I know I said we'd have the Wham! contest judged by now, but
Alicia and I have been
exceedingly busy lately, so bear with us.
Can't have us just picking our friends to make it fast and easy
now can we?
AND
AWAY WE GO...
***************************
Jonty.Fiorano-at-btinternet.com (Jonathan Flower) writes:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
George
Michael Interview on GWR FM - 30th May 1997- Part
Two of Two Parts
Here is part two of the interview broadcast on Saturday
7th
June as promised:
Telephone Question 3:
Mel: "Alright, Tony Hi ! , you've got a question for George Michael
haven't
you?"
Tony: "I have yes!"
George: "Hi Tony, how are you?"
Tony: "Hi George, I'm fine
thanks, how are you?"
George: "I'm very well thank you"
Tony: "Good. Firstly it's such an honour to
speak to you!"
George: "Thank you (embarassed) it's really not if you know me
better! You'd know it's really
not!"
Tony: "Firstly I want to say George if I can is, I'm speaking on
behalf of lots of my friends and so do me
and my girlfriend..um..
we just think you are the best ever singer in the world"
George: "Thank you very
much"
Tony: "I really do mean that, keep producing the fantastic music
if you can 'cos it is just first
class"
George: "Alright, I intend to"
Tony: "My question really is, when you did your MTV Unplugged
fairly
recently we've obviously taped that as you do when you're a
George Michael fan and the problem is my tape's wearing out, so
when
can we see you sing live in concert?"
George: "Um...well that's a very good question, and the answer is
unfortunately
not this year, but they were planned for the end of the
year, but because of the kind of personal problems I had at the
beginning
of the year, that we couldn't actually hold dates we
had...I had to put the whole thing back a bit and by the time I was
ready
to actually get down to work again, those dates had gone...
other artists...I think you know, it's very hard these days to hold
certain
types of concert dates 'cos so many people are playing
live, it's so much bigger...when I started in the business it wasn't
that
tough really, but so many people are going to see live shows
again, which is great, but it means that you really have to get
booked
up nice and early, and unfortunately I've missed the spots
that I wanted for the end of the year, so it's going to have to be
next
year"
Tony: "Do you think it will be definitely next year, yeah?"
George: "Oh yeah, absolutely"
Freedom
90
Mel: "Have you ever had any singing lessons?"
George: "No, I've had lessons when I've had problems
like
surgery...um...I had surgery on my...that was another thing that
made me miserable on the Faith Tour was that I was in
absolute
agony. It was the...I got laryngitis in Australia and I didn't want
to cancel the dates, so I kind of sang way before
I was supposed
to after I got laryngitis, and that in turn became like the
beginnings of nodules or whatever they call
them...er...the
horrific thing about it actually was that I saw eight doctors before
it was identified and I kept saying you
know "I'm really in agony,
you know it really hurts", and my mum actually said she wouldn't
come and see any more
shows 'cos she said she could see me
straining away, you know I looked like I was on the toilet
(laughter) for an hour and a
half every night, and it took eight
seperate visits in different towns before anyone would say
anything other than "Tour
fatigue", that was their favourite you
know it's just "Tour fatigue". Run down, you know, this and that,
and I
was going "No, no really I can feel there's something really
wrong" and eventually a doctor in London...um...did a very
thorough
examination and said "Oh yeah you've definitely got to
have that...that you've got something on...you've got two things
on
your chords, and we have to take them off" Yeah, and the
insurance company still refused to believe, the insurance for the
tour
obviously...um...they still refused to believe, so we actually
had to have an insurance doctor present in the operation to look
down
this, you know, I was completely unconscious. We actually
had to have...uh..uh...can you think?...It's a joke really, there was
my
manager, my two managers, there was my lawyer and the
insurance doctor, and the tour promoter...or something like that,
all
staring down this tube!!"
Mel: "No !!!"
George "And me completely unconscious sitting there on this
table
just to make sure that the doctor could say...point at it...
and say "Look - there it is!" "
Mel: "Is
your voice insured then, well your throat?"
George: "Uh, no I don't think so actually, no. No otherwise I
probably
wouldn't be able to smoke fags"
Mel: "Do you smoke a lot then?"
George: "Uh, I have been, I
have been. It's only developed in
the last couple of years really, I never smoked all through the
eighties" (Yeah, right
George!!, JF)
Mel: "Did you start smoking later on in life?"
