Wham - netflix doc

[Forestdweller11]

Anyone watched it? Any good?

Yes George secretly made loads of donations to various charities apparently, bloody legend.

The thing that stayed with me watching it last night was that the music press at the time loathed and took the piss out of Wham… but George wrote, produced and sang on the massive worldwide hit Wake Me Up Before You Go Go - AT THE AGE OF 20.

I know right! I was rather surprised to hear that about the press as hadn't realised at the time. Perhaps it was due to the way they dressed?

Also hadn't noticed how good looking Andrew was. He has aged well too. He always seemed to take a backseat to George in my mind!

Andrew does lots of cycling. He’s just done a charity ride John o groats to lands end

I loved how he donated all the royalties from Last Christmas to famine relief but admitted his "sad ego" was gutted to have lost out on the Xmas No. 1 spot to Do they know it's Christmas 😂

Yes, at the age of 20! And done and dusted with Wham at barely 23, Faith released at 24 ... Maybe it was the beard and me barely being out of junior school at the time, but I never realised how bloody young George was 😂 The level of talent he possessed is astounding.

The nicest story I heard about GM was about him giving money to a lady who had been on a morning tv show about her struggles with infertility
He sent her the money to carry on with the IVF treatment.

I hadn't realised that George's family were from Greece/Cyprus, I thought there were some similarities to Freddie Mercurys story in that they were both from immigrant families, both very ambitious with big egos but underlying insecurities, both gay, both had to change their names (to sound more British.)

I can imagine there must have been some resentment from Andrew, he would have had to have been a saint not to feel a bit aggrieved at being left behind while George went onto superstardom. I think to be that sort of star there has to be an element of ruthlessness in the ambition which is true of all the huge stars.

Loved it! I saw a picture of Andrew recently and he is so good looking now in a debonair way.

@the80sweregreat dont know whether it’s the same story just confused in the retelling but it was a guy that went on Deal or No Deal trying to raise ££ for their IVF. He gambled for a big sum and lost - I remember watching it at the time. Absolutely devastating. George watched the episode and sent the couple enough money for their cycles - it didn’t come out that he’d done it until after he died. He was so lovely 🥰

Ah it was great, and i don't really care if it slightly rewrote history 😀

I fancied them as a pair, my fantasies were always of threesomes 😬i was pleased to see that AR was with Karen for 27 years and is now dating someone who is sort of almost age appropriate. Seems like he never quite lost the nice North London boys having a bit of a laugh aspect. Comforting.

I’ve posted before that she was in the queue behind me in Manchester at Andrew’s book signing. They brought their little boy with them

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/george-michael-paid-ivf-would-27294460.amp

Wow, the dates are spooky! What a lovely story 🥰

It was a lovely documentary
I didn't know they they gave the royalties for 'last Christmas 'to the Band Aid appeal.
I'm glad it reached number one eventually in 2020.
To think that they wrote Careless whisper when they were only 17. Both were such talented writers.

Loved it. I knew they were both good eggs. But didn't know quite how much genuine love and respect they had for each other.

Knocked out by the footage of them as children too. Am a similar vintage (a bit younger actually) and I'd love to have moving images of me as a child/teen. So evocative

Great documentary, was an amazing friendship they had, how mature they are for their age.

Loved Wham, loved George and have so much respect for Andrew

And obvs love Andrew!

It’s struck me today that I am the age George was when he died. Apart from Bowie I have never been so affected by a celebs death. Careless Whisper came on the radio the day after and I just sobbed.

I didn’t really appreciate his solo stuff til a few years before his death. I found his version of Let her Down Easy which is incredible and from there got back into his music. At the time though I was an Andrew girl…at Wham the final when his hair was short…just gorgeous. I’ve read his autobiography and was so glad he was a decent bloke.

I’m obviously biased but being young certainly in the first half of the 80’s really was an amazing time for music.

I came away wondering if Wham had stayed yogether so that George had the day to day stability that Andrew gave him, would he still be alive today.

Lovely programme and a tribute to their friendship.

I had the impression from this documentary that AR wanted a break tbh and was happy for GM to carry on a solo career. He seemed to actively encourage it.
Most bands or groups end up locked in bitter rows over money or contracts , so this was nice that they didn't seem to fall out over anything and stayed friends.

I had the impression from this documentary that AR wanted a break tbh and was happy for GM to carry on a solo career. He seemed to actively encourage it

How many years later were the interviews recorded?

I wondered that. But it seems as though George and Andrew remained close friends for life, so not sure that this would have made a difference.

I’m obviously biased but being young certainly in the first half of the 80’s really was an amazing time for music.

I said the same thing to my husband how lucky we were to experience the 80’s first hand, waiting for the chart run down on a Sunday, getting Smash Hits each week, all the posters in various teen magazines, trading them at school, top of the pops and all the Saturday morning kids shows with our favourite pop stars, going to Woolworths to buy the latest single, it feels so joyful looking back, such happy times.

I was a young teen in the early 80s too. Such an amazing time to be growing up and so many amazing bands to worship. I can distinctly remember seeing Duran Duran's Reflex video for the first time and totally and utterly falling in love with Simon Le Bon. My little group of friends at school the next day were crying about how much we all loved him 😆
Then along came Madonna!
We were very lucky.

My favourite bit was finding out they were drinking real booze during the Last Christmas video. It makes the video even more fun to watch.