Summary of James Gavin's George Michael

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 George’s father, Jack, was the model of a self-made 1960s man’s man. He had grown up with seven siblings in Cyprus, and in London he had started as a busboy and eventually became a waiter. He wanted to better his family’s situation, so he and his wife Lesley emigrated to London.
#2 Jack, the owner of the restaurant, was a shining immigrant success story. He had far more charisma than his partners, and he wanted to buy them out. He was a quiet boy, but his father did not appreciate his silence.
#3 George’s parents did not allow him to listen to music, but he found a way to get around it. He began taping songs off the radio, and after learning them by heart, he would sing them into his recorder. He would then play the recordings for his friends.
#4 In 1974, Georgios watched the American TV show The Partridge Family, which was hosted by David Cassidy, a pinup idol who had begun his first British tour that year. Georgios had a crush on Cassidy, and when he saw him kick a football on top of the twenty-four-story London Television Centre, he was completely blown away.

Sujets

• Musique
• Histoire de la musique
• Individual Composer
• Musician
• Music

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 22 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798350026085
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on James Gavin's George Michael
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14 Insights from Chapter 15 Insights from Chapter 16 Insights from Chapter 17 Insights from Chapter 18 Insights from Chapter 19 Insights from Chapter 20 Insights from Chapter 21 Insights from Chapter 22 Insights from Chapter 23 Insights from Chapter 24 Insights from Chapter 25 Insights from Chapter 26 Insights from Chapter 27 Insights from Chapter 28 Insights from Chapter 29
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

George’s father, Jack, was the model of a self-made 1960s man’s man. He had grown up with seven siblings in Cyprus, and in London he had started as a busboy and eventually became a waiter. He wanted to better his family’s situation, so he and his wife Lesley emigrated to London.

#2

Jack, the owner of the restaurant, was a shining immigrant success story. He had far more charisma than his partners, and he wanted to buy them out. He was a quiet boy, but his father did not appreciate his silence.

#3

George’s parents did not allow him to listen to music, but he found a way to get around it. He began taping songs off the radio, and after learning them by heart, he would sing them into his recorder. He would then play the recordings for his friends.

#4

In 1974, Georgios watched the American TV show The Partridge Family, which was hosted by David Cassidy, a pinup idol who had begun his first British tour that year. Georgios had a crush on Cassidy, and when he saw him kick a football on top of the twenty-four-story London Television Centre, he was completely blown away.

#5

Jack’s relationship with his son was not easy. He had grown up in a conservative Greek Orthodox family, and he was not happy with the way Georgios was developing. He constantly belittled the boy, and his taunts made Georgios feel inferior.

#6

As a boy, he had begun masturbating before puberty. In 2004, he told Adam Mattera, who edited the British gay magazine Attitude, of having had clichéd straight fantasies like nuns with their tits out.

#7

In 1975, Georgios moved to Bushey, a town about three miles from Radlett, with his family. He started school there, and was mortified when the teacher mangled his name when she introduced him to the class. He spoke little, but when he did, it was like his mother’s refined middle-class diction.

#8

The New Romantics were a movement of fashion-obsessed London clubgoers who milled about in elaborate costumes based on the Romantic age. Ridgeley’s template was inspired by David Bowie, but he was more self-assured than Georgios.

#9

Ridgeley’s friend Yog became his role model. He began to change, and his focus shifted from flunking out of school to partying and pop stardom. He had no feelings for Ridgeley, but they acted like a couple.

#10

Yog was also a big fan of Elton John, and would spend his pocket money on his albums. He was drawn to John’s gay fans, as he could feel they were also fans of his music.

#11

Around the age of sixteen, George began cruising for sex, but he was also excited, and his fantasies began shifting towards men. His mother had warned him that he might be gay, and that the wrath of God was the reality for gay men.

#12

In 1979, when he was sixteen, Yog began wearing a close-trimmed beard, a slim-fitting white jacket, a skinny black tie, straight-leg white trousers, and white loafers. This was the look of the rude boy, and it was all the rage in late-seventies England.

#13

The group’s first performance was at a Methodist church in Bushey, and they met James Sullivan, an exchange student from Brooklyn College who was touring Europe to study languages. Sullivan was eye-catching, and he had courageously come out to his Irish Catholic family.

