George Michael was recently spotted cruising with a couple of guys even as his relationship with Kenny Goss is in the doldrums, it has emerged.
The singer was reportedly seen boozing and smoking cannabis joints in the morning as he snuggled up to one of the mates aboard his luxury yacht.
George, 46, had a good [...]
Posts Tagged ‘George Michael’
George Michael’s relationship with Kenny Goss ‘sinking fast’
March 12th, 2010 |
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Fresh concerns mount after George Michael’s careless slip
February 11th, 2010 |
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Fresh concern is mounting over George Michael”’’s drug abuse after police were called to his home in the middle of the night because he had wandered off, leaving the door open.
He was soon found by officers in a building around 200 yards away, though there”’’s confusion as to whether he was visiting his neighbours or [...]
12 Most Disappointing Grammy Follow-Ups
February 1st, 2010 |
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It’s a story that plays like a broken record: Band gets started, band makes great album, success comes quickly and leaves just as soon, as it goes with the sophomore slump album.
Christmas Crunch Crumbs: Did Courtney Love Abuse Her Daughter?; Is Lily Allen Engaged?; The Muppets Sing “The 12 Days Of Christmasâ€
December 24th, 2009 |
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Happy Holidays, My Glorious PopCrunch Fam! Cassie’s going to be in vacay mode for the next few days, but before I get out of here, I want to give you a few stories from around the blogosphere and a list of links for the road. Enjoy the holidays and be safe! Let’s get to it:
-”The [...]
George Michael apologises for radio swearing
December 17th, 2009 |
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George Michael recently swore on a radio show, but was quick to apologize.
The singer was speaking on the Chris Evans radio show aired on Radio 2.
Evan inquired why the pop star, who is car fanatic, has never appeared on Top Gear as the “star in a reasonably-priced car”.
Michael replied: “Other than the fact I”d be [...]
George Michael ‘came close to nervous breakdown after split’
October 6th, 2009 |
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Singer George Michael had come close to a nervous breakdown after his split with partner Kenny Goss, it has emerged.
The ‘Careless Whisper’ hitmaker’s lover had left him after he was arrested for possessing drugs last year.
Michael’s close pals have now revealed that he had become like “a hermit†in his North London mansion after [...]
George Michael arrested, maybe DUI
August 16th, 2009 |
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British singer George Michael was arrested Friday after being involved in a car accident in Berkshire, England.
The singer’s silver Landrover colided with another truck just after midnight and the police were called to the scene. Michael was held under suspicion of being under the influence. Hmmm………
Now, dont get us wrong, we love George Michael, but [...]
George Michael Arrested For DUI Following Car Crash
August 15th, 2009 |
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George Michael has been arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence after being involved in a car crash in England, the BBC reports.
The 46-year-old former Wham! singer was taken into custody after his Land Rover and another vehicle collided. After being held for five hours and questioned, he was released.
In 2007, Michael [...]
Summer in a song
July 23rd, 2009 |
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Throw open the windows, kick off your shoes and mix yourself an ice-cold cocktail . . . producers, pundits and pop stars reveal the secret to a great holiday single
What makes a song perfect for the summer? Britain’s first No 1 holiday hit was Jerry Keller’s Here Comes Summer. Topping the charts in 1959, it celebrated teenage innocence and escape: “School is out, oh happy day/ Here comes summer/ I’m going to grab my girl and run away.” Strangely, the American’s song reached the top spot in the UK in the rather unseasonal month of October, but perhaps this shows us that some summer singles are more about dreams than sweaty, sunburnt reality. This year, the big hit is expected to be Dizzee Rascal and Calvin Harris’s imminent Holiday, a dancefloor-stormer about the typical British experience abroad, featuring the lines: “Don’t judge my passport photo/ I know I look a bit loco.”
