PCPS Light: WHAM!’s “Ten Days in China” and How It Helped Them MAKE IT BIG!
Michelle Newman 0:00
Welcome to another light episode of the Pop Culture Preservation Society. These are the episodes we give you in between the fuller seasons that are light on research, preparation, and editing, but never light on content. And with a twist of lemon, can't you guys? Can you taste it? I can taste it. Just a whiff. It's so much fresher. Yeah, it's just a whiff, but it's a little
Carolyn Cochrane 0:23
sour, a little tangy. It's tangy. Oh, I like that
Michelle Newman 0:27
tangy. Basically, it's how we give ourselves a little break every 10 weeks, but not you, never you, never you. Oh, I
Kristin Nilsen 0:34
like that. That's a good way of putting it.
Michelle Newman 0:37
And today's conversation is fantastic. And yes, that's a pun that only the true Wham fans will appreciate. Do you guys get
Kristin Nilsen 0:47
it? No, I don't get it. Their first album was called
Michelle Newman 0:50
their first album was called Fantastic. Okay, on July 28, you guys, I went to the one night only release of the film Wham: 10 Days in China, which documents the historic 1985 tour, well, two city tour if you want a two city performance. Let's say when George Michael and Andrew Ridgley became the first major Western pop act to perform in communist China. Did either of you know about this in 1985?
Kristin Nilsen 1:21
Oh my God, no! Yeah, and it's okay.
Michelle Newman 1:23
You cannot say it's okay if you did it. Like
Kristin Nilsen 1:24
geopolitics, geopo. Hello, geopolitics. Thank you. Was not really in my wheelhouse at that time. Yeah, and I mean, honey, how would we know? How would we know? We were little children.
Michelle Newman 1:36
I knew because I'm like much like Duran Duran. I think you guys listening on this podcast. I'm the PCPS representative of all of you true Wham fans out there. I was obsessed with them. Yeah, their music, their style. I still am. Like I still am. Nothing gets me grooving like putting on some Wham. Like that's my that's my jam. It sounds like and so you've got
Carolyn Cochrane 1:57
a Wham Jam. Oh my man, thank you, ma'am.
Michelle Newman 2:01
I love it. I was about to say you could make that sound dirty, but I don't want to. Okay, so a little background, and you guys, this is coming from the Googles because I'm not very. Wait, can I
Kristin Nilsen 2:13
insert something before you start that? Yeah. This this whole this whole idea of me being kind of clueless at the time came became very clear to me when, just completely coincidentally, last night I saw the video for freedom, just came on randomly, and that's all footage of their trip to China, and I'm sure I saw it a million times, and so I understood that they went to China. I didn't think that meant anything. It was like, oh, look at all the Chinese people. Beep, beep,
Michelle Newman 2:44
beep. Can we back up for just a second?
Kristin Nilsen 2:46
Yeah.
Michelle Newman 2:46
What do you mean? It just randomly came on. Were you watching MT? What were you watching? I
Kristin Nilsen 2:51
was watching one of those channels that comes on my Samsung TV before I turn on Hulu. Like it pops up automatically. Like the Roku
Michelle Newman 2:59
channel or something. Yes. Yes. It's
Kristin Nilsen 3:01
like a it's a deep track channel, and I just have it set to that, and it's playing videos all the time. So before I turn on Hulu, that is the video that's on, and now I know I'm watching all the Chinese people. I'm like, oh my god! Now I realize what a big deal this this was. But as I but as I was watching it as a teenager, I'm like, and then they went to China, right? I think it was
Carolyn Cochrane 3:21
probably where I was. I probably knew on some level, but it was just like, oh, they went to China, and then they went to Holland. I don't know. It just yeah, no big deal. It
Michelle Newman 3:30
was super historic. I mean, so historic. So good to know. So a little background, and this is coming straight from the Googles, you guys, because I'm not very well versed on Communist China and its timeline,
Carolyn Cochrane 3:42
yeah,
Michelle Newman 3:42
and I'm not going to apologize for that. No, no, I'm fine with that. I am fine to sit in that ignorance. I truly am. Okay, so in 1985, China was still under strict communist rule, but it was beginning to open its doors to the West. But Western youth culture remained largely unknown, and Wham's manager Simon Napier Bell, he spent 18 months negotiating with government officials, like prior, so 18 months to position Wham as the ideal as the ideal wholesome Western pop group for China's youth because it had to be very wholesome. They were very adamant that it can't be like if we're going to start opening our doors to this, you know, Western music. It can't be drugs and sex and you know all this terrible. I want your
Kristin Nilsen 4:32
sex. Pre, I want your sex. Yes, right.
