AndrewRidgeley said:

your genetic makeup is indeed fine. I hope you donate yourself to medical research so that you can be cloned.

Do you still enjoy what you do? And, now that you are no longer a young gun, do you still go for it?

who won this arm wrestling contest? I'll bet it was you wasn't it Andrew?

LleeLlee said:

George won. He cheated by using his hair.

Ace said:

very clever, Ace!



then since we have you in our midst, Andrew..
give me the 411 on my favorite Wham! track EVERTTHING SHE WANTS :


what was your inspiration for that song - was that something you or George went through personally, or were you simply flexing your "catchy pop music writing" muscles??


then, more specifically-
WHO wrote the 2 best lines in the song :

1.
"they told me marriage was a give-and-take
well you've shown me you can take you've got some giving to do.."

2.
"how could you settle for a boy like me
when I could see was the end of the week.."


then lastly :
WHOSE idea was it for you & George to be
TRAMPOLININ' towards the end of that video???
HOW is CATAPOULTIN WAY UP IN THE AIR related to "everything she wants"???


Andrew:
THOROUGH & DETAILED ANSWERS, PLEASE.

XxAxX said:

I'm not sure if I have any DNA left. I donated A LOT of it back in the 80's if you catch my drift.

XxAxX said:

Keep a look out on eBay. I might throw the fans a bone and sell some of it. It's a very popular request.

AndrewRidgeley said:

yes i'm afraid i do. which is why i specified hair sample

LleeLlee said:

Already done. Several medical research companies bid a few years ago. I was, shall we say between funds at the time so I believe I ended up selling my future corpse to a company called "U Croak, We Freeze". I'll have to check the receipt.

Ace said:

I absolutely enjoy what I do! And, whilst on the subject, I am a man, I prefer to be waken up before my lover go-goes, and last Christmas was quite lovely. Cheeky monkies!

LleeLlee said:

Sadly I lost that one. Some of his hair grease dropped on my palm and he took full advantage. My lifetime record for arm wrestling with Georgie is 187-1.

mltijchr said



With very few exceptions, I wrote all of the songs. I'll give George credit for Wham Rap but that is it. He stole a lot of the writing credit and I wasn't really into confrontation at the time so I let him claim credit for those jewels. I wrote Everything She Wants while sitting on Mt. Kilimanjaro. I was there sipping tea and I said, "You know, I think I'll write a song about a bitchy girl." And the words just flew out of my brain.





Well, I wrote the whole thing so I'll claim them. I was thinking about my early days, before I founded the biggest band in the world, and trying to imagine the bitchy girl I was writing about being really selfish. If I were a poor person and knocked some lassie up, you know how would it be. I used my imagination and try to come up with some lines that a poor working man would use. Originally I used a lot more profanity and there is a line about fish and chips that I couldn't make work rhyme scheme wise.




George's idea. George wanted us to be on a trampoline at the end of EVERY video. I finally broke down.

EXCELLENT.

& FASCINATING. answers.


again, to continue taking advantage of this
RARE
opportunity to chat with "British pop royalty"..


am I to understand, Andrew, that you also wrote the song "Freedom"??

- if so, what was your inspiration for this song?? DON'T tell me it was inspired by another (clingy/horny) female..

- WHOSE idea was it to add that annoying "do-do-do, do-do-do, do-do-do" vocal embellishment during the instrumental break between the 2nd & 3rd occurances of the chorus??

- then.. WHOSE idea was it for y'all to be KICKIN' AROUND A SOCCER BALL in the video??? WHAT is the CONNECTION between
"I don't want your freedom.. girl all I want right now is you"
&
PLAYING SOCCER???
& WHY WERE YOU WEARING RED PLAID PANTS IN THE VIDEO ANDREW???
DID YOU LOSE A BET
OR DID YOU WANT TO.. "tone down" your heterosexuality???



then with the video for "wake me up before you go-go" :

- whose BRILLIANT idea was it for you & George to be wearin' those TOO TIGHT & TOO SHORT white shorts???

