Wham!

Wham! were an English pop duo consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. They became one of the most commercially successful pop acts of the 1980s. Their 1983 debut album Fantastic addressed the United Kingdom’s unemployment problem and teen angst over adulthood. Their second studio album Make It Big in 1984 was a worldwide pop smash hit, charting at number one in both the UK and the United States.

About Wham! in brief

Summary Wham! Wham! were an English pop duo consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, formed in Bushey in 1981. They became one of the most commercially successful pop acts of the 1980s, selling more than 30 million certified records worldwide from 1982 to 1986. Their 1983 debut album Fantastic addressed the United Kingdom’s unemployment problem and teen angst over adulthood. Their second studio album Make It Big in 1984 was a worldwide pop smash hit, charting at number one in both the UK and the United States. In 1986, Wham! broke up. Michael was keen to create music targeted at a more sophisticated adult market rather than the duo’s primarily teenage audience. Before going their separate ways, a farewell single, The Edge of Heaven, and a greatest hits album titled The Final would be forthcoming, along with a farewell concert entitled The Final. The band would later record as Pepsi & Shirlie, and later as DeMacque & Macque, and Paul De Macque and Paul Weller, with Dee C. Lee and Helen De Pepsi as back-up dancers. Wham!’s first manager was Bryan Morrison, and their first record was a double A-side including the Social Mix and the Unsocial Mix. The first single to be released by the band was ‘Wham Rap!’ in June 1982. The record was not playlisted by BBC Radio 1 in the UK, partly because of the profanity in the UnSocial Mix. In October 1982, ‘Young Guns’ was issued. Initially, it also stalled outside the UK top 40 but the band got lucky when the BBC programme Top of the Pops scheduled them after another act unexpectedly pulled out of the show.

Afterwards, the song shot into the top 40 and peaked at No 3 in December. The following year, Dee C began work with her work with the Style Council, and was replaced by Helen ‘Pepsi’ Weller in ‘The Style Council Weller’s Weller. The group went on to record a number of hits, including ‘Club Tropicana’ and ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’. In 1985, the band made a highly publicised 10-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group. The event was seen as a major watershed moment in increasing friendly bilateral relations between China and the West. The pair later performed in a short-lived ska band called the Executive, alongside former school friends David Mortimer, Andrew Leaver, Harry Tadayon and Paul Ridgeley. When this group split, Michael and Ridgeley eventually formed Wham!, with the name ‘wham!Ridgeley explained that the name originated from a need for ‘something that captured the essence of what set us apart – our energy and our friendship – and then it came to us: Wham!!’ The pair wrote songs such as ‘Bad Boys,’ ‘Crimson & Ivory’, and ’Club Tropics’ together, but part way through the recording of ‘Fantastic’ they agreed that Michael was the stronger songwriter, and would take creative control.