Wham!

[Sits]

Desperately sad because we know how it ends, but joyous at the same time.

Do yourself a favour and watch it.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I'm saving it up.

[Sits]

I'm saving it up.

It’s worth it. But you’ll probably watch it again anyway.

["Hold on, buddy!"]

Really enjoyed it, a really nice portrayal of their friendship. Was saying to one of my George-adoring friends that I've always thought Andrew Ridgley was a decent bloke - accepted George becoming the breakout star, was amicable about the break-up, gave it a go himself and buggered off to Cornwall to enjoy his royalties when it didn't work out.
Nice story from this week's Popbitch about the 'coke bloat' era Robbie Williams sidling up to George Michael on a Monaco dance floor and attempting to be funny by saying "I wanna be the next Andrew Rdgley" to which George fish eyed him and replied "DON'T take the piss out of Andrew."

[Strangers On A Train]

It was a lot better than I thought it was going to be, and “Careless Whisper “ is such a great record.

[Simon G]

Careless Whisper was number 1 when I was born.

I bloody love it.

I will need to watch this now. I feel like I've only really got to understand George Michael and his talent after he passed.

[hobbes]

Holy shit. Careless Whisper was the song that defined my first proper breakup at secondary school.

[wingco]

Loved it. Here's what I posted on Facebook.

I was one of an apparently select few who bought “Wham Rap!” when it was first released in 1982. It was a flop but I didn’t care about that. These British boys were melding state of the art funk with a very British, brash and socially conscious attitude. These were pop animals I could take to. “DHSS”! “Young Guns” only exacerbated this. The swagger, the denim, the moves, the boys. For me, they were part of the juicy fruit of synth-based funk that was the best of 1982, 1983.

When they got more popular and reverted to Carlton-From-The-Fresh-Prince-Of-Bel-Air dancing fare like “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” and “Freedom” I lost interest seriously. The highlights in their hair were a signifier of their capitulation, their aspirational pop naffness. They could have been something, instead they were this. Forget them. As for “Careless Whispers” and its Silvikrin sax, uughh.

When they split, it seemed inevitable. After all, Andrew Ridgeley was clearly the Garfunkel of the pair, only minus the voice - only a matter of time before he was jettisoned. And then, the hideousness of George Michael’s career, a painful white exercise in soul by osmosis, by imitation, evidenced in that duet with Aretha Franklin.

So why do I love the Netfllix Wham! documentary? Why do I come away from it, as I suspect you will, loving George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley?

First up, it’s beautifully edited and assembled, the judicious choice of clips illustrating the in-their-own-words narrative. From early footage of them trying to plug themselves in dodgy nightclubs to the touching surrealism of their China tour, it’s utterly watchable, the familiar presented as strangely unfamiliar.

Second, it’s the story of a beautiful friendship in which Andrew Ridgeley emerges, quite rightly, as foundational in the making of Wham!, the older of the two, deeply influential on young George and in certain ways the stronger character. Clips of them show his sharp, cheeky wit which would have been a significant contributor to their pop appeal. He was selfless in realising that George was much the better songwriter and gracefully stepped back from competing with him. This lack of ego contrasts with George, who was so competitive in his urge to be Number One that he was jealous of Band Aid keeping ‘Last Christmas” off the Number One spot, despite having contributed to it. But he was honest - we know about this because he said so.

Andrew was George’s rock, as good a buddy as you could hope to have especially in your up-and-coming, formative years. He privately realised what great battles George was fighting, as a gay man who felt unable to come out in the Eighties, at once desperately pursuing pop success for the validation and kudos he craved but trapped by its concomitant expectations, what with the voracity of their largely female fan base. When George went solo, he did so with Andrew’s best wishes.

I spent a lot of the Eighties as a music journalist deriding George Michael. In my first ever TV appearance, a piece for 01 For London, interviewed by Magenta Devine, I jeered “He’s begging to be taken seriously.” And no doubt he was but this documentary gives a strongly sympathetic take on just why. I came to like and respect George Michael towards the end of his life, for his decency, his politics and the maturity of his late songwriting, even as he was clearly coming apart at the seams. I don’t think he was ever able to dispel those voices of doubt, the demons of repression that plagued him throughout his life even after he came out.

Two young guns - two good men.

[MsD]

Loved it, watched it twice.
Good to see Andrew being recognised not only as the best of mates, but as the catalyst, someone who had that initial creative spark and the cheekiness that encouraged George to perform.
(I have WhamRap on 12”, bought on its second release.)
Young Guns and Wham Rap placed them in that Hard Times aesthetic and attitude, as well as the Radical Funk. To Beat Route clubbers, that Young Guns dance was familiar, that’s how everyone danced at Beat Route and the Mud Club.
The post-Tropicana stuff was visually naff as hell but we can now see behind that it was solid pop, for better or worse. (The Spandau’s had a similarish trajectory, they were a cool, secret club band in 1981 then it was AAARRGH, they’re so naff! Again, Gary Kemp was writing solid tunes. Adam Ant, from Zerox /Whip in My Valise and having FUCK carved in his back, to Goody Fucking Two Shoes.)
I love GM’s later solo work, the stubbly, Older era.
A lovely film.

[3 Colours Red]

Great post, wingco... apart from not liking I Knew You Were Waiting For Me.

[wingco]

Heheh cheers!

[G-Man]

And then, the hideousness of George Michael's career, a painful white exercise in soul by osmosis, by imitation, evidenced in that duet with Aretha Franklin.

I don't quite see it like that. By 1986, Aretha had frequently crossed over into pop. "I Knew You Were Waiting" is more pop than soul, I find. Aretha was as much hitching a ride on GM's pop stardom as GM was seeking soul credibility through Aretha.

In any case, the duet was sort of bookended by 1986's "A Different Corner" and 1987's "Kissing A Fool", both superbly written and performed songs that rank up there with anything great GM ever did. I'd argue that the entire solo debut LP was anything but hideous.

[Sits]

And a lot of it isn’t soul.

[G-Man]

I've finally seen the docu. Marvellous indeed. I knew that Ridgeley was a decent sort, and this film supports that notion. Of course, it is very much the authorised biography, so there may be things we haven't been told.

[Sits]

A mate of mine bought the cassette of Fantastic when it came out and played it to death whenever we were in his car. Which was often as he was one of only two of the group to have a licence and car. It lived up to its title. It sounded fresh and full of energy and these guys were exactly the age of our gang.

And they were very, very young; 23 at the time of the farewell concert.

[WOM]

Watched this last night. Gave me all the feels for my teenage years in the '80s. Just a joyful story well told. And yeah, galvanized everything I'd heard about AR over the years.

[Fargo Boyle]

Nice interview with AR in the Grauniad today, comes across as a genuinely nice guy
‘Oh God, I envied his voice!’: Andrew Ridgeley on ego, angst and loving George Michael | Pop and rock | The Guardian

[Logan Mountstuart]

Leaving Tony Blackburn aside, this just makes me feel what an idiot I might have been when I was 21. I suppose I'm an old Dad who knows best now.

https://youtu.be/Vj3HOklzUTo

[Satchmo Distel]

Particularly notable for me is that you can clearly see (with today's eyes) how George is far more musically intelligent than Morrissey, and he's being himself whereas Morrissey is purely a performance that can't engage in spontaneous discussion (he's playing the role of the gay aesthete but there's no substance in his answers on musical specifics). Notably Morrissey dropped that persona when he got more famous and could indulge his skinhead fetishes.

IIRC George, in other interviews, was mystified by aspects of Morrissey's persona; George knowing Morrissey was gay but performing as a celibate uncomfortable with sex.

[steveeeeeeeee]

It's interesting the number of performers of that time who were in the closet, but the confinements society placed them under must have given them an anger and edge of being the outsider which probably made them better artists at that point in time. No doubt it played havoc with their mental health, but it must have been a major source of creative inspiration, as the documentary notes with George Michael's desire to go solo and write songs for him rather than for the image teenage girls had of him.

[Satchmo Distel]

'Careless Whisper' is one of my many examples of great 80s singles that I just dismissed like a fucking idiot. 'True' is another. I just assumed that a white act writing a soul song that goes to No. 1 must be fake.

Writer Nelson George noted that black acts resented George M getting on the US Soul Chart but often his records were just better than most of what those acts were producing.

[G-Man]

I don't doubt Nelson George, but I don't suppose that those would not be the same black acts that were so inspired by Phil Collins that they recorded an album of his songs in R&B style.

[Satchmo Distel]

Freddie Jackson was the main example

https://www.lipstickalley.com/thread...chael.4509051/

[Satchmo Distel]

Nelson George felt that blue-eyed soul took over because black acts were so eager to assimilate that they became lame, leaving a vacuum to be filled by whites who grew up with classic soul and could replicate it.

[WOM]

Christ, what a painful line of argument this is.