I also just discovered that Pepsi and Shirlie’s All Right Now has been reissued. I have been waiting years for this because I still had it on cassette!
The Guardian lists the release of Wham Rap! as number 28 in its series of the 50 key events in the history of pop music:
Teenager George Michael was inspired by Britain’s early 80s recession to write a song about the upside of being on the dole. Contending that unemployment provided free time to immerse oneself in London’s booming club culture, Wham Rap! was rather subversive. It was also one of the first British pop singles to avail itself of the still new hip-hop style, and if Michael’s rhyming skills were the essence of Englishness, they seemed cool at the time.
Lon sends us A Young Gun no longer: Wham! star Andrew Ridgeley faces up to bald truth of middle age.
There is also another article at Check out Wham! star Ridgeley.
Dylan sends us “In a world of Coleen and Kerry, ‘Andrew Ridgeley’ is no longer a valid unit for measuring failure,” which discusses how the former Wham! star has discovered something that too many modern-day celebs lack: dignity.
Wham!’s former manager Simon Napier-Bell is in talks with movie producers about bringing their story to the big screen but thinks that George Michael will put a stop to it.
“There are several people sniffing round about a Wham! film but I’m not sure any of them will come off because they all require Wham! music in them and George controls that,” said Napier-Bell.
