Freddie Mercury’s ‘shortest, tightest’ hotpants worn at 1980 Birmingham gig sell for £18k

A pair of skintight leather hotpants worn by Freddie Mercury has sold for £18,000 ahead of a huge auction featuring 1,500 items from the rock legend’s personal collection.

Mercury, then 34, wore the tailored black shorts, which ‘didn’t leave much to the imagination’, on several occasions, most noticeably during an encore at a Queen concert in Birmingham in December 1980.

The singer died aged 45 in 1991 from AIDS-related complications.

It is understood that the charismatic frontman's leather shorts sparked a bidding war at the Merseyside auctioneer yesterday before they ultimately sold to an undisclosed overseas buyer.

The 28in (71cm) waist shorts get a mention in the band's authorised biography, Queen: As It Began.

In a chapter about Queen breaking America, it says: "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..."

They had originally been bought at the Queen Fan Club Auction in Southport, in 1993.

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