November 19, 2024 • 30 mins
It's not Christmas without "Last Christmas", released by English pop duo WHAM! 40 long years ago. I'm in disbelief that I've been spinning that tune for as long as I have.
George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley - as WHAM! - set out to conquer the music world in 1982. They were still teenagers! And it was in 1986 they performed together as WHAM! for the last time after successfully completing their mission. Hit after hit - "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go", "Freedom," "I’m Your Man", and of course, "Last Christmas", made their time in the spotlight white-hot. The lifelong friends became one of the most globally successful pop acts of the 1980s, selling more than thirty million records worldwide!
Join Andrew Ridgeley and me as we talk of the old days, of his friend, George Michael, of the Netflix's feature documentary, "WHAM!", the BBC1 production, "WHAM!: Last Christmas Unwrapped", and so much more. We've saved it for someone special!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Well, we have turned back the clocks. We have pulled
out the sweaters. How many of you have climbed the
stairs to the attic or the storage area and pulled
out the plastic tote of sweaters and heavier jackets and mittens,
fuzzy mittens. Our flip flops have flip flopped away, replaced
by boots, lots of boots, and sturdier footwear that does
(00:28):
better in the rain and the muck and the mud.
We're getting up in the dark. The sun is already
hanging low in the sky. By the time my kids
get home from school, homecomings have come and gone, and
Turkey Day will be here before you know it, followed
by the frantic frazzle holiday madness we call holiday shopping.
I'm not doing that this year. I've decided I am
(00:50):
checking out of the franticness. It has always been an
all consuming task for me with the size of my
family and the number of grandchildren, But this year not
doing it. Every year I say I'm not going to
go overboard, and every year I prove that I am
a liar. But this year not going to be a liar,
liar pants on fire. I am taking it easy because
(01:12):
I just can't keep up. But I do love the
shopping and the wrapping, and the feasting and the festivities
of the season. I especially love the music that fills
the airways and our homes this time of year. Of course,
I've flipped the switch on my radio program to All Christmas.
I am your Christmas music station, and I am enjoying
(01:36):
all the old favorites and some brand new holiday tunes.
I hope you're joining in. One old favorite, released in
December of nineteen eighty four, when my son was two
months old, has been around for forty years now, which
is really strange to me because I was a new
mama back when it was first released Last Christmas by
(02:00):
the English pop duo Wham in nineteen eighty two, while
still teenagers, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley as Wham set
out to conquer the world. In June of nineteen eighty six,
they performed together as Wham for the last time at
Wimbley Stadium, having done exactly that hit after hit Club Tropicana,
(02:25):
wake Me Up Before You Go Go Freedom, I'm Your Man,
and of course Last Christmas made their time in the
Spotlight White Hot. The lifelong friends who met at secondary
school in the small town of Bushy became one of
the most globally successful pop acts of the eighties, selling
(02:47):
more than thirty million records worldwide. Several pop generations down
the line, this treasure trove of musical gyms continues to
inspire lie egans of new fans young fans, none more
so in my opinion than Last Christmas, which gets a
lot of airplay on my Christmas radio show, Not Gonna
(03:10):
Lie This Christmas and celebration of its fortieth anniversary, BBC
two and BBC Music presents Wham Last Christmas Unwrapped. It's
an hour long celebration of a latter day Christmas classic,
telling the story of how Wham turned one song into
(03:31):
a cultural phenomenon. Here with us today to speak to
the amazing legacy of Wham is Andrew Ridgeley. I can't
wait to get caught up with this legend and hear
about the exciting project Wham Last Christmas Unwrap Up. First,
let me unwrap some goodness with a much appreciated podcast sponsor.
(03:56):
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All of the Move, None of the cow. Welcome to
my podcast, Love Someone, Andrew. Thank you for joining us today.
(05:49):
Welcome a board. I'm glad that you are here, Andrew,
as we celebrate the holiday season. I have been on
the air since Wham debuted, so I have been on
the air playing your music for five decades. Now we're
entering the fifth decade.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Crikey. Okay, well that's that.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
You should have a long service award, the Wham Long
Service Award.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
There you go, Well, both of us should. How old
were you when when you met your counterpart in crime
in Wham? How old were you boys? Because you were young?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, we were twelve years old.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
The second year of secondary school at Bushy Meads.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Comprehensive at what school?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Bushy Meads?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Comprehensive, that world renowned bastion of academic excellence.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Excellence? Yeah, it certainly wasn't excellent.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Produced lyrics like last Christmas, you gave me your heart
the very next day you tore it apart.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Well he was a fantastic lyricist as well as an
amazing melody writer as well. Don't think we can really
credit what he means with too much of that time, but.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Too much of that education. So you were twelve years old.
