{"id":2792,"date":"2024-05-03T09:33:49","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T13:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yogworld.com\/blog\/?p=2792"},"modified":"2025-05-02T18:12:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T22:12:02","slug":"wham-if-you-were-there-documentary-first-screening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yogworld.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/03\/wham-if-you-were-there-documentary-first-screening\/","title":{"rendered":"Wham! If You Were There Documentary First Screening"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Amazon Ad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley as Wham! went to China in 1985, director Lindsay Anderson was charged with the documentary for this historic event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time, Anderson’s documentary<\/a> of Wham! in China, If You Were There, will be screened for the public on May 25 and May 31, 2024. Unfortunately, tickets have already sold out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 79-minute documentary is described as the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1985, at the height of their success, WHAM! were invited to be the first western pop group to tour Communist China since the Cultural Revolution. Accepting the offer, the duo made an unlikely approach to Anderson, asking him to direct a documentary record of the tour. However, the collaboration ended awkwardly when his cut of the film was rejected by the band. The film was subsequently re-edited to incorporate more concert footage and released as WHAM! In China: Foreign Skies. Anderson\u2019s cut, titled If You Were There\u2026 has never before been screened publicly, making this a not-to-be-missed, potentially once-only opportunity to see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to Andrew Ridgeley, and to Chris Organ and David Austin of George Michael Entertainment for their co-operation in connection with this screening.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

According to The Guardian: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The exact sequence of events leading to Anderson\u2019s dismissal are not easy to discern from his papers. Napier-Bell wrote that the first cut of the film was \u201cachingly boring\u201d and that Michael thought a second version appeared to be \u201cscornful\u201d of Wham!.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt should have been possible for Lindsay \u2013 or any director with an ounce of compromise in him \u2013 to have adjusted it to what Wham! needed as a promo tool,\u201d says Napier-Bell today. \u201cBut he obviously felt it beneath him to compromise with two upstart kids. He was always a difficult old bugger, full of guilt at his own public school education, but suffering from the superiority it had given him.\u201d<\/p>\nDead dogs, capitalist critique and only four songs: when Wham! squashed Lindsay Anderson\u2019s China film<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n