A few days before Christmas, whilst on tour in Germany we decided to record our version of “Last Christmas” by George Michael. James Fortune, one our founder members who now is part of the management team had done an excellent arrangement that mashed the song with Joni Mitchell’s “River”. So after a hurried trip into Frankfurt to buy some festival decorations we sat down before our last show of the year to record the song. It took us a few takes to get it done what with some false starts, dodgy tuning and the occasional fit of the giggles, but we finished and were pleased with the result. As a final farewell to 2016 and a thank you to fans we put it up on Christmas Eve.
The very next day George Michael passed away at home in London.
Now we’re pretty sure it wasn’t our video that finally did for George (we can’t be sure though), but regardless we were very sad to see the passing of such a mercurial and special talent. For most of us in the group George Michael was the voice of our youth with his massive Wham! hits and songs from his solo career. Our video doesn’t really come close to being an apt tribute to the man, but it’s what we’ve got and we’re proud to put it out there.
So thank you George for sharing your amazing songwriting and very very special voice with all of us – you touched us all.