Michelle Newman 4:35
Well, and something very very interesting to me that I learned in the documentary, and maybe some of you out there are like, yeah, we knew that. I did not know this, but wham, they hadn't really broken big in the United States yet during that time, like in 1980, end of 1984. And to be honest, they didn't have the patience to start at the bottom. They were huge in the UK. And I remember you guys. We went to London the. The between Christmas and New Year's, 1983, going into 1984, and my sister was looking for. We got a little wham, like a little button for our jean jackets. So they were just starting there. Anyway, so
Kristin Nilsen 5:14
you did know who they were at that point, but they hadn't they hadn't become a they hadn't become superstars yet.
Michelle Newman 5:20
In 1984 is really when you know they kind of became bigger. Let's just say, but in the UK it was before that. So anyway, so they hadn't broken in the United States yet, and they really didn't want. They didn't have the patience to start at the bottom. Like they say, we didn't really want to have to start all over. Like we were big in the UK. We didn't want to go to the America and start playing in small venues and working our way up to the level of success we've already found in the UK. That's a
Kristin Nilsen 5:49
slap in the face. Yeah,
Michelle Newman 5:50
yeah. And George, and in this documentary, Andrew Ridgley does admit because he's in it, like current day. Andrew Ridgley, and he does say George had some undiagnosed vocal nodules and stuff like that. So at the time, he wasn't able to really, you know, kind of go through all of that all over again. Anyway, so this two-city tour in China, which was Beijing first and then Guangzhou, I hope I'm saying that right. It was really all a publicity stunt to make it big. That's another good pun. Okay, I got that wham fans. Okay, good wham fans. Yeah, their album in America, and they figured all the attention they'd get from the press by being the first Western pop group to break into communist China would lay much of the groundwork they would need to hit it big in America. This is brilliant. And they, I
Kristin Nilsen 6:42
got to give it to them. This is really brilliant,
Michelle Newman 6:44
and they were right. They were right because after all of this, when they then went to America the summer after this tour, they sold out stadiums because of all the publicity. But also, be careful what you wish for, boys, big time, because in this documentary, we quickly see that George and Andrew were overwhelmed by the media. They, the media was rabid, and the music journalists. And in their defense, like in the journalist defense, of course they were. I mean, this was pop history, right? Of course they were going to be like chasing them down. But the boys, I call them the boys because I can.
Kristin Nilsen 7:21
Yeah,
Michelle Newman 7:22
that's why I like to call them. They were pretty impatient and they were pretty short with them, but I have to say, in their defense, in George and Andrew's defense, they were children. I mean, at the time, they were 21 and 22 years
Speaker 1 7:34
old. What? What?
Kristin Nilsen 7:35
Yeah. Yeah. What? Oh my God! I was thinking. I was going to ask you that because I was thinking, yeah, if you're like 2526, that's really young to be doing that. Yeah, you were 21 and 22.
Michelle Newman 7:47
George Michael was 21, and Andrew Ridgely was 22.
Kristin Nilsen 7:49
Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Yeah, that is
Carolyn Cochrane 7:52
a lot. Yeah, and there's anybody
Michelle Newman 7:55
this documentary. There's lots of fun footage of this of the media chasing them down in the way they react to them, I just love it. One of my favorites is they take them to the Great Wall of China because they're like photo op, photo op, Great Wall of China. They go and of course they're wearing their like their sunglasses and stuff, and they're kind of joking with each other because they're making them like walk real slow. And there's like you know this pack of media walking backwards with their giant cameras, and George and Andrew are just kind of like rolling their eyes, like, "Oh my God! And then, of course, there's they're having them take pictures with little like two year old children completely dressed in like communist police. You know, you can pregame like the little yes, or the little caps,
Kristin Nilsen 8:33
yeah, like little police caps almost.
