Today In History…

…in 1986, George announced that Wham! was breaking up.

21 years – time certainly is flying!

Bush Back On The Bottle?

This is rather hysterical:

Bush slur

In Bed with George

Tracey Emin tells her George Michael story to the Independent.

George really is a fan of some odd stuff, I tell ya that. What was Tracey Emin’s last ‘work’? “My Bed”? Also known as, “Moving All The Crap From My Room To A Museum And Call It Art“. (Some call it a piece of art – others call it a piece of crap. Literally.) Was it one of her exhibitions that was burned/ruined, or was that someone else’s?

Still struggling to see the relevance of this story, for either her or him, to be honest. Unless she’s planning on some exhibition of George’s old facialhair or somethin’.

Single on Valentine’s Day?

What to do?

a) Stay home and get plastered, feeling sorry for self in real Bridget Jones style?
b) Go out on the town and have a snog with other single people?
c) Call a hooker to not be totally alone and unf*cked on Valentine’s Day?
d) Go to the cinema and see “Dirty Dancing” and spite the happy couples?
e) Nothing different from any other day – cos it isn’t?

The Bridget Jones Way:

George and the rumour mill

Oh-kay, people. This week has been full of “what will George do next?” rumours. Let’s do them one by one, shall we?

1) Wham! will reunite for an album in NY.
- I wanna say “Oh, puh-LEASE!” If they do an album it’s going to be “George Michael featuring Andrew Ridgeley not playing the guitar.” Andrew said he would have liked Wham! do to songs like “Amazing” if they were still together. All together now: Da da da, da da da… I missed Wham! first time around, and that’s OK. I just wasn’t there, cause I was still in diapers. Just like I wasn’t there for the 70s, 60s and 50s. If I want to relive the past, I can get a video or put on an old CD. Would you want Wham! to be known as the band that quit on top with a bang in 1986 – or for a desperate attempt at a reunion in 2007?

2) Wham! will reunite onstage at Wembley for one night only.
- Andrew wouldn’t even get on the stage for one song in December, why would he want to come on for 20? And are there 20 Wham! songs around that George would be comfortable singing? Let’s see;
“I’m Your Man”(1)
“Everything She Wants”(2)
“Careless Whisper”(3 – though borderline solo/Wham!)
“A Different Corner”(4 – though solo, was on a Wham! album. But he was only comfortable doing this once on tour)
“The Edge of Heaven”(5 – he said he might do it, but never did. Probably for reasons only clear to him)
“Last Christmas”(6 – depending on which time of year it is, but he hates singing this too).

So that’s 3 definites and 3 maybes. That’ll be at least a good 20 minutes. 30 if George does one of his speeches.

I have one question – genuinely: Who’s that interested? Personally, nothing against Andrew at all, it matters not to me if Andrew Ridgeley is on that stage or not. And do we really wanna see a “reunion” like that of the Police the other day, looking and sounding a bit pathetic as they came together for “Roxanne”? I can’t help but thinking that Duran Duran and Take That all look a bit like they’ve run out of money and this is the only way to get some cash in for their retirement. I have the same view about relationship breakups as I do about band-splits: It ended for a reason, stop whipping a dead horse.

3) George wants to write some new duets and assemble people like Duncan James, Natasha Bedingfield and Elton John to sing with him.
- I thought we were past all this duets stuff? Personally, the two last year will last me for a while. I like “This is not real love”, but “Heal the pain”… I think my opinion on that has been fairly well documented in the past.

a) Duncan James: x-boyband “Blue” frontman. He did a good vocal on “I Believe My Heart” – an Andrew Lloyd Webber production. Dunc is a trained musical singer. When he did his little pop numbers with the group… not so impressive. Apparently he was told to ‘tone it down’ to not overshadow the others. So the boy can sing, but when he shows his true colours, he sings in a way that makes musical snobs like George cringe.

b) Natasha Bedingfield: sister of Daniel, the guy with that one hit “If You’re Not The One” some years ago. She had one hit, a fuck-off annoying-as-hell single nearly 3 years ago, the audio equivalent of wanking with knives, because her bother had made it. Now, neither of them could get arrested.

c) Elton John: I’ll take another Elton John duet. For instance, he could finish the one he did for “Trojan Souls” that Elton put down vocals on already. “Don’t haaaave to think about it… don’t haaaaave to do without it… just have to believe in this kinda looove.” It’s there, record it.

If George wants to write new material, FANTASTIC! Do it. Write, write, write and write. All day/night/week. Please! But here’s another please… do it alone. On your own. Without anyone else. Given a choice between a duets album or a solo album, who’d pick a duets album? The Tony Bennett thing was successful, apparently, but I wouldn’t listen to any of those duets on any given day.

