Freddie Mercury’s leather shorts sell for £18k at Merseyside auction house

A pair of leather shorts owned and worn by Freddie Mercury have sold for £18,000.

The Queen singer wore the tailored shorts on several occassions, most notably onstage during the encore for Queen’s second sold-out night at the Birmingham Exhibition Centre, in December 1980.

The lot biography included an extract from Queen fan club secretary Jacky Gunn and co-author Jim Jenkins’ book, which described the shorts as ‘the shortest and tightest’. The pair wrote: “Freddie decided to try to shock the audience with his stage outfit for the encore: the shortest , tightest pair of black leather shorts he could find - they didn’t leave much to the imagination, but no one complained...“

Merseyside auction house, Omega Auctions, said the shorts were originally purchased by a vendor at a Queen Fan Club auction in Southport in 1993. Now, they have been sold to an overseas bidder, with the sale including the original signed letter of authenticity from Jacky Gunn.

The shorts sold for a hammer price of £14,500, with added fees taking the final figure to a whopping £18,675.