again, in Peter's words: "That’s what our director wanted. Instead of a character disappearing in the second act, we wanted to find out what happens to them and how they go on. Working with the dramaturg [Paul Sirett], Kerry has managed to flesh out the story so there is now some sort of logic, whether you agree with it or not. That’s what I found quite exciting as well because Pete Townshend decided he would write a new song after all this time. At the beginning of the show, the lyrics are different and he worked very hard on the new piece which I believe works very well." Here's Acid Queen 2:

His success in Hair led to a contract with Polydor. His first single came out in 1969 and contained Breakfast In Bed b/w The Right To Cry. It's nowhere to be found on youtube - and neither is his second, from 1970, If This Was The Last Song. It was backed with a song from Hair, Easy To Be Hard. His next single for Polydor, Carousel / A New Day also went nowhere, so Polydor dropped him. He was then signed by RCA Victor and - lo and behold - he had a (minor) hit in 1972 with a song, based on Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by J.S.Bach. It was titled The Spirit is Willing and the record label quotes the artist as Peter Straker - The Hands of Dr. Teleny. It entered the charts on 19 February 1972, had a chart life of 4 weeks & peaked at #40.

The follow-up single, O Brave New World, wasn't a hit, but the impact of The Spirit is Willing was enough to inspire RCA to cut an album with Peter. The album was called Private Parts, featured a semi-nude Straker on the cover with the map of England projected on his naked body, and unfortunately wasn't a hit. It was good though. Listen to the opening track, Before I've Said A Word; it's impressive.

Equally as good was the song that followed When Love Was Hard To Come By:

Willow was another good song from this album:

As You Were Dying is another song whose style would influence an up and coming megastar... but more about him, later.

Divided fell into the same category: Does its style feel familiar to you?

Another song from this album was Cock Robin:

In 1973 Straker starred in the gay-themed film Girl Stroke Boy. A few years later he would appear on TV's legendary series Doctor Who (in four episodes) and later still he would be among the main cast of another TV series, Connie. He would also prove his mettle in classical roles that include Cassius in Julius Caesar at Bristol Old Vic, and Lucio in Measure for Measure at the National Theatre.

Another remarkable occurrence in Peter's life during the early 70s was his meeting with a man he was destined to be best friends with, Freddie Mercury. Interviewed by Kenny Everett to promote A Day At The Races, Mercury had broadcast a coded dedication to "Sharon, Beryl, Phyllis, Serita... all the lovely people." Freddie's 'lovely people', gay and straight, had all acquired female names: 'Sharon' was Elton John, 'Beryl' was John Reid, 'Phyllis' was Rod Stewart. Mercury himself was known as 'Melina' (after the world-famous Greek actress and political activist Melina Mercouri), Roger Taylor was 'Liz' and Brian May was 'Maggie'. Intriguingly, John Deacon was never given a name, while, in a comic reversal of gender, Mary Austin was called 'Steve' after Steve Austin, the hero of The Six Million Dollar Man.

'Serita' had been part of Mercury's life for some time. It was the nickname given to Peter Straker. In Jim Hutton's (Freddie's lover from 1984 until his death) memoirs, Mercury And Me, Straker is mentioned several times. Examples: "On Thursday, the night before Freddie's birthday, several people were at the house. Peter Straker was there, which meant he and Freddie would be up all night." ... "A little later I heard loud screams of laughter from downstairs and knew that Freddie and Straker were in party mood." ... "When I woke up, in bed alone, I could hear voices coming from downstairs. Freddie and Straker had talked through the night and were still in a strange mood. I got up and dressed for work in my suit with a white shirt and a tie. I popped in to say hello and goodbye to them, then went into the hall to put on my overcoat. As I crossed the double door to the lounge, I overheard Freddie asking Peter Straker: 'Who was that?'

'It's your husband, darling.'

Freddie screamed."

"At home, Freddie loved being surrounded by photographs of everyone close to him, most in silver frames. The grand piano in the lounge was covered in forty or so - pictures of me, Joe, Phoebe, Mary, Barbara, Peter Straker and, of course, the cats." ... "On Christmas Day we welcomed to our home Mary, Paul Prenter, Trevor Clarke and someone who had by now become one of the Family, Peter Straker."

Here's Freddie and Peter in an impromptu (and probably drunken) duet of Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be), in which Freddie calls Peter 'Serita':

In 1977 Mercury formed his own production company, Goose Productions, and stuck £20,000 on his own cash into Straker's album This One's On Me, which Freddie co-produced with Queen's producer Roy Thomas Baker. Freddie then 'pressured' his own label, EMI, to sign Straker, the same way that Pink Floyd's David Gilmour 'pressured' EMI to sign Kate Bush. The difference was, Bush's first album was a huge hit, the first of many to come, while Peter's album, with one foot in glam rock and the other in campy West End show tunes, which was released in 1978, barely sold.

If anything, Peter had a sense of humor. When EMI sent him on a huge tour, in Birmingham Odeon he'd only sold thirty tickets. The management suggested that they cancel the concert, but Peter said: "No, no, my loves, I must go on..." He had the feather boa and the heels, and he used to do a version of That Old Black Magic with a box of Black Magic chocolates. That night he went out with a bag of Revels...

