The 80s pop icon praises late star George Michael for his singing and songwriting ability and talks their new documentary about their 1985 trip to China
Andrew reflects on his friendship with the late George Michael (Image: Getty Images)
Andrew Ridgeley still misses his late best friend, Wham! bandmate George Michael. The Careless Whisper singer passed away 10 years ago this Christmas Day aged 53 due to heart and liver disease, but appears in the new documentary film Wham! 10 Days in China, as a twenty-something heartthrob in unearthed footage.
School pal Ridgeley, 63, told Mirror that watching him bickering with George in the clips captured 40 years ago makes him miss the lead singer, as they’re unable to share those moments now.
He said: “He [George] was a deeply caring chap. We all miss him. For me, to have lost the best friend that I ever had is difficult, but irreplaceable [is] a childhood friend with whom you’ve spent your formative years and become an adult with and gone through youth. It’s a big loss. And the fact he was possibly one of the finest singer songwriters that has ever set foot on the earth, makes it doubly poignant.”
The fly-on-the-wall flick features unseen footage of George and Andrew in communist China, as they prepare to perform to a whole new audience, the first Western pop act to do so. The cameras follow the boys as they meet Chinese concert-goers who are discovering their music for the first time, at a photo opp at the Great Wall of China as well as attending a state dinner. Of course, you also see the duo, alongside the band’s other members Pepsi and Shirley, on stage, performing to thousands in Beijing and Guangzhou their myriad of pop hits from Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go to Freedom.
The trip to China was designed as a publicity stunt for the band to make it big in America, which it did achieve, but they weren’t aware of the legacy their presence there would have had on the Chinese who were hearing Western music for the first time, which is shown through first person accounts of attendees four decades later.
“I don’t think we had any idea of the impact or legacy that Wham!’s tour there would have achieved,” Andrew said.
The band sadly split up in 1986 – a year after their success in China. Ridgeley says he doesn’t regret him and George going their separate ways professionally.
“It was something George had to move on from. And we had achieved everything we had set out to achieve in spades. We wanted to be the biggest pop act in the world. We pretty much were by the time June 28 1986 rolled round. We were a huge deal in the States, globally we were pretty big. There wasn’t a great deal left for us to do as Wham!, but there was a whole lot for George to do as a solo artist and he couldn’t do that within the constraints of Wham!”
Did George ever feel guilty leaving Andrew behind, when he pursued his solo career?
“No, I don’t think he did, and neither should he,” Andrew said. “It was a mutual thing and we both understood he needed to do that.
“We were friends, we still saw each other, it wasn’t like Wham was the end of our friendship, it was just the end of the chapter in our friendship.”
Wham! 10 Days in China hits cinemas July 28th
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