Did you both love music back then? Did you both
have like that spark of talent back in junior high?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
If we did, it was well hidden, But yes, we
were consumed by music, in fact, both of us. It
was one of the common strands, or one of the
common themes that actually bound our friendship that we became
friends was our shared love of music and the fact
(07:43):
that we perceived it the same way, music the same way.
I think we were liked the same artists and we
had the same sensibilities.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Okay, so take us back, Take us back to that
twelve year old Andrew and George Michael in junior high
colored junior high here together. What groups were you guys
listening to? What albums were you? Did you buy an album?
Did you ever buy an album? I never bought an
album at twelve. I was in high school before about
my first album. Yeah, because that was when that would
(08:17):
have been when like Elton John was huge, was skyrocketing.
Who were you guys listening to? Who were you singing
along to?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Well, you just said Elton.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I mean Elton released Goodbye Yellavick Road the year before
in seventy three, and Goodbye Elevi Road was one of
those albums that we both had in common, and so.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
That was elton Is music, Goodbye over.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Road and the music that preceded it, you know, which
obviously we were aware of anyway, because he's been having
hits for the best part of half a decade.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Or more even by then. But that album I think.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Was the first Elton John album that I bought, and
George had it as well.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
So Elton was and his.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Music was something that we both gravitated to that age.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Goodbye Everyad was a seminal album when there was. The
album itself was a piece of It's something to have.
It was a double album.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
It had all the lyrics, had the most amazing cartoons
and graphics.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Oh, the artwork, the artwork was the best.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah, yeah, that captain fantastic that album as well, though
the artwork was it was as almost as rich as
the music that it accompanied. So yeah, we were bound
by those same tastes in music Elton John obviously as
(09:52):
twelve year olds in the UK in nineteen seventy four,
the Top twenty was a big feature in virtually everyone's life.
Top of the Pops, listening to the Top twenty on
a Sunday with your mum and dad and the rest
of the family all around the radio. It was almost
a national pastime. Virtually everyone did it. There was no
(10:14):
one that he knew that didn't listen to the Sop
forward and didn't watch the Top of the Pops.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
It was.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
It was just something that virtually everyone did, so all
those things those artists at the time, especially the UK artists,
but obviously we had US artists in the charts as well.
Queen was a huge George was a big, big Queen fan,
killer Queen. I think it was my first introduction to
(10:40):
Queen proper. He had he had the album, had the album,
so I my further education in Queen was really largely
down to George.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So whose house did we go to and crank the
stereo up too loud and mom would scream turned that
raged down?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Both both, Yeah, yeah, we're kind of taken turns.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Whose mom was the better cook.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Whose mom was the better cook? And my mom obviously
your mom.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Yeah, you have to say that. So you met in
junior high. When did you start singing together? When did
you start going? You know what? We could do this?
We could We could not just listen to Queen. We
could not just listen to Elton. We could maybe, I
don't know, sing together, Like, when did that happen? It
had to be very organic. I mean, you guys were
(11:30):
best buds, right.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, exactly. It was.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
It was an aspiration. I think that that grew. It
was something that forming a band was. Some of our
friends did it. Guys that we knew that were older.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
It was.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
It was something that became something that almost seemed like
not a destiny as such, but a pre preordained path
for us. I think there was never any question that
we once we got about fourteen thirteen fourteen, the writing
(12:08):
songs and forming and performing them was something that we
wanted to do together. It seemed it seemed the natural,
natural thing to do. So it was really around the
age of fourteen where the idea started to become more concrete.
But at that point in time, George's parents and George
(12:28):
felt the pressure of his parents' academic aspirations for him,
and so forming a band was put off until two years.
Hence when we were sixteen, when the main A levels,
the exams have been completed.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Better, so they said put no, put the drumsticks down,
put the guitar down, put the pen down. No more writing,
no more singing, no more microphone until you pass these desks,
because they probably wanted you guys to get a job.
I mean, parents say that stupid.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
It was quite datally, although you know in George's dad
was he was quite opposed to the idea. My dad
saw it as a phase that we'd inevitably passed through,
and son, the pressure wasn't I didn't feel the pressure
quite so greatly as George did his parents. His dad especially,
(13:24):
I think, felt that anything other than an academic career
path was not acceptable.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
So was there ever a point in your career, like
after your first number one, after your first record sold millions? Whatever?