Michelle Newman 8:35
Oh yeah, yeah. And in one of them, Andrew Ridgley's got his sunglasses on, and they're yelling. They're like, "Andrew, Andrew, can we have one without the sunglasses, please, Andrew? And he just stands there like he like he's deaf, like he can't hear them, and he just stands there still posing, doesn't even make a move to touch his sunglasses. And part of me, it's like it is very 22 year old kind of
Kristin Nilsen 8:58
yeah being
Michelle Newman 8:59
kind of you know bratty. I'm too
Kristin Nilsen 9:01
cool for you. He's
Michelle Newman 9:02
22. All a lot of this stuff I'm talking about, listeners, too. I wrote an article like the a couple of days after I saw this documentary for our Substack, and so a lot of this is is in there. So if you read that piece, you might be going, Michelle, you're repeating yourself. I just want to tell everyone it's so entertaining.
Carolyn Cochrane 9:23
I, you know, I'm not a wham fan as like Michelle is, and I did not see the documentary, and I was so entertained reading your little piece. It's so Michelle. It's so fun to read,
Kristin Nilsen 9:34
and it's and it's historic, right? It's talking about our not just our pop culture history, but but all history. If you don't know what Substack is, let me explain. This is another social media platform that might be best for the introverts among us. If you if you are really frustrated with social media and you're like, I hate Facebook, Substack might be for you because this is where people get to go and give you more. Long-form content, like Michelle wrote a whole. You know, it'll take you five minutes to read it. A whole, a whole article on this, on her reaction to this Wham documentary. And so Substack is a subscription service, so you you'll have to subscribe to our PCPS Substack, and I think you can just go to Substack.com and put in Pop Culture Preservation Society, and it will pop up. Don't worry; it will ask you how much you want to pay. Don't let that scare you away. You don't have to pay. There's a little button where you can say, "I'm paying none, and that's fine. And we keep track
Carolyn Cochrane 10:35
of all those people that say, "I'm
Kristin Nilsen 10:38
paying none. Just kidding. But it's a really it's a really cool thing to scroll because people are putting really thoughtful things there. It's not a place for arguments. It's not a place for people being trolls in the comments. It's really about people putting very long form reflections and opinions. It's sort of like the opinion section of the paper more so, and also I have my own Substack as well. It's called Biblio Crush, and it's where you can follow my my my book career. It's where I put a lot of ranty things. It's a different thing than social media entirely. It's not short form. It's not quick things. It's not it's not ranty people really. Although you know I rant a couple of times, but that's a rarity. That's a rarity. Am I making Substack? Yeah, and at all. And I
Michelle Newman 11:25
think that something else that's really fun for the three of us we should mention is that you know we're all writers, and we all met in our writing group. And so I know for me at least, since we started our Substack, it's been really fun to start writing again because I used to write for different you know online publications for many years, and I had my own blog for many many years, and so it's really fun. And I would say, Kristen, when you just said it's like the ranty, y'all don't let that scare you away because like Kristen's biblio crush, there might be one or two ranty. It's all very fun. I need a
Kristin Nilsen 11:58
rant about a book. Let's put it that way. Like this is very tame.
