George Michael
- Profession: Musician
- Place/Date of Birth: Finchley, 25 June 2020
Wham - the musical? - April 04
Can it be true? George Michael and Andrew Ridgley are considering whether to let the songs of Wham be turned into a stage show.
George was speaking on London radio station Heart 106.2, and said that two or three producers had approached the pair, but that he personally ’hates the idea’ on a creative level.
"On another level, I know a certain generation of people would love the idea. But I would literally have to avoid the premiere," added the singer. "The truth is that done on stage, there’ll be no charm and you’ll be left with a lot of cheese. I think Andrew was of the opinion that if the story was good enough, then it would be snotty not to do it"
After that he slyly added ’He would love the fact that it would make a fortune as well’
George meanwhile has announced that he would be retiring from the mainstream music industry, concentrating instead on distributing his work via the internet. His last single ’Amazing’ failed to make it to number one, to which George blamed the director of the video, saying it was ’dull’, apparently. Ooo - get him!
George Michael thinks Blair ’is dangerous’ - Mar 04
Politics and singers eh? Don’t they just love getting involved, the singers drop by number 10 for canap?s and the politicians all want a photo in the papers smiling cheesily with next new singing sensation. Or it can go the other way, at least for George Michael and PM Tony Blair.
George has called Tony Blair a dangerous man who can’t face up to his own ego.
In the Big Issue magazine, out now, George said "I can’t imagine what it feels like for people who lost their kids to hear Tony Blair’s pathetic little bleatings that he still thinks the world is a safer place. It’s disrespectful."
A lifelong Labour voter until 2001, George added: "I wish to God that the Labour Party had the guts to get rid of Blair, because it could survive another election without him.
"I think it’s too important for world affairs that he’s gone. I think globally he is a dangerous man. He is an altruist who thinks he’s doing everything for the best, but he cannot face up to his own ego."
George brought out a political single attacking Blair and Bush’s relationship, representing Tony Blair as ’a poodle’ in the single ’Shoot The Dog’. It may have had a strong message, but in a chart swamped by Pop Idols, it quickly disappeared. However, a new album Patience is out this month.
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George isn’t his man - 09/12/03
Apparently Hampstead resident George Michael refused to have his picture taken with Eastenders Shane Richie.
Shane has released George’s song ’I’m Your Man’ for charity Children In Need, but it is thought that George took offense to some of Shane’s comments while promoting the single.
In one interview Shane said "I think the ladies feel they have a better chance with me than with George Michael, if you know what I mean."
The non photo call came about after George was invited to attend the Eastenders Christmas party at Elstree. After being introduced by the cast, he was asked to pose with Shane by photographers, but he said no. Maybe he was just having a bad hair day?
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Michael had hit after hit with Wham! - Club Tropicana, Wham Rap, Wake me Up Before You Go Go all remain classics, featuring on every best of the eighties compilation going. Whilst in Wham! George had solo success with one of his most famous hits, Careless Whisper.
When the mighty Wham! split in 1986 Michael found he had to prove himself to music critics who thought he was just another flash in the pan boy band reject. He did it easily with hit after hit, a duet with Aretha Franklin and a blue eyed soul boy image. In the nineties he kept the good work up, duetting with Elton John on Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me and in 1992 was announced to be one of the richest men in the UK thanks to incredible record sales.
But in the mid to late nineties things started to turn sour with George’s record label, Sony and despite producing one of the most successful albums of the decade with Older, he left Sony to create his own label - Aegean Records. A year later George hit the headlines after being arrested for committing ’lewd acts’ in a public toilet (you all know that story), forcing the singer to come out publicly.
Many thought it would be the end of his career, but the master of reinvention hit back with arguably his finest single to date, Outside. The video for his hit single featured the cheeky Greek dressed as a policeman gyrating about a disco-balled toilet, a great two fingers up to the press and police who had outed him. George has since played up his gayness, recently telling the world about his ’open relationship’ with boyfriend Kenny Goss and his ’Vanilla’ tastes in sex. In between revealing all he has become increasingly political, releasing slated single Freeeek!, an anti Iraq war song and using interviews to champion the causes close to his heart.
The ex Wham! star remains a force to be reckoned with even after announcing that he is bowing out of the music business to release his recordings online for free. Good news for skint George Michael fans, not so much for the industry.
By Laura Walton
October 2007