Wham!

Wham!

by Pete Clemons

Nowadays, you can’t help but notice the number of 1980s music events that have sprang up. As with the 60s and 70s it is as though those, who were teenagers during the 80s, are suddenly staring to get that second wind. You know the feeling. You have seen your children grow up and now they are beginning to fly the nest. You have more time on your hands and you are now setting about having a few years to yourselves again. And fair play to you all.

And of all those 80s bands and artists whose names you will see touring on these package tours, for some of you, there will be one glaring omission. Or at least I rarely seem to see them mentioned. And that band is Wham!. And for a while, the music that Wham! created, was totally inescapable.

Wham!, namely George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, epitomised and embellished the 1980s. Essentially a duo, Wham! was formed during 1981 after the break-up of a Ska band George and Andrew both featured in.

George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley would also perform with backing singers Dee C. Lee and Shirlie Holliman. After Dee C. Lee left the band to join, and later marry, Paul Weller of the Style Council, Shirlie was joined by Helen ‘Pepsi’ DeMacque during 1983. They first appeared together on the video of ‘Wake me up before you Go-Go’.

After the split, which was apparently very amicable, both George and Michael went their separate ways, career wise, to varying degrees of success.

Seeing this new wave of electronic funk on the horizon, on entrepreneur began a new series of promotions at the Stables nightclub, at the Chesford Grange in Kenilworth during 1982. They began on, of all nights, a Monday night and one of their earliest promotions was that of a personal appearance by Wham!, ‘an exciting new funk group’. They were promoted as follows……..

Wham! are a duo – vocalist George Michael and guitarist Andy Ridgeley – who hail from Watford. They specialise in electronic funk, something like ABC, but much better.

Their aim (apart from being successful) is to become spokesmen for Britain’s youth – George is just 17 and Andy 18 – hence their slogan: Youth is precious. Don’t waste it, enjoy it. - (By my calculations the pair would have each been 19 at the time of the gig, but hey – what do I know about how these things work).

Since they signed to CBS early this year, they have had one single out – Wham! Rap – which was critically acclaimed, but failed to make the charts.

Now they have a new single ‘Young Guns (Go For It)’ which they will be promoting at the Stables.

Soon after this appearance ‘Young Guns’ reached number three in the UK charts and, then during 1983, Wham! achieved further success with ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘Club Tropicana’.

They went on to achieve further huge smash hits with the above mentioned ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’, ‘Everything She Wants’, ‘I'm Your Man’, ‘Last Christmas’, ‘Careless Whisper’ and ‘Freedom’.

Wham!, had developed their style of funk and soul music and went on to become one of the most successful pop acts of the 1980s selling an estimated 30 million records worldwide between 1982 and 1986.

George Michael was indeed an incredibly special person. Throughout his turbulent and well documented solo career he, seemingly and generously, donated and provided his time to Cancer, HIV, IVF and many other worthy causes. Additionally he gave royalties from the re-releases of the ‘Last Christmas’ single to Band Aid. And all this was done, apparently, under strict ‘no publicity’ conditions.