Whoa! : a perfect pop tale

The Wham! the 80s hit band that made George Michael famous alongside his childhood friend Andrew Ridgeley, contains all the possible freshness of the best pop as part of a story with a happy ending.

This is the dizzying story of two British teenage sons of immigrants -George was of Greek Cypriot descent, Andrew’s roots were from Egypt-, quickly devouring the world and bidding farewell to the top, a magnificent prologue to the extraordinary solo career of George Michael, who died at the age of 53 years old in 2016.

If this were the biography of a rock star, it would include a dozen raving artists, analyzes of music critics and close friends revealing the backroom of their personalities, as is the norm of the industry. format. But Bang! fleeing these banal resources, offers a kind of easy-to-read life diary thanks to archival images of tours, interviews, press clippings and photo shoots, summarizing at best the effervescence and the spirit of a music with the impudent and legitimate ambition to conquer millions.

If something immediately catches the eye in the story of the two artists with their voiceovers -there are no other sources-, it is the absolute determination to become successful musicians, barely out of childhood.

While Andrew was outgoing, handsome, bold and stylish, George was shy, a little chubby, with curly hair and dressed in those hideous 70s browns.

In a fifteen year stage where most don’t define what to do in life, the duo have formed a band, written songs – including the super hit careless Whisper -, recorded demos, visited all possible record companies garnering near-unanimous rejection, and they hit the road with a live number that included some colorful choreography with a few girls.

The first songs of Bang! they offered rap on an electro funk background, for lyrics with a social tone that praised the street . Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, the real name of George Michael, wore a leather jacket and jeans, the same recycled look with beard and earring during his solo debut Faith (1987).

Bang! he managed to fit into a gap that no one was using in the British pop rock offering, dominated by new wave and neo soul from bands like ABC, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet.

Despite the modernity of the image and the sound combined between analog instruments and the typical electronic novelties of the 80s -drum machines and synthesizers-, Bang! it was also a retromaniacal bet in love with the Motown, soul, R&B, bubblegum pop style Sixties and Seventies funk – all whitewashed – the music George and Andrew had grown up with.

In a musical scene where character and appearance oscillated between smugness and gothic undertones, a wake from David Bowie’s Martian Outburst a decade earlier, Wham! write songs like Tropicana Club – “drinks are free, fun and sun, there’s something for everyone, only the sea is missing” – as they dressed and posed smiling for the cameras, determined to become the favorite poster of millions of teenagers in their bedrooms. They wanted to be famous and adored.

Before the age of 20, they had become big stars in Britain after enjoying their debut on Top of the Pops, the legendary show where the greatest musical figures paraded, where they arrived as a last minute replacement. . They beamed with optimism and celebrated in perfect and absurdly catchy songs like “Wake Me Before You Go” And “I am your man” .

The highest budget tours and videos in heavenly places began, when George confessed to Andrew that he was bisexual. A half-truth because, strictly speaking, he was gay. In the mid-1980s, with the AIDS health crisis and historic prejudice against the LGBT community, hardly any male stars were willing to reveal a divergent orientation from the established. It wasn’t until the following decade that figures like Elton John and Rob Halford came out as gay. In turn, George Michael made it public in 1999.

The revelation didn’t imply a major change in the relationship between the two, except for the realization that the singer couldn’t fully express who he was. “Like a prisoner who has his own key,” sang George in Freedom a line that for Andrew gained new resonance after the secret was revealed.

The turning point for Wham! it happened in the creative vein. The abilities and talents of the two differed markedly. Accustomed to composing together the first years, the second and last album make it big (1984) was, in practice, George Michael’s first solo album. A one-man orchestra that wrote, produced, performed and sang.

For the press, it was an opportunity to feast on Andrew’s position, exposed as a low-contribution player. Inside Wham! the assessment was different. George was not only a friend of Andrew but he admired him deeply. The guitarist was not in tune with the spectacular talent of the singer, but he contributed to it with his sense of taste and fashion. , important in the success of Wham! The sporty look of shorts, sneakers and phosphorescent outfits in the video of Wake me up before you gois one of the definitive pop images of the 80s.

Conquered the rankings and the fervor of the public, George Michael wanted to be recognized as a songwriter , sometimes looked over the shoulder at the candy refrains, flashy clothes and wispy hairstyles. When he won the Ivor Novello award for composer of the year in 1985, he couldn’t hold back his tears.

The last two years of Wham! they are a perfect script . Between 1985 and 1986, they reached an extraordinary level of planetary exposure. they were pioneers play in china to then undertake a consecrating tour in the United States.

In between, there was a clear sign that the duo’s days were numbered. George Michael was summoned as a soloist by Elton John to perform Don’t let the sun go down on me . George extended the invitation to Andrew, who backed choruses no one heard, just like they did on records.

The last concert took place on July 28, 1986 in front of a packed Wembley Stadium. “I couldn’t have done it without you,” George told Andrew, in a tight embrace on stage.

“I was happy for my friend”, testifies Andrew Ridgeley in the present. “He was at the pinnacle of greatness.”