Was there ever a point where George got to do
the I Told you so dance?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I think he probably did it more than once.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Because there's nothing sweeter than enjoying that moment if somebody's
still alive, where somebody tried to block your way or
stand in your way or redirect you lovingly. It sounds
like he had you know, he did it out from
his heart.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Oh yeah, yeah, there was There was no There was
no intention, I think to thwart George's ambitions. But I
don't think his dad recognized his talents even when they
seem to be obvious to everyone. Well, so it was
it was misguided, I think, a wee bit. But I
managed to railroad him into forming a band when we
(14:23):
were sort of sixteen, and and then it's sort of
evidently history record.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Evidently evidently it worked out pretty good for you. Did
you ever play at your high school, like in talent
shows or at a dance or anything. Did your band, like,
were you big big stuff at your high school?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
We played at our local cub scout venue.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
And we played. Yeah, we played that. I went to
a sixth form college to do my A levels.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Because the school were going to kick me out by
for empty that by leaving, so.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
They were going to kick you out and you weren't
going to give them the pleasure of doing that. I'll
see myself out the door.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
So yeah, on the day that I took the decision
to leave school, I'd said to my form teacher. I
asked if I could have a word with her, and
I said, look, you know, I'm leaving school. And she
said that's just as well, because we were going to
ask you to. And I thought, and I got there first.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I got there first. You can't kick me. I you
cannot make me feel bad about kicking me out because
I'm kicking myself out. I've had a few situations where
I probably should have gotten there first and said I
quit before they said you're fired.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
But yeah, it's gratifying to do that. I recommend it
for future.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
So I had this notion and I've never done it,
but I have a lot of contests on my radio show,
and I thought it would be kind of fun to
have people write me the best, most heartbreaking breakup story
that I could then play last Christmas for you know,
(16:20):
like like you know, he was down on his knees
giving me a ring in front of the Christmas tree
while his girlfriend was waiting in the car, or something
like that. I don't know if it would if it
would really work with the vibe of my you know,
sweet love Story show, but it would be kind of
fun because people call on request last Christmas, every night,
(16:43):
every stinky night, even when it's not Christmas. And I'm like,
do you realize that's a breakups that's the worst kind
of breakup in the world.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Song.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Oh, I know, I just love the song. I just
love Wham. It is a bitter sweet, mostly bitter if
you listen to the lyric, because it's a heartbreak.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
It's it's it's a lament of love lost, and it's
it's very cleverly written in that sense. It's step two
a such a lovely, warm, beautiful melody that.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
You don't notice you're you're singing the very next day,
you gave it away because you kind of bounce and
you you want the hot cocoa and you want to
wear little mittens while you're singing it.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, I mean it sounds like you're on a sleigh ride.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, while your heart is getting slade.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Very good. Yeah, it's it's a it's a really clever
in that sense.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Because musically it evokes the atmosphere of Christmas the sleigh bells.
The synthesizer has the same sense of motion as as
sleigh bells, and so you get this sense of you know,
of Christmas, worth of coziness, of all the positive aspects,
(18:05):
and then you've got this the lyric the Heartbreak.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Catching up with Andrew ridgely today, one of the original
members of the pop duo Wham. Of course, we lost
George Michael many years ago. It's been forty years since
Last Christmas was released, and we love it as much
this Christmas as we always have. There's more to our
conversation right after I share a few words about the
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ever went through, like that you can talk about, like
joke about. That might be inspiration for this kind of breakups.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Oh, that's a that's a big responsibility.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I mean obviously I want to cut you know, I
think teenage heartbreaks.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Teenage heartbreaks are the biggest, aren't they? Because your heart
is like virginal, it's not been walked all over. You
don't have any of those safety guards. You don't have
any like when you, you know, walk along a deep ravine,
they're safety guards on the edge. When you're a teenager,
there are no safety guards. You just you go right
(20:31):
down into that ravine.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah, it can feel awfully, awfully raw when you're a teenager.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
No, I didn't really have a teenage teenage heartbreaks. I
think when you had teenage heartbreaks, and I think there was.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
One unrequited love which was painful, but no real teenage heartbreak.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Now that that waited until later in life.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I had way too many teenage heartbreaks.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
I I think girls may feel them more acutely than men.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Men may not even realize.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, because when we're like in junior high, we start
having relationships in our head. You guys don't catch up
until late teenage years, maybe college, that we've been having
relationships in our head, in our imagination.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And that's a lot to carry along, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
It is, and it's very unrequited sets us up a
really big dysfunction later in life as well. But back
to where I'm back to the unwrapped story. How fun
was that to do the project and be able to
open up forty years of beautiful memories.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
It was a privilege and a really wonderful opportunity to
despite the fact that the obviously with the fact that
George was not with us, but it was still it
was still a really lovely thing to be able to
(22:11):
go and revisit a place where an event that I
think has become so.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Such a big part of all our lives in many ways.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
And even my friends who who weren't in the industry
and who appeared in the in the video, you know,
it has obviously, as you can imagine, been a big
part of their lives.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
And the title is very good. The it was described
as a love letter to the song.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
And I think that's exactly what Las Chusta Sun Wrapped is.