Michelle Newman 12:01
The things that we write are very much in our voices. I love one of the comments we got. Like on, I've written a few things or a couple things for ours, and someone said, "Oh, I could just hear Michelle like saying all this because they they're used to hearing me talk. And it was really fun to get back to writing and to and to reignite that voice that I have because it is very much my same voice, but it's through my fingertips, and you can have a little bit more fun with that sometimes. So it's where we've had a blast. We
Kristin Nilsen 12:29
say more games are writing chops,
Carolyn Cochrane 12:32
and a little bit deeper. I would say, like you know, yes, we're reflecting on maybe an episode or a pop culture moment, but we're also telling a little bit more about ourselves and maybe why certain things, you know, just affected us in different ways. Like I probably will write a little bit about being the mother of the bride the day after the wedding and what that's like because I need my people out there to. I wasn't prepared for what that was going to be like, and I'd like to kind of process that through. So I think you'll see maybe a little bit of a different side of us come out in our Substack writings than you would listening to us on the podcast. Yeah, I
Kristin Nilsen 13:09
just this morning I was actually noodling on writing something about Madonna because I've got some affairs. Do it! I love it. It's coming. It's coming. I
Michelle Newman 13:17
think too. If you want to think of it, when people ask me like, "What is Substack? I say, "Think about if you had a bulletin board. If you had one place for all your blogs that you used to maybe read, and it's it's like a bulletin board kind of for your blogs. But but sometimes people write two sentences on their Substack or a little video. We might do a live video. So yeah, highly encourage go to Substack. There's an app for it. Yes, you can go to the website too, but you just have to search Pop Culture Preservation Society, and you'll find us. You'll find us. Anywho, back to wham. I just wanted to talk about a couple of instances that were really, oh gosh, what was the word? I would just say like impactful, emotional for me during this documentary. Like I said earlier, China was slowly moving away from Maoism, and as a push to build bridges with the West, the government, you know, like I said, began to cautiously permit these Western ideas and very selectively Western culture into the country, and the teens in Beijing, especially, went bonkers, bonkers. There's a scene where so when you when they knew they were coming, everybody in both cities they're running around with these flyers, these like bright pink flyers with a picture of George Michael and Andrew Ridgley. Picture George Michael and Andrew Ridgely in 1985. I know they are so so cute. Okay, so
Kristin Nilsen 14:47
beautiful. They're such beautiful people. They
Michelle Newman 14:49
are, and so they just the hair. Oh my god, the hair. So the teens are like freaking out just with these flyers. Also, they're colorful. Everything was very gray. In Beijing, yes, and beige clothing. Everything was,
Kristin Nilsen 15:04
you know, like don't pay attention to monochrome. And here comes Wham, going, pay attention to us.
Michelle Newman 15:09
Well, and think about Wham. What do you know about Wham? When you think of Wham's music, you think of bubblegum poppy bopping around the stage. You think of plaid. You think of the poppy dancing, flamboyant. Yeah, so fun. So they're all they all of these flyers. So I think you got like they were giving away free cassette tapes for some. I think it was and people out there screaming that know exactly. I've kind of forgotten why, but anyway, there's a scene. A whole bunch of teens run into a big store that sells like an electronics store, and they have these cassette tapes, and they're they're shouting at the people to get down the boombox. Well, you guys, the clerk takes down a boombox that is probably three feet long. She takes down this giant boombox, and she pops in the tape, and oh, you just love the sound, right? And they're all crowded around it, and you hear the jitterbug, jitterbug. Just you could hear it, right? You put the boom boom into my head, and they the the face. They are expressionless. The teens that have been running in there, they're just staring, like they don't even know what to make of this music that's coming out. They have think about it. They have never ever heard music like this. At one point in the documentary, they say they had had some country music from the West come in. They had never heard pop music like this. By the end of Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, they are smiling and dancing, and you can tell they're trying to sing along with it, but they don't understand. You know what is happening. I loved that. That was just like super. It just made me mind
Carolyn Cochrane 16:51
of like on social media now, where you'll see the the little babies or the little kids who will get their glasses for the first time, and all of a sudden they can see their parent or their you know cochlear implants, and they can hear for the first time, and they've never heard, and that face of a little bit of like disbelief and what is this, and then it just transforms. I can see that
Michelle Newman 17:11
