Wham! Signed Single
This is a signed single by the two members of Wham! George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. They have signed the single "Club Fantastic" mega mix sleeve. It is framed and ready to hang on the wall. A great piece of Wham signed memorabilia. 100% authentic. A must for any fan of Wham.
This is a signed single by the two members of Wham! George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. They have signed the single "Club Fantastic" mega mix sleeve. It is framed and ready to hang on the wall. A great piece of Wham! signed memorabilia. 100% authentic. A must for any fan of Wham!
Wham! Bibliography
Wham! were an English musical duo formed by members George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in 1981 They were briefly known in the United States as Wham! UK, due to a naming conflict with an American band. Wham! sold more than 30 million certified records worldwide from 1982 to 1986.
George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley met at Bushey Meads School in Bushey, Hertfordshire. The two at first performed in a short-lived ska band called the Executive, alongside former school friends David Mortimer, Andrew Leaver and Paul Ridgeley. When this group split, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley eventually formed Wham!, signing with Innervision Records.
George Michael took on the majority of roles and responsibilities within the band—composer, producer, lead singer, and occasional instrumentalist. Still teenagers, they promoted themselves as hedonistic youngsters, proud to live a carefree life without work or commitment. This was reflected in their earliest singles which, part-parody, part-social comment, briefly earned Wham! a reputation as a dance protest group. The debut record to be released by the band was "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" in June 1982. It was a double A-side with Social Mix and Unsocial Mix. The record was not playlisted by BBC Radio 1 in the UK, and therefore "Wham Rap!" did not chart for the group. In October 1982 "Young Guns (Go for It!)" was issued. Initially, it also stalled outside the UK Top 40 but the band got lucky when the BBC programme Top of the Pops scheduled them after another act unexpectedly pulled out of the show. The song shot into the Top 40 at No. 24 and peaked at No. 3 in December. They followed up "Young Guns (Go for It!)" with a reissue of "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)", "Bad Boys" and "Club Tropicana". By the end of 1983, Wham! were competing against pop rivals Duran Duran and Culture Club as Britain's biggest pop act.
Their debut album Fantastic spent two weeks at No. 1 in the UK album charts in 1983. Notoriety and increased newspaper and magazine coverage were duly achieved with their antics of placing shuttlecocks down their shorts during performances on their first tour, the Club Fantastic Tour.
Andrew Ridgeley became conscious of legal problems with their initial contract at Innervision. While the legal battle raged, Innervision released a medley of non-single album tracks from Fantastic, entitled "Club Fantastic Megamix". Wham! publicly denounced the release and urged fans not to buy it. After all the legal wrangling, Innervision admitted there were royalty discrepancies with Wham!'s contract, the fall-out of which led to the bankruptcy and eventual dissolution of Innervision altogether in 1985.
Now signed to Epic Records and other CBS Records labels around the world, Wham! returned in 1984 with an updated pop image. These changes helped to propel Wham!'s next single, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", to the top of the charts around the world. It became their first UK #1 single and rose to that position in the USA as well, accompanied by a video of the duo with Pepsi and Shirlie, all wearing Katharine Hamnett T-shirts with the slogans "CHOOSE LIFE" and "GO GO".
The next single, "Careless Whisper", was issued as a George Michael solo piece, yet unlike any Wham! single except "Wham Rap!" and "Club Tropicana", it was co-written with Ridgeley. The song, about a remorseful two-timer, had more emotional depth than previous releases. It quickly reached No. 1, selling over 1.3 million copies in the UK. Careless Whisper" marked a new phase in George's career, as he somewhat distanced himself from Wham!'s playboy image.
In the US—so as not to confuse American listeners just being exposed to Wham!—the single was billed as "Wham! featuring George Michael". In the autumn of 1984, Wham! returned as a duo with "Freedom", another UK chart-topper and the first single for quite some time to reach #1 in the UK without an accompanying video. Wham! subsequently decided to use a video edited together from footage of their tour of China in time for "Freedom's" US single release. The group by then had achieved three number-one singles in a row. In November, they released their second album, Make It Big, which quickly climbed to #1 on the album charts, and the band set off on an arena tour at the end of 1984.The double A-side single "Last Christmas/Everything She Wants" became the highest-selling single ever to peak at No. 2 in the UK charts. It stayed at No. 2 for five weeks and, to date, is the 24th best-selling single of all time in the United Kingdom, selling over 1.4 million copies in the UK. Wham! donated all their royalties from the single to the Ethiopian famine appeal to coincide with the fund-raising intentions of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", the song which kept them out of the top spot. Nevertheless, Band Aid's success meant that Michael had achieved #1 status in the UK within three separate entities in 1984—as a solo artist, as one half of a duo, and as part of a charity ensemble.
At the end of 1985, the US Billboard charts listed "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" as the number-three song and "Careless Whisper" as the number-one song of the year.
In March 1985, Wham! took a break from recording to embark on a lengthy world tour, including a ground-breaking 10-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group. This was followed up by appearing on Live Aid on 13 July 1985, although they did not appear as Wham! as George Michael performed with Elton singing "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" , while Andrew Ridgeley joined Kiki Dee in the row of backing singers.
In September, Wham! released the single "I'm Your Man" which went to No. 1 in the UK charts. Around this time the band were starting to go their separate ways, with Andrew Ridgeley beginning a relationship with Keren Woodward of Bananarama and starting up the hobby of rally driving, whilst George Michael took up offers he was starting to receive to add his voice to other artists' songs. He performed backing vocals for David Cassidy, and also for Elton John on his successful singles "Nikita" and "Wrap Her Up", on which he sang co-lead vocals on. He was keen to create a more sophisticated sound appealing to the adult contempory market rather than the teenage market.
" Last Christmas" was re-issued for the festive season and again made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 6.and therefore, they officially announced the breakup of Wham! in the spring of 1986. Before going their separate ways, a farewell single "The Edge of Heaven", and a greatest hits album titled The Final would be forthcoming, along with a farewell concert entitled The Final. The farewell single reached No. 1 in June 1986. "Where Did Your Heart Go?" was the group's final single in the United States. The song, originally recorded by Was (Not Was), was a gloomy and sombre affair.
The duo's last release was a double-LP collection of all the singles to date, including some extended versions. This was released in North America as the severely pared-down Music from the Edge of Heaven with alternate tracks.
At London's Wembley Stadium on Saturday 28 June 1986, they bade goodbye to their fans and each other with an emotional embrace at the end of its final concert. 72,000 people attended the eight-hour event, which included support artists, on a scorching hot day in London.
The band had been together for five years, selling over 28 million records and 15 million singles. Foreign Skies, the documentary of their tour of China, received its world premiere as part of the festivities.
A fantastic piece of signed Wham! signed memorabilia. All of our items come with a COA. We are happy to offer a 100% money back guarantee with every item we sell, if the autograph is not genuine.
Each item is wrapped and is then protected with the largest bubble wrap available and boxed in a sturdy corrugated cardboard shipment carton. All pieces of memorabilia are shipped securely to ensure the protection of each of these priceless items.
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Dimensions; 54cm H x 46cm W x 3cm D