Highlife
September 1996
Magnificent George
By: Louise Candlish
September 1996
Magnificent George
By: Louise Candlish
His earnings this year are said to be 10 million. He is one of the great stars of pop music, the idol of young people around the world. He is George Michael, and
Louise Candlish is a fan.
Blink and you'll miss it but the message is right there, just 4 words of tiny silver lettering on the black back cover of the CD insert: "Thank you for waiting." Those
millions who have dipped into the music itself, including the hardcore who queued at dawn to buy the first copies, will already realize how worthwhile the wait has
been. For George Michael may have been a long time coming back, but he comes back bearing gifts.
First there is the album itself, Older, a seamless collection of honey-sweet ballads and dance-powered, anthemic funk. If songs could have curves, then these
would be hourglass shaped, so streamlined, slick and soft in their sound. The succession of singles, complete with the glossy videos we know of old, have each
been confident chart crashers: the elegiac Jesus To A Child, the funky Fastlove, and letters, the infectious Spinning The Wheel. Older, the fourth single, to follow
soon, is another typically smooth orchestral manoeuvre in the moonlight-and a surefire hit.
Next, there are the concerts, several of which are planned later this year to remind us that back in the 80s Michael used to blow any contenders out of the ring with
the power and glory of his live vocals. There has, after all, been plenty of time for us to forget them, for it is has been years since he played his home town of
London, appearing in the Concert of Hope back December 1993, and it is already a year since he performed Jesus to a Child live in Berlin under the Brandenburg
Gate at the MTV Europe awards.
And then, next autumn, part of the deal that released the artist from the chill of his deadlock with Sony to the more temperate climate of a new, dream label
Dreamworks there is to be a Greatest Hits collection. This personal review of his solo works will begin with Careless Whisper, the song George penned on the bus
as a 17-year-old, and move through the Faith and Listen Without Prejudice Volume 1 offerings to the present sweet murmuring. Al of which is rather like a London
bus, you wait eons for one, then several breeze along at once, and inevitable the drivers have no idea what the fuss is all about.
So, after playing hard to get for so long, how is it possible for one man to re-enter such a famously fickle arena without even a shudder of a cold shoulder from press
or public? To largely glowing reviews, Older went platinum in 13 countries within ten days of its release and gold in numerous others, a performance that outstripped
both Faith and Listen Without Prejudice Volume 1 at comparable stages. By the end of the first month, over four million copies were sold, with millions more expected
to be snapped up this year alone. If absence has made the heart grow fonder, then there are an awful lot of big-hearted people out there.
Dick leahy, who publishes George's songs worldwide, puts such remarkable evidence of staying power down to the singer's having never fitted into a particular pop
musical movement or genre in the first place. "His music transcends change. He has a very distinctive sound, an approach unique to him, which means he hasn't been
typecast and he hasn't gone out of fashion."
Michael was in his mid-20s when he offered up Listen Without Prejudice Volume 1, and the follow-up was not a Volume 2 but a bitter five-year power struggle between
the "hardware" (Sony) and the "software" (him). So stubbornly upheld was the stalemate that it was only a matter of time before he started recording as The Artist
Formerly Known As George Michael, or - God forbid - decided to re-form Wham! in order to get a song put out.
Exactly what the singer was doing during that lengthy sabbatical is difficult to know; brooding over the songwriters block was certainly a part of it. "Ti's a myth that
dozens of songs were written and stored up during the period when George wasn't recording." says his manager Andy Stephens. "In fact, the writing process didn't
begin in earnest until an endpoint to the dispute was nearly in sight, back in the spring of 1995."
George, and those close to him, are keen to put the past where it belongs and apply themselves emphatically to the future. "It was a horrible process for anyone to
have to go through," says Stephens, "but the huge success of Older is a great reward. I can honestly say that I've never seen George happier or more comfortable
than he is now."
Louise Candlish is a fan.