exactly. That's like the best way to compare it. It's that's exactly what it is. However, so this is Beijing. However, the concert later that night or the next day, totally different story. Wham's tour, like Wham's performance, it had to be personally vetted and approved, like at the highest levels of the Communist Party, and the audience in Beijing was heavily populated with government officials, military personnel. It reminded me of like that concert scene at the sound of music, where they're doing the concert, and then you just always see the military at the back, like making sure,
Kristin Nilsen 17:47
yeah, just sitting there,
Michelle Newman 17:48
100% You make sure that the audience is not getting out of control, but more importantly, you're making sure what's going on on that stage is is politically correct, right? Even a lot of the audience members were handpicked, like university students. Like you know, you're going to behave yourself. So, so yeah, just like in sound of music, there's armed police and security lining the aisles. They're making sure the audience didn't get too wild by like you know their standards. So, there's George and Andrew. They come out. They start with "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go. And you guys, if you know, if you've ever seen any of their almost so many of their videos are is like their stage show. So you know their backup singers and their bands, they are dancing just with them. They're bopping along with them. They are just going crazy on stage. They're being wham. And actually, and wake me up before you go. Go go. George Michael like speeds it up because they're looking out and nobody's doing anything. It is crazy fast. It's like so funny to watch. But you guys, the audience are so bewildered by what is happening in front of them, and I think probably a little scared to get into it because
Carolyn Cochrane 18:57
into it exactly like you said. Yeah, they taking
Kristin Nilsen 19:00
names. Yeah, they get in trouble.
Michelle Newman 19:02
Well, someone does. They're being watched by the police, and they know it. And there's one guy, and after a while, he cannot keep the dance inside. And listen, I get it. To this day, if I hear if any wham comes on, I people driving next to me think I'm weird. I cannot keep the dance inside, and he hops up on his seat to dance, and he gets taken to jail. He gets taken away. They take him away. They pull him out. Yeah, yeah. George Michael has famously described that Beijing show as the hardest performance I've ever given in my life because there was zero response from the crowd, and you-they didn't know what to do. Of course, you do.
Carolyn Cochrane 19:42
Like there's that energy and that kinetic feeling that you you would get from an audience in a live performance, and I can't imagine. I'm feeling just my heart hurts for Ram right now, just trying to pull it off.
Michelle Newman 19:56
And what's cool about this documentary is that all this footage has never been seen. Before, because they were making a doc, they had planned. Let's make a documentary. They hired this very famous director and all this stuff, so they got all this footage. They never made it. So what's happened is all this footage has just been sitting back in like the vault. And Andrew Ridgley, over the past couple years, they finally put it all together. So this is the first time a lot of this has been seen. So you do get to see them leave the stage after that Beijing performance, you get to see them backstage and what their reactions are, and it's it's pretty it's pretty great. But then a few nights later, and is it Guangzhou? Yeah, Guangzhou. That show was considerably more relaxed. One huge reason is that Guangzhou's location is in southern China. It's just right across the border from Hong Kong. Don't make me pin that on a map, anyway, please. But it meant that the the population there was already far more exposed to Western culture. Okay, they had something called Canta Pop, which is Cantonese pop music, and they had cross border radio podcasts from Hong Kong. So you have to know that they this is more familiar to them, so unlike the audience in Beijing, which you know had virtually zero exposure to modern Western pop, the crowd in Guangzhou was much more familiar with the music, the genre that was so much looser. The crowd's picking up on their energy, they're dancing, they're clapping, they're cheering, and you can tell George Michael and Andrew Ridgley were having so much more of a blast because there it was almost like way more acceptable,
Kristin Nilsen 21:28
yeah,
Michelle Newman 21:28
for them to be dancing, and they were, and they were just they were losing their minds.
Kristin Nilsen 21:33
So that means that the video that I saw, the video for freedom, must be Guangxi or must be whatever. Sorry, China. I know, yeah, because those people were standing on their chairs and they were, and they were dancing along. Yes, for
Michelle Newman 21:48
sure. Yeah. Anyway, just a couple other highlights for me from the documentary in the Guangzhou show, the extended sax solo at the open of Careless Whisper. So you picture no no no no no no you know their musician who plays it was just him that solo under a spotlight and the looks on all their faces too and I also you know he's a black man and I had to wonder had they ever seen a black man like playing the saxophone up on stage like performing for them absolutely beautiful and then here comes George Michael Spotlit, black stage singing "Careless Whisper, and oh my god, so like goosebumps! I it moved me to tears. It truly did. Yeah, the fashion is so fun in this in this so
Kristin Nilsen 22:37
good.
