Cover Boys : N°1

N°1 U.K
November 23, 1985

Cover Scott Weiner / Retna.

They're your men...

...And they like danger, sex, Errol Flynn, The Bee Gees,

dancing to their own records and jubbly spufflewubs !?

They also hate MTV. Scoop finds out why.

Until the massive success of I'm Your Man, 1985 had been a quiet year for Wham! in Britain — musically that is.

On the press front it's been quite a different story. Andy's been reported drunk in more clubs than exist in the Northern Hemisphere, George has been dating Brooke Shields, fighting his mates and driving tanks without a licence and the two of them — if you heed the Daily Tripe — are the most obnoxious pair to set foot in the USA.

It's most odd. Either George and Andy have totally cracked up or the nationals have been responsible for a wonderful 52 week series of mindbogling fiction. Anyway, now the boys are ready for some plain-speaking, so hold onto your chair-covers...

So did you shake a lot of hands in America ?

George : It was horrible. That was the one lesson we learnt there. If you want to get the top in America you have to compromise right till the very end. We're really not interested (smiles)... Unless they've got huge jubbles... (pauses, deep in philosophical thought)... I think 'jubbles' should become a national word.

Andy : (making strange juggling movements) Yes ! Jubbly spufflewubs !

Were you given over-the-top treatment in America ?

Andy : Yeah, the motorcycle escort...

George : That's right. When we turned up to the big gig that you saw in LA, we had about eight motorcycles round this great white limousine. I recognised them all from Chips !

Andy : It was unbelievable. They stopped all the traffic going across so we didn't have to stop at one set of lights through the whole city !

George : Sadly I missed it all 'cos my back was out. I was lying on the floor of the limo. Oh God, we did a real no-no as we entered the gig.

Andy : Na...

George : Oh I thought it was terrible ! I would have been so pissed off... Halfway through Chaka Khan's set we entered the gig and we didn't realise she was on.

Andy : I did.

George : You bastard ! I didn't ! Anyway, there was this long driveway up to backstage and the stalls could see us arriving. All 50,000 people started jumping up and down and waving. In the middle of her set ! When I think about it it was dreadful. Chaka probably thought she'd done something really great. She probably played the song again for her encore.

Did you meet any artists in America you got on with ?

Andy : We met The Bee Gees who were very generous and nice to us.

George : Yeah. They've been around a long time. Mostly when you get respect from people it's those who've been around a long time and seen a lot of people come and go. They know we're not going to come and go.
Andy : The Bee Gees have come and gone and come back a few times. They've got such talent. I suppose they were more heroes of our past though — Saturday Night Fever when we were going to discos.

What's happened to the Wham! In China film ?

Andy : It's being re-edited and hopefully it'll be on TV...

George : Transvestite...

Andy : And cable in America. After that it should be out on video by the end of 1986.

Did you ever plan to show it at the cinema ?

Andy : The director, Lindsay Anderson, and our management definitely entertained the ideas but we never did. Especially after seeing it. It'll be a good documentary but it's not of the right quality for a film.

Have you been shown on MTV since you missed the awards ?

George : We have, actually.

Andy : That f*****g woman there ! MTV treat themselves like Kings and Queens.

George : It's one of those awful things where they've established a monopoly very quickly. I have no real regard for it anymore. I really don't. There's a lot of bullshit in America I can't be bothered with. If that means people don't want to play our records or our videos then that's the way it's got to be. There's no point working as hard as we've worked the last couple of years to get to this stage and still be compromising. I don't care what the hell anyone says ; we're in the position we are 'cos our records are good. We've put a lot of time and care into that. There's no point letting people bully you. It's tough shit on them.