It is a reveal, if you like, of everything around
and about the song, that which which has made it
more than just a.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Song that you hear.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
It has woven itself into the fabric of contemporary Christmas.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I think in this country and a lot of people's minds,
and by.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
This country you're saying Europe, but in America it's the same.
In the US, I mean, I am Mother Christmas. You know,
my show is heard in every store, in every restaurant,
and every place you go shopping in every mall all
holiday season long. And I will tell you there are
two or three iconic songs that are the foundation of
(23:40):
our playlist every holiday season that are just like the
pillars of you know, putting together a nightly show. And
Last Christmas is one of those iconic songs that is
a foundation for forty plus years.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yes, I think I's become more omnipresent at Christmas and
rather more a part of Christmas in the last five
ten years.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Over here in the UK.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
It's expanded it break of meaning in how Christmas is
presented and how Christmas is perceived by listeners and music
by people in general. There are a great many reasons
for that, I think. But it wasn't the case so
much twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Oh see, it was here, It was here. I want
you to know you have been a stand for forty years.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I missed Christmas.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yea, why weren't you here? Why weren't you here with us?
Jingle billing skating in Central Park and listening to yourself?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Well I will be this year.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Okay, I'll be there too. That's one of our biggest
events every year is skating in Central Park. I just
I just toasted last weekend a skating in San Francisco.
And guess what we played, Andrew, you guys were front
and center on the ice rink.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Well fantastic. Yeah, well that'd be a treat something. Just
biot you so ice skating to last Christmas?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
It is a treat. It's a treat to see everybody
out there with their winter mittens on and their hats
on and skating to Last Christmas. I can't wait for
everybody to see the special. Like you said, it's a
love letter to the song. But more than that, I
think it's a love letter to you and you and
your best friend and George and all the joy of
(25:40):
music you've brought us throughout the years, throughout the decades.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I think the fundamental essence of Wham was the joy
our friendship expressed for both of us, and it was there,
you know, that expression was there for people to see,
and I think people really understood that.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I think that was part of Wham's appeal.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
And the Last Christmas On wrapped that illustration of what
friendship meant to us both, particularly George in this instance.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
And he was a he was a really big Christmas fan.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
He would host a Christmas Eve party most years that
his friends would all go to. He was like a
really genuinely like a kid about Christmas. As Shirley says
it in the in the In Christmas Last Christmas Wrap,
that he couldn't wait to show her his Christmas tree
which was you know, was a good Christmas tree. I
(26:47):
don't think that he decorated it himself, but I'm sure
that he gave you certain.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Guideline he oversaw the project indeed. Well, thank you for
being here with us. Thank you for your years of music.
Like I said, I've been on the air. I started
on the air in nineteen seventy four, so I have
been on the air playing your music all these years,
(27:13):
and it always makes me smile.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Oh well, that's that's quite something.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
And you know, in fifty years you have, you have
witnessed some of the great goings and goings of contemporary music.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
If it's been sixty, you'd have seen nearly all of them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Well, I listened to them, you know, of course, in
the sixties, but I didn't start playing them until the seventies.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
If I had started in sixty, i'd be dead. But
if I had, I think I would have hit pretty
much all of the greats.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, in great decades.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
I think the sixties seventies for me the finest decades
for musical creativity.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Well, thank you for your time, thank you for gift
of music, and thank you for being here with us today.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Oh well, thanks for having me, Daalilah and maybe Christmas.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Thank you God, bless you. Bye bye Honey, Bye Mie.
George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley released eleven singles as Wham
between nineteen eighty two and nineteen eighty six, becoming global
pop superstars. Though they remained a duo for only four years,
(28:28):
George and Andrew's friendship was as strong at the end
as it was in the beginning. Wham never got old,
and they never lost their exclamation mark. The fascinating Netflix
documentary Wham is a must see, a feature length documentary that,
through archival interviews and footage, relives the arc of Wham
(28:51):
and its meteoric rise to global superstardom. With unprecedented access
to both George and Andrew's person archives, including remarkable and
never before seen footage. Alongside rare, candid and previously unheard interviews,
Wham charged their incredible journey from school friends to superstars.
(29:15):
Wham's Last Christmas is a true testament to George Michael's
songwriting brilliance. A timeless holiday classic, it holds a place
among the greatest Christmas songs ever written, gaining four billion
audio streams, one billion video views, reaching six times platinum
(29:35):
sales in the UK and USA and the number one
chart position in sixteen countries. A nostalgic film brimming with memories,
Wham Last Christmas Unwrapped, to be broadcast on BBC Two
and BBC iPlayer in December, reunites a cast of characters
from the song's illustrious history. This Christmas, makes sure to
(29:59):
incline Last Christmas on your playlist. It's included on Wham
the singles Echoes from the Edge of Heaven, a multi
format release that includes a special edition seven inch vinyl
singles carry case containing all the hits which span four
dazzling successful years. And make sure you take time for
(30:23):
you in between doing so much for so many others.