The album began with a short piece called Ada:

... followed by I've Been To Hell & Back:

... then comes the atmospheric The Day The Talkies Came:

Heart Be Still was a lovely duet with Mercury:

Ragtime Piano Joe was a great single:

Jackie was Peter's cover of the great Jacques Brel song:

The Annual Penguin Show was another good one:

The Saddest Clown was the penultimate track:

... followed by the closing track, Vamp:

Meanwhile, Peter collaborated with The Alan Parsons Project for a track from the I, Robot album, called Some Other Time:

Even though This One's On Me was a flop, Peter was too high-profile to be dropped by EMI. He was given another chance, in 1978, with The Changeling. Unfortuntely, it too failed to sell. From this album, here's Believer:

... here's Tear Down The Walls

... and here's the whole album:

After The Changeling didn't set the charts on fire, EMI dropped Straker. Then his friend, Elton John, came to the rescue and a new deal was made with Elton's own label, Rocket Records. One album came out of this deal, Real Natural Man (1979). The opening track was Late Night Taxi Dancer:

Here are three of the album's songs joined together. They are Late Night Taxi Dancer,  It Ain't Easy and They Got You Dancing:

He released another single for Rocket Records in 1982: It was called Zoo New and written by Philip Jap.

Since then, Peter has concentrated on theatre, with big success, and occasionally on TV. When his friend, Freddie Mercury, shot the video for his single The Great Pretender, Peter was there. In Jim Hutton's words: "Freddie invited me along to watch 'The Great Pretender' video being made after I had finished work at the Savoy, as it promised to be a great deal of fun. He was right. When I arrived the place had a party atmosphere and the loudest screams of laughter were coming from the dressing rooms. They'd been filming all day and now Freddie, Roger Taylor and Peter Straker were getting into drag. Freddie had shaved his moustache off, Terry had shaved his arms with an electric razor and someone else had shaved his chest. When the three of them got into their frocks and started prancing around, the studio erupted into hysterics. I was in tears. I'd never seen Freddie in drag before and he was camping it up like crazy."

"When Freddie penned the song I'm Going Slightly Mad it was after another through-the-night session with Peter Straker. Freddie explained he had the phrase 'I'm Going Slightly Mad' on his brain and told Peter what sort of thing he wanted to say in the song. The inspiration for it was the master of camp one-liners, Noel Coward. Freddie set about with Peter trying to come up with a succession of goofy lyrics, each funnier than the last. He screamed when they came up with things like 'I'm knitting with only one needle' and 'I'm driving on only three wheels these days'. But the master-stroke was: 'I think I'm a banana tree'. Once that came out there was no stopping Freddie and Straker - they were then in full flow. I went to bed to fall asleep listening to their laughter wafting upstairs."

Freddie and Peter were always hanging out, either having wild nights at the fashionable London clubs or crazy holidays in Ibiza. But then Freddie started getting sick... Peter, had never been told that Freddie had AIDS. This caused problems between them. Let's hear it from Jim Hutton: "It was while I was away in Ireland for a few days that Freddie and Peter Straker fell out and the rift was never to be mended. Peter was noticeable by his absence, particularly at weekends when before he would invariably come round for a drink or a meal. I asked Freddie why we hadn't seen anything of him. 'He upset me at Joe's Cafe one day,' he said, but refused to say what had happened."

What did happen was this: In the summer of 1990, Freddie received the devastating news that his personal chef and ex-lover, Joe Fanelli, had been diagnosed with full-blown AIDS and, a few weeks later, Freddie’s boyfriend, Jim Hutton, discovered he was HIV positive. Within Freddie’s household there was the fear that if the press found out that three occupants of the house were ill, Garden Lodge would be dubbed “Aids Lodge” in sick newspaper headlines.

Becoming increasingly frail, and with a pack of news-hungry reporters laying siege outside his home, Freddie would only leave the house for recording sessions or to visit his doctors and relied, generally, on the small but close-knit circle of friends around him who paid frequent visits. Amongst these was his closest friend, Peter Straker.

For a while Straker had been wondering about the health issues Freddie was reeling from. Not being staff (and Peter was the only one of Freddie’s closest friends not on the payroll), Straker hadn’t been told that Freddie had AIDS. Peter said: “All I got from Freddie was that he had this blood thing, and I thought it could have been leukaemia or something like that. He started to get these blotches and I asked about these and he said he had some blood condition. I knew about AIDS but it just never entered my head.”

As Mercury became increasingly frail, and press gossip increased, a concerned Straker finally confronted the Queen singer about his condition.

“We had lunch and he was quite blotchy and he had make-up on, and we went upstairs and we were sitting down watching telly on his bed and I said to him, “Have you got AIDS?” and he said, “No, I haven’t got AIDS.”

And I said, “If there’s anything wrong with you, I’m always here for you,” and we parted that evening. That was the last time I saw him.” A year later, Freddie Mercury was dead.

He had managed to keep the fact he had AIDS secret until less that 24 hours before his death, when he released a statement to the press confirming his illness. Peter Straker, Freddie’s closest friend for fifteen years who had been cut adrift, didn’t even attend the funeral.

He had been trying to get in touch with Freddie constantly during the last year of the singer’s life, but with no luck. “When I used to telephone they would never put me through,” Straker says. “They’d just say he was busy, he was out, but they got instructions from him, and Joe followed him to the letter.

"Again, after he died, they all came to see me in a show in the West End and were all apologizing, saying, “I wish we'd put you through.” I said, “It’s too f**king late now.”

That was the sad end of a great friendship...