Blink and you'll miss it but the message is right there, just 4 words of tiny silver lettering on the black back cover of the CD insert: "Thank you for waiting." Those
millions who have dipped into the music itself, including the hardcore who queued at dawn to buy the first copies, will already realize how worthwhile the wait has
been. For George Michael may have been a long time coming back, but he comes back bearing gifts.
First there is the album itself, Older, a seamless collection of honey-sweet ballads and dance-powered, anthemic funk. If songs could have curves, then these
would be hourglass shaped, so streamlined, slick and soft in their sound. The succession of singles, complete with the glossy videos we know of old, have each
been confident chart crashers: the elegiac Jesus To A Child, the funky Fastlove, and letters, the infectious Spinning The Wheel. Older, the fourth single, to follow
soon, is another typically smooth orchestral manoeuvre in the moonlight-and a surefire hit.
Next, there are the concerts, several of which are planned later this year to remind us that back in the 80s Michael used to blow any contenders out of the ring with
the power and glory of his live vocals. There has, after all, been plenty of time for us to forget them, for it is has been years since he played his home town of
London, appearing in the Concert of Hope back December 1993, and it is already a year since he performed Jesus to a Child live in Berlin under the Brandenburg
Gate at the MTV Europe awards.
And then, next autumn, part of the deal that released the artist from the chill of his deadlock with Sony to the more temperate climate of a new, dream label
Dreamworks there is to be a Greatest Hits collection. This personal review of his solo works will begin with Careless Whisper, the song George penned on the bus
as a 17-year-old, and move through the Faith and Listen Without Prejudice Volume 1 offerings to the present sweet murmuring. Al of which is rather like a London
bus, you wait eons for one, then several breeze along at once, and inevitable the drivers have no idea what the fuss is all about.
So, after playing hard to get for so long, how is it possible for one man to re-enter such a famously fickle arena without even a shudder of a cold shoulder from press
or public? To largely glowing reviews, Older went platinum in 13 countries within ten days of its release and gold in numerous others, a performance that outstripped
both Faith and Listen Without Prejudice Volume 1 at comparable stages. By the end of the first month, over four million copies were sold, with millions more expected
to be snapped up this year alone. If absence has made the heart grow fonder, then there are an awful lot of big-hearted people out there.
Dick leahy, who publishes George's songs worldwide, puts such remarkable evidence of staying power down to the singer's having never fitted into a particular pop
musical movement or genre in the first place. "His music transcends change. He has a very distinctive sound, an approach unique to him, which means he hasn't been
typecast and he hasn't gone out of fashion."
Michael was in his mid-20s when he offered up Listen Without Prejudice Volume 1, and the follow-up was not a Volume 2 but a bitter five-year power struggle between
the "hardware" (Sony) and the "software" (him). So stubbornly upheld was the stalemate that it was only a matter of time before he started recording as The Artist
Formerly Known As George Michael, or - God forbid - decided to re-form Wham! in order to get a song put out.
Exactly what the singer was doing during that lengthy sabbatical is difficult to know; brooding over the songwriters block was certainly a part of it. "Ti's a myth that
dozens of songs were written and stored up during the period when George wasn't recording." says his manager Andy Stephens. "In fact, the writing process didn't
begin in earnest until an endpoint to the dispute was nearly in sight, back in the spring of 1995."
George, and those close to him, are keen to put the past where it belongs and apply themselves emphatically to the future. "It was a horrible process for anyone to
have to go through," says Stephens, "but the huge success of Older is a great reward. I can honestly say that I've never seen George happier or more comfortable
than he is now."
Comfortable, yes, not least because his new deal gives him 20 percent royalty rate, vastly more generous than that
t he received from Sony. Happier? That's more difficult to substantiate, for the trademark furrow on the forehead is
as deeply etched as it ever was. So does George frown perpetually? Does he frown in the shower? When
walking his dog on Hampstead Heath? When he's opening his Christmas presents? Dick Leahy just laughs:
"Of course there's a lot of smiling goes on as well. But George is a very reflective man-he reminds me of a
Rodin's sculpture The Thinker.