#14

The group tried to get a record deal, but they were unsuccessful. They had a small handful of tunes, and they were traffic jams of psychedelic guitar, bashing drums, and a mild ska rhythm. The group broke up.

#15

Michael’s father, Jack, was a difficult person to deal with. He was a musician, and he wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. But Michael had no interest in music, and he wanted to prove his father wrong.

#16

In 1980, Michael tried his hand at deejaying. A restaurant in Bushey, the Bel Air, hired him to play music for post-dinner dancing. His brief stint at the Bel Air taught him about pacing and how to shift moods and tempos to keep an audience engaged.

#17

In 1981, Michael had his last encounter with James Sullivan, a American student who had come out to him halfway, as bisexual. He was terrified that being gay would ruin his chances of becoming famous.

#18

In 1982, Michael heard about a disease called Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, or GRID, which was spread through sexual contact. It was a chilling indication that gay life was about to become more dangerous and stigmatized than ever.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

In the midst of a recession, young British men were turning to soul music, a subculture of young working-class males who worshipped soul music as an escape from suburban blandness.

#2

In 1982, Michael and Ridgeley made a demo of Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do. ) In it, they mocked the rules of society and encouraged the youth to raise a middle finger to them. They seemed to have exhausted all their options.

#3

Mark Dean, the owner of Innervision, was extremely difficult to deal with. He was a brilliant, narcissistic sociopath who could be extremely generous and funny, then extremely cruel and inhumane. He had a hair-trigger temper.

#4

On March 25, the day the Wham! deal was finalized, Michael pierced both of his ears. He walked into the house and faced his father, who did not say a word.

#5

Wham!’s first single was Wham Rap!, a song that was mostly written by Michael. It was a hit in Britain, and the group began performing live. They hired Shirlie Holliman to be their backup singer, who could barely carry a tune.

#6

On June 16, 1982, Innervision released Wham Rap! It was ignored by critics and DJs. A member of the publicity department, Lorraine Trent, contacted a popular deejay in London, Norman Scott, and asked him to play the record.

#7

In September 1989, Michael began hanging out at a gay club called Bolts, which he had heard about from his friend Ridgeley. He began showing up with a Portuguese woman named Pat Fernandes on his arm.

#8

The video for Wham Rap! was shot in 1981. It showed Ridgeley in a suburban living room, lazily leafing through a magazine as his parents demanded that he get a job. Out strutted his brother George, leather-clad, primped, and defiant. He breezed past street cleaners, office workers, and other members of the dreary working class.

#9

The singing part of Rapture did not materialize. However, the group’s appearances in non-gay clubs weren’t going so well, and the single stalled at No. 48. Everyone began losing faith in Wham!.

#10

Wham!’s appearance on Top of the Pops increased their popularity considerably. The song Young Guns peaked at No. 3, and the group had become famous in only eight months.

#11

Wham! had caught the eye of Gordon Summers, a drummer and low-level manager known by his nickname, Jazz. He learned that Wham! recorded for Mark Dean, whom he knew slightly. Summers paid him a visit. Dean told him what he had hoped to hear: that Wham! had no manager.

#12

Wham! had a secret. They were gay. Marc Bolan was a favorite of Michael’s, but he made sure not to seem too impressed. He grilled the two older men as to what they had done in the past and what they could do for Wham!.

#13

The video for Young Guns, which was shot in one of their favorite haunts, the Wag Club, was directed by Tim Pope and has an expensive look. It leavens its juvenile premise with a tongue-in-cheek approach. The song itself was a pale knockoff of Young Guns. But it took Wham! to No. 2.
Insights from Chapter 3

#1

Michael was now the center of his family’s world. He was also very controlling at work, and would not allow any input from his partner Ridgeley. He chose all the songs, and they were not negotiable.

#2

By the time George Michael recorded the song Nothing Looks the Same in the Light, he had already developed a mature sound. The song is a morning-after reverie sung to a figure sleeping in the sheets.

#3

In 1983, Wham! hired Shirlie Holliman to sing on their song Club Tropicana, which sounded like lush European disco. The track was about an imaginary summer oasis in which castaways and lovers meet.

#4

Wham! had made huge progress in just over a year, and Michael was impatient to catapult the band higher.