Brian May forced to sell home of Sir Patrick Moore

Brian May forced to sell home of Sir Patrick Moore as museum hopes dashed

The Queen guitarist has been trying to turn Farthings into a museum to the astronomer but says he will now sell the property


Sir Patrick Moore at Farthings Photo: RII SCHROER


By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
12:01AM BST 10 Oct 2015

Brian May, the Queen guitarist, is to sell the home of Sir Patrick Moore after giving up a two year battle to turn the house into a museum to the astronomer.

The musician bought the property several years before Sir Patrick’s deathand allowed the Sky at Night presenter to stay there for a peppercorn rent after he fell on hard times.

Sir Patrick had lived and worked at Farthings in West Sussex from 1967 until his death aged 89, first with his mother, and then with his beloved cat Ptolemy. It was hoped the house could be turned into a museum or study centre for amateur astronomers who could benefit from the scientists’ library and equipment.

But planning constraints made it impossible to turn the house into a commercial enterprise and May said he had been forced to ‘bite the bullet’ and sell the property after ‘exhausting’ all avenues.

“I’m sad to have to sell it at all, but I can’t live in it and I believe we have now exhausted the exploration of all possible futures for the house,” he said.

“We have all spent the last two years trying to find a way for Farthings to be part of a monument of some kind to Patrick. All the proposals we have considered have come to a dead end.

“There is simply no way to make the house sustainable as a study centre, museum or monument. It sits in a residential area and so cannot be converted into commercial premises, it has no possibility of dedicated parking and all our advice was that it would simple lose money until it fell into disuse, becoming an embarrassment for Patrick’s memory.”

Brian May with Sir Patrick shortly before his death Photo: Rii Schroer

May said he was hoping to sell the house with covenants so that the site could not be broken up by “money-making housebuilders’ who would annoy the neighbours.

“I would be happy, and I believe so would Patrick, if it makes a home for a growing family,” he added.

May has described Sir Patrick as a 'father figure' who inspired him to study for a PhD in astrophysics. The two connected in person after working on a radio play together, and later co-authored the book Bang! The Complete History of the Universe.

They also shared a love of music with Sir Patrick writing also wrote more than 100 musical compositions, including a march in praise of Halley’s Comet.

But May claims that despite a healthy income from his books, music and television career, the Sir Patrick was ‘generous to the point of folly’ and gave away such large amounts of money that he could no longer sustain his lifestyle.

He would regularly splash out large sums on annual New Year's Eve parties for the village and help young astronomers through university.

Sir Patrick Moore's home, Farthings

“As many people close to Patrick know, he was a very generous man, sometimes to the point of folly,” added May.

“All of us who were close to Patrick blanched at the thought of this great man spending his last days in an old people’s home rather than staying in his house.

“You might have thought that being a knight of the real, and one of the most celebrated figures in Britain people in high places would have stepped in and made sure his welfare was taken care of, but not so.

“Realising the tragedy that was imminent, I secretly offered to bail him out. I bought first a strip of his garden to give him some ready cash, but then things continued to get worse so I then bought the house and leased it back to him for a peppercorn rent so he never had to worry about money again.”

Sir Patrick’s substantial collection of objects, manuscripts and memorabilia will now be housed at the Science Museum in London except those relating to William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus, which will go to the Herschel Museum in Bath.

A waxwork of Sir Patrick Moore which is currently in the Chichester Planetarium

Money left over from the estate will be used to found the Patrick Moore Heritage Trust while any profits from the sale of the house will go towards the expansion of Chichester Planetarium which the astronomer helped found and where he gave regular lectures. A realistic waxwork of the astronomer currently greets visitors.

May has promised to keep copies of the astronomer’s xylophone compositions and recordings safe alongside his own ‘Queen treasures.’

A Night at the Odeon

Brian May Talks Queen's 1975 Concert Film, Performing 'Bohemian Rhapsody' Live
"In those days, people went to a rock show to listen ... And there's nobody with mobile phones in the audience, nobody doing selfies – how weird is that," guitarist says of 1975 gigBY MARK SUTHERLAND October 12, 2015

Queen perform in 1975. The band will release their live album/concert film 'A Night at the Odeon - Hammersmith 1975' on November 20th. Andrew Putler/Redferns

Christmas will come early for Queen fans this year as the band releases its legendary 1975 festive London Hammersmith Odeon gig as a live album/DVD.

The much-bootlegged concert footage – originally broadcast live to an audience of millions on BBC TV and radio on Christmas Eve night in 1975 – has been completely restored for the release, entitled Queen – A Night at the Odeon – Hammersmith 1975. The new version was premiered at a screening at the former Olympic Studios – now a cinema – in Barnes, West London on October 8.

In attendance was Queen guitarist Brian May, who went through the unusual experience of watching his younger self play what was then the most important concert of his career.

"It was very weird," he laughed, speaking exclusively to Rolling Stone at the event. "It seems like watching another person, that young boy. I look so thin! I look very serious and the body language is so different now – I was quite shy in those days. There was a lot of noise and energy in the playing, but my body is different from the way I am now. These days I feel a channel in the body towards the noise that's coming out, but in those days it looks like it just comes from nowhere."

Nonetheless, the concert – the final date of Queen's A Night at the Opera UK tour – captures the band in typically flamboyant form, with lots of pyrotechnics, a finale featuring balloons, confetti and blow up dolls falling from the roof and a vintage display of showmanship from late frontman Freddie Mercury.

"It felt great at the time," said May. "There was a lot of adrenalin, a lot of joy because all our fans who'd followed us on the tour had all scrambled to get in there. Roger [Taylor, drummer] was really sick – he looks pretty good but he was feeling really bad. I think he threw up afterwards but you wouldn't know [from watching]."

The tour also marked the live debut of "Bohemian Rhapsody" which, at the time of the Odeon concert, was on a nine-week run at the top of the UK charts. Live, however, it featured as part of a medley with "Killer Queen" and "The March of the Black Queen," as the band didn't feel it would be able to recreate the full song live.

"We've never played 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in full," said May, "Because the middle bit is a little work of art, it's something that's painted on a canvas and you can't really reproduce that – or, at least, we prefer not to try [recreating] the operatic bits. It's a choice we made early on; we thought, 'We don't want to be standing there trying to reproduce 140 voices in the studio.' You can't really pretend you're doing that on stage."

According to May, Queen only started thinking about how songs would work live later in its career, when it wrote anthems such as "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" with audience participation in mind. The A Night at the Odeonfootage, however, shows a different type of crowd.

"They sing along on some things but not a lot," the guitarist noted. "In those days, people went to a rock show to listen – and to jump about and scream and shout, but not to sing every word like they do now. And there's nobody with mobile phones in the audience, nobody doing selfies – how weird is that?"

Queen – A Night at the Odeon – Hammersmith 1975 is released on CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, vinyl, digitally and in a super deluxe box set version on November 20. Audio formats feature three additional tracks as the cameras stopped rolling before the band's second encore, while the audio team carried on recording.

Queen – A Night at the Odeon – Hammersmith 1975 Track List
"Now I'm Here"
"Ogre Battle"
"White Queen (As It Began)"
"Bohemian Rhapsody"
"Killer Queen"
"The March of the Black Queen"
"Bohemian Rhapsody (Reprise)"
"Bring Back That Leroy Brown"
"Brighton Rock"
"Son and Daughter"
"Keep Yourself Alive"
"Liar"
"In the Lap of the Gods… Revisited"
"Big Spender"
"Jailhouse Rock Medley"
"Seven Seas of Rhye"
"See What a Fool I've Been"
"God Save the Queen"