George: "Yes I did, but I have to be honest,
it wasn't cigarettes
that I started smoking later on in life!!"
Mel: "No!" (laughter)
George:
"But it was one of those things because the things that
I was smoking were illegal that situations where you suddenly
find...and
because I was mixing grass with tobacco, basically
you suddenly find "Oh I can't actually do that here, can I?" So
I'll
just have a cigarette and that was it"
Mel: "You wild child!"
George: "Yeah I know. That was the,
you know, that's really
my most extreme behaviour really was to get hooked on pot for
a couple of years, but I've given that
up now. I'm a clean living...
well relatively clean living"
(Then what am I going to do with your birthday present? ;
p AG)
I Want Your Sex
Mel: "George, where did you get the name for the new record
label, Aegean?"
George:
"I just wanted...you know, I have this vague, vague
desire to keep everything kind of...some element of my heritage
in it
which is Greek, and even though I've always said you know
I don't really feel Greek in the slightest other than the fact that
I'm
very hairy (laughter) um...it's just something...I like to
acknowledge the fact that I'm not...even though my character is
quite
English, there are certain things about me which are
very much not English and er...and I liked it...I think it's
interesting
to keep that part of my um...my history somewhere
in there you know, even down to the fact that in my name I've
in the last
seven years, I've always had the A and the E
connected. I think it's called a "Dipthong" "
Mel: "What's
your real name then. I mean George is your real
name isn't it?, but it's longer"
George: "Yes George, but it's
Greek. In Greek it's "Georgios"
My real full name is "Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou" "
Mel:
"Really?!! - sounds really cool doesn't it?"
George: "Yeah, really it doesn't look so cool on paper believe
me,
and it certainly wouldn't look very cool spinning around in
your record collection so...that's why I had to change it"
Mel:
"So the new song is Waltz Away Dreaming, and that's
with Toby Bourke and yourself. Was Toby Bourke the first
person that
you signed?"
George: "Yeah..Toby is actually the first person that I was
introduced to in terms of...so um...yeah
he was the first and
in fact this song Waltz Away Dreaming is actually an
adaptation of the original demo that I heard, and
the B side is
actually completely a demo, it's just a guitar and Toby
singing and he just is the most fantastic writer,
fantastic singer.
The reason for him coming first was simply that I was listening
to the original demo a couple of nights
after my mum died and
it just seemed like a perfect...I knew that if I adapted the lyrics
a little and added my own verses,
that it would just be, could
be a wonderful song"
Mel: "It is a lovely song"
George: "Just in
terms of paying tribute to my mum you know,
and the way it should be heard really is if you listen to it
basically Toby's
voice represents my father's voice, and I
represent myself talking to my father, and I'm very proud of it...
I've always said
it's the first release partly in tribute to my
mother, and secondly, the fact that I'm involved in it obviously
is a nice way
to start out. But uh...this has not actually been
a particularly easy record at radio which I knew it wouldn't be.
You know,
if I wasn't on it the chances are because of its' tempo,
and because of the style of it, that it wouldn't really get listened
to.
But regardless of that, I knew it would have to be the first
thing...um...simply because I...it's I think a very high quality
song
and performance from Toby and I wanted to show people
from the out that quality is what the label's going to be about"
Waltz
Away Dreaming
END
My fingers ache now! - I hope everyone enjoyed it!!
(Our eternal thanks. AG)
Jonathan
Flower
***************************
WESTENDGRL-at-aol.com (Alexandra) writes:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hey
Amanda and all of the camera crew!!
I have great news for all of us "dubbers" (those of us who dub
CDs and tapes for
our fellow Yogmael friends)....
I just learned tonight in my Copyright Law class that the
tapes and the CDs that we dub of
George are NOT an
infringement on the copyright that George's record company
has. We are in the clear!!
According to the
1992 Audio Recording Act enacted by
Congress, if we do a home audio recording of a digital or
analog tape (which covers CDs
and cassette tapes) it is
not an infringement to dub them. This however, does NOT
apply to video tapes that we have been
dubbing.
(On what grounds? Nothing I dub is available on commercial
releases, and has been pulled from Much Music,
MTV and
VH1. AG)
So now we won't go to "copyright infringement prison" as
my lovely Professor Ciolino says
quite often. Boy am I glad
to see my $20,000 a year education has taught me something
useful............
