Mercury spent most of his childhood in India and began taking piano lessons at the age of seven.In 1954, at the age of eight, Mercury was sent to study at St. Peter’s School, a British-style boarding school for boys, in Panchgani near Bombay (now Mumbai), India. One of his formative musical influences at the time was Bollywood singer Lata Mangeshkar.At the age of 12, he formed a school band, The Hectics, andcovered rock and roll artists such as Cliff Richard and Little Richard.A friend from the time recalls that he had “an uncanny ability to listen to the radio and replay what he heard on piano.” It was also at St. Peter’s where he began to call himself “Freddie”, and in February 1963 he moved back to Zanzibar where he joined his parents at their flat.