Ahen I went in 1985, to London to study, I earned me some money behind the Bar at the WAG Club in Soho. It was a trendy Club at the time, Stars as Edwyn Collins, Paul Weller and Patsy Kensit were among the regulars. They were all very cool, but even with a can of Holsten beer, the cost 1,90 pounds, 10 Pence out.
Eventually, George Michael stood at my Bar. He, the Wham!-Type, fit in with his Perma-Tan and the Lady Di hairstyle is not really in the Club. But he was very friendly, quite shy, and had plenty of drinking money. You had the feeling that he would like to belong to the scene, but he couldn’t. He was not just “cool” in the sense of the other. He seemed almost asexual, and a little lost, even if he was probably at the time, bisexual.
When I met George Michael in April 1992, for the second Time in person, he made already five years as a solo artist in music: He had released his Album “Faith,” with Soul legend Aretha Franklin “I knew you were waiting”, with Elton John, “Don’t let the sun go down on me” played with “Last Christmas” the best Christmas song of all time.
Always, he wore a black leather jacket
Some months earlier, in November 1991, Freddie Mercury died of Aids. The remaining band members of Queen were rehearsing in a Hangar at the edge of the city of London for the “Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert”, which should take place in Wembley Stadium. I helped to organize the Transmission of the concert for television.
the rather grumpy Brian May (right) was George Michael in Wembley to Laugh
for A week, so we went every day to this Hangar, out, where, in addition to Queen and David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Lisa Stansfield and many others for a couple of hours to sample started. And George Michael. But this was not one, but three days, and always wore a black leather jacket.
He rehearsed again and again, passionately, with a gospel choir, with Lisa Stansfield, Queen.
he brought in his Land Rover every day, a diminutive man, in a black leather jacket, filmed with a video camera the samples. The two looked like a Pair of Very familiar, vulnerable, nice to each other.
“I want every single hand in the stadium”
I remember how I wanted to in the Catering corner, a Cup of tea and George Michael before with a stand, a tea brühte and insisted me a Cup to participate. This gesture, another a Cup of tea, in England is more than just good Manners. It is an invitation to chat. And George Michael chatted. How important to him these samples would be, how bad Aids is, and that he would be at this concert for Freddie everything.
at the Time, I didn’t know that George Michael had fallen in love a few months earlier at Rock in Rio, for the first Time in his life, almost at the time of Freddie mercury’s death. And that his great love is HIV-positive. George Michael had only heard of weeks before the rehearsals, that he had not attached. I assume that the petite man was in a leather jacket Anselmo Feleppa.
George Michael sang at the concert with three numbers: “39″ Queen, “These are the Days of our lives” with Lisa Stansfield, and then, with the Queen and the Gospel choir in “Somebody to love”. He cried, “I want every single hand in the stadium” in the crowd, and it was a of energy through the stadium, that at the end of the show, laughed otherwise rather musty at the end of Brian May.
This occurs with George Michael made the final of the world star. He was now in a League with Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson, the Megastars of the 80s.
His great love died in 1993. It’s writer’s block, drugs, crash followed. Later, he dedicated it to the Brazilian, the song “Jesus to a Child”. When George Michael was arrested in 1998 in Los Angeles when cruising, he was to be publicly exposed, and made of his gay, finally, to the public no secret.
He caught himself, but remained in search of love, depth, and heart.
Dramatically, with a lot of heart and strings
a few years Ago George Michael has the Song “Going to a Town” by canadian Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright released, those written after he had found in Berlin, his great love, a German.
At the concerts of George Michael has told the anecdote before he “sang Going to a town” that he had heard of Rufus Wainwright never, as he asked the rights for the Song. He made his way to a George-Michael-piece – dramatic, with a lot of heart and strings.
His love for music was huge, he practically won every prize you can win and more than 100 million records sold. But somehow George Michael has remained mostly an outsider. A big reason for this, because he had always in view, as big as he is. One who was not cool, but decent. You can hear these qualities in his Songs, and probably it is at the end of the, what you call a real Soulman.
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