{"id":713076,"date":"2026-07-27T05:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T05:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/713076\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T05:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T05:50:08","slug":"i-thought-it-didnt-stand-a-cats-chance-in-hell-andrew-ridgeley-on-whams-surreal-trip-to-china-documentary-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/713076\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I thought it didn\u2019t stand a cat\u2019s chance in hell\u2019: Andrew Ridgeley on Wham\u2019s surreal trip to China | Documentary films"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has always been something surreal about Wham!\u2019s 1985 trip to China. George Michael<\/a> and Andrew Ridgeley looked like alien visitors on the streets of Beijing, their bouffant hair and flamboyant outfits setting them apart from the Mao jackets and drab uniforms of the Chinese people they encountered.<\/p>\n

Andrew Ridgeley attends the screening of Wham! 10 Days in China in London. Photograph: Ian West\/PA<\/p>\n

Now the full strangeness of the duo\u2019s brief trip, which made them the first western pop act to play in the country, is explored in a fascinating documentary film, Wham! 10 Days in China<\/a>. Using previously unseen archive footage and featuring new interviews with many of the people involved in the tour, it shows the extraordinary impact Wham!\u2019s two concerts had on their Chinese audience, as well as providing a snapshot of a country on the brink of great change.<\/p>\n

Yet for Michael and Ridgeley, the tour was less about expanding cultural horizons and more about hardheaded commercial logic: as masterminded by their manager, Simon Napier-Bell, it was designed to create such an international sensation that they would be catapulted to top-tier status in the US without having to undergo the slog of a 90-date arena tour that might have put Michael\u2019s voice at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it worked,\u201d says Ridgeley, now 63 and white-haired, looking athletic in a long-sleeved top and shorts \u2013 a kind of Club Tropicana smart casual \u2013 when we meet on a warm summer\u2019s day in central London.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the idea was originally proposed to George and myself, I thought it didn\u2019t stand a cat\u2019s chance in hell. I wasn\u2019t a fan, but George was pretty immovable on not touring in the States to the extent to which we would have to. It was a bit of a Hobson\u2019s choice \u2013 China or bust. Reluctantly, I agreed to it. But it did ultimately achieve our aim. We were on national news in the States, we were in the newspapers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excitement and confusion \u2026 a scene from Wham! 10 Days in China. Photograph: Martyn Goddard\/\u00a9 Andrew Ridgeley, Big Geoff Overseas, Robobuild t\/a George Michael Entertainmentdouble quotation markThat was not something George cared for at all: the formality, the small talk, the artificial nature of the meeting<\/p>\n

The film shows Wham! performing their hits in Beijing and Guangzhou, as well as dealing with the many other demands placed on them \u2013 having to make polite speeches at a banquet with Chinese officials, for example. Michael clearly found it hard to put up with a reception at the British embassy \u2013 \u201cthat was just not something that he cared for at all: the formality, the small talk, the artificial nature of the meeting\u201d, Ridgeley says \u2013 and later went missing after chatting awkwardly to fans at a shop. For his part, Ridgeley bridled at the demands of the press, who were there to provide the publicity the band needed: we see him refusing to take his sunglasses off at a photoshoot on the Great Wall and unable to contain his disdain for journalists at a press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a fair bit of pressure, which wouldn\u2019t have been there in usual circumstances \u2013 it was very different from a usual tour,\u201d Ridgeley recalls. \u201cWe went there to achieve a goal, it was constructed to achieve a purpose, and so the context was very different.\u201d He remembers having chaperones and feeling \u201cslightly restricted\u201d in Beijing.<\/p>\n

\u2018I thought the trip didn\u2019t stand a cat\u2019s chance in hell\u2019 \u2026 Wham! in Beijing. Photograph: \u00a9 Andrew Ridgeley, Big Geoff Overseas, Robobuild t\/a George Michael Entertainment. Photograph by Martyn Goddard<\/p>\n

There was certainly a strange atmosphere at the Beijing concert: the audience, who had little idea of what to expect or how to react, had been told to stay in their seats, and the band walked out to silence; while some people did get up to dance, one man was taken away by the police for getting too exuberant. Even playing their song Freedom could have been construed as a political act.<\/p>\n

But for some Chinese fans, the tour provided revelatory exposure to western music. The film captures the excitement and confusion felt by Chinese audiences and includes interviews with musicians who were directly affected. \u201cI think it counts as a historical event,\u201d says Cheng Fangyuan, the singer who performed Chinese-language versions of Wham!\u2019s songs on the tapes handed out to ticket holders. \u201cIt was like opening a window.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wham in China. Photograph: Peter Charlesworth\/LightRocket\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The reason there is so much original footage of the tour is because Wham!\u2019s management had arranged for a documentary to be made about it. In one of the most peculiar hirings in film history, the man they chose to oversee the film was Lindsay Anderson<\/a>, the high-minded director of This Sporting Life and O Lucky Man!, who was then 61 and at a low ebb in his career.<\/p>\n

