Wham!'s Andrew Ridgeley has said concerns about George Michael's voice were the reason the duo never embarked on a full US tour. Speaking ahead of the release of a new BBC documentary, Ridgeley explained that the band instead consolidated their American success through publicity from their 1985 China concerts.
China concerts and a new documentary
In 1985, Wham! flew to China to perform two concerts in Beijing and Guangzhou, becoming the first western pop act to play in the country. A feature-length documentary called Wham! 10 Days In China gathers concert footage from those gigs, new interviews, and previously unseen behind-the-scenes clips.
For Andrew, now 63, the film is another chance to celebrate his old friend's talent, with its release coming just a few months before the 10th anniversary of George Michael's death on Christmas Day 2016.
Why no US tour
Andrew said the China trip was a way to reach American audiences without touring there extensively. "George was not going to tour the United States extensively as there were concerns about his voice, so the idea was we could consolidate our success in the US by having photographs and press interviews from China beamed into people's homes," he explained.
He added: "I didn't think it would work, but it did put us in the homes of Americans, and we played a stadium tour there later that year and it was big news."
Memories of the trip and the band's end
The documentary captures the official, almost ambassadorial events the band attended, as well as staged moments and press conferences neither George nor Andrew appeared to enjoy. Andrew said he was "deeply sceptical" about the trip, but felt there was no other choice.
He also recalled his doubts about the hiring of director Lindsay Anderson, known for satirical films such as If..... "I thought it was a terrible idea – a director of his artistic pedigree and political provenance was a simply bonkers fit for Wham!," Andrew said. Anderson was later fired from the project and his version was never released.
The film captures Andrew and George just 14 months before they split in front of 72,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. Andrew said there had been plans for a third album that never materialised. "We'd achieved pretty much everything we wanted to do with Wham! by the end of 1985, but we had talked about doing a third album," he said.
Wham! 10 Days In China airs Saturday 29 August at 9pm on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
