Showing posts with label Wham!. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wham!. Show all posts

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Book Review: Wham! George Michael and Me


In 1975 Andrew took a shy new boy at school under his wing. They instantly hit it off, and their boyhood escapades at Bushy Meads School built a bond that was never broken. The duo found themselves riding an astonishing roller coaster of success, taking them all over the world. They made and broke iconic records, they were treated like gods, but they stayed true to their friendship and ultimately to themselves. It was a party that seemed as if it would never end. And then it did, in front of tens of thousands of tearful fans at Wembley Stadium in 1986.

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. Andrew’s memoir covers in wonderful detail those years, up until that last iconic concert: the scrapes, the laughs, the relationships, the good, and the bad. It’s a unique and one-and-only time to remember that era, that band, and those boys.

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Book Review: George Michael - A Life


George Michael was an extravagantly gifted, openhearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic. He was a songwriter of true craft and substance, and his music swept the world, starting in the mid-1980s. His fabricated image—that of a hypermacho sex god—loomed large in the pop culture of his day. It also hid—for a time—the secret he fought against revealing: Michael was gay. Soon his obsession with fame would start to backfire. As one of the industry’s most privileged yet tortured men began to self-destruct, the press showed little sympathy. George Michael: A Life explores the compelling story of a superstar whose struggles, as well as his songs, continue to touch fans all over the world.

Acclaimed music biographer James Gavin traces Michael’s metamorphosis from the shy and awkward Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou into the swaggering, dominant half of the leading British pop duo of the 1980s Wham!; he then details Michael’s sensational solo career and its subsequent unraveling. With deep analysis of the creative process behind Michael’s albums, tours, and music videos, as well as interviews with hundreds of his friends and colleagues, George Michael: A Life is a probing, definitive portrait of a pop legend.

This biography will be available everywhere on June 28, 2022. I was given the opportunity to review an early galley from the publisher Abrams Press in exchange for an honest review.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Wham! - Music From the Edge of Heaven

Today (July 1st) marks the thirtieth anniversary of Music From the Edge of Heaven, the third and final studio album in the 1980's from Wham! This 1986 record went to number 10 on the US Billboard Album chart (with a twenty-eight week total run) and number 9 in Canada and Japan. North America and Japan were the only marks for this release; the rest of the world got The Final on May 31st, 1986, instead (which was a greatest hits compilation with four identical tracks from this album also included).

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Wham! - Make It Big

Today (October 23rd) marks the thirtieth anniversary of Make It Big, the second studio album from Wham! The multi-Platinum seller hit number 5 in France and Germany, number 4 in Austria, and number 3 in Sweden. It held the number 1 spot on the charts in Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the UK. It also went to number 1 here in the US, with a total of eighty weeks on the Billboard Album chart.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Wham! - Fantastic (30th anniversary)


Today (July 9th) marks the thirtieth anniversary of Fantastic, the debut album from the boys from Wham! (Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael).

For the full details of my review of this album, one which I played a ton over the 80's, click here.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Wham! - Fantastic


Before Wham! “made it big” with their second studio album, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley (along with over a dozen musicians and a few back-up singers) released their 1983 debut album (on July 9th) that was - appropriately titled - Fantastic. Powered by a trio of singles that quickly became dance club favorites, the duo was soon on their way to international super-stardom.

The album charted at number 83 on the US Billboard Hot 200, eventually going Gold. It also reached number 25 in Switzerland, number 17 in Japan, number 15 in Sweden, number 8 in the Netherlands and Norway, number 7 in Germany, number 5 in Australia, and number 1 in the UK (where it went triple Platinum in sales).