Take care
everyone..
-Alexandra (Alex)
WESTENDGRL-at-AOL.COM
***************************
splkzoo-at-net-link.net (Shawn Light)
writes:
--------------------------------------------------------------
In response to Dipen in #184 - I respect her opinion.
It was
well stated. But I think I remember reading somewhere that
George himself stated that he's not really a prolific
writer.
He doesn't have tons of songs laying around waiting for a
single or an album, like The Artist, who has vaults of
material.
(True. AG)
I think the reason we didn't see 6 years worth of material is
that with all that was going on he
didn't write or maybe he had
a writer's block. Plus, material 6 years ago might not meet
his standards today. Maybe he just
felt that he would be
giving the fans old material. I believe I've read George quoted
as saying something about a lot of the
stuff he had written up
to and during the court case was "crap."
I'm not making excuses for him, just stating
what I've read.
Personally, I'd love to have a new George Michael album every
12-18 months. He could tour every second or
third album.
With the long wait, I think everybody has just gotten hungrier.
After this Gr. Hits album, I don't think we'll
have to wait 6 years
for another complete studio album.
Anyway, I found three used cd's the other day. Five Live, Red
Hot
& Dance, and DLTSGDOM EP w/I Believe..., Freedom 90
(Back to Reality Mix), and If You Were My Woman. All in
excellent
shape. If anyone is desperate for any of these drop
me an email.
Shawn
***************************
DERBYMIN-at-aol.com
(Michelle) writes:
---------------------------------------------------------
Hi Amanda and fellow G-fans,
I'm a little
disappointed that I missed the competition - I was
sooo busy I forgot about it. Still, I got half way through my
list so I've
decided to share it with you now.
1. Blue (armed with love) - Tony Hadley (ex Spandau Ballet)
..... just listen to him sing
"Gold" and "True" need I say more.
2. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go - Spice Girls
..... an energetic song
for an energetic bunch of lasses.
3. Robbie Williams (ex Take That) - Battlestations
..... he's always fighting some
battle.
4. Tom Jones & Julio Iglasius (excuse the spelling) - Young
Guns (go for it)
..... these two guys like to
think there still young and ohhh so
attractive.
5. The Everley Bros - Bad Boys
..... just like the idea of seeing these
two smooth good guys
dressed in leather and looking BAD.
6. Phil Collins - Hearbeat
..... his voice has a way of
expressing his inner most desires
- just listen to "Against all Odds".
7. Madonna - Nothing Looks The Same In The
Light
..... poor Maddy imagine her frustration when she discovers the
toy boy of the evening before is an ageing lothario.
8.
Simon Le Bon - Everything She Wants
..... dedicated to Yasmin - she can, and has, everything she wants.
9. Paul Young -
Careless Whisper
..... he found a place to lay his hat - a careless whisper lost him
that.
I only had to think of two
more and I could have entered
- nevermind. I think I might have used Nik Kershaw for Freedom
and maybe Toni Braxton for Edge
of Heaven - but then again
I might not.
Anyway good luck to the winners - I'm glad I'm not doing the
judging - there all
brilliant.
Bye for now.
Michelle.
***************************
Forgh-at-aol.com writes:
----------------------------------
Hi
Amanda, Hi Yog friends:
Here I go again with my silly questions, looks like I don't have
a lot to offer besides my questions,
I apolagize for that...
(Any question you ask someone else would want to know
anyway! AG)
Anyways does anyone know
what were the sunglasses the
THE MAN wore on the MTV interview prior the unplugged
event??? I am just so god damn picky about
sunglasses and
I just broke mine, so I was watching the interview(again), by
the way I love the part he says "piss off,
this is my life, not
part of the package" when the interviewer ask him about
people wondering about his sexuality... Oh,
yes, then I am
looking for the sunglasses like crazy, but have no clue what
I am looking for(brand or whatever) so, if
somebody into fashion
details or something can give me a hint...
(Went over this a while ago, but never did get an answer.
Sorry.
AG)
Thanks
Can't wait to meet you all...
Forgh
***************************
To Wrap it Up:
Hey YM Weekend
brigade, keep chanting, things are looking up.
And yes, I was QUITE serious about the tattoo. : ) Mum has come
to terms with
it, but that scream you just heard was my sister...
"Hmm."