'Wham! concerts changed lives in China' - Ridgeley
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- Wham! became the first Western pop act to perform in communist China, landing in Beijing in April 1985 — four months before embarking on a sellout US stadium tour.
- Ridgeley, 63, said the concerts' most "powerful and important" legacy was personal: motivating some audience members to pursue careers as singers or DJs they would not otherwise have chosen.
- "Wham! 10 Days in China," a documentary featuring remastered footage and interviews with fans whose lives were redirected by the trip, will be released in cinemas worldwide on 28 July before airing on BBC Two.
- Simon Napier-Bell, Wham!'s manager, planned the China trip as a "masterstroke" publicity stunt to generate global headlines and raise the duo's profile for a US stadium tour.
- In archive footage featured in the documentary, the late George Michael called the trip "a bit of a nightmare" but also a "great privilege" to bring real western pop music to Chinese audiences.
- Ridgeley traced the partnership to Bushey Meads School in Hertfordshire in 1974, where he was the only pupil to volunteer when a teacher asked for help settling in the new boy, later known as "Yog."
Why it matters: Ridgeley's 28 July cinema release of "Wham! 10 Days in China" recasts Napier-Bell's calculated 1985 publicity gambit as the band's most personal legacy — redirecting credit from the manager's commercial strategy to the music's accidental impact on individual Chinese fans who became singers and DJs decades later.
