On September 5 (Freddie Mercury’s birthday), Julia Boggio Studios went out in force to photograph the star-studded Freddie For A Day charity event at the Savoy. Its purpose is to raise money for the Mercury Phoenix Trust, which is an AIDS charity started in 1992.
The annual event encourages the guests to dress like Freddie Mercury, even if they just grab a moustache out of a bowl at the front door. Getting into the spirit, we photographed one of our employee’s 7-year-old brother as Freddie Mercury. I even made his costume myself; I dyed a gross white jean jacket from New Look bright yellow and I sewed gold ribbons up his M&S trousers. I think the result was pretty good!
Our duty was to run a “photo booth” for all the guests. As they came into the reception, they had the opportunity to have their photos taken with Freddie the Lion, who was on loan from the Born Free Foundation.
Of course, a Freddie Mercury party wouldn’t be complete without a flock of transvestites. They had no problems with turning it on for the camera.
We were all very excited about this event and had been looking forward to it for weeks. For once, everybody wanted to work the late shift!
After all, we’d get to meet Brian May, at the very least. Perhaps some of his guitar-playing genius would rub off onto me and I could get past my repertoire of “The Wheels on the Bus” and move onto something with more notes.
Now, if there is one person in the entire world that James would like to meet, it’s Sir Tom Jones. Aside from sharing their Welsh roots, James was born in Tom Jones’ hometown. James loves Tom. We have met a lot of A-list celebs in our time and I have NEVER seen James flustered by any of them. This is the man who casually slipped his hand around Oprah’s waist and threw himself into Patrick Swayze’s arms. We didn’t know Tom Jones was going to be there. When James saw him, his eyes went big, his hands started to sweat and – believe it or not, people – HE LOST THE POWER OF SPEECH. It was me who had to ask Tom if he would pose with James and the lion because I knew that, if I didn’t, James would kick himself for eternity. So here is my star struck husband with the mighty Sir Tom Jones, who has the most amazing voice and naughty smile.
Then James started flirting with Anita (Dobson) May.
Here is Alfie Boe, who is quite honestly one of the nicest celebs I’ve ever met, and what a voice! Also pictured are Dynamo (the magician) and Al Murray.
And it wouldn’t be a party without Cover Drive, who sang the theme tune from Twilight, Strictly Come Dancing judge, Bruno Tonioli, and Nancy Dell’Olio.
Here are some other choice pictures of people dressed as Freddie for the Day.
What a great year it’s been! Julia Boggio Studios has gone from photographing the Queen to Queen. We can’t wait to see what happens to us next.