THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING YOG (WHAM!)

Thirty nine years after its release, Wham!'s 'Last Christmas' has finally made it to the Christmas Number One slot in the UK in 2023.

Held off in 1984 by Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' the song is a reminder every year of George Michael's immense talent as a vocalist and also of his boyband roots.

Yes, boyband because, let's face it, Wham! were a prototype boyband.

They may only have had two members but they embodied a concept that would be developed by Bros, New Kids On The Block, Boyz II Men, Take That, Boyzone, The Backstreet Boys, Westlife and One Direction.

© Netflix

Take two to five young men - one of them considerably more talented than the other/others.

Invest a lot in their image.

Hype them like crazy and generate masses of screaming young girls with bubblegum pop songs.

Watch the cash roll in until eventually the talented one can take no more.

Chris Smith's documentary 'Wham!' charts the stratospheric success of the English pop act in the early to mid 1980s over the course of three albums.

It's not the deepest of documentaries, with Andrew Ridgeley reflecting on their rise and break up, interspersed with clips of George Michael's observations.

Nonetheless, it is a hell of a nostalgia trip.

Smith follows the trajectory of a duo whose bond was forged from the ages of 11 and 12 when they first met at Bushey Meads School in Hertfordshire.

The new kid in class Georgios Panayiotu happened to be seated by his teacher beside Ridgeley and they quickly became close friends, bonding over music.

There was an initial attempt to become a ska band known as The Executive before the formation of Wham!

A demo tape featuring 'Wham! Rap' and a portion of 'Careless Whisper' would be enough to capture the attention of record executive Mark Dean.

However the path to fame was not immediate with 'Wham! Rap' failing to chart.

The duo looked doomed when their single 'Young Guns (Go For It)' languished outside the Top 40 before a lucky break saw them replace another act on BBC1's chart show 'Top of the Pops'.

That exposure saw the single surge to number three in the charts and paved the way for the massive success of the reissued 'Wham Rap,' 'Bad Boys' and 'Club Tropicana'.

By 1984, they were notching up Number One records with 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go' and making waves internationally touring the US and China.

However inevitably George Michael felt a pull to go solo, with Ridgeley giving his blessing to 'Careless Whisper' being pitched as his colleague's first venture on his own.

Smith endearingly tells the story of a candyfloss act propelled to superstardom but he also addresses the elephant in the room - George Michael's sexuality.

We learn rather touchingly that Michael came out to Ridgeley while in Ibiza.

However the 1980s was a different era, with homophobia to the fore and the gay community subjected to ridicule and a lot worse at the time in the mainstream media.

In pop music Elton John hadn't come out.

George Michael found it even harder, pitched aggressively by record marketeers as a teenage girl's heartthrob.

Listen to 'Freedom 90' now from his solo career and it's pretty clear the torment he was going through.

Yet there was also always a campness to Wham! - the video of 'Club Tropicana,' anyone?

During 'Wham!' Smith shows how Ridgeley's womanising and partying in some ways drew tabloid attention away from Michael.

However what is really striking from Smith's documentary is the fondness Michael and Ridgeley had for each other throughout the whole adventure and afterwards.

It's clear from the documentary Ridgeley quickly grasped why Wham! had to dissolve.

There was no bitterness but a very rare celebration of what was achieved with an epic Wembley Stadium farewell gig.

George Michael's shocking death at the age of 53 on Christmas Day 2016 may have robbed Ridgeley of the slightest scintilla of hope that he might collaborate with his old pal one more time.

However "Wham!' the documentary is still a celebration of what was, enjoyably moulding a documentary out of audio archive of Ridgeley and Michael reflecting on their time together, behind the scenes footage and reflections from their parents.

Like the scrapbooks Ridgeley's mum dutifully compiled of newspaper coverage of their career, it comes to a screeching halt when Wham! ends.

Captions remind us of the superstardom Michael went on to achieve, while Ridgeley stepped back from the limelight quietly allowing his mate to grow as a singer songwriter.

That superstardom would come at a cost with Michael's sexuality eventually being exposed and an addiction to drugs taking its toll.

It would have been nice to see and hear more, though, of Ridgeley's post Wham! life.

Smith, though, isn't interested.

He'd rather focus on the duo's huge rise and rum luck in losing out on a Christmas Number One in 1984 as a result of Bob Geldof and Midge Ure's response to the Ethiopian famine.

The film offers an escape from the grim realities of modern life - the homelessness and food banks in Rishi Sunak's Britain, the war and humanitarian crises today in Gaza, the Ukraine, Syria, South Sudan, Haiti, Yemen, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Wham!, though, was never about decrying these things, despite their involvement in Band Aid and Live Aid.

And it's still the case today.

Wham! were always about sheer entertainment and looking for Number Ones.

Even though it's taken 39 years to secure the Christmas Number One, they created a magical Festive single that will ensure they will never be forgotten.

Wham! may not have been the greatest musical combo but that Christmas classic alone is still some legacy.

('Wham!' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on June 27, 2023 before being made available for streaming on Netflix on July 5 2023)