George Michael was one of the greatest pop stars that Britain ever produced. He also had a reputation of being one of the nicest men in the music industry. Stories of his selfless and charitable deeds have become the thing of legend since his sad passing in 2016. But, as a man famous for giddy and gloriously fun pop nuggets like Last Christmas and Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, you wouldn’t have assumed he’d be a fan of the dark, nihilistic post-punk of Joy Division.
Well, we got his thoughts on the band during a segment on long forgotten BBC show Eight Days A Week in 1984, during the height of Wham!’s popularity. Michael is one third of a bizarre trio, alongside famously cheesy radio DJ Tony Blackburn and The Smiths frontman Morrissey, all there to review Mark Johnson’s Joy Division biography An Ideal for Living.