From the Beach Boys going surfin’ USA, to the Kinks lazing on a sunny afternoon, from Grease’s summer lovers to the Isley Brothers’ summer breeze, summer pop has always been about escape – and, for buttoned-up Brits, mainly about having a party, a singalong and buckets of booze. Mungo Jerry’s In the Summertime, the first No 1 summer song from a British artist, directed us in 1970 to “have a drink, have a drive”, before sensibly suggesting that we should “signal a cab” and bring our “bottle waggin’ back”.
And then a decade later came the daddy of them all, Wham!’s Club Tropicana, which took us to a sunshine wonderland where the drinks were free. George Michael tipping his cherry-red cocktail into a sky-blue pool became the ultimate expression of that decade’s cheesy decadence.
There’s also the summer novelty song. Evidence that we all go a little daft in the sunshine, the phenomenon was kick-started by Barbados in 1975, a song by a band called Typically Tropical about the delights of Coconut Airways (can you see a theme here?). It was reworked by the Vengaboys for their 1999 hit, We’re Going to Ibiza.
How do you cook up a summer hit – and is it easy as it sounds? We asked a producer, a pundit, a radio boss and musicians from pop’s past and present to tell us what gets them in the holiday mood . . .
The chart-topper
Elly Jackson, singer in La Roux
Our song Bulletproof has sort of become a summer song. I don’t really know why. We did write it in the summer, though. I think sunny weather drives you towards certain tempos and melodies that work well booming out of open windows. It’s a fairly aggressive song in terms of its mood and character, though, whereas lots of summer songs tend to be light and flippant, like Club Tropicana.
We demanded that our next single, I’m Not Your Toy, came out in summer for that reason. It has a brightness that wouldn’t work in winter. I always remember Toploader’s Dancing in the Moonlight coming out early in the year when it was cold and raining. How stupid.
Favourite summer song: Eddy Grant’s Electric Avenue. It reminds me of summers growing up in Brixton. Reggae always works at this time of year. But then again, any music made somewhere sunnier than Britain usually does.
The music mogul
Pete Waterman, producer, songwriter and Pop Idol judge
Summer songs became big in the 1950s and 60s, when people started to holiday abroad and hear the music there. Spain is much sexier than Clacton! That’s why Sylvia Vrethammar’s Y Viva Espana became a big hit in the autumn of 1974. Everyone came back from their package holidays and got misty-eyed.
Summer hits are as much about image and the way people perceive pop stars as anything else. Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan helped [my production company] Stock, Aitken and Waterman have hits with The Loco-Motion and Sealed With a Kiss because they were from Australia, a country everyone thought of as permanently sunny.
It’s also a time when the fewest records are bought, so we took full advantage of that: it was easier to get a No 1 in those months. It’s a shame there are fewer novelty singles these days. Record companies are obsessed with sophistication and coolness, which is bloody rubbish. It’s not as if novelty singles don’t work. Tom Hark by the Piranhas [a cover of a South African kwela song] was a summer hit in 1980. It’s still played in at football matches. Summer should be about having a laugh.
Favourite summer song: Carole King’s It Might As Well Rain Until September. It reminds me of when I was a 15-year-old lad, fancying a girl and dreaming his holidays away. The best summer songs play on that, especially if they focus on unrequited love. Everyone’s favourite summer songs come from that time in their lives.
The radio boss
George Ergatoudis, Radio 1′s head of music
Songs that get people dancing are held back for the summer by record labels. I don’t blame them. Listeners respond to dance music when it’s warm. We’re loving Dizzee Rascal’s Holiday and Mini Viva’s Left My Heart in Tokyo now. They have that poppy-trance sound that works at the moment, perhaps because it echoes early-90s rave culture, which people associate with being outside and having a good time.
We like to play mood-changers on Radio 1 in the summer, to promote euphoria and good sensations, and take you away from your desk or your car. There’s no rules as to how that works. In radio, you just learn to feel it: a raw, primitive, irresistible connection of music to the emotions.
Favourite summer song: Madonna’s Into the Groove or Snap!’s Rhythm Is a Dancer. Brilliant pop that sounds great coming out of car speakers.
