How did he feel when Michael became a global superstar? “Extremely proud,” says Ridgeley. Standing on that stage at Live Aid, didn’t he wish he was up there with Elton John? “Oh God, I envied his voice and his songwriting talent, but it was an affectionate envy, very different from being jealous or covetous. I respected his talent immensely, but it was also a sense of great pride. He was my best friend and I knew his potential, and it was marvellous to see that become realised.” Its rich in fact and I cant fault the information given as it builds an in depth picture into the whole Whamania years plus the before and after a b Gold, Todd (23 September 1985). "Double Wham!my: George Michael & Andrew Ridgeley Are Making It Big". People. Asked when he thinks they were both happiest, Ridgeley says, “I’ve been content and happy at various points, but my late teens, when Shirlie, Yog and I spent most of the time in each other’s company, was a carefree, golden period. I think Yog was probably at his happiest when he and Anselmo were in each other’s lives.” Brazilian designer Anselmo Feleppa was Michael’s self-confessed “first love”: they met in a hotel lobby in 1991, and lived together in Los Angeles until Feleppa died of Aids in 1993.

George Michael – The History". GeorgeMichael.com. Archived from the original on 7 September 2013 . Retrieved 24 December 2012. In those early post-Wham! years, Andrew also tried his hand at Formula Three racing around Europe. While motorsport didn't work out for him, his team owner Dave Price remembers him fondly. Chris’ contextualization of the narration with just George’s voice and mine was a bit of a masterstroke. I had several discussions with Chris. He recognized certain events and subjects that are pertinent to the telling, and then drew the dialogue from those things. He and Gregor Lyon, who edited it, had a lot of materials go through and hard work drawing out, creating, or at least imagining the narration, and then fitting the parts to it. It’s not easy, but he did it very skillfully. A lot of people have said to me that it sounds like you’re in the room with the two of us and it’s a conversation. It’s intimate. That’s exactly what Chris set out to achieve, and he has, in spades. It’s remarkable. He had a very silly sense of humor, and he was very funny. That remained always the case. That stupidity and silliness was enhanced. There’s no denying we brought it out of each other. That’s the central theme and pillar of our friendship, silliness and the enjoyment we derived from each other’s company. We made each other laugh.a b c d e f "1963 – Andrew Ridgeley Born". Rttnews.com. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015 . Retrieved 24 December 2012. If people’s assumptions have been altered, if people’s preconceptions have been confounded, then they obviously weren’t paying attention or had missed something. The writing credits have been there since 1982 for “Wham! Rap” and “Careless Whisper” and “Club Tropicana.” Maybe people just didn’t believe it. George talking about the writing of “Careless Whisper” as it was worked up over the course of months, perhaps people thought, “Oh, crikey, well, it was a collaborative effort.” That may confound other people’s misconceptions, but only validates that which I know. That would have been a big ax for me to grind over 40 years. It wouldn’t have even been a hatchet now, or a butter knife. The last part of the book is very moving re their Goodbye concert and then George’s death and the impact both had on Andrew, you could feel his emotion and he told of the moment on that Christmas Day when he took the call from George’s sister relaying the terrible news Btw did you know from their inception to their farewell concert was only 4 years, before reading that I would have said 10 years!!! Melanie's death came just two days after she issued a joint statement with the rest of the Panayiotou family thanking George's fans for standing by them.

The decision that Michael would take over songwriting while they recorded their first album was, admits Ridgeley, “a little difficult … even though I knew exactly why we were making it and I didn’t try to assert … assert?” He pauses. “Impose a desire to demand to share even part of the songwriting duties, largely because he was so much better at it. It was important for us to make Wham! the biggest pop act of its kind, and that could only be served by Yog assuming the songwriting duties.” Andrew Ridgeley pictured at the start of the Tour of Britain race in Penzance in September 2021 (Image: Greg Martin / Cornwall Live) I did think the documentary would be a success, but I didn’t realise the depth of affection that it would elicit, or how deeply it might touch some people,” he says now, when we meet at Sony HQ in north London – looking as slim, fit and stylish as he did in Wham!’s heyday, wearing beige chinos, a blue polo shirt, white trainers and a Dunhill watch. I like to start the day with two pieces of toast – white, thinly sliced, one with butter and salt, another with butter, salt and marmalade,” says the man who once caused women to faint. “Cold toast,” he adds. “Otherwise, you get that sweaty bit on the bottom of the toast. And who wants that?”

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It wasn't long before Andrew's parents Albert and Jenny moved from Bushey to a house a couple of miles away from their son in Wadebridge. The couple's first home in Bushey was where the band's number one hit Careless Whisper was written by Andrew and George. Hopefully George is smiling now. His song, "Last Christmas" finally made it to #1 this past Christmas 2020...thirty-six years after its initial release! This was something they had both hoped for. A supernova in a ferment of shining stars has been extinguished and it felt like the sky had fallen in. We larked around and laughed a lot. We were the best of friends. Ridgeley describes Michael’s relationship with the press as “a running battle”. “He wasn’t confrontational, at least during Wham!. But he didn’t help himself. I understand that he chose to conduct some of his personal life in a way that made it easy for the tabloids to sensationalise, and they did. It was difficult for him, and unedifying. But he wasn’t going to be cowed into changing what he wanted to do. And unfortunately, that was double edged.”

Net celebrity... Keren Woordward". BBC News. 28 September 2009 . Retrieved 23 April 2012. (broken link) My family and I hope you all enjoy the film, and Yog's music old and new, woven beautifully into this fun, easy tale of love and self-love," she wrote in the publication. I get asked, 'Do you still write songs?'" said Ridgeley. "And I suppose I could but it's an awful lot of work trying to get them played [on radio]. Chris [Smith] said, more than once, [that] he came to the project not knowing anything about Wham! He read my memoir — and I don’t know whether he read Bare or any of George’s subsequent biographies, but he said to me it gave him a template. He saw this fundamental thread, which was our friendship, informed and gave substance to Wham! and the music we made and the way that we saw things. That’s one of the essential attractions of the film is that he frames it in the context of what was Wham!’s perhaps most unique character and that which gave it a personality, which was the friendship that fused it with everything that I think people found attractive. Formed in 1981, Wham! found success with a speed and ease that’s virtually unheard of now, in an era of manufactured pop bands and nepo babies. That they did it for the love of music, not fame, makes their story even more charming, not least to a new generation of fans who grew up on a diet of reality TV, and who view fame more as an end game than a by-product of talent or success.

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Andrew Hart (1991). Understanding the Media: A Practical Guide. Routledge. p. 187 . Retrieved 24 December 2012– via Internet Archive. ridgeley nose. Main thing the book showed was they were best friends, his love and respect for George shine through and it was good to see no salaciousness or bitterness throughout the book