Michelle Newman 22:38
You guys give me an oversized plaid blazer, some skinny black jeans, ankle length, white socks, and black loafers. Today, they are perfect. They're perfect. And I also
Kristin Nilsen 22:50
I wondered as I and again I'm just remembered the video. I didn't see the movie. This is all from a three band video that I saw last night, and the and everything is kind of oversized but structured at the same time, and it matches almost the structure of their hair. Like the jacket mirrors the shape of their hair. It
Carolyn Cochrane 23:07
does.
Kristin Nilsen 23:08
And I'm looking at these people dressed in drab military uniforms. Everything is so drab, and I'm and and wham looks. They must think this is the coolest thing I've ever seen. Like the cool factor. It's like turn it up to 11, and they don't get to see cool factor,
Carolyn Cochrane 23:25
right? They don't see it before they sing or open their mouths. They've made a statement. Yes,
Kristin Nilsen 23:30
yes, yes. The
Michelle Newman 23:31
contradiction is is so apparent because you know this was April of 1985, and if you look at what these teens are wearing into the concert. You would think it was April of 1965. The girls are in like knee-length skirts, you know, little flats, little sweaters. You know, many of the boys are in ties. You know, like you would think it was 1965. And then George Michael, of course, George Michael comes out in his big blazer, but no shirt underneath it, and his big brooch. And I tell you what, that that he was just delicious. Talk about going from
Carolyn Cochrane 24:10
zero to 60 in like you know no time. It's not like they had what do I want to say? Like the Osmonds came first, and they were introduced to the Osmonds, and then you know I don't know. We elevate that a little bit, but they were like, "Let's just cut to the chase here. And yeah,
Kristin Nilsen 24:26
yeah, this is the perfect package for Western culture. Like, of course, they want people want to be in on what is cool and what is fun, and so here comes Wham. There's no midway. They are they are on fire, new wave fashion, and like you said, the little shoes and the white socks and the shirt and the floods and the the jackets, the blazers are just so loud. Everything is so loud.
Michelle Newman 24:51
Well, and I also think you know George Michael wasn't out publicly
Kristin Nilsen 24:55
right,
Michelle Newman 24:55
right at the time, so that probably would have made a huge difference. And if they were allowed in. Had he been think about that, and because the glimpse for me too, just just the hour and a half glimpse of them backstage of just them who they were, they're you know they're best friends. If you guys have not seen the other the documentary from 2023 on Netflix, just the Wham documentary, it is so so good, and you get their whole story from childhood being childhood friends and how they started. Yeah, straight from
Kristin Nilsen 25:26
his mouth. Straight from his mouth. You
Michelle Newman 25:28
do get a lot of George Michael interviews and talking about Wham in there.
Kristin Nilsen 25:33
Yeah,
Michelle Newman 25:33
but I highly recommend that. So you know they've been friends since you know they were children, went to school together. They were mates, but this one I just love seeing them goof around with each other and like their little private jokes. I mean, you know, they had their final concert as Wham only a little over a year later after those China shows in June of 1986. What they were only Wham for four years, yeah, and it was a very very amicable split. Like George Michael has famously had famously said, it's the most amicable split in pop music because Andrew Ridgley was super supportive that he could tell George Michael was going places and needed to just take off the song and singer on his own. Like
Kristin Nilsen 26:15
the best person ever. He is a good person, especially like if you watch that Wham documentary, not the one you're talking about, the other one we're talking about. Yeah, yeah. You the love that he has still for his friend, and how he did not, yeah, Yog, how he didn't have any jealousy is beyond me. And when we were watching the video last night, Mike said, you know, if you didn't know better, you would think Wham was just George Michael when you watch the video. There are so many people on stage, and everybody, like you said before, everybody on the stage is involved. Everybody is dancing. Everybody gets a turn up front, and Andrew Ridgley is almost as if he's just one of those people. Now, a lesser man would be salty about that, and he is not, and I remember when I arrived on campus freshman year, and I met my freshman year roommate, and somehow it came out that she thought that Andrew Ridgley was cuter than George Michael, and I was like, "Who now? Like, who's that person that you're talking about? But now, now that I see him in both of these roles, I agree. He is a nice-looking man, and maybe I'm turned on by the fact that he's such a good person. Right, that is my love language.