Give yourself the gift of listening to my radio show
at night. It's a stress free, fee free way to unwind, relax,
listen to the joyful sound of Christmas music, and end
your day on notes of peace and positivity. I look
(30:45):
forward to joining you there.
Well, we have turned back the clocks. We have pulled
out the sweaters. How many of you have climbed the
stairs to the attic or the storage area and pulled
out the plastic tote of sweaters and heavier jackets and mittens,
fuzzy mittens. Our flip flops have flip flopped away, replaced
by boots, lots of boots, and sturdier footwear that does
(00:28):
better in the rain and the muck and the mud.
We're getting up in the dark. The sun is already
hanging low in the sky. By the time my kids
get home from school, homecomings have come and gone, and
Turkey Day will be here before you know it, followed
by the frantic frazzle holiday madness we call holiday shopping.
I'm not doing that this year. I've decided I am
(00:50):
checking out of the franticness. It has always been an
all consuming task for me with the size of my
family and the number of grandchildren, But this year not
doing it. Every year I say I'm not going to
go overboard, and every year I prove that I am
a liar. But this year not going to be a liar,
liar pants on fire. I am taking it easy because
(01:12):
I just can't keep up. But I do love the
shopping and the wrapping, and the feasting and the festivities
of the season. I especially love the music that fills
the airways and our homes this time of year. Of course,
I've flipped the switch on my radio program to All Christmas.
I am your Christmas music station, and I am enjoying
(01:36):
all the old favorites and some brand new holiday tunes.
I hope you're joining in. One old favorite, released in
December of nineteen eighty four, when my son was two
months old, has been around for forty years now, which
is really strange to me because I was a new
mama back when it was first released Last Christmas by
(02:00):
the English pop duo Wham in nineteen eighty two, while
still teenagers, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley as Wham set
out to conquer the world. In June of nineteen eighty six,
they performed together as Wham for the last time at
Wimbley Stadium, having done exactly that hit after hit Club Tropicana,
(02:25):
wake Me Up Before You Go Go Freedom, I'm Your Man,
and of course Last Christmas made their time in the
Spotlight White Hot. The lifelong friends who met at secondary
school in the small town of Bushy became one of
the most globally successful pop acts of the eighties, selling
(02:47):
more than thirty million records worldwide. Several pop generations down
the line, this treasure trove of musical gyms continues to
inspire lie egans of new fans young fans, none more
so in my opinion than Last Christmas, which gets a
lot of airplay on my Christmas radio show, Not Gonna
(03:10):
Lie This Christmas and celebration of its fortieth anniversary, BBC
two and BBC Music presents Wham Last Christmas Unwrapped. It's
an hour long celebration of a latter day Christmas classic,
telling the story of how Wham turned one song into
(03:31):
a cultural phenomenon. Here with us today to speak to
the amazing legacy of Wham is Andrew Ridgeley. I can't
wait to get caught up with this legend and hear
about the exciting project Wham Last Christmas Unwrap Up. First,
let me unwrap some goodness with a much appreciated podcast sponsor.
(03:56):
This podcast is brought to you by my friends at
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All of the Move, None of the cow. Welcome to
my podcast, Love Someone, Andrew. Thank you for joining us today.
(05:49):
Welcome a board. I'm glad that you are here, Andrew,
as we celebrate the holiday season. I have been on
the air since Wham debuted, so I have been on
the air playing your music for five decades. Now we're
entering the fifth decade.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Crikey. Okay, well that's that.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
You should have a long service award, the Wham Long
Service Award.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
There you go, Well, both of us should. How old
were you when when you met your counterpart in crime
in Wham? How old were you boys? Because you were young?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, we were twelve years old.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
The second year of secondary school at Bushy Meads.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Comprehensive at what school?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Bushy Meads?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Comprehensive, that world renowned bastion of academic excellence.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Excellence? Yeah, it certainly wasn't excellent.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Produced lyrics like last Christmas, you gave me your heart
the very next day you tore it apart.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Well he was a fantastic lyricist as well as an
amazing melody writer as well. Don't think we can really
credit what he means with too much of that time, but.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Too much of that education. So you were twelve years old.
Did you both love music back then? Did you both
have like that spark of talent back in junior high?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
If we did, it was well hidden, But yes, we
were consumed by music, in fact, both of us. It
was one of the common strands, or one of the
common themes that actually bound our friendship that we became
friends was our shared love of music and the fact
(07:43):
that we perceived it the same way, music the same way.
I think we were liked the same artists and we
had the same sensibilities.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Okay, so take us back, Take us back to that
twelve year old Andrew and George Michael in junior high
colored junior high here together. What groups were you guys
listening to? What albums were you? Did you buy an album?
