Andrew Ridgeley on the decision that haunted George Michael
A raised hand in a classroom as the popular cool kid offered to show the new boy the ropes at school, and Wham!, two young lads’ fates were sealed.
“Our form tutor walked in with the new boy who had these sodding great big window frame glasses and curly big bonce of hair,” Andrew Ridgeley recalls.
“The teacher introduced him as Georgios Panayiotou and asked who is going to look after the new boy?”
Andrew took “Yog”, his nickname for Georgios, under his wing, at Bushey Meads School, Herts, and the rest is musical history. “The only thing I ever wanted to do was be in a band with Yog,” says Andrew, now 60.
There was an instant bond. Andrew says: “Essentially, Yog and I saw things exactly the same way, musically. We were joined at the hip. We’d spend hours doing skits, comedy radio, writing songs”.
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Grown-up look for the duo (Courtesy of Netflix)The singer, who has largely spent the past few years in retirement, opens up about life in one of the world’s biggest bands in Netflix show Wham!
The documentary marks the 40th anniversary of their debut album Fantastic, and charts how Andrew and George Michael became 1980s pop icons.
It also serves as a tribute to George, who died at the age of 53 of heart disease on Christmas Day 2016.
Both endured their struggles over the course of a whirlwind journey which ended as George focused on going solo.
In the early days, Andrew was very much the driving force behind the band. But by the end of Wham!, he was mocked for being the lucky guy who coasted on George’s talent.
Their pop image and lyrics was ridiculed by sniffy music critics.
George as a child (mirror.co.uk)
Critics sniffed at look and songs (Getty Images)“I was a young songwriter trying to do my best and it really did hurt me,” George said. “We didn’t want to be social commentators,” Andrew says. “We wanted to represent the exuberance of youth.”
The criticism mattered more to George because “so much of how he defined himself was wrapped up in his music”.
That was down to his sexuality, and it was the advice of Andrew and friend Shirlie, of Pepsi and Shirlie, he sought on what he should do.
As well as being a Wham! backing singer, Shirlie was Andrew’s ex-girlfriend. She later married Martin Kemp.
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Andrew recalls how while in Ibiza a few days after filming Club Tropicana, George confided in them he was gay.
George felt ready to tell his parents but they persuaded him against it.
Pepsi and Shirlie, Andrew’s ex (Courtesy of Netflix)“It made no difference to us. I wanted him to be happy. We felt he just couldn’t tell his dad. We were 19, 20 years old. Our perspective was a little narrower,” he reflects. The film reveals how George realised he “asked the wrong people” as they were so young and then, “I lost my nerve completely”.
Looking back Andrew sees how much that decision cost his friend.
“George was very sure of himself when it came to making music, but he was less certain in the personal aspects of his life,” he says.
“Freedom was the first track he played to me as it was being recorded. It could equally have related to his sexuality. Like a prisoner who has his own key...
“As a young man who is still trying to find himself, he lacked confidence but I was unaware of just how deep-seated his issues really were.
I was very self-assured and George’s father Jack treated me with a fair degree of scepticism. I told George, ‘Look, we’re forming a band now’. He reluctantly agreed.”
Elton John at last concert in 1986 (Getty Images)Born to a mother of English and Scottish descent and an Egyptian dad, he had a more easygoing upbringing than George, who grew up with an English mum and a strict Greek Cypriot father.
George’s dad Jack describes “cocky confident” Andrew as “a leader while George was very quiet”.
Jack admits in the film: “I wanted George be a doctor or an accountant. I told him he couldn’t sing to save his life anyway.”
As the band’s fame grew, so did their pin-up status, making it more difficult for George to open up about his sexuality.
Meanwhile, Andrew had to adjust to a new power dynamic. He had begun equally sharing songwriting and producing work, but by the second album he became a secondary figure.
Andrew reveals: “George’s songwriting was developing at an amazing, inconceivable sort of pace.
Filming Club Tropicana in Ibiza, 1983 (Getty Images)“My songwriting just wasn’t developing in anything like the same way and that created a little bit of friction through the first album.
“It was uncomfortable because songwriting was how we started.”
By the time second album Make It Big was released, George was destined for solo stardom. He had even won around his father. “When I saw the stadiums my son was filling I felt proud. I did a big U-turn.”
They performed for the final time at Wembley Stadium, London on June 28, 1986 with special guests including George’s childhood idol Elton John.
“Wham! was never going to be middle-aged or be anything other than an essential and pure representation of me and George. We all wake up in the middle of our dreams. It had to end when it did,” Andrew says.
“At the last show, he embraced me, saying, ‘I couldn’t have done it without you’. It said everything he needed to say. I was happy for my friend, he stood on the cusp of greatness.”
WHAM! is released globally on Netflix on July 5, and for one night only in UK cinemas on June 27.
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