Freddie Mercury's Yamaha G2 Baby Grand Piano

The search for the perfect piano

By 1975 Queen had made three albums, each more musically complex than the last, and Freddie Mercury had outgrown the old upright piano at home. On tour and in studios the band used high-end concert instruments, Bösendorfers, Steinways and Blüthners, but Mercury wanted a domestic-sized grand with a sound he felt a creative connection to, and one that would fit into his living room. According to the sale catalog, the search was bankrolled by music manager Don Arden, who was trying, unsuccessfully, to bring Queen under his management.

Mary Austin, who shared a small flat with Mercury at 100 Holland Road, recalled that he 'searched intensely, for weeks, in numerous stores' and kept coming home frustrated, until one day he came back elated. He had found 'the Yamaha', and it cost around £1,000. One wire report described the hunt as a six-month search; the catalog's own account says weeks.

Yamaha had only begun exporting its pianos in the early 1970s, and there was a long wait for delivery. When delivery day came, Mercury had his bandmates move the old upright, the piano on which he had written 'Killer Queen' and 'Seven Seas of Rhye', into the bedroom. The Yamaha arrived while Austin was at work. She knew it was a baby grand, but she was not prepared for the size: it filled a third of their sitting room.

Farrokh Bulsara at the keyboard

Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5, 1946, in Stone Town, Zanzibar, to Parsi parents. He began piano lessons at age seven while living with relatives in India, and from age eight boarded at St. Peter's School in Panchgani near Bombay. As a teenager he was the pianist, not the singer, in a school band called The Hectics.

In 1964 his family fled the Zanzibar Revolution for Feltham, Middlesex, in England. College friends remembered him as constantly at an upright piano, playing the latest pop songs by ear. In April 1970 he joined Brian May and Roger Taylor in their band Smile, which became Queen, and bassist John Deacon joined in 1971.

Mercury became famous as a frontman, but the sale catalog makes the point that the piano remained his principal composing tool: it was where he improvised melodies, tested lyrics and first played new songs to his collaborators. Austin said he treated the Yamaha as 'an extension of himself, his vehicle of creativity'. He never smoked at it or set a glass on it, and would not let anyone else do so either.

Spring and summer 1975: the song

In the spring and summer of 1975, soon after the Yamaha arrived, Mercury was working on his most ambitious song yet. Fragments went back years: a friend from Smile recalled him playing pieces at the piano in the late 1960s, including one called 'The Cowboy Song' that already contained the line 'Mama ... just killed a man'. Producer Roy Thomas Baker remembered Mercury playing the opening on the piano and then stopping: 'And this is where the opera section comes in!'

Queen rehearsed at Ridge Farm Studio in Surrey in mid-1975 and began recording on August 24, 1975, at Rockfield near Monmouth, in Wales. The track was built across five studios in August and September, with about 180 vocal overdubs for the opera section. The piano heard on the record is a different instrument: Mercury played a C. Bechstein concert grand in the studio, in the promotional video and on the UK tour. The Yamaha was where the song was finished at home, not the piano on the master tape.

'Bohemian Rhapsody' was released as a single on October 31, 1975, after DJ Kenny Everett played it 14 times in two days on London's Capital Radio. It was the 1975 Christmas number one in Britain and held the top spot for nine weeks. Shortly after the release, the Yamaha moved with Mercury and Austin to a new flat in Stafford Terrace, Kensington.

Sixteen years, four addresses, one sale

When Austin moved to Phillimore Gardens in Holland Park (in 1978, by one account), Mercury had the Yamaha moved to her flat and went there to play and compose. It returned briefly to Stafford Terrace and in 1986/87 made its final move, to Garden Lodge, his house in Kensington. Mercury and Austin spent a whole day wheeling it around the sitting room. Facing the garden was ruled out because light from the bay windows would bleach the wood. In a shaded corner he finally sat, ran some scales, looked up and said, 'Fuck it. Let's put it here.' It stayed there until March 2023.

At Garden Lodge it was his main instrument. Austin recalled a pendulum always on top to his left, used only for certain songs, and a tape recorder on his right. An open lid meant he was polishing a nearly finished song; a closed lid meant he was still early in the writing. In March 1987 Mercury and the soprano Montserrat Caballé played an impromptu concert at the Yamaha until 2:30 in the morning, the night that led to their 1988 album 'Barcelona', much of which Mercury and producer Mike Moran composed on this piano.

Mercury died on November 24, 1991, at age 45, and left Garden Lodge and its contents to Austin. More than three decades later she consigned the collection to a six-part sale in London titled 'Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own'. In early August 2023 the piano was revealed as the star of a London exhibition that drew about 140,000 visitors. The estimate was £2 million to £3 million, but with the exhibition drawing such crowds, Austin chose to offer it without reserve so that any fan could bid.