The partnership proved to be an unhappy one: Anderson and Wham! did not take to each other, and the director was fired six months later, when the band rejected the film he presented to them.<\/p>\n

The story of this ill-starred collaboration is an important strand in the new film. Anderson\u2019s name was first put forward by the producer Martin Lewis, while Wham!\u2019s co-manager, Jazz Summers (who died in 2015), is widely thought to have played a key role in the hiring.<\/p>\n

double quotation markSomeone like Lindsay Anderson, with his provenance and cinematic pedigree, was not the right fit for Wham!<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was bloody ludicrous,\u201d says Ridgeley. \u201cSomeone like him, with his provenance and cinematic pedigree in the genre that he worked in, was just not the right fit for Wham! He only did it for the money \u2013 his letters on the subject make it very clear. He didn\u2019t like us at all \u2013 he didn\u2019t like Wham!, he didn\u2019t like the idea of Wham!\u201d<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, Anderson twisted his knee at the Great Wall, on only the second day of the trip, reducing his involvement in the shoot, which was largely left to his five cinematographers.<\/p>\n

Anderson himself appears on camera in footage used for the new film. Asked what it is he does, he replies, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve been wondering about that for the last couple of weeks. If anybody\u2019s got any idea, I\u2019d be happy to know.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is an excruciatingly revealing moment later on when Anderson, walking with a stick, approaches Michael from behind and claps him on the shoulder, while the star is holding court; Michael very conspicuously fails to turn round to acknowledge him.<\/p>\n

Ridgeley remembers being appalled when he viewed Anderson\u2019s cut. \u201cIt was as dull as dishwater and just not what we wanted as a record of the tour there, so it was just not fit for purpose,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a pretty straightforward and uncomplicated brief, to record Wham! in China. Lindsay evidently was extremely conflicted and would rather have made a film that Wham! weren\u2019t in or wasn\u2019t about Wham!\u201d<\/p>\n

He tried watching Anderson\u2019s cut again last year: \u201cI couldn\u2019t make it all the way through \u2013 it was so dull.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It is about trying to keep Wham! in the musical consciousness\u2019 \u2026 present-day Ridgeley in the new film. Photograph: \u00a9 Craig Hastings<\/p>\n

Wham! hired video director Andy Morahan to make a reworked version of Anderson\u2019s film, which was given the title Wham! in China: Foreign Skies and shown to 72,000 fans at the band\u2019s final concert at Wembley Stadium in June 1986.<\/p>\n

The raw footage that Anderson\u2019s crew had shot lay in storage for decades. No one had reopened the 100-plus cans containing the original reels of Super 16 film until director Mike Christie started work in September 2024. He and his team discovered more than 20 hours of footage, although the reels had been extensively cut to stitch together Anderson\u2019s film and Foreign Skies.<\/p>\n

As they could not find the film copy of Anderson\u2019s original documentary, they used completely different footage to make the new film (some concert footage was borrowed from Foreign Skies).<\/p>\n

Anderson kept a taped copy of his rejected cut, entitled If You Were There \u2026, which is held in his archives at the University of Stirling. Michael prevented the film from being shown publicly, although it could be viewed by researchers on appointment. Following Michael\u2019s death in 2016, it was finally screened to an audience as part of the BFI\u2019s 2024 Anderson season, with the blessing of Ridgeley and Michael\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n

\u2018George was pretty immovable on not touring in the States\u2019\u2026 footage was shot during the 1985 trip for an ill-fated documentary. Photograph: \u00a9 Neal Preston<\/p>\n

But Anderson\u2019s admirers will be disappointed to hear that any official release of the film remains unlikely. \u201cIt won\u2019t happen because George was very much against it ever seeing the light of day,\u201d Ridgeley says. \u201cIf it was down to me, I don\u2019t think I would have any particular problem with it.\u201d He once even mooted the idea of the three films that have now been made about the China tour being collected as a box set.<\/p>\n

Wham! 10 Days in China is the third documentary about the band in recent years, following Netflix\u2019s Wham! (2023) and the BBC\u2019s Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped (2024). The idea of looking back on the band\u2019s legacy was a consequence of Michael\u2019s untimely death, Ridgeley says. \u201cPrior to that, George wasn\u2019t going to be developing a Wham! legacy when he was pursuing his own career \u2013 that was understood by all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ridgeley hopes there can be further projects to keep Wham!\u2019s music alive. \u201cIt\u2019s about developing new audiences and it is about trying to keep Wham! there or thereabouts in the musical consciousness. Fortunately we\u2019ve got a really great catalogue of songs that assist us in that. All good music transcends generations and Wham!\u2019s is no exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wham! 10 Days in China is in cinemas from 28 July<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There has always been something surreal about Wham!\u2019s 1985 trip to China. George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley looked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-713076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}