Did you ever buy an album? I never bought an
album at twelve. I was in high school before about
my first album. Yeah, because that was when that would
(08:17):
have been when like Elton John was huge, was skyrocketing.
Who were you guys listening to? Who were you singing
along to?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Well, you just said Elton.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I mean Elton released Goodbye Yellavick Road the year before
in seventy three, and Goodbye Elevi Road was one of
those albums that we both had in common, and so.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
That was elton Is music, Goodbye over.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Road and the music that preceded it, you know, which
obviously we were aware of anyway, because he's been having
hits for the best part of half a decade.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Or more even by then. But that album I think.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Was the first Elton John album that I bought, and
George had it as well.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
So Elton was and his.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Music was something that we both gravitated to that age.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Goodbye Everyad was a seminal album when there was. The
album itself was a piece of It's something to have.
It was a double album.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
It had all the lyrics, had the most amazing cartoons
and graphics.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Oh, the artwork, the artwork was the best.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah, yeah, that captain fantastic that album as well, though
the artwork was it was as almost as rich as
the music that it accompanied. So yeah, we were bound
by those same tastes in music Elton John obviously as
(09:52):
twelve year olds in the UK in nineteen seventy four,
the Top twenty was a big feature in virtually everyone's life.
Top of the Pops, listening to the Top twenty on
a Sunday with your mum and dad and the rest
of the family all around the radio. It was almost
a national pastime. Virtually everyone did it. There was no
(10:14):
one that he knew that didn't listen to the Sop
forward and didn't watch the Top of the Pops.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
It was.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
It was just something that virtually everyone did, so all
those things those artists at the time, especially the UK artists,
but obviously we had US artists in the charts as well.
Queen was a huge George was a big, big Queen fan,
killer Queen. I think it was my first introduction to
(10:40):
Queen proper. He had he had the album, had the album,
so I my further education in Queen was really largely
down to George.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So whose house did we go to and crank the
stereo up too loud and mom would scream turned that
raged down?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Both both, Yeah, yeah, we're kind of taken turns.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Whose mom was the better cook.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Whose mom was the better cook? And my mom obviously
your mom.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Yeah, you have to say that. So you met in
junior high. When did you start singing together? When did
you start going? You know what? We could do this?
We could We could not just listen to Queen. We
could not just listen to Elton. We could maybe, I
don't know, sing together, Like, when did that happen? It
had to be very organic. I mean, you guys were
(11:30):
best buds, right.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, exactly. It was.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
It was an aspiration. I think that that grew. It
was something that forming a band was. Some of our
friends did it. Guys that we knew that were older.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
It was.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
It was something that became something that almost seemed like
not a destiny as such, but a pre preordained path
for us. I think there was never any question that
we once we got about fourteen thirteen fourteen, the writing
(12:08):
songs and forming and performing them was something that we
wanted to do together. It seemed it seemed the natural,
natural thing to do. So it was really around the
age of fourteen where the idea started to become more concrete.
But at that point in time, George's parents and George
(12:28):
felt the pressure of his parents' academic aspirations for him,
and so forming a band was put off until two years.
Hence when we were sixteen, when the main A levels,
the exams have been completed.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Better, so they said put no, put the drumsticks down,
put the guitar down, put the pen down. No more writing,
no more singing, no more microphone until you pass these desks,
because they probably wanted you guys to get a job.
I mean, parents say that stupid.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
It was quite datally, although you know in George's dad
was he was quite opposed to the idea. My dad
saw it as a phase that we'd inevitably passed through,
and son, the pressure wasn't I didn't feel the pressure
quite so greatly as George did his parents. His dad especially,
(13:24):
I think, felt that anything other than an academic career
path was not acceptable.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
So was there ever a point in your career, like
after your first number one, after your first record sold millions? Whatever?