On September 6, 2023, as lot 44 of the evening sale, it sold for £1,742,000 including fees, about $2.2 million. That was below the estimate. The 59 lots that evening totaled £12.2 million ($15.4 million). The same night, the 15-page draft of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' lyrics, which showed the song was once titled 'Mongolian Rhapsody', sold for £1.38 million. Some fans, and Brian May, publicly objected to the dispersal of Mercury's belongings. Part of the proceeds went to charities including the Mercury Phoenix Trust and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

What it is, and what it is not

The piano is a Yamaha G2, a 5 ft. 7 in. (about 168 cm) baby grand, serial number E1683689, dated 1973 in the sale description. It has a bright ebonized polyester case, square tapered legs ending in brass caps and casters, and faux-ivory keys. The catalog gives its dimensions as 147.3 by 167.6 by 100.3 cm. The G2 was built at Yamaha's Hamamatsu factory. Pianist Joseph Fleetwood, quoted by the auction house, said Yamaha designed it to compete with Steinway at a lower price, and that it had a clean, clear sound and an even, fluid action that would have suited a rock musician.

The year matters: the instrument was made in 1973 and bought by Mercury in 1975. It is also not the piano on the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' recording, which was a Bechstein concert grand. What makes this one significant is the chain of custody. It belonged to Mercury from 1975, lived in his and Austin's homes for 48 years, and came to market straight from Garden Lodge, consigned by the person who had looked after it all along.

A record for a songwriter's instrument

The sale was reported as an auction record for a composer's piano, passing the $2.1 million George Michael paid in 2000 for the Steinway on which John Lennon wrote 'Imagine'. It is one of the few instruments whose value rests on what was composed on it rather than what was played on stage.

The song it helped finish has outlived its writer many times over. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' returned to number one in Britain for five more weeks after Mercury's death, making it the first song to top the UK chart twice in the same version. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004, was certified Diamond in the United States in March 2021, and in December 2018 became the most-streamed song of the 20th century.

The numbers

Song

'Bohemian Rhapsody', written by Freddie Mercury

Recording began

August 24, 1975, Rockfield, Wales; recorded at five studios in August and September 1975

Single released

October 31, 1975

UK chart

Number one for nine weeks in 1975-76, and five more weeks after Mercury's death in 1991

Vocal overdubs

About 180 in the opera section

Worldwide sales

More than six million copies

U.S. certification

Diamond, March 2021

Timeline

1. Sep 5, 1946

   Farrokh Bulsara, later Freddie Mercury, is born in Stone Town, Zanzibar.

2. 1964

   The Bulsara family flees the Zanzibar Revolution and settles in Feltham, Middlesex, England.

3. Apr 1970

   Mercury joins Brian May and Roger Taylor's band Smile, which becomes Queen.

4. 1973

   Yamaha G2 grand piano No. E1683689 is made at Hamamatsu, Japan.

5. 1975

   With financial backing from Don Arden, Mercury buys the Yamaha for about £1,000; it is delivered to 100 Holland Road.

6. Aug 24, 1975

   Queen begins recording 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at Rockfield, Wales.

7. Oct 31, 1975

   'Bohemian Rhapsody' is released as a single; the Yamaha soon moves to Stafford Terrace, Kensington.

8. 1978

   Mercury moves the piano to Mary Austin's flat in Phillimore Gardens, where he goes to compose.

9. 1986

   The piano makes its final move, in 1986/87, to Garden Lodge, Kensington.

10. Mar 1987

    Mercury and Montserrat Caballé play at the Yamaha until 2:30 a.m., the evening that leads to the album 'Barcelona'.

11. Nov 24, 1991

    Mercury dies at 45; Garden Lodge and its contents pass to Mary Austin.

12. Nov 2, 2018

    The biographical film 'Bohemian Rhapsody' opens in U.S. theaters.

13. Mar 2023

    The piano leaves Garden Lodge for the first time in more than 35 years.

14. Aug 2023

    The piano is revealed as the star lot of the London exhibition before the sale; it is later offered without reserve.

15. Sep 6, 2023

    It sells at auction in London for £1,742,000 with fees, about $2.2 million.

The world in 1975

• Feb 11, 1975

  Margaret Thatcher becomes leader of Britain's Conservative Party, the first woman to lead a British political party.

• Apr 4, 1975

  Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Micro-Soft in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

• Apr 30, 1975

  Saigon falls, ending the Vietnam War.

• Jun 5, 1975

  The Suez Canal reopens for the first time since the Six-Day War.

• Jul 17, 1975

  American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock in orbit.

• Oct 1, 1975

  Muhammad Ali beats Joe Frazier in the 'Thrilla in Manila'.

• Nov 20, 1975

  Francisco Franco dies, opening Spain's transition to democracy.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Freddie Mercury's Yamaha G2 Baby Grand Piano is number 41 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (41 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The piano on the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' record is not this one: Mercury played a C. Bechstein concert grand in the studio and in the video.
• Mercury's old upright, on which he wrote 'Killer Queen', was moved into the bedroom to make room for the Yamaha.
• Mary Austin could tell where a song stood by the lid: open meant nearly finished, closed meant early sketches.
• Mercury kept a pendulum on top of the piano to his left, used only for certain songs.
• He ruled out a spot facing the garden at Garden Lodge because sunlight from the bay windows would bleach the piano.
• The piano went into the sale with a £2 million to £3 million estimate, but Austin dropped the reserve so any fan could bid.
• The same evening, the handwritten 'Bohemian Rhapsody' draft revealed the song's working title: 'Mongolian Rhapsody'.