A new documentary charts rise of pop duo Wham! and the strong friendship at its heart. It’s a fun and unexpectedly heartwarming watch, writes Steve Newall.
Wham!
As long-running, ever-reliable gossip email newsletter Popbitch recounted today, a post-Take That Robbie Williams couldn’t help himself on a night out at Jimmyz nightclub in Monte Carlo (perhaps encouraged by being in what Popbitch calls his “first coke bloat era”). Spotting George Michael on the dancefloor—so “the internet’s longest-running, deepest-digging gossipmongers” tell us—Williams thought he’d play with a well-worn trope of pop stars who go solo, and say they want to be ‘the next George Michael’.
So what did Williams say to Michael instead? “I wanna be the next Andrew Ridgeley…” so the story goes. “A line which not only failed to raise a smile out of George,” Popbitch says, “but caused George to look Robbie dead in the eye and snap: ‘DON’T take the piss out of Andrew.'”
It’s an anecdote which speaks to the friendship between two young men that forms the backbone of both a pop sensation and a new documentary tracing their rise and achievements—both called Wham!. George Michael may sadly no longer be with us, but thanks to previously unheard archival interview audio, alongside recollections from Andrew Ridgeley also unique to this doco, the pair get to tell their own story, a tale of comradeship and loyalty that resulted in a succession of landmark pop music achievements (including hits Club Tropicana, Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, Freedom, and Last Christmas) in a remarkably short amount of time.
In another coup for the film, not only does director Chris Smith get the two men to tell their own story (there are no talking heads here, and they aren’t needed at all), but also has access to an utterly charming way to navigate Wham!’s career, with access to home videos and scrapbooks—over 50 in total, complete with handwritten captions—kept by Andrew Ridgeley’s mum that are a pretty bloody heartwarming way to follow their exploits.
Like a great pop song itself, Wham! doesn’t outstay its welcome, covering the pop duo’s foundation and success in an economical 92 minutes. The runtime flies by, propelled by the duo’s personalities as both storytellers and in extensive archival footage (with plenty of ill-advised hairdos, outfit choices and dance routines to marvel at). Wham!’s story may have been told many, many times, but there’s still something infectious about revisiting (or discovering) the pair’s enthusiasm as kids and where their DIY bedroom pop project ended up taking them.
Of course, Wham! would never have sold the astonishing 30 million records that they did in just the space of four years if it hadn’t been for George Michael’s growing mastery of singing, performing, writing and producing. In one of several tales recounted in the documentary that confirm Michael’s accurate self-confidence as a songwriter, he travels to Alabama’s legendary Muscle Shoals to record Careless Whisper (an early Wham! song that he and Ridgeley had known for some time would be his breakout solo hit).
Michael might have paused to consider his abilities when reminded by producer Jerry Wexler just before vocal takes that he was right where Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles had been before him—but that certainly didn’t mean he lacked the confidence to bin the Muscle Shoals version when he got back home, to start again and craft the version we know today. Hearing them both here, he was right.
The doco shows us how, as Michael progressed, Ridgeley accepted his own limitations. Crucial to Wham!’s formation, he wasn’t displaced by a superior performer—instead the pair agreed that it made sense for Michael to take the reins. What’s clear here, is that far from Andrew Ridgeley being a joke, a superfluous element cast off by his more famous partner who became a megastar, there would be no George Michael without him—there’d just be two kids called Andrew Ridgeley and his schoolmate Georgios Panayiotou—or ‘Yog’ as Ridgeley calls him throughout.
Considering our contemporary pop music environment, with huge teams of songwriters and ‘vibe guys’ assembled one song at a time, with carefully calculated plans, teams, and mega-budgets, there’s a real boys’ own adventure feeling to Wham!’s formation, perseverance and success. A sense of respect due, too. It’s hard in the present day to figure out the level of hatred and snobbishness directed at them—two young men forging their own (admittedly very, very camp in hindsight) path through pop.
By its nature, it’s little surprise the duo come off well in this doco. There are no shocking insights to be had, except perhaps that they show more self-awareness than the press may have afforded them at the time (one sample magazine quote says something along the lines of “they haven’t figured out how thick they are yet”). But it’s a fun and perhaps unexpectedly heartwarming watch that comes recommended to those both familiar or unfamiliar with the details.
Pretty sanitised, it does lightly touch on some of the challenges they faced, particularly around Michael’s sense of sexual identity. But, ending right about the time Wham! did, more than anything this is a story of two friends who just happened to conquer the world.
Only one might have become a superstar, but he carried on having his friend’s back: “DON’T take the piss out of Andrew.”
