Wham!

Wham!

Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael
Background information
Also known as Wham! UK (briefly in the US)
Origin London, England
Genres
Years active 1981–1986 (reunions: 1988 and 1991)
Labels
Associated acts
  • The Executive!
  • Pepsi & Shirlie
  • Dee C. Lee
Past members

Wham! was an English musical duo formed by members George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in 1981.[1][2] They were briefly known in the United States as Wham! UK due to a naming conflict with an American band. Wham! sold more than 28 million certified records worldwide from 1982 to 1986.[3]

History

Michael and Ridgeley met at Bushey Meads School in Bushey near the town of Watford in Hertfordshire. The two at first performed in a short-lived ska band called The Executive, alongside of former school friends David (Austin) Mortimer, Andrew Leaver and Paul Ridgeley.[4] When this group split, Michael and Ridgeley eventually formed Wham!, signing with Innervision Records. British graphic design studio Stylorouge was credited with adding the exclamation point to the name of then teenage band Wham.[5]

Michael took on the majority of roles and responsibilities within the band—composer, producer, lead singer, and occasional instrumentalist. Still teenagers, they promoted themselves as hedonistic youngsters, proud to live a carefree life without work or commitment. This was reflected in their earliest singles which, part-parody, part-social comment, briefly earned Wham! a reputation as a dance protest group.

The debut record to be released by the band was "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" in June 1982. It was a double A-side including the Social Mix and the Unsocial Mix. The record was not playlisted by BBC Radio 1 in the UK, partly because of the profanity in the Unsocial Mix. Separate videos were recorded for each set of lyrics.

"Wham Rap!" did not chart for the group, but in October 1982 "Young Guns (Go for It!)" was issued. Initially, it also stalled outside the UK Top 40 but the band got lucky when the BBC programme Top of the Pops scheduled them after another act unexpectedly pulled out of the show.

Increasing success

Wham!'s first manager was Bryan Morrison. The effect of Wham! on the public, especially teenage girls, was felt from the moment they finished their debut performance of "Young Guns (Go for It!)" on Top of the Pops. Michael wore espadrilles, an open suede jacket, and rolled-up denim jeans. Ridgeley stood behind him, flanked by backing dancers Dee C. Lee and Shirlie Holliman. Afterwards, the song shot into the Top 40 at No. 24 and peaked at No. 3 in December. The following year (1983), Dee C. Lee began her work with Paul Weller in The Style Council, and was replaced by Pepsi DeMacque. Holliman and DeMacque would later record as Pepsi & Shirlie.

Wham! followed up "Young Guns (Go for It!)" with a reissue of "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)", "Bad Boys" and "Club Tropicana". By the end of 1983, Wham! were competing against pop rivals Duran Duran and Culture Club as Britain's biggest pop act. Their debut album Fantastic spent two weeks at No. 1 in the UK album charts in 1983.[6] Notoriety and increased newspaper and magazine coverage were duly achieved with their antics of placing shuttlecocks down their shorts during performances on their first tour, the Club Fantastic Tour.

Soon after this Ridgeley became conscious of legal problems with their initial contract at Innervision. While the legal battle raged, Innervision released a medley of non-single album tracks from Fantastic, entitled "Club Fantastic Megamix". Wham! publicly denounced the release and urged fans not to buy it. After all the legal wrangling, Innervision admitted there were royalty discrepancies with Wham!'s contract, the fall-out of which led to the bankruptcy and eventual dissolution of Innervision altogether in 1985.

Switch to Epic and continued success

Now signed to Epic Records (and other CBS Records imprints around the world), Wham! returned in 1984 with an updated pop image. These changes helped to propel Wham!'s next single, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", to the top of the charts around the world. It became their first UK #1 single and rose to that position in the USA as well, accompanied by a video of the duo with Pepsi and Shirlie, all wearing Katharine Hamnett T-shirts with the slogans "CHOOSE LIFE" and "GO GO".

The next single "Careless Whisper" was issued as a George Michael solo piece, yet unlike any Wham! single except "Wham Rap!" and "Club Tropicana", it was co-written by Ridgeley. The song, about a remorseful two-timer, had more emotional depth than previous releases. It quickly reached No. 1, selling over 1.3 million copies in the UK.[7] "Careless Whisper" marked a new phase in George Michael's career, as he somewhat distanced himself from Wham!'s playboy image. In the US—so as not to confuse American listeners just being exposed to Wham!—the single was billed as "Wham! featuring George Michael".