The pundit
Peter Robinson, editor of Popjustice.com
People relax. Knobbly knees and love handles appear. And musical tastes relax, too. I don’t mean standards slip. I mean people stop trying to cover up the fact that they like simple pop music. Pretending you don’t like music with a very catchy tune is tiring, so people take the summer off.
Songs aiming for big summer status appear in our office every year., It’s like press release bingo. Claims of “sun-kissed vocals” and “lilting Beach Boys harmonies” usually mean they sound a bit bouncy and there’s a reference to sunshine in the second verse. Then again, being able to launch someone like Lily Allen off the back of a summer single is a good marketing strategy. That’s what happened with Smile in 2006. Lily’s label is trying it again this year with MPHO’s Box N Locks. To ram the point home, it features a very beachy Martha and the Muffins sample.
Favourite summer song: La Isla Bonita by Madonna, even though it was released in April. It must have been a warm spring. At the moment, though, nothing beats Dizzee Rascal’s Holiday. It’s a Club Tropicana for 2009. And like the best summer holidays, it ends with a massive rave-up.
The 80s star
Sara Dallin, singer and songwriter in Bananarama
The best summer songs remind you of your youth: what you did in your holidays, how it felt when you first kissed a boy, going away without your parents. For me, our hit, Cruel Summer, played on the darker side: it looked at the oppressive heat, the misery of wanting to be with someone as the summer ticked by. We’ve all been there!
It was a huge hit in the US. I’ll always remember coming out of our hotel in LA when we first became famous and seeing Mike Tyson sitting there. He burst into Cruel Summer when he saw us. It was unbelievable. Summer songs do that to people. When the sun’s out, anything goes.
Favourite summer song: Anything by Blondie or Roxy Music because of their sound. They were glamorous, and they take me back to those teenage summers when anything was possible.
Five ingredients for a guaranteed summer smash
• Any instrument that comes from outside the British Isles. Bonus points for Spanish guitars (the Spice Girls’ Viva Forever, Madonna’s La Isla Bonita), marimbas (Bananarama’s Cruel Summer), calypso rhythms and Brazilian samba beats. Note: bagpipes and Welsh harps do not get the pavements sizzling.
• A video that clearly costs a great deal of money and has to be watched through sunglasses. Ideally, it will feature a beach, an ocean lit up like a thousand sparkling sapphires, a snazzy form of transport (yacht on sea, Jeep on beach), a few attractive foreigners, and a scantily clad woman. See Duran Duran’s Rio.
• Any mention of sunshine or summeriness. Even when the sky is the colour of sludge, torrential rain is filling your shoes and the wind has blown your barbecue into the neighbours’ garden, the mere mention of hot weather will get the skin tanning.
• Promotional CDs distributed around clubs in Ibiza, east London and Doncaster, DJs kissed and petted, and the song pouring out of car windows strategically left open outside sweaty offices and schools. Hey presto – guaranteed summer lovin’!
• Any mention of youth and freedom that takes listeners back to the hazy days of their school holidays. Longer narratives about nostalgia work, too. This explains why Bryan Adams’s Summer of ’69 gets hyperactive kids dancing with drunk grannies at weddings.
