Andrew Ridgeley on George Michael and life after Wham!

If you weren’t a teenager in 1984, this might be hard to understand, but here’s the thing: There are Gen X-ers who remember where they were the first time they saw a Wham! Pop applause anthem “Wake me up before you go.”

In it, Wham’s beloved pioneers George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley don big smiles and beachy shorts as they perform their gastronomic villain—titled after a note Ridgeley once left on his family’s refrigerator—to a small crowd of adoring fans. . There were fingerless gloves, neon face paint, and white “Choose Life” T-shirts that had nothing to do with abortion: It was a new wave dance party for the cool kids who thought Motley Crue was so bad.

Ridgley, who turned 60 in January, remembers making it a lot of fun.

“This was our first video with the public,” he said during a recent video interview from his home in London. “The atmosphere was really exciting and exciting.”

Ridgeley and his band mate are the subject “Whip!” A new documentary premieres Wednesday on Netflix. Directed by Chris Smith, the film charts the British band’s rise to stardom, beginning with stardom fierce appearance in the music program “Top of the Pops” in 1982, through the worldwide success that followed the albums “Fantastic” (1983) and “Make It Big” (1984), and ending with 1986 Farewell party in London.

Self-directed like a power pop video, the film explains how the duo’s modern blend of disco, funk, pop and soul, in songs like “Young Guns (Go for It)”, “careless whisper” And “freedom,” Help make Wham! One of the biggest pop groups of the late 20th century, despite only lasting four years. Unlike bands that split up due to artistic or personal differences, Wham! He had no ups and downs. “It was just a hike and they called it a day,” Smith said.

They also did not break up, Ridgley said, but rather “brought Wham! to an end in a way of our choosing.”

Fans may be disappointed to learn that in the documentary, Ridgley is heard but not seen as he appears today: cheerful and noble, with silver hair and a still cheeky smile. Smith said he would have killed off the film’s mythological ambitions if Ridgley had been in front of the camera but not Michael, who died seven years ago at the age of 53.

After Wham! He and Michael, Ridgeley told me, no longer “live in each other’s pockets” as they have since they were children. But their bond is mended.

If Ridgeley was tired of being known mostly for his friendship with Michael, he didn’t show it. He shone when he was talking about Michael, whose loss left Ridgeley feeling “as if the sky had fallen,” he said in 2017. But he doesn’t seem to talk much about his life now, other than to say he enjoys cycling.

The documentary includes archive media coverage and tons of concert footage, including scenes from 1985’s groundbreaking performances, When Wham! They became the first Western pop group to perform in China.

But it was Ridgeley’s mother who provided the most personal treasures. From her son’s elementary school days making music with Michael, she’s kept about 50 neatly organized scrapbooks filled with photos, comments, and other ephemera. It includes footage from the mid-1970s when Ridgeley first gets to know Michael as Georgios Kyriakos Panayiotou, the son of a Cypriot father and a British mother.

Also the son of an immigrant father—his father was Egyptian—and a British mother, Ridgeley immediately hit it off with the boy he named Yog, a nickname he used a lot in our interview. The scrapbooks paint a vivid picture of the boys who loved Queen and “Saturday Night Fever” and wanted to turn music into a career.

“The only thing I’ve wanted to do since the age of 14 is be in a band, write songs and perform,” Ridgley said excitedly in his 14-year-old voice, adding that fame and fame were “never a motivating factor for either of us.”

Ridgley said he and Michael know Wham! It would have a limited lifespan because Michael’s songwriting was beginning to “evolve and evolve in a way, way, so fast” Wham! can not accommodate. In November, Michael will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Since the height of Wham! Ridgeley fought the notion that he was only famous because he was in a duo with a more talented artist. The documentary makes a case in his favor, tracing how Ridgeley, a guitarist, collaborated with composer and performer Michael.

However, Ridgley admitted that his music was not in the same league as Michael’s, “one of the best, if not the He said, sounding like a proud brother.

When Michael comes to him after they shot a video for “Club Tropicana” (1983), 15 years ago He did so publiclyRidgeley said he supported him with love and shrugged. Ridgeley said Michael was more appalled by his father’s reaction than by the audience’s reaction. Michael had come out during Wham! Years ago, Ridgeley said he would have his back and the fans.

“I didn’t think it would affect our success, and it probably won’t in the long run,” he said. “It was hard on him for a while, no doubt about that. It would have required management by all of us. But after the initial excitement, it’s on the table, right?”

yet wham! Ridgley fired 1990 solo album That’s flat and done short period as a Formula 3 driver, but has kept a low profile. British tabloids kept breathless tabs on his love life — including his 25 year relationship With Keren Woodward, a member of another ’80s pop group, Bananarama – just as they did when they gave him the nickname Wham! -era Randy Andy.

Ridgley didn’t follow fame further because he was in Wham! He told him “whatever he wants” Shirley Kempa friend from school and a Wham! Backup singer. Not just professionally.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone else on an equal footing with George as Andrew was, both intellectually and with a sense of humour,” said Kemp, her husband, Martin Kemp of the 80s band. Spandau Ballet. “It was the best relationship George has ever had with anyone.”

“A few stones have remained unturned,” Ridgeley said, as he has worked over the past five years on projects representing all things Wham! In 2019, he published a memoir, “Whack! george michael and me And he got a cameo that year in the romantic comedy “Last Christmas,” which was inspired by the group’s name chart-topping single Vacation. It comes later this month “Echoes from the Edge of Heaven,” Wham! singles collection.

He still seems to be in awe of what he and his best friend have made together.

“I couldn’t really fathom that we had the same kind of success as the artists we revered like gods when we were growing up,” he said. “We were playing at Wembley Stadium, which is the same place Elton John played. You could say, ‘I am I be The same.’ But in your mind, you are never the same.”