George Michael: Freedom

I saw George Michael in concert in 2007 and I think the experience in some ways might really summed his life up. It was an open air concert in the summer but it rained almost all night. George came on sang for what seemed like 45 minutes and then went off for a 20 minutes break, probably for a cup of tea and a snort of some illegal substance. He then did his second act for about 20 minutes and it was on to the encore.

When you have seen Bruce Springsteen live, pelting it out for 3 and half hours non stop then George was a disappointment by comparison. Then again I did not go to see for myself but my wife is a big George Michael/Wham fan. She was not a happy bunny on Christmas Day 2016. At least I took her to see him live in concert.

This documentary co-directed by George himself was a comprehensive look back on his career. A career that promised much as he and Andrew Ridgely quickly made it big with Wham. In 1988 he was the biggest selling rock star in the world and he sustained this throughout the 90s but by the start of the new millennium it quickly fizzled out as his private life was in turmoil and frankly his voice started to go as he started to sing songs through a vocoder (just listen to his version of True Faith.)

George talks about his highs and lows, his love life and his short lived happiness before his partner died of AIDS and later his mother died of cancer. Then his public falling out with Sony records as he did not want to promote his albums the want his record company wanted him to.

Some of the contributors were a bit disappointing. I can understand Elton John being there but they also had a falling out and I wanted to hear about that. There was no Andrew Ridgely which was a glaring omission but plenty of Tracey Emin which I found mind boggling.

The Voice of my generation, in my opinion. He made so much music that will play on for many years to come. Still, I feel sad that he won't be here to create any more. His evolution into becoming himself took his whole life and was documented perfectly in his songs.

Damn, he really knew how to craft some perfect pop songs though!

George Michael is honored in a fine documentary released in October 2017, a film he wrote and directed and supervised about his life in show business before his death on Christmas Day 2016. The film was completed under David Austin's direction. As he states in the film, 'Stars are almost always people that want to make up for their own weaknesses by being loved by the public and I'm no exception to that.'

The movie is a frank and honest account of George Michael's professional life and career. Though the film was made by the man himself, various artists add to the narrative – Tony Bennett, Mary J. Blige, Emmanuelle Alt, Naomi Campbell, Ricky Gervais, Elton John, Liam Gallagher, Cindy Crawford, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Kate Moss Nile Rodgers, James Corden, Stevie Wonder, and many others.

The film highlights conversations with Michael, his crisis with Sony, his 'coming out' as a gay man and finding love with a Brazilian man who subsequently died of AIDS, his driving force to be the best performer and songwriter ever known, his many successful videos and clips from live performances and much, much more.

This is a very beautifully made film, steaming with love from Michael and from his many fans, and filled with information about the positive impact he made on the world. Completely entertaining and a fine tribute to an enormously gifted artist.

2016 will be remembered by pop music fans as the year of so many untimely deaths. Amongst others, I suppose the two which stood out, if that's the right phrase, were those of David Bowie and Prince before George Michael succumbed on Christmas Day to blight his many fans seasonal joy and cap a miserable year for celebrity demises. Although his fame had diminished somewhat in America, he unquestionably remained hugely popular here in his native UK and it was certainly a shock to learn that he too had died so young.

With voiceovers by Michael himself, although he's coy about making an actual appearance on camera as we see a back view of him, at least I think it's him, sitting at an obviously favourite writing desk in his London home battering away at an old typewriter, by using the tried and trusted device of contemporary footage and celebrity endorsements, this is a loving, indeed at times adoring portrait of the artist as a young man.

Michael more than once equates himself with the three other acknowledged mega-stars of the 80's, Madonna, Prince and Michael Jackson and on the musical evidence here, he certainly deserved that accolade. Good looking, with a fantastic voice and a prodigious writing and production talent, he left his previous group Wham! at the height of their success before spring-boarding to even greater initial solo success with the release of his "Careless Whisper" single and "Faith" album.

This documentary focuses on his three-album run from "Faith" to "Listen Without Prejudice" and "Older" especially the middle album which became a cause-celebre at the time of its original release with Michael famously failing to promote it to protest at his US record label's failure to recognise his artistic pretensions at the time. Thus we see celebrity pals like Elton John, Ricky Gervais, Stevie Wonder, Jean-Paul Gaultier and a very unlikely Liam Gallagher lining up to fight George's corner, although of course he lost his infamous "professional slavery" court case against Sony Records at the time.

Michael also opens up about coming out as a gay man, although not until after the death of the great love of his life, Brazilian Anselmo Feleppa and how this, plus the death of his mother plunged him into both personal and artistic depression. There's relatively little coverage of the various, usually drug-related incidents in his personal life which fuelled the tabloids which tends to make what we see probably a little too adulatory and uncritical.

After he died, I remember stories coming out in the press about his generosity and philanthropy, usually done with anonymity, bolstering the strong central message that this on-the-face-of-it most photogenic of pop stars was actually shy, troubled and insecure. Poor little rich boy, some may sneer but seeing him ensconced in his London home hardly seeming to live the remote, luxurious rock-star life, you're left with the sad thought that like Michael Jackson, Prince and Whitney Houston, his celebrity status failed to bring him true happiness.

Better then to focus on the often wonderful music he provided and regret that he was denied the opportunity to return to the musical scene he once dominated. More human and approachable it seems than many in the music industry, his was a sad loss and another of those gone-too-soon exits which makes you wonder what he might yet have achieved had he lived.

'Freedom' is a documentary about Geroge Michael's life mostly put together by the singer himself before his untimely death last year. And it was an interesting life, that of a Watford schoolboy who became a global pop star, a legal warrior fighting his record company, and a gay man who finally embraced his sexual identity. Unfortunately, this film is not particularly interesting: Michael was a private man, and the story as told doesn't feel particularly personal. Nor is there a great discussion of the music, beyond the obligatory parade of talking heads who gush but offer no insight. The main thing that comes across is Michael's professional self-belief and ambition; though he talked of slavery in his battle with Sony, we get the sense less of a free spirit unable to work with the man, and more of someone angry he was not getting the respect he considered his talent deserved. I'd have liked to know more about the real George Michael; but here I felt I saw only what Michael wanted to be seen.