Blue sky thinking: post your favourite summer song below
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Live – German Grand Prix
July 12th, 2009 |
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LIVE TEXT COMMENTARY (all times BST)
606: DEBATEYour thoughts on the action
To get involved text us on 81111 with FORMULA 1 before your message. (Not all contributions can be used; UK mobiles only; network rates apply)
By Caroline Cheese
1251: Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says "we shouldn’t see any rain" during the race. 1249: A McLaren engineer lets the cat out of the bag when he is grilled by Martin Brundle – can you put this thing on the podium, asks our intrepid reporter. "Yeah I would think so" comes the confident reply… Interesting, considering Lewis Hamilton and team boss Martin Whitmarsh have been carefully attempting to manage expectations since qualifying…1245: Sun still out at the Nurburgring. What looks like a German boy-band member is now doing an accapella version of the national anthem. George Michael in his Wham days is as close as I can get. Adrian Sutil has told Martin Brundle he’s hoping for a top 10 finish. "Maybe a point," he adds. "A little dream…"BBC Sport’s Andrew Benson at the Nurburgring: "Brawn boss Ross Brawn went as far yesterday evening as saying that he ‘welcomed’ a wet race. He is confident that Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will not experience the same problems that restricted their pace in the last rainy GP, in China. ‘We have a different front wing now than we had in China,’ he said. ‘One of the problems with the wing we had was when we dropped the flap to get the balance you need in the wet, it lost an enormous amount of the aerodynamic performance in the car. We didn’t fully understand that until afterwards. I can’t judge where we will be in the wet, but we won’t have the problems we had in China.’"1240: Martin Brundle is on his grid-walk. Pole-sitter Mark Webber reckons his Red Bull team-mate Seb Vettel will be his main rival. Jenson Button reports that the grip is better for his Brawn because the track temperature is up.
1238: McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh tells BBC1 that they knew they had made major improvements to their car when they heard Lewis Hamilton "whooping" via his radio in practice on Friday. He adds: "We were disappointed not to get on the front row of the grid. Had we had fresh tyres at the end of Q3, I think Lewis would have been up there."BBC Sport’s Andrew Benson at the Nurburgring: "BBC 5 Live commentator David Croft had a ride around the track courtesy of Jenson Button at the wheel of an AMG Mercedes C63 on Saturday evening. Crofty described his trip in the 6.3-litre 527bhp monster as ‘amazing, exhilarating, exhausting, an honour and a privilege’. He says Button joked about halfway around the lap: ‘Imagine what it would be like with a decent driver.’"Michael Schumacher on a possible return to F1: "Put it this way: if I wanted to work, I have all the options. It’s not what I’m looking for."1232: "Horror-Start fur Vettel" is the headline in this morning’s Bild. Even with my completely non-existent German, I think I understand the gist. Vettel, who almost collided with Kazuki Nakajima in the pits, thought he had time for another flying lap in Q3, but saw the chequered flag instead and had to settle for fourth on the grid. His first task today will be to fend off Lewis Hamilton at the start.
BBC Sport’s Sarah Holt at the Nurburgring: "BBC HQ has been deafened by the sound of engines firing up. Guess what was outside the window Only a cluster of classic Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows racing cars. McLaren reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa says he is going to drive round the Nurburgring in a 1934 W35 before the Grand Prix. David Coulthard is also going to get behind the wheel of an F1 car for the first time since he retired as he gets back in a 1998 McLaren."BBC Sport’s Andrew Benson at the Nurburgring: "One of the attractions of coming here is the fabulous old Nordschleife circuit, which hosted the German GP until Niki Lauda’s fiery crash 1976. You can drive around it in your road car to get a taste of arguably the greatest race track ever built. But it is not an endeavour to take lightly – as one unfortunate man found out on Saturday evening. He had taken his £147,000 Lamborghini Gallardo for a lap and crashed at Bergwerk – coincidentally where Lauda went off – and the car caught fire and was destroyed. Fortunately, the driver was unhurt – at least physically. Insurance does not cover you for a lap of the ‘Ring. As the man at the gate said: ‘He was crying quite a lot when he got back here.’"Force India on Twitter:"Thank you all for your support yesterday. We’re looking for a good result today!"1223: They are sweltering in weekend-high temperatures of 17C at the Nurburgring. Coats are even being unzipped.BBC pundit Eddie Jordan: "He may not have said it, but you can tell Lewis thinks he’s in with a chance of victory today. I have never seen an upgrade as big and as comprehensive as this one by McLaren, so full marks to them."Lewis Hamilton speaking on BBC1: "It’s exciting to wake up on a Sunday to know we have a fighting chance for a podium or points finish. It’s all down to the hard work the guys have done at the factory."1220: "I’m the happiest guy in F1 today." So said Adrian Sutil yesterday. The German not only took Force India into Q3 for the first time, he also qualified in an impressive seventh. Force India may never get a better chance to secure their first points in F1.1215: Disappointing, Andrew, deeply disappointing. I have heard BBC pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz might give the rollercoaster a go. Here’s hoping. BBC Sport’s Andrew Benson at the Nurburgring: "I’m afraid I’m not going to get on the new Nurburgring rollercoaster today, Caroline. But Michael Schumacher is going to be one of the celebs on its first run before the start of the race. The organisers claim it is the ‘prospectively (sic) the fastest rollercoaster in the world’. Apparently, it reaches its top speed of 217km/h (135mph) in 2.5 seconds. That’s fast even for Michael."1209: UK dwellers, manually refresh IMMEDIATELY for moving pictures.1208: In answer to the Kovalainen text query below, the Finn benefited from the weather chaos and his lap time is actually over a second slower than his McLaren team-mate.
