Much as I'm a fan of Eighties music - had you noticed? - there's one band that still leaves me as cold today as it did back then: Wham!
That said, when I first saw Young Guns on TOTP I thought it was great, and rushed out to buy it. So did everyone else and of course it was the start of something big.
But to me, with each single came diminishing returns, and by the time we got to Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Wham! had properly become a laughable bouffant-haired teenybob nonsense duo and while, like them, I was busy choosing life, I was firmly not a fan.
Follow-up singles like Freedom and I'm Your Man made me tune out, and as for Careless Whisper, you couldn't turn on the radio for hearing it at least once an hour in 1984. The opening sax bars still make me shudder. The whole George Michael solo career is a no-go area for me too, though I've a bit of time for Heal The Pain but that's really it. I wouldn't mind if he wasn't such a tit.
So while I'll happily extoll the virtues of other tween faves from the me decade, I draw the line here.
And if, dear reader, you were wondering why I've been so quiet, I've just spent 10 exhaustingly expensive but enormously fun days in Las Vegas, a world of its own pumping constant music that doesn't go beyond 1990, depending where you are. You'll hear odd things like The The's Uncertain Smile or B Movies Remembrance Day, songs that never were on the US chart radar at all, which makes it all the more surreal.
I still feel a bit strange.
Glad you're back and that you had a good time, Jon - will we get to hear all about it, once you've stopped feeling strange?
ReplyDeleteNow, Wham!. I have a soft spot for them (though watching that clip almost made it crust over...those trousers...). I've always thought of George as a bit of an endearing dork (that clip does little to prove me wrong). I won't be going to the reunion gig, but I'm not as appalled by their return as I have been by some others of the era. Sounds like they're never going to do it for you, though.
And did have I told you several times that I was regularly mistaken for Shirlie for many years? The night she turned up in the same restaurant as me was embarrassing beyond any pain you can imagine...
There you are! I was wondering where you'd got to. I can't here Careless Whisper without thinking of VI form college and not in a particularly good way. I was travelling back from France in about 1983 or 1984 and they were in the departure lounge with me at Orly airport. Wasn't impressed (but never am) they were really trying to draw attention to themselves and were all espadrilles and turned up jeans. Naturally, I acted like I didn't know who they were.
ReplyDeleteNote to self: read through before publishing. Here, hear!
ReplyDeleteNow i'm forming a proper picture of you, KK. Do tell more about the night you came face to face.
ReplyDeleteSuch a Zelig moment, Hels. And to think, you once burnt Limahl with a hairdryer.