Cue hairs on the back of the neck as the crescendo builds to the restored video of ‘Careless Whisper’ where a 21-year old George Michael comes of age, looking every inch a superstar.
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The filmmaking and editing (Chris Smith and Gregor Lyon respectively) are from the top drawer and there’s a truly brilliant sequence just over half-way through the 90-minute running time where Michael and Ridgeley describe, with the help of a superb montage of archive of photos (and video), how Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou finally transforms himself into ‘George Michael’. – but these are all covered in such an entertaining manner and there’s so much great footage, that it’s all a joy. The Wham! film doesn’t try to avoid the familiar tropes – signing a bad record contract parental issues (“you couldn’t sing to save your life” George’s dad declares) and the first time on Top of the Pops etc. How can these two idiots become so bloody massive? George Michael in the Wham! documentary
The tone of the documentary is set by a 90-second preface which shows early video footage of Andrew and George larking around at their old school in Bushey, Hertfordshire, with Andrew even persuading the headmaster to take part! The question, posed by George, before we cut to opening credits, is “How can these two idiots become so bloody massive?”
He comes across as a reliable narrator and a foil to the insecurity and contradictions of his partner, which George himself acknowledges in his own narration (culled from some remarkably candid interview audio). To some extent, Andrew reclaims Wham! as an entity in its own right and not ‘part one’ of The George Michael Story. It really is great to hear Ridgeley’s voice – literally, his side of the story – which had largely been left unheard until the publication of his 2019 autobiography Wham!, George and Me. It was “uncomfortable” and “a little difficult” as Andrew acknowledges in the film. His greatest contribution – sacrifice, even – was to know when to step back and let the blossoming songwriting and production talents of George take centre stage. Andrew co-wrote most of the early hits including ‘Wham Rap!’, ‘Club Tropicana’ and even ‘Careless Whisper’ he designed stage outfits and generally created the momentum (or “thrust”, in his words) that led to all the early success. Andrew took George under his wing when he arrived as the ‘new boy’ at his school and helped turn his “slightly porky” shy, curly-haired friend into a pop star.īeing in a band together was Ridgeley’s idea and when first group The Executive “imploded”, that left the pair on their own to try and move things forward. The film also does something that no box set or music release has ever done and allows fans to hear some of those closely guarded early demos, including ‘Careless Whisper’.īack in the day, Andrew was always viewed with suspicion by the press and generally regarded as something of a freeloader who had lucked out by being George’s friend and ended up as a successful pop star, but in later years the true story emerged of Andrew being the ‘leader’ early on, with his extrovert personality (“disruptive” according to his school report) helping to make things happen. The film was made with the cooperation and participation of Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael Entertainment, which allows it access to unseen home footage and personal photos from the band’s archives, and enjoy the gift of a wonderful structure, as it follows the meteoric rise of Wham! through the lens of the scrapbooks kept religiously by Andrew’s mum at the time. Wham!is the name of a new documentary, now showing on Netflix, that tells the story of Wham! in the words of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.
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