Peter Straker, concert and cabaret star of stage and screen, and long term confidante of Freddie Mercury, released three hybrid rock / cabaret masterworks. These long out of print and highly sought after cult classic, cross-over albums were originally released between 1977 and 1980 and were all produced by stellar production talents. Freddie Mercury co-produced Straker’s career defining “This One’s On Me” album alongside Roy Thomas Baker - who was the celebrated producer behind Queen’s classic albums, “Queen”, “Queen II”, “Sheer Heart Attack”, “Jazz” and “A Night At The Opera”. Straker’s 1979 album “Changeling” was Tim Friese-Greene’s first full album production role before his acclaimed association with Thomas Dolby and his becoming the de facto 4th member of Talk Talk on their critically acclaimed later albums. At the controls for 1980’s “Real Natural Man” was Reinhold Mack whose career includes producer credits for Queen, The Rolling Stones, The Scorpions, Meatloaf and Deep Purple. Peter Straker has been hailed as one of the great voices of the British stage. He is the actorsinger who recorded with Freddie Mercury (Barcelona, Time), starred in the notorious musical Hair, in Ken Hill’s original Phantom of the Opera and who is acknowledged as a leading virtuoso interpreter of the Jacques Brel songbook. Adept at trailblazing gender-fluid roles, he first shot to fame in 1968 when he starred as Hud in the original London production of Hair. He went on to star in the pioneering queer movie Girl / Boy in 1972 and to play the coveted role of Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show. More recently he played the Acid Queen in the revival of Tommy, written by The Who’s Pete Townshend. Signing his original 1972 RCA recording contract within weeks of his friend David Bowie, Straker has been referred to as the ‘Black Bowie’ in acknowledgement of their similar hybrid careers that straddled film, theatre and rock.