Conclusion:
1) A Wham! album: Please, make it a solo album instead.
2) A Wham! gig: Please, make it solo gig instead.
3) A duets album: Please, make it a solo album instead.

Mika – Grace Kelly

This guy is just such a breath of fresh air. I love this song.

Led Zeppelin Knows How’ta Have Sex?

George Michael said he liked Led Zeppelin because “they sound like the know how to have sex.” I’ve just seen Led Zeppelin live. Well, not the actual band, mind you, but a tribute band; Whole Lotta Led. (Quip on, “Whole Lotta Love” – geddit?)

Now, I was there for two hours. I’m a Led Zeppelin novice. I literally know one song. “Stairway To Heaven”. Anything else I wouldn’t know was Led Zeppelin if my life depended on it – but I did recognise a song here and there. Even though I couldn’t put a name to them.

To me, the star of the show was the group’s silver fox – guitarist Nick Ferris. (In LZ language: Jimmy Page.) He had some solos that could make any guitarist enthusiast sweat. Hell, it made me sweat. Vocalist Lee Addison (the Robert Plant of the group) was definitely strongest on the ‘hardest’ songs, though his “Stairway To Heaven” was pretty awesome.

So, was George right when he said Led Zeppelin sound like they know how to have sex? They sure did have some rhythms that could work as shag-themes for those that know how to use their hips (like their bluesy stuff), and it’s a well-known fact that practically every member of a band can get laid for different reasons.

The vocalist: cause he’s the centre of attention.
The guitarist: cause if his fingers can do that to a guitar, imagine what else he can do.
The drummer: cause he’s got rhytm.
The bassist: cause he’s got a little bit of both (fingerwork and rhythm).

So do the sound like they know how to do it? I’m sure they did. I am – however – a bit surprised that George would be into this kinda music, though, as I didn’t have him down as listening to anything heavier than Stevie Wonder – but good for him. I went through a period where I lived this kinda music; Alice Cooper, W.A.S.P., Def Leppard, Manowar, Bon Jovi (yeah, I know they’re pretty wimpish compared to the rest, but still), Kiss, you name it. Led Zeppelin was a bit before my time, though.

But, I did enjoy tonight’s gig. It was a good an introduction to Led Zeppelin as any, and the solos by Nick Ferris and drummer Graham Twist impressed more than just me, put it that way. Geoff Hunt on bass guitar (and banjo on the acoustic numbers) was steady in the background, accompanying the rest to make the show what it was; An impressive tribute to Led Zeppelin.

Today In History…

1985 – No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Careless Whisper”, Wham! featuring George Michael. The song is released as a solo by Michael in the United Kingdom but is included on the group’s U.S. album.

Well, then. 22 years ago today. I was 3. Scary

I have one word for you Brits:

OVERREACTION, anyone?!

There’s THREE INCHES of snow and everything stops!? Seems – from the ’snow special’ on the news – that 80% of schools are closed for ‘health and safety issues’. Lemme tell you something, you prudes, for twelve years we went to school EVERY YEAR with at LEAST 30 (that’s thirty, not three) inches of show. Add 25 degrees centigrade MINUS. Also, don’t get in the car ‘unless you absolutely have to’. Hell, nobody would work in Norway for most of the year if that was the case over there every time it snowed an inch.

It’s very clear to me that you literally get one day of snow a year over here. Try seven MONTHS of snow a year and then see if you find three mere inches a problem. It’s also pretty amusing that this happens EVERY YEAR. Every bloody year I’ve been here, there’s total chaos for one day a year when there’s half an inch of snow.

Ease up, people. Jesus.

My 5 Questions For George

Following a request for which five questions I’d ask George on the Tony Hadley thread, I’ve decided to give it a go – off the top of my head:

1) Could you take us through the process from idea to finished song?
(writing, recording, what’s done in/outside the studio, working process, in what order, what tasks undertaken by you/others, etc)

2) Could you tell us about *your* plans for your career from now on, now that you’re no longer attached to a recordcompany?
(long-term/short-term goals, touring plans, the charity download plan, any plans writing movie scores/moving on from traditional pop?)

3) What are you working on now (musically and tour-wise) – and could you give us an idea about when/how we could expect your next musical output?

4) Could you take us through how the tour experience was for you and why you’re so keen to do it again?
(best/worst experience, a typical day from getting up to getting on stage to getting back to bed, backstage ritual, what were you up to in the 20-minute break, etc)

5) What typically makes you decide to can a song you’ve been working on – and what happens to these songs that are semi-done but (in your opinion) not good enough?
(in a drawer somewhere? on the Mac? in your cd-changer? keeping them on file in case the idea can be used for something else? flying frisbees for the dogs?)

Yeah, I think that’d be it – for the moment.