FROM THE EDITOR
LET’S CELEBRATE THE GEORGE MICHAEL YEARS!
CHRISTMAS DAY – last Christmas – came the news that George Michael had died. At first I thought it was a tasteless hoax; one of George’s biggest hits with Wham! was about Christmas.
Sadly, it was true. George Michael’s life was tragically encapsulated in the platitude “gone too soon” in headlines around the world. He was just 53. There followed the usual outpouring of grief, the naming of George as an icon, and the rather irrational finger-pointing at 2016 itself as some evil undoer of beloved pop stars.
I preferred George’s music with Wham! over his solo work. Young Guns (Go For It!) and Wham
Rap! – it’s hard not to have fun with songs with exclamation marks in the titles! With their suntans, speedos and obvious close bond, George and Andrew Ridgeley were gayer than Christmas! (Even though Andrew was straight.) They were never going to hook-up with their frumpy back-up singers, Pepsi and Shirely – they were too busy putting shuttlecocks down their shorts and giving each other piggybacks around the beach.
I liked George a lot. Not so much his grown-up music, but how he lived his life as an unashamed gay man after his spectacular outing. It was 1998, he was in a public toilet in a park in Beverley Hills. He cruised a hot Latino – who turned out to be an undercover cop, and was busted and charged with committing a “lewd” act in public. George was one of the biggest music stars in the world, so it was massive news. And it would have killed the career of a lesser mortal; but not George.
Finally, the truth he’d wanted to tell the world for years was out. A weight was lifted from his shoulders and Freedom waved hello. He hit the talk show circuit rather than hiding in shame. He spoke about being gay, his open-ish relationship with Kenny Goss, his previous relationship with Anselmo Feleppa who died from an AIDS-related illness in 1993, about wanting to protect his conservative mum from his sexuality, and about coming out as gay in a world gripped by AIDS panic. He laughed it off and the world laughed with him.
Meanwhile, Michael Jackson was at home. Sitting in a closet. Sweating up a storm.
George released Outside; in my opinion, one of his best solo singles. It ridiculed the LAPD’s entrapment policy, it shrugged off the 80 hours of community service he was ordered to perform. “I’d service the community but you know that I already have…” he sang with a saucy grin. It was a sarcastic pop-tastic comeback with a disco soundtrack – and in the video George played a hunky LA cop in a public loo that turned into a nighclub with “lewd acts” galore. “Fuck you LAPD. Fuck you anyone who feels like judging me,” was George’s not-subtle subtext. “I own this.”
George went on to live his life like millions of gay men do – including cruising hook-up apps for sex. And he did this without fear or self-judgement. Chances are, if you were on Grindr or Scruff or Gaydar (back in the day) when George was, and you were his type, he’d have hit you up. For one of the most famous men in the world, and one of the richest entertainers, that took balls. There are closeted gay entertainers, even today, whose dates are arranged by their agents and personal assistants. George made no apologies for being George, being gay, or going after the kind of sex he liked.
In this issue, George is remembered by our Entertainment bloke, Marc Andrews who encountered him during his time working on pop magazines, and on a Sydney dancefloor. Steve Pafford writes about meeting George on Gaydar and how that unfolded. And there’s a revealing anecdote from Paul Mac, the Aussie dance music legend.
Fan or not, I hope you enjoy these unusually frank stories about George’s life. He was a trailblazer who smoothed the way for the likes of Sam Smith, Adam Lambert and Troye Sivan.
A toast to you, George Michael!
Outside was a sarcastic pop-tastic comeback with a disco soundtrack. The not-subtle subtext: fuck you!