As the 42-year-old celebrated his album triumph, four schoolgirls landed the fastest-selling debut album by a classical act in the history of the UK charts.

All Angels entered the pop album charts at number nine, with 33,000 sales in just one week.

They eclipsed the debut first week sales of household names like Charlotte Church, Katherine Jenkins, Luciano Pavarotti and Russell Watson.

Their high entry also put them above new albums by big name acts like All Saints, Jarvis Cocker and Keith Urban.

The group signed a record-breaking deal this summer with Universal Music Group, home to artists like Eminem, Scissor Sisters and Snow Patrol.

They said: "To have a major record deal is fantastic, but to do so well in the charts is beyond all our expectations."

All Angels are former choirgirls Melanie Nakhla, 17, Laura Wright, 16, Charlotte Ritchie, 17, and Daisy Chute, 17.

George Michael kicks off Euro-tour - Nov 18 2006
George Michael wowed thousands of fans at the start of his first UK tour for 15 years.

The 42-year-old singer began the UK leg of his 25 Live European tour in front of 16,500 ecstatic fans at the MEN Arena in Manchester.

The multi-million selling artist walked on stage to rapturous applause at the end of a reprised version of Waiting, before opening with hit Flawless (Go To The City).

And fans sang and danced along as he ran through their favourite hits including songs from his chart-topping Wham! days.

Speaking before the concert, Michael, who last year swore that his career was over, said he had decided to tour again "just because I have the courage to do it".

"To be perfectly honest, I’ve enjoyed it so much I wish I started again years ago," he said.

He said he was looking forward to a long-planned free concert for nurses to be held in London, saying it was something he had always wanted to do.

"I had said to my friends and family that if I toured again I would do a special concert for nurses.

"We wanted to do it at Wembley Arena until they kindly pointed out to Mr Showbiz here that 12,000 nurses might be a lot to take out of the system - we had to do it somewhere else. But it’s still a in 3,000-seater venue and it will probably be the best night of the tour," he said.

The star said the tour was an opportunity to put his troubles behind him: "Most of the stuff that happens to me is partially my fault but some of it is definitely not. All that stuff is relevant to people who read ’red tops’ (tabloid newspapers), as we call them. I’m just very, very happy that I have a No 1 album out this week and that, along with coming back and playing to an English crowd for the first time in 15 years, is fantastic".

Cannabis keeps George ’sane and happy’ - Oct 21 2006
Pop star George Michael spoke openly about taking cannabis while smoking the drug during a television interview, it was reported today.

The Daily Mirror said George, 43, lit up a joint backstage before a concert in Madrid while doing an interview for ITV’s The South Bank Show.

In an interview to be screened on October 31, he told Melvyn Bragg: "This is the only drug I’ve ever thought worth taking but you have to wait.

"It never occurred to me to take even this until I was about 22 or 23.