Queen manager Jim “Miami” Beach recalls receiving a phone call from Mercury as the recordings were progressing. “Freddie said, ‘You have to get me out of the studio’,” Beach told TV documentary The Great Pretender. On asking why, Mercury replied: “Because I’m recording with a llama. Michael’s bringing his pet llama into the studio every day and I’m really not used to it and I’ve had enough and I want to get out.”

One of the tracks that Mercury and Jackson started – the funky and stripped-back State of Shock – went on to appear on The Jacksons’ 1984 comeback album Victory as a duet with Mick Jagger.

The parties

There are two “raucous” parties depicted in Bohemian Rhapsody. But despite the presence on screen of a couple of dwarves and general suggestions of “flamboyance”, the parties don’t hold a candle to the reality. Queen, and Mercury in particular, had a gargantuan and legendary appetite for partying. The bacchanalian events they held were truly off the scale.

The event that has gone down in rock ‘n’ roll folklore was held almost exactly 40 years ago: in the French Quarter of New Orleans on Halloween in 1978. The band were in the US to promote their jazz album, and it was at this party where guests were reportedly greeted by hermaphrodite dwarves with trays of cocaine (specially imported from Bolivia) strapped to their heads. The guestlist consisted of 400 friends, movie stars, record industry bigwigs and journalists from round the world. The budget was initially set at £200,000 until Mercury reportedly declared: “F--- the costs, darlings, let us live a little.” And, boy, did they.