And the outstanding performance of the night on American Idol 2008 Live was........without a shadow of doubt ........... Eighties' British pop sensation, Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou himself - better known to those of us who hit the eighties High School disco scene just as George Michael took the world by storm with Wham!
Looking ultra sultry and sophisticated in black (although the shades and slightly alarming camera shots on his dental situation shone a pretty brutal light on the King of Careless Whisper's rather risky extracurricular leisure choices of last decade), George Michael made a magnificent come-back in front of a multi-million, world-wide television audience, slamming the amateur competition somewhat into the real world with his stage presence and silvery vocal skill.
Not too sure what the song was, and whether it was written for this grande finale as a wake-up call to a billion text-addicted, couch potato teenie-bop viewers and their indulgent mums and dads, but it certainly made a statement on the power of television to impress upon us the value of collective responsibility towards the state of this crazy world.
And despite his bad-boy history which includes (amongst other more colorful arrests) passing out at the wheel of his Range Rover in occasional drug-induced stupor, Georgie Boy has bounced back to bring a message of some greater social conscience to the music loving masses.
All very intriguing, and entertaining. I can never hear a George Michael ballad without an instant flashback to my tiny 200-year-old cottage garden in England, the summer of 1990, when we left for the States. A dear friend of ours, named Enzo is an Italian pint-sized version of the most played artist on British radio. Having had his heart broken that summer, the ordinarily super-cool Enzo sat outside under the willow tree for several hours after Saturday late-night party guests had left, singing Careless Whisper into a microphone, over and over again as we and all the immediate neighbors undoubtedly dreamed silent tears into our pillows! So sweet. Bit annoying at the time, but we let him have his night of sorrow, as friends should do.
With twelve number one British hit singles, George Michael formed Wham with partner Andrew Ridgeley back in 1981. Although he looks a lot older, given his track record for rabble-rousing in all its various forms, George will turn 45 in the midst of his first 20-city concert tour of the US in 17 years. Sounds like a cause for reform, at least in part. George Michael's Bay Area appearance is scheduled for the HP Pavilion in San Jose on June 19th. Don't think I'll be rushing down the 101 in my Robert Palmer little black dress, big hoop earings and Sade hair do (must search out some of those eighties snapshots...), but I am betting a whole bunch of people will. At least a lot more than turned out for the two for one Duran Duran gig last month.
Oh, and while we are on the subject of the new American Idol, I've been rooting for Cookie ever since Michael John was kicked out of the top twelve. Guess I'm just a classic push-over for the crooners after all. Now what will we do with our Tuesday and Wednesday evenings?
Flicking back through the photo books to the hey day of the mid to late 80s Wham phenomenon (not that I was a number one, fan, mind-you - my tastes were much more of the rockabilly, indie bands of the day, as you can see from my fab fifties hairdo on the right! Journalist school pals Claire in the center and Bev on the left were perfect candidates for a careless whisper in the school canteen!) Note to Kerry, watch this space - for once I figure out how to use the scanner I have some fantastic snaps of your flat-top!
Looking ultra sultry and sophisticated in black (although the shades and slightly alarming camera shots on his dental situation shone a pretty brutal light on the King of Careless Whisper's rather risky extracurricular leisure choices of last decade), George Michael made a magnificent come-back in front of a multi-million, world-wide television audience, slamming the amateur competition somewhat into the real world with his stage presence and silvery vocal skill.
Not too sure what the song was, and whether it was written for this grande finale as a wake-up call to a billion text-addicted, couch potato teenie-bop viewers and their indulgent mums and dads, but it certainly made a statement on the power of television to impress upon us the value of collective responsibility towards the state of this crazy world.
And despite his bad-boy history which includes (amongst other more colorful arrests) passing out at the wheel of his Range Rover in occasional drug-induced stupor, Georgie Boy has bounced back to bring a message of some greater social conscience to the music loving masses.
All very intriguing, and entertaining. I can never hear a George Michael ballad without an instant flashback to my tiny 200-year-old cottage garden in England, the summer of 1990, when we left for the States. A dear friend of ours, named Enzo is an Italian pint-sized version of the most played artist on British radio. Having had his heart broken that summer, the ordinarily super-cool Enzo sat outside under the willow tree for several hours after Saturday late-night party guests had left, singing Careless Whisper into a microphone, over and over again as we and all the immediate neighbors undoubtedly dreamed silent tears into our pillows! So sweet. Bit annoying at the time, but we let him have his night of sorrow, as friends should do.
With twelve number one British hit singles, George Michael formed Wham with partner Andrew Ridgeley back in 1981. Although he looks a lot older, given his track record for rabble-rousing in all its various forms, George will turn 45 in the midst of his first 20-city concert tour of the US in 17 years. Sounds like a cause for reform, at least in part. George Michael's Bay Area appearance is scheduled for the HP Pavilion in San Jose on June 19th. Don't think I'll be rushing down the 101 in my Robert Palmer little black dress, big hoop earings and Sade hair do (must search out some of those eighties snapshots...), but I am betting a whole bunch of people will. At least a lot more than turned out for the two for one Duran Duran gig last month.
Oh, and while we are on the subject of the new American Idol, I've been rooting for Cookie ever since Michael John was kicked out of the top twelve. Guess I'm just a classic push-over for the crooners after all. Now what will we do with our Tuesday and Wednesday evenings?
Flicking back through the photo books to the hey day of the mid to late 80s Wham phenomenon (not that I was a number one, fan, mind-you - my tastes were much more of the rockabilly, indie bands of the day, as you can see from my fab fifties hairdo on the right! Journalist school pals Claire in the center and Bev on the left were perfect candidates for a careless whisper in the school canteen!) Note to Kerry, watch this space - for once I figure out how to use the scanner I have some fantastic snaps of your flat-top!
No, please, no-one needs to see those pictures. Ever.
At least you looked like a laydee, as opposed to something out of Prisoner Cell Block H. Took me a fair few years to equate any hair cut that needs a razor to achieve it usually equates batting for the other side. Nothing wrong with that, but no wonder I never pulled...
Posted by: Kerry | Thursday, May 22, 2025 at 05:18 PM
Never mind the hair. What about that bag?
Posted by: Lesley | Thursday, May 22, 2025 at 07:08 PM
funny, that, I've had two in-person inquiries about that particular purse!
Posted by: Frances | Friday, May 23, 2025 at 08:14 AM
That's also the very same bag with a Nanna clip closing mechanism that you once had to employ to mask another 'popping sound' that you emitted in a hushed court room as a young court reporter. He heee
Posted by: Kerry | Monday, May 26, 2025 at 04:26 PM
No, that was a leather Gladstone bag, of which I was particularly proud. Held all sorts of notebooks and pens and ace reporter paraphernalia. Good especially for bashing vagrants around the head if feeling threatened whilst on an investigative assignment out in some muddy god-forsaken gypsy encampment field in the middle of nowhere. Driving up in a Wisbech Standard mini was a bit conspicuous to say the least. Nowadays, I don't think many editors send their writers on such dangerous missions without a burly photographer in tow. Oh, hang on a minute..........
Posted by: Frances | Tuesday, May 27, 2025 at 12:10 PM
In fact, come to remember. It was an inquest of all things.....thanks for the visual, K, can always count on middle sis to conjure up a wide variety of my misadventures!
Posted by: Frances | Tuesday, May 27, 2025 at 12:13 PM