1204: While I sat on the sofa and ate pizza last night, the F1 party headed to a middleweight boxing match at the Nurburgring. Bernie was there with Flavio Briatore. Michael Schumacher was there with Germany striker Lukas Podolski. Schuey, you’ll notice I’m sure, sporting a v dodgy necklace.From Joe, Dudley, via text on 81111: "A prediction. There will be not be a Brawn car on the podium today. Webber. Vettel. Hamilton. My 1.2.3."
From Future-Headlines on 606:"If there is a tougher job than being a weather forecaster at the Nurburgring, I don’t know what it is!"
From Ric, London, via text on 81111: "If Kovalainen has none of the upgrades that Lewis has, how come he’s lining up alongside him on the grid"1152: Lewis Hamilton famously loves the rain – but he may also be hoping for a dry start, so he can benefit from the Kers power-boost on his McLaren.BBC Sport’s pit-lane reporter Lee McKenzie: "I might be making a bold statement, especially with the weather which will probably throw a very large spanner in the works, but this could be the day we see Lewis Hamilton back on the podium, albeit on the second or third step. I also think it could be Mark Webber’s day, finally. If it is raining then being tangled up in traffic and spray from cars in front will be a huge disadvantage and if Mark makes a good start then he could build-up a pretty handy lead."1146: The weather certainly had its say during a chaotic qualifying session yesterday. Mark Webber took pole – and once fuel loads are taken into account, the Aussie looks a good bet to end his long wait for a Grand Prix win. Lewis Hamilton was the big surprise though: the McLaren man qualified in fifth but is actually third on the fuel-adjusted grid, while Sebastian Vettel moves up from fourth to second. The two Brawns, struggling again with their tyre heat, are fuelled light. Adrian Sutil, on the other hand, won’t be stopping until lap 28, which could be a major benefit if it does rain. You can read more about it inthe F1 Mole’s latest offering.BBC Sport’s Sarah Holt at the Nurburgring: "Eddie Jordan put his old team principal wiles to practical use on the journey to the Nurburgring this morning. After the BBC minibus found itself stuck in a traffic jam, EJ took over: "Get right up at the front… Put your hazards on… Squeeze up on the outside!" Soon we were off piste, diving through the thick forests and mountain villages on the way to the Nurburgring. Once up at the circuit, the sight of EJ at the window prompted excited shouts of "Ahh, hey Eddie," and he began signing autographs to help ease the bus through the crowd."1137: BBC Sport’s Lee McKenzie was reported as saying "you can reach out and touch the clouds" at the Nurburgring this morning. Lovely. The BBC weather forecast is a lot less romantic andpredicts light showers throughout the day.However, the sun is now poking through and a dry line emerged on the track by the end of this morning’s GP2 race. In summary: it’s anybody’s guess.
1130: Hello… or should I say Hallo. About half an hour ago, I was looking up "it’s raining" in the German dictionary, as I looked forward to wet weather chaos at the Nurburgring. However, I’ve just had a call from our man in Germany and he reports that it has now stopped raining, they are predicting a dry race and he can even see the sun. Booooo
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