In the autumn of 1984, Wham! returned as a duo with "Freedom", another UK chart-topper and the first single for quite some time to reach #1 in the UK without an accompanying video. Wham! subsequently decided to use a video edited together from footage of their tour of China in time for "Freedom's" US single release. The group by then had achieved three number-one singles in a row. In November, they released their second album, Make It Big, which quickly climbed to #1 on the album charts, and the band set off on an arena tour at the end of 1984.[8]

The double A-side single "Last Christmas/Everything She Wants" became the highest-selling single ever to peak at No. 2 in the UK charts. It stayed at No. 2 for five weeks and, to date, is the 24th best-selling single of all time in the United Kingdom, selling over 1.4 million copies in the UK.[7] Wham! donated all their royalties from the single to the Ethiopian famine appeal to coincide with the fund-raising intentions of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", the song which kept them out of the top spot. Nevertheless, Band Aid's success meant that Michael had achieved #1 status in the UK within three separate entities in 1984—as a solo artist, as one half of a duo, and as part of a charity ensemble.[9]

At the end of 1985, the US Billboard charts listed "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" as the number-three song and "Careless Whisper" as the number-one song of the year.[10]

China (1985)

In March 1985, Wham! took a break from recording to embark on a lengthy world tour, including a ground-breaking 10-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group.[11] The China excursion was a publicity scheme devised by Simon Napier-Bell (one of their two managers—Jazz Summers being the other). It began with a concert at the Peoples' Gymnasium in Beijing in front of 12,000 people. They also played a concert in front of 5,000 in Canton. The two concerts were played without compensation.[12] Wham!'s visit to China attracted huge media attention across the world. Napier-Bell later admitted that he used cunning tactics to sabotage the efforts of rock band Queen to be the first to play in China: he made two brochures for the Chinese authorities – one featuring Wham! fans as pleasant middle-class youngsters, and one portraying Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in typically flamboyant poses. The Chinese opted for Wham![13]

British Director Lindsay Anderson was engaged to accompany Wham! to China and make a documentary film about the visit. The film was shot over two weeks of March and April and edited over late spring and summer 1985 in London. Anderson called his one-hour and 18 minute film If You Were There. In the final stages of editing, Anderson was dismissed[14] by Wham!'s management, the editing team quit, and the film was entirely re-edited, renamed and released as Foreign Skies: Wham! In China. According to a 2006 interview with The Independent,[15] Andy Stephens, manager of George Michael, said that the film [Anderson's version] was simply not good enough to be shown in public: "It's a dreadful film ... It's 20 years old and it's rubbish. Why on earth should we allow it to be shown?", although after viewing it in 2008 critic and journalist John Harris described it as "a rich, poetic, panoramic portrait of China's strangeness to the eyes of outsiders".[16]

Live Aid (1985)

Sporting a beard, Michael appeared with Ridgeley onstage at Live Aid on 13 July 1985 (although they did not perform as Wham!). Michael sang "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with Elton John while Ridgeley joined Kiki Dee in the row of backing singers. In September, Wham! released the single "I'm Your Man" which went to No. 1 in the UK charts.

Around this time, Ridgeley began a relationship with Keren Woodward of Bananarama. Ridgeley also took up the hobby of rally driving. "Last Christmas" was re-issued for the festive season and again made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 6, while Michael took up offers he was starting to receive to add his voice to other artists' songs. He performed backing vocals for David Cassidy, and also for Elton John on his successful singles "Nikita" (UK No. 3) and "Wrap Her Up" (UK No. 12), on which he sang co-lead vocals.

Breakup (1986)

Michael was keen to create music targeted at a more sophisticated adult market rather than the duo's primarily teenage audience and therefore, Michael and Ridgeley officially announced the breakup of Wham! in the spring of 1986. Before going their separate ways, a farewell single "The Edge of Heaven", and a greatest hits album titled The Final would be forthcoming, along with a farewell concert entitled The Final. Announcing the breakup, Michael said: "I think it should be the most amicable split in pop history."[17]

The farewell single reached No. 1 in June 1986. "Where Did Your Heart Go?" was the group's final single in the United States. The song, originally recorded by Was (Not Was), was a gloomy and sombre affair. The duo's last release was a double-LP collection of all the singles to date, including some extended versions. This was released in North America as the severely pared-down Music from the Edge of Heaven with alternate tracks.

