GMKG News

2002

28 GEORGE MICHAEL - Shoot The Dog
12 GEORGE MICHAEL - Freeek!

Thanks, Geni. :o)

Generous George:

George in concert in South Africa ?

No, says Aegean !

	By Melanie Peters

All George Things:

http://www.playlouder.com/news/4412.html

http://www.athens.olympic.org/page/default.asp?la=2&pl=425&id=24&pk=693&ap=225

http://www.dotmusic.com/specials/ima2002/peoples_choice_award.asp

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=799&e=1&cid=795&u=/eo/20021205/en_music_eo/10930

http://www.dotmusic.com/news/December2002/news27505.asp?dmlt=inci

http://us.imdb.com/PeopleNews/#1

http://launch.yahoo.com/read/news.asp?contentID=211508

http://www.nypost.com/sports/26566.htm

Vote for George at 

Thanks, Geni. :o)

Thanks, Gina. :o)

Thanks, Geni. :o)

2DTV lampoons Romeo Beckham
>By Derek Robins
>
>The Beckhams' new baby Romeo will be lampooned in a new series of ITV1's
>animated satire show 2DTV.
>
>
>
>The two-month-old tot will be seen feeding his mother Victoria when the
>show returns in a new extended format - 30 minutes instead of 10 - on
>November 27.
>
>In another skit, George Michael and Geri Halliwell convince Elton John that
>he should follow a strict diet after he crashes through all seven floors of
>his mansion.
>
>Other new targets include Roy Keane, Julia Roberts, Camilla Parker-Bowles,
>Saddam Hussein, the Slaters from EastEnders, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Tony
>Blackburn.
>
>Limelight-loving Christine and Neil Hamilton will also be seen in a sketch,
>chasing a paparazzi snapper on his day off, demanding that he take their
>photographs.
>
>Producer Giles Pilbrow is delighted that 2DTV has been extended.
>
>He said: "I think ITV finally got sick of all the viewer complaints that
>the show was too short."
>
>It's the third series for the team, which was also behind the video for
>George Michael's controversial single Shoot the Dog. Others featured in the
>topical comedy show are Bargain Hunt's David Dickinson and Ken Livingstone.
>
>http://www.teletext.com/tvplus/newsstory.asp?intarticleid=70791&high=1
>
>

Album release date ???:

From Nav on G-Mail:

Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

Thanks, Geni. :o)

New G pic at 

Geri, 30, has turned to ex-boyfriend Jamie Morrison to help her get through yet another heartacheGeri, 30, has turned to ex-boