Wham!: George Michael & Me

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Net celebrity... Keren Woordward". BBC News. 28 September 2009 . Retrieved 23 April 2012. (broken link) But by 1986, George's decision to go solo ended the band and with that, Wham! bowed out with one last concert at Wembley. The tabloids were predictably cruel after that, claiming that Ridgeley was the weak link who didn't really contribute anything of value to the band's sound. In Wham! George and Me, Andrew tells the story of how they rode a rollercoaster of success around the world while making iconic records and surviving superstardom with their friendship intact. It is a memoir of love, music, the flamboyant 1980s and living in a pop hurricane.

A joyous celebration of the Wham! years. For anyone who was a teenager in the early 1980s, it will take you on a nostalgia trip. It's an honest but affectionate account of a remarkable duo who remained true to their origins and their friendship throughout it all' Daily Express He might been the superior songwriter, but Michael still looked up to his bandmate, envying his confidence. “He may have seen some aspects of my character that he could assume, that would make his life a bit easier and enable him to fulfil his ambition,” Ridgeley says modestly.Here are 10 fantastic facts about the group that gave the world such timeless classics as “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” “ Last Christmas,” and of course, “Careless Whisper.” 1. George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley met as kids. Careless Whisper” is one of the most beloved tunes of all time. The sax-drenched guilt ballad topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic upon its release in 1984, and has since been voted the UK’s favorite song. Amazingly, Wham! were sitting on this gem right from the very beginning. A 16-year-old Michael came up with the song while riding the bus and fleshed it out with help from Ridgeley. An early version appeared alongside semi-completed renditions of “Wham Rap!” and “Club Tropicana” on the 1982 demo tape that earned the duo a deal with the record label Innervision. 6. Michael came out to Ridgeley in 1983. The documentary was Ridgeley’s idea, which he proposed to the George Michael estate after realising that there was still a huge affection for Wham! – so much affection that their 1984 single, Last Christmas, reached last year’s much-coveted Christmas Number One spot, 38 years after its original release. George Michael: Former partner 'heartbroken' at star's death". Sky News. 26 December 2016 . Retrieved 21 June 2023.

For the first time, Andrew Ridgeley—one half of one of the most famous bands in the world—tells the inside story of Wham!, his lifelong friendship with George Michael, and the formation of a band that changed the shape of the music scene in the early eighties. There are many things my teenage self dreamed of discussing with Andrew Ridgeley, but bread wasn’t one of them. A heart condition was eventually recorded as the cause of death," added Ridgeley, "but there are still a number of questions. It now seems as if we may never know what really happened. Growing up, we had no real concept of celebrity. I wasn’t exposed to it in any way. Our perspective was always formed by what people produced, not how they were perceived. So it was important for us to form a band and write songs. The artists whose records we bought, we bought them because of the music. We didn’t idolise them, but we did revere them.” Andrew John Ridgeley (born 26 January 1963) [1] is a British singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known for his work in the 1980s in the musical duo Wham!.I don't feel I should," said Albert, who played percussion in the brass band at St Minver. "The thing is, he's rather shy. He came down here to get away from it all." Andrew's mum passed away in Wadebridge in 2009 aged 66, 11 years after the couple had moved to the area. Sanghera, Sathnam (12 October 2019). "Andrew Ridgeley Cheltenham Festival". Cheltenham Literature Festival 2019 . Retrieved 20 July 2023. Great gig, shame about the show trial". The Telegraph. 31 March 2001. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022 . Retrieved 14 May 2013. Wham!'s Andrew Ridgeley and girlfriend Keren Woodward secretly split after 25 years – then reconciled". hellomagazine.com. 26 July 2015 . Retrieved 27 December 2016. In case you do not know me, I am obsessed with George Michael & Wham! Truly, I am still heartbroken over his passing. Any stories, music, I can get about George or Yog I am GAME. So, getting the first account from Andrew Ridgeley about his life with George is something that I savor. No doubt, I'm doing the audio so I can hear the words directly from Andy's mouth.