{"id":945329,"date":"2026-10-29T16:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T16:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/945329\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T16:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T16:02:13","slug":"george-michael-the-faith-tour-rare-photos-from-new-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/945329\/","title":{"rendered":"George Michael ‘The Faith Tour’: Rare Photos from New Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new documentary, in theaters this December, finally lets fans see one of the greatest pop tours ever<\/p>\n

George Michael was in the midst of pulling off a stunning coup\u00a0at the start of 1988. Already a proven hitmaker as one half of Wham!, he\u2019d just released his debut solo album, Faith, including the provocative, ultra-catchy hits \u201cFaith,\u201d<\/a> \u201cFather Figure,\u201d<\/a> and \u201cI Want Your Sex.\u201d<\/a> By the time he launched his first solo tour, in Tokyo that February, he was inarguably one of the biggest stars in the world. \u201cI really think that anyone who doesn\u2019t like anything on my new album has no right to say they like pop music,\u201d Michael, 24, said that year in his first Rolling Stone cover story<\/a>. The new film George Michael: The Faith Tour was shot on 35mm at two performances in Paris that spring, and the footage was long considered lost \u2014 until now. Here are some of the most striking images from the film, which arrives in theaters later this year. Tickets are on sale now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\tListen Up<\/p>\n

\t\t\"English
\n\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Michael Putland\/Getty Images\t\t\t<\/p>\n

George Michael listens to a Walkman while riding a bullet train during the Japanese leg of his Faith World Tour in February 1988.<\/p>\n

\tGotta Have Faith<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"
\n\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Michael Putland\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Filmmakers Andy Morahan (who directed the original music videos for \u201cFaith,\u201d \u201cFather Figure,\u201d and \u201cI Want Your Sex,\u201d along with many other hits) and David Austin (a close lifelong friend and collaborator of Michael) carefully restored the 1988 concert footage that appears in the film.<\/p>\n

\tFather Figure<\/p>\n

\t\t\"English
\n\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Michael Putland\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Screenings will begin with a short film directed by Mary McCartney, drawing on unheard interview audio and more. A live album from the Faith tour is also on the way.<\/p>\n

\tBehind the Camera<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"
\n\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Michael Putland\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you can see in the new trailer<\/a> for The Faith Tour, his confidence was raging \u2014 night after night, he faced a crowd of strangers and sang the line, \u2018If you ever hunger, hunger for me,\u2019 making everyone in the room hear it as a personal demand,\u201d Rolling Stone\u2018s Rob Sheffield recently wrote<\/a>. \u201cFor once, and only once, he was willing to live up to every crazed fantasy the world had about George Michael \u2014 and that includes his own secret fantasies about himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIt Takes a Strong Man, Baby<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"
\n\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Chris Cuffaro\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never tried this kind of spectacle again, and never preserved it in a proper concert film or album,\u201d Sheffield wrote. \u201cSo it\u2019s been easy to overlook, even though his story has been told and retold so many times over the years. Pop fans know Faith inside out, but almost nobody has seen the way he brought it to life every night onstage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tTwo Legends<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"
\n\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Chris Cuffaro\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Michael\u2019s Faith tour setlist included covers of some of his favorite Seventies soul songs, as well as \u201cI Knew You Were Waiting (For Me),\u201d his 1987 duet with Aretha Franklin (shown here with him).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new documentary, in theaters this December, finally lets fans see one of the greatest pop tours ever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,1691,134,96556,136,18353,371085],"class_list":["post-945329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-documentary","tag-entertainment","tag-george-michael","tag-music","tag-photo-gallery","tag-wham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}