Was there ever a point where George got to do
the I Told you so dance?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I think he probably did it more than once.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Because there's nothing sweeter than enjoying that moment if somebody's
still alive, where somebody tried to block your way or
stand in your way or redirect you lovingly. It sounds
like he had you know, he did it out from
his heart.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Oh yeah, yeah, there was There was no There was
no intention, I think to thwart George's ambitions. But I
don't think his dad recognized his talents even when they
seem to be obvious to everyone. Well, so it was
it was misguided, I think, a wee bit. But I
managed to railroad him into forming a band when we
(14:23):
were sort of sixteen, and and then it's sort of
evidently history record.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Evidently evidently it worked out pretty good for you. Did
you ever play at your high school, like in talent
shows or at a dance or anything. Did your band, like,
were you big big stuff at your high school?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
We played at our local cub scout venue.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
And we played. Yeah, we played that. I went to
a sixth form college to do my A levels.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Because the school were going to kick me out by
for empty that by leaving, so.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
They were going to kick you out and you weren't
going to give them the pleasure of doing that. I'll
see myself out the door.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
So yeah, on the day that I took the decision
to leave school, I'd said to my form teacher. I
asked if I could have a word with her, and
I said, look, you know, I'm leaving school. And she
said that's just as well, because we were going to
ask you to. And I thought, and I got there first.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I got there first. You can't kick me. I you
cannot make me feel bad about kicking me out because
I'm kicking myself out. I've had a few situations where
I probably should have gotten there first and said I
quit before they said you're fired.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
But yeah, it's gratifying to do that. I recommend it
for future.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
So I had this notion and I've never done it,
but I have a lot of contests on my radio show,
and I thought it would be kind of fun to
have people write me the best, most heartbreaking breakup story
that I could then play last Christmas for you know,
(16:20):
like like you know, he was down on his knees
giving me a ring in front of the Christmas tree
while his girlfriend was waiting in the car, or something
like that. I don't know if it would if it
would really work with the vibe of my you know,
sweet love Story show, but it would be kind of
fun because people call on request last Christmas, every night,
(16:43):
every stinky night, even when it's not Christmas. And I'm like,
do you realize that's a breakups that's the worst kind
of breakup in the world.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Song.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Oh, I know, I just love the song. I just
love Wham. It is a bitter sweet, mostly bitter if
you listen to the lyric, because it's a heartbreak.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
It's it's it's a lament of love lost, and it's
it's very cleverly written in that sense. It's step two
a such a lovely, warm, beautiful melody that.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
You don't notice you're you're singing the very next day,
you gave it away because you kind of bounce and
you you want the hot cocoa and you want to
wear little mittens while you're singing it.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, I mean it sounds like you're on a sleigh ride.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, while your heart is getting slade.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Very good. Yeah, it's it's a it's a really clever
in that sense.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Because musically it evokes the atmosphere of Christmas the sleigh bells.
The synthesizer has the same sense of motion as as
sleigh bells, and so you get this sense of you know,
of Christmas, worth of coziness, of all the positive aspects,
(18:05):
and then you've got this the lyric the Heartbreak.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Catching up with Andrew ridgely today, one of the original
members of the pop duo Wham. Of course, we lost
George Michael many years ago. It's been forty years since
Last Christmas was released, and we love it as much
this Christmas as we always have. There's more to our
conversation right after I share a few words about the
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(18:33):
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laurageller dot com. That's laurageller dot com. Worst heartbreak you
ever went through, like that you can talk about, like
joke about. That might be inspiration for this kind of breakups.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Oh, that's a that's a big responsibility.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I mean obviously I want to cut you know, I
think teenage heartbreaks.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Teenage heartbreaks are the biggest, aren't they? Because your heart
is like virginal, it's not been walked all over. You
don't have any of those safety guards. You don't have
any like when you, you know, walk along a deep ravine,
they're safety guards on the edge. When you're a teenager,
there are no safety guards. You just you go right
(20:31):
down into that ravine.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah, it can feel awfully, awfully raw when you're a teenager.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
No, I didn't really have a teenage teenage heartbreaks. I
think when you had teenage heartbreaks, and I think there was.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
One unrequited love which was painful, but no real teenage heartbreak.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Now that that waited until later in life.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I had way too many teenage heartbreaks.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
I I think girls may feel them more acutely than men.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Men may not even realize.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, because when we're like in junior high, we start
having relationships in our head. You guys don't catch up
until late teenage years, maybe college, that we've been having
relationships in our head, in our imagination.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And that's a lot to carry along, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
It is, and it's very unrequited sets us up a
really big dysfunction later in life as well. But back
to where I'm back to the unwrapped story. How fun
was that to do the project and be able to
open up forty years of beautiful memories.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
It was a privilege and a really wonderful opportunity to
despite the fact that the obviously with the fact that
George was not with us, but it was still it
was still a really lovely thing to be able to
(22:11):
go and revisit a place where an event that I
think has become so.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Such a big part of all our lives in many ways.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
And even my friends who who weren't in the industry
and who appeared in the in the video, you know,
it has obviously, as you can imagine, been a big
part of their lives.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
And the title is very good. The it was described
as a love letter to the song.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
And I think that's exactly what Las Chusta Sun Wrapped is.
It is a reveal, if you like, of everything around
and about the song, that which which has made it
more than just a.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Song that you hear.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
It has woven itself into the fabric of contemporary Christmas.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I think in this country and a lot of people's minds,
and by.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
This country you're saying Europe, but in America it's the same.
