4. Wham!Fantastic
Growing up I’d had this amazing opportunity to listen to all the music my mum loved – The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, loads of Motown. So when I discovered pop music for myself Wham! were my number one. All my pop music firsts came through Top Of The Pops. For my generation, that was everything growing up. You waited every week to see what was going to be number one and if there’d be any new videos. That was where I discovered Wham! – through videos for ‘Club Tropicana’ and ‘Last Christmas’ that are just ingrained in your brain forever. I can see George on his Lilo now. But the thing I love about Fantastic is that there’s a bit of bonkers-ness about it. ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)’, like… what’s all that about [sound-wise]? If they hadn’t gone on to be massively successful you maybe would’ve heard those songs and thought ‘what on earth…’ I was in a feud with my friend across the road who liked Duran Duran and I thought she was crazy.
Why did you think Wham! were better than Duran Duran?
I think because George Michael was so handsome, mostly [cackles] and a much better singer than Simon Le Bon.
