George Michael called Wham’s career-launching Top of the Pops performance ‘terrible’
Band’s appearance followed what Michael called ‘the worst week of my life’
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Your support makes all the difference.George Michael thought Wham!s Top of the Pops performance that launched their career was “terrible”.
The singer, who died on Christmas Day in 2016, is the focus of a new Netflix documentary alongside his former bandmate Andrew Ridgeley.
Titled Wham!, the one-off special features archival interviews and footage chronicling the band’s chart-topping rise in the 1980s.
At one stage in the documentary, Michael and Ridgeley are heard discussing the release of “Young Guns (Go for It)”, which sold badly upon its initial release in November 1982, reaching just 42 in the charts. Michael described it as “possibly the worst week of my life”.
However, their careers were saved when they received a last-minute call to perform on the series Top of the Pops, the former prime-time chart show featuring performances from the biggest music acts of the moment.
Michael described it as “miracle phone call out of the blue”, with Ridgely explaining that they were called in as back-up because “another artist had dropped out”.
While the performance, which saw them joined by dancing duo Pepsi & Shirlie, is credited with launching Wham!s career, Michael acknowleged that “it looks terrible when you look at it now”.
He added: “But at the time, it was considered quite innovative and new, the way we presented ourselves. There’s a certain energy through the naffness. It worked in a weird kind of way; everybody remembered it at the time.”
Michael said that they came up with the routine themselves in his mother’s house, stating: “No choreographer was gonna to come up with that s***.”
Ridgeley recalled: “We had virtually no clothes – I think we had two outfits we circulated between us. It was fairly amateurish, but we looked original. We looked different.”
Their appearance on the chart show worked; the single flew up the charts, reaching number three.
The following year, Wham! released the songs "Bad Boys" and "Club Tropicana", with “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” following in 1984. They became one of the most successful pop acts of the 1980s.
Wham! is available to stream on Netflix. Find The Independent’s two-star review here.
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