At London's Wembley Stadium on Saturday 28 June 1986, Wham! bade goodbye to their fans and each other with an emotional embrace at the end of its final concert. 72,000 people attended the eight-hour event,[8] which included support artists, on a scorching hot day in London. The band had been together for five years, selling over 28 million records and 15 million singles. Foreign Skies, the documentary of their tour of China, received its world premiere as part of the festivities.

Post-Wham! and Michael's death

For several years after becoming a solo artist, Michael spoke negatively, in public, about his time with Wham!, partly because of the negativity of intense media coverage on Ridgeley. Michael complained of the constant pressure he felt, and he claimed that the duo had been mistreated financially. He also spoke disparagingly about some of the songs from the Wham! repertoire, especially the songs from the first album.[18] However, his perspective on the era softened somewhat in the later years of his life. At his solo concerts he would still perform "I'm Your Man" and "Everything She Wants", the latter being one of the more critically acclaimed songs from the Wham! era.

Andrew Ridgeley moved to Monaco after Wham!'s break-up and tried his hand at Formula Three motor racing. Meeting with little success, Ridgeley moved to Los Angeles to pursue his singing/acting career, the failure of which caused him to return to England in 1990. Regardless, CBS Records, having taken up the option on Wham!'s contract that specified solo albums from Michael and Ridgeley, released a solo effort from Ridgeley, Son of Albert, in 1990. After poor sales, CBS declined the option of a second album. On 25 June 1988, George Michael's 25th birthday, he played the third of three dates at Birmingham's NEC as part of the Faith World Tour. He appeared deeply moved when he was surprised on stage by many members of his family with Andrew Ridgeley, who was pushing a trolley carrying a huge birthday cake. They led the 13,000-strong crowd in a rendition of "Happy Birthday", before Ridgeley accompanied Michael in a performance of "I'm Your Man".

In January 1991, Ridgeley joined Michael on stage for a few songs at the encore of his performance at the Rock in Rio event at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[8] On 21 November 2009, there was a Wham!-themed night on television's The X Factor in the UK. Michael later appeared on the show's final episode, performing a duet of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with finalist and eventual winner Joe McElderry. In 2012, Michael said that there was no truth in speculation that he and Ridgeley were set for a Wham! reunion to mark the 30th anniversary of the group's first album.[19]

Michael died from heart failure at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on Christmas Day 2016. He was 53.

Discography

References

  1. ↑ Biography by Ed Nimmervoll. "Wham! | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  2. ↑ Rettenmund, Matthew (15 October 1996). Totally awesome 80s. St. Martin's Press. pp. 60–. ISBN 978-0-312-14436-4. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  3. ↑ Qualen, J. (1985). The Music Industry: The End of Vinyl?. Comedia's Media and Communications Industry Profile Series. 5. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-906890-58-6.
  4. ↑ "Andrew Ridgeley on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 31 December 2016. No 'Harry Tadayon' in The Executive GM, AJR, David Austin, Andrew Leaver & Paul Ridgeley Jamie Gould & Tony Bywaters joined us at 1 point 2
  5. ↑ "Stylorouge founder Rob O’Connor talks dreaming in colour". Design Week. 11 January 2012.
  6. ↑ "WHAM! | Artist". Official Charts. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  7. 1 2 "Best Selling Singles Of All Time". everyHit.com. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  8. 1 2 3 "Tours Menu". Tours.yogsbackyard.co.uk. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  9. ↑ "The complete list of the UK No.1 songs of the 80s :1984". Pure80spop.co.uk. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  10. ↑ "Billboard Top 100 Songs of 1985 – Year End Charts". Bobborst.com. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  11. ↑ McCarty, L. Y. (2010). "‘Big in Japan’: Orientalism in 1980s British Pop Music". The Mid-Atlantic Almanack. 19.
  12. ↑ Neville, Sam (28 April 1985). "ROCK: East meets Wham!, and another great wall comes down". Chicago Tribune – via ProQuest.
  13. ↑ "How Wham! brought the West to China". BBC News. 24 March 2005.
  14. ↑ "Wham in China – Foreign Skies (1986) AKA Lindsay Anderson's If You Were There". Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  15. ↑ Paul Kelbie, Scotland Correspondent (17 August 2012). "How Wham! made Lindsay Anderson see red in China". The Independent. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  16. ↑ Harris, John (19 September 2008). "Sentenced to a lifetime of stress". theguardian.com. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  17. ↑ "Press 1986 - Smash Hits". Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  18. ↑ "Artist Profile - Wham! (Holiday) - Bio". Jango Radio. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  19. ↑ "Wham! reunion rumours quashed by George Michael". ITV News. 20 June 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
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