08-04-2005 – The Sun – Gary Mullen

For 174 nights a year, Matthew ..I’m still Freddie Mercury

TV Queen star is rock king

BALDING Gary Mullen will never win any beauty contests – but the competition which really mattered for the skinny singer was when he came first in Stars In Their Eyes.

Exactly five years ago the 31-year-old got nearly a million votes as Freddie Mercury on the live final of the ITV show and went on to become Scotland’s most successful telly talent show winner of all time.

For since Gary’s moment of glory, Fame Academy and the Pop Idol phenomenon have become all the rage – with Scots boasting two winners, David Sneddon and Michelle McManus, along with runner-up Darius Danesh.

All three topped the charts on the back of their shows, as the old tribute act series Stars In Their Eyes – hosted by Matthew Kelly – slipped on to the back burner.

But while the hip young trio have now virtually disappeared off the radar screen, Gary has steadily built upon his 15 minutes of fame.

By the end of this year alone the ex-computer salesman from Paisley will have performed 174 gigs – including London’s Hyde Park – in front of an astonishing quarter of a million people in a dozen countries around the globe.

The dad-of-three has even had to set himself up as a limited company – employing a full-time band and road crew – as he saw his salesman wages instantly quadruple.

Tour

For although he bears little resemblance to the late Queen frontman, when Gary rattles those tonsils it could be the spirit of Freddie himself.

And as Mullen jetted off to New Zealand for a month-long tour Down Under, he said: “I only entered Stars In Their Eyes for a laugh – I had no idea it would become a career.

“Shortly afterwards I did Euro Stars In Their Eyes and came second to a Celine Dion from Belgium, but all the time I was still treating it as a bit of fun and just went back to work as a computer salesman.

“But then one of the UK’s top agents got in touch and said if I could do more than just A Kind Of Magic, then I could perhaps make a living.

“It was a huge gamble for me because I would be leaving behind a steady job and already had one kid with another on the way.

“But when just a few months later I was doing Glasgow’s Hogmanay celebrations in front of 20,000 I knew I had made the right decision.”

Gary believes he adopted his go-for-it approach after surviving testicular cancer, three years before his TV fame.

Docs caught the disease before it had moved into his lungs and brain, but warned him he would never have kids.

But three children later with wife Jackie – Ben, seven, Lucy, four, and one-year-old Abbie – it’s no wonder Gary sings Queen’s The Miracle with particular relish. He said: “I had to have a testicle removed and was told I had a less than 50 per cent chance of becoming a father.

“We’d just got married at the time and that news was more devastating than the cancer.

“But years later I bumped into my consultant David Dunn at a charity do. Not only was I strutting about like Freddie, but he couldn’t believe I had fathered three healthy kids. So miracles do happen.”

Queen’s Live Aid performance has been voted the best concert of all time in a music fans’ poll. Now the existing members of the group are on a sell-out world tour with Paul Rodgers from Free taking up Freddie’s mantle.

And Gary’s cashing in as the Queen phenomenon refuses to fade away – 14 years after Mercury’s death. He said: “Queen are timeless and their music will never go away. There’s a whole new generation into them now and I can see that from my gigs.

“The popularity just continues to grow and in fact 2005 has been my busiest year so far. I had to cap it at 174 shows and even turn down a tour of South America, for fear I’d never get to see my family. I’ve had so many bookings I’ve even had to drive between gigs dressed as Freddie, praying I was never stopped by police.”

Queen guitarist Brian May regularly keeps tabs on Gary’s progress and even invited him to a gig in Leipzig, Germany, this year – ironically just 24 hours after the Scotsman played the same venue.

Gary said: “The band sent us back stage passes but we had to turn them down as we were playing hundreds of miles away so as yet I have still to meet my heroes.”

But Gary, who now lives in a plush detached house in Stepps, near Glasgow, admits he feels sorry for his fellow Scots TV talent show stars.

He said: “The problem with shows like Fame Academy and Pop Idol is they build people up too much. You know their singles are going to number one straight afterwards but then the only way is down.

“I may only be a copy-cat performer, but I get to live out the rock n’ roll life style, travelling first-class around the world and staying in all the top hotels.”

He added: “In September I’ll be playing Proms In The Park in front of 40,000 people who will all be clapping their hands to Radio Ga Ga.

“Sadly the likes of Michelle and Darius will never get to experience something like that.

“So I may only be a tribute act but I wouldn’t swap my life for anyone else’s.”

FOR more information on Gary’s tour dates log on to www.onenightofqueen.com.