- those females on stage in the video : how many of them did you (& George??) shag, either because they were just hanging around or under the pretext of an "audition" to be in the video???

- lastly, I will readily presume that you tapped both "Pepsi" & "Shirley" before, during &/or after the video shoot.. who was better? who made more noise??
in fact, which 1 was which, again??
I hadn't seen or heard from them since their 1 album some 20 years ago..

mltijchr said:

I am looking forwards to the answers to these burning questions!

mltijchr said:

That's right, butter me up. That's what I like.




I wrote this song while sailing down the Ganges River. It was a hot day, around 107 degrees. In all honesty, and this is an exclusive, it was about Margaret Thatcher. That's right it was a very political song disguised as a mindless pop song. The lyrics are all subtext within subtext. The lines with the doo do do where actually political comments about nuclear proliferation that the record company dubbed over. They called George in to sing over my lines about how I didn't want my children's children obliterated by that idiot Reagan. George, the weinie that he is, complied.

George wanted the football thing. He had the daffiest ideas for videos. He was like "When people think about freedom they think of a good game of footie." And I was like "When people think about wombats they think of you, you bloody bastard." But once again, I demured so as to avoid confrontation.

The red plaid pants were sadly the result of a lost bet, a football match that George and I had bet on the week before. It was either that or a backrub for George. I think I chose correctly.





George's idea again. George fashioned himself as the creative genius since I was the musical genius of the group. He was all about showing off our bits and pieces every chance he got. He was all about how it would make us huge. I didn't have the heart to tell him that no shorts in the world were going to make him huge in that sense.

I must admit I shagged quite a few of them. That's what I did in those days. Shag and make brilliant music. George declined the invitation to the initial "after-orgy" so I'm not sure if he slept with any of them or not.

Pepsi and Shirlie, and Deon Estus, all kind of disappeared over the years. George may have slagged me off around them, I'm not sure. They were lovely ladies and danced their arses off for us. I miss them.

ah..
again Andrew - thanks for your fascinating insight on Wham! I'm blown away by your candor.

all the questions I've asked you to this point have been from my memory - now I'm tempted to go back & locate other songs/videos to ask you more questions..!


a few more 'follow-up' questions/comments from your last responses :

AndrewRidgeley said:

so Andrew do you think your (seemingly) habitual acquiescing [sp] to George's preferences eventually led to the breakup of Wham!, or in some way caused George to get a big head (on his shoulders, I of course mean)??
or was your acquiescing some sort of twisted, "passive-agressive" thing between you & him??



HILARIOUS!



then.. would you say that this was a classic case of "too many chefs in the kitchen", or "1 brilliant pop music genius too many"??


a few other questions :

- as you wrote most of the songs for Wham!, on which instrument did you prefer to write these songs??? mostly on guitar, or on piano, or did it depend on the type of 'mood' you were going for in the particular song???


- when you & George did "wham rap (enjoy what you do)" did you think that YOU would be at the forefront of "British rap"?? WHAT on God's green earth was your inspiration for this number???


- how would you characterize your relationship with Culture Club, 1 of the other "big acts" of the early/mid 80s?? did you & George see them as "competition" or did you all - in the strictly musical sense of the expression - jam together at times?? did both Georges secretly "compare notes" on future boyfriends??


- what was your take on Kajagoogoo?? they really seemed to have the potential to 'make it big' (pun intended) like Wham! did, but after "too shy" they didn't really do too much..


- whose music did you like more : Human League or ABC, & why??


- what is your most lasting recollection of the "do they know it's Christmas" recording session?? was Sting his usual smug (but brilliant) self?? did you know then that during that recording session you'd meet your future wife?? was it an "all-night thing" where the morning after recording you & Bob Geldof & a few groupies went out for fish & chips.. & a pint???



let me know Andrew if I'm overwhelming you with these questions!
like I said, these questions are coming to me just from my memories of Wham! - don't let me go back & find some other Wham! videos..!
thanks again for your answers..!


"IF YER GONNA DO IT DO IT RIGHT!"

I have a question.

Why were you such a bitch in the Documentary Wham Goes To China?


M