Wham! documentary reveals George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s unique bond

Wham! Netflix documentary has revealed a deeply personal secret of George Michael’s during the height of the British pop duo’s success.

Wham! heart-throb Andrew Ridgeley is revealed as the 80s least bitter ex-pop star in the hit new documentary chronicling his and George Michael’s meteoric rise to world domination.

The Netflix film has been the most watched documentary film in Australia since it dropped last Wednesday as fans of the British pop duo relive their glorious four year reign.

The film is likely to usher in a Wham! chart revival as Sony reissues their run of poptastic singles including Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, Everything She Wants, The Edge of Heaven and Careless Whisper.

George Michael (right) and Andrew Ridgley (left). Picture: Supplied.

Compiled with old footage with Ridgeley and Michael’s voices narrating the story, the film closes with “As a solo artist, George went on to sell over 120 million records. No one was more proud or less surprised than Andrew.”

While the media celebrated Michael’s songwriting, production and performance skills during Wham’s brief command of the pop world, they painted Ridgeley as a party boy guitarist and questioned his contribution to their success.

And while he admits in the film to finding it “slightly difficult” when Michael took over as the sole songwriter of their second record Make It Big, Ridgeley also admits he wasn’t in the same league as his childhood friend.

Their bond was struck in 1975 when Ridgeley made friend with the new boy at school, the “very awkward, slightly porky, very strange-looking bloke” as Michael described himself in the film.

“I genuinely believe there’s something predestined about it,” Michael recalled. “I mean, the path might have been totally different had I sat down next to someone else that day.”

They formed their first band The Executive in their teens before the pair struck out on their own as Wham! a name inspired by Ridgeley singing during a night out clubbing.

The duo in the Wham! documentary. Picture: Netflix.

“We were doing this formation dance and having a laugh and Andy started shouting something about ‘wham, bam’,” George says in the film.

“And we thought that would be a good name for a group”.

The doco reveals Michael came out to his best friend in 1982 in Ibiza after they had finished shooting the video for Clup Tropicana.

Ridgeley emotionally supported his mate through his struggles and the dilemma of being a teen idol and a closeted pop idol in a homophobic era. Michael didn’t come out publicly until 1998.

The guitarist also had no qualms about Michael going solo even as both men knew the Faith star would face more intense scrutiny of his sexuality.

The friends supported each other through the years. Picture: Netflix.

“In reality the turning point with Wham! was nothing to do with Wham!. The turning point with Wham! was me as I suddenly thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m a massive star, and I’m gay,’ and the depression was about that,” Michael said. “It was about the way I’d boxed myself in. You know, careful what you wish for.”

While Michael went onto to become a solo pop great, Ridgeley tried his hand at motor racing acting, one poorly received solo album and now appears to devote his time to charity bike rides as the Wham! catalogue continues to generate millions in royalties.

George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley at the Sebel Townhouse Hotel in Sydney. Picture: Courtesy of Mirvac Hotels.

And their friendship endured until Michael’s death in 2016. The pair would have regular games of Scrabble; the last just a few months before his lost his lifelong mate.

“He’d beaten me the week before, and I was exacting my revenge,” he told People.

“It took us right back to just … the essence of our schoolboy friendship and one-upmanship. It was a game that stimulated him, and me also.”

Choose Life T-shirts, big hair, tiny shorts and shuttlecocks – Michael would wipe them over his sweaty torso on stage and then launch them into the crowd – are surely about to have another pop culture moment along with those memorable hits.

Originally published as Wham! documentary reveals George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s unique bond