In the US, I mean, I am Mother Christmas. You know,
my show is heard in every store, in every restaurant,
and every place you go shopping in every mall all
holiday season long. And I will tell you there are
two or three iconic songs that are the foundation of
(23:40):
our playlist every holiday season that are just like the
pillars of you know, putting together a nightly show. And
Last Christmas is one of those iconic songs that is
a foundation for forty plus years.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yes, I think I's become more omnipresent at Christmas and
rather more a part of Christmas in the last five
ten years.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Over here in the UK.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
It's expanded it break of meaning in how Christmas is
presented and how Christmas is perceived by listeners and music
by people in general. There are a great many reasons
for that, I think. But it wasn't the case so
much twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Oh see, it was here, It was here. I want
you to know you have been a stand for forty years.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I missed Christmas.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yea, why weren't you here? Why weren't you here with us?
Jingle billing skating in Central Park and listening to yourself?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Well I will be this year.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Okay, I'll be there too. That's one of our biggest
events every year is skating in Central Park. I just
I just toasted last weekend a skating in San Francisco.
And guess what we played, Andrew, you guys were front
and center on the ice rink.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Well fantastic. Yeah, well that'd be a treat something. Just
biot you so ice skating to last Christmas?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
It is a treat. It's a treat to see everybody
out there with their winter mittens on and their hats
on and skating to Last Christmas. I can't wait for
everybody to see the special. Like you said, it's a
love letter to the song. But more than that, I
think it's a love letter to you and you and
your best friend and George and all the joy of
(25:40):
music you've brought us throughout the years, throughout the decades.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I think the fundamental essence of Wham was the joy
our friendship expressed for both of us, and it was there,
you know, that expression was there for people to see,
and I think people really understood that.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I think that was part of Wham's appeal.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
And the Last Christmas On wrapped that illustration of what
friendship meant to us both, particularly George in this instance.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
And he was a he was a really big Christmas fan.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
He would host a Christmas Eve party most years that
his friends would all go to. He was like a
really genuinely like a kid about Christmas. As Shirley says
it in the in the In Christmas Last Christmas Wrap,
that he couldn't wait to show her his Christmas tree
which was you know, was a good Christmas tree. I
(26:47):
don't think that he decorated it himself, but I'm sure
that he gave you certain.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Guideline he oversaw the project indeed. Well, thank you for
being here with us. Thank you for your years of music.
Like I said, I've been on the air. I started
on the air in nineteen seventy four, so I have
been on the air playing your music all these years,
(27:13):
and it always makes me smile.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Oh well, that's that's quite something.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
And you know, in fifty years you have, you have
witnessed some of the great goings and goings of contemporary music.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
If it's been sixty, you'd have seen nearly all of them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Well, I listened to them, you know, of course, in
the sixties, but I didn't start playing them until the seventies.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
If I had started in sixty, i'd be dead. But
if I had, I think I would have hit pretty
much all of the greats.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, in great decades.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
I think the sixties seventies for me the finest decades
for musical creativity.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Well, thank you for your time, thank you for gift
of music, and thank you for being here with us today.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Oh well, thanks for having me, Daalilah and maybe Christmas.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Thank you God, bless you. Bye bye Honey, Bye Mie.
George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley released eleven singles as Wham
between nineteen eighty two and nineteen eighty six, becoming global
pop superstars. Though they remained a duo for only four years,
(28:28):
George and Andrew's friendship was as strong at the end
as it was in the beginning. Wham never got old,
and they never lost their exclamation mark. The fascinating Netflix
documentary Wham is a must see, a feature length documentary that,
through archival interviews and footage, relives the arc of Wham
(28:51):
and its meteoric rise to global superstardom. With unprecedented access
to both George and Andrew's person archives, including remarkable and
never before seen footage. Alongside rare, candid and previously unheard interviews,
Wham charged their incredible journey from school friends to superstars.
(29:15):
Wham's Last Christmas is a true testament to George Michael's
songwriting brilliance. A timeless holiday classic, it holds a place
among the greatest Christmas songs ever written, gaining four billion
audio streams, one billion video views, reaching six times platinum
(29:35):
sales in the UK and USA and the number one
chart position in sixteen countries. A nostalgic film brimming with memories,
Wham Last Christmas Unwrapped, to be broadcast on BBC Two
and BBC iPlayer in December, reunites a cast of characters
from the song's illustrious history. This Christmas, makes sure to
(29:59):
incline Last Christmas on your playlist. It's included on Wham
the singles Echoes from the Edge of Heaven, a multi
format release that includes a special edition seven inch vinyl
singles carry case containing all the hits which span four
dazzling successful years. And make sure you take time for
(30:23):
you in between doing so much for so many others.
Give yourself the gift of listening to my radio show
at night. It's a stress free, fee free way to unwind, relax,
listen to the joyful sound of Christmas music, and end
your day on notes of peace and positivity. I look
(30:45):
forward to joining you there.
Host
Delilah
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.