Michelle Newman 27:27
I love both. I think they're to me they were always apples and oranges. Like, yeah, I think yes. Back when I had their posters on my wall and all that stuff, and thinking George Michael, we played for the same team. Yeah, I was like all about George Michael. However, I think as I've gotten older, I love both of them. And you guys, yes, when you watch, if you watch, and you should go right now and watch the 2023 Wham documentary. I think it's still on Netflix. In fact, I think I'm going to go watch it again today. I know. He Andrew Ridgley today, like current day, Andrew Ridley, handsome AF, like he is, and he's so still so stylish. Yeah, he is a great. He runs their Insta, or he's a huge part of their Instagram. So you should look at them. Wham official, I think it is on Instagram, but Andrew Ridgley has one as well. Yeah, I love it. So again, this documentary was one night only. I'm saying that that's not what it was called. It was called Way Down 10 Days in China. They they released it to theaters on July 28th. It's not in theaters anymore. I I'm wondering if they released it so it could be part of the awards. They could put their throw their hat in the ring for awards. Maybe they are going to release it on BBC this month, I believe, and then there, I for everything I've researched and found out, does say it will be widely available to stream, but no word yet. I can't find about when or where, so it will, and we'll keep you all updated on that, like through social media, because it's so worth your time, just for the historical aspect of it alone, but also for the Blazers, and let me just say that George Michael agrees to do an entire interview while he's getting a massage, and the Chinese man who's giving him his massage lifts that towel up a little high a couple times to massage the tops of George Michael's buttocks, and you get a little glimpse for about four minutes of George Michael's fun artists. Oh, I bet their whole like interviews. They are so smooth, Kristen. Oh God, it's so good. So, yeah. So I highly recommend that. Another thing I highly recommend everyone go push play on like "I'm Your Man" or "Freedom" right after you listen to this, and dance around your house, sing loudly in your car, it is one of the best dopamine hits. So fun, and I promise you'll feel better afterward. Don't you guys think?
Kristin Nilsen 29:48
Oh yeah, oh absolutely. Or wake me up before
Michelle Newman 29:50
you go go. I mean, what a bop! Is there a better one? Is there a
Carolyn Cochrane 29:53
better bop? My favorite original man,
Michelle Newman 29:55
but yeah, it is so for sure. Anyway, thanks for listening, everyone, and we'll be. Back next week with oh before I say that let's plug should we plug the Substack one more time I'll say that too. But don't forget if
Kristin Nilsen 30:06
don't forget if you liked our content here today you can get a little bit deeper on the piece that Michelle wrote on Substack. So go to Substack.com, put Pop Culture Preservation Society in the search bar. You don't have to pay unless you want to. Some people have decided they they want to pay for these extra words that we have. Thank you,
Michelle Newman 30:26
and thank you by the way for those of you that have really for those of you who
Kristin Nilsen 30:29
are paying. But you are not obligated to pay and hit subscribe, and you can read the things that we have to say, including this.
Michelle Newman 30:35
Yeah, and so thanks for listening, everyone, and we'll be back next week with another light and refreshing episode.
Kristin Nilsen 30:43
Thanks, Justin. Thank you. Whiff
Michelle Newman 30:45
of whiff of lemon.
Kristin Nilsen 30:46
Just a whiff. Yeah, just a
Speaker 2 30:47
little, a little squeeze. Just a little squeeze. That's
Carolyn Cochrane 30:49
right.