Wham airhead to the Thinker-now there's a transition to admire, and one not quite in the realms of fantasy, as
it happens. It is, after all, 14 years since George and school chum Andrew Ridgeley, as excitable as
new-born pups, first stuffed shuttlecocks down their shorts and chanted their feel good white boy raps to crowds
of excitable newborn (or, more truthfully, teenage) kittens.
Of course, feathery sports equipment has no part in George's music or performance today. He is no in the
position he so yearned for during the Sony "enslavement":that is unquestionably in control of all aspects of his
career and work output, from video storyboard to studio production, publicity photography to track selection.
And where next? Yes you can buy the album, the video, or the concert ticket, and you can wear the T-shirt until
it falls fraying from your back, but the one think you won't be doing is seeing the movie. Unlike fellow rock pop
heroes Bowie and Jagger of the old guard, and more recently, Michael Hutchence, Evan Dando of the Lemonheads,
and Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum, George has no plans to go the traditional route of models and pop stars and
sign up for acting classes. "George is a songwriter, singer, and a performer of great songs- that is what he does,
" says Andy Stephens.
This was, is, and will continue to be a career of melody, be it of his own making or that of some emerging new
talent. To encourage and showcase the latter, Michael has set up his own London based record company,
Aegean, which should have business well under way by 1997. As fas as his personal output goes, he owes his
new label one more studio album, which will be written once Older and the Greatest Hits promotions have died
down-in other words, not until 1998, with a tentative year of 1999.
So as this serious thirty-something musical thinker considered the passing of a millennium and over three a
nd a half decades of his own life, will he be in a position to name the second album Wiser, very possibly yes.
t he received from Sony. Happier? That's more difficult to substantiate, for the trademark furrow on the forehead is
as deeply etched as it ever was. So does George frown perpetually? Does he frown in the shower? When
walking his dog on Hampstead Heath? When he's opening his Christmas presents? Dick Leahy just laughs:
"Of course there's a lot of smiling goes on as well. But George is a very reflective man-he reminds me of a
Rodin's sculpture The Thinker.
Wham airhead to the Thinker-now there's a transition to admire, and one not quite in the realms of fantasy, as
it happens. It is, after all, 14 years since George and school chum Andrew Ridgeley, as excitable as
new-born pups, first stuffed shuttlecocks down their shorts and chanted their feel good white boy raps to crowds
of excitable newborn (or, more truthfully, teenage) kittens.
Of course, feathery sports equipment has no part in George's music or performance today. He is no in the
position he so yearned for during the Sony "enslavement":that is unquestionably in control of all aspects of his
career and work output, from video storyboard to studio production, publicity photography to track selection.
And where next? Yes you can buy the album, the video, or the concert ticket, and you can wear the T-shirt until
it falls fraying from your back, but the one think you won't be doing is seeing the movie. Unlike fellow rock pop
heroes Bowie and Jagger of the old guard, and more recently, Michael Hutchence, Evan Dando of the Lemonheads,
and Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum, George has no plans to go the traditional route of models and pop stars and
sign up for acting classes. "George is a songwriter, singer, and a performer of great songs- that is what he does,
" says Andy Stephens.
This was, is, and will continue to be a career of melody, be it of his own making or that of some emerging new
talent. To encourage and showcase the latter, Michael has set up his own London based record company,
Aegean, which should have business well under way by 1997. As fas as his personal output goes, he owes his
new label one more studio album, which will be written once Older and the Greatest Hits promotions have died
down-in other words, not until 1998, with a tentative year of 1999.
So as this serious thirty-something musical thinker considered the passing of a millennium and over three a
nd a half decades of his own life, will he be in a position to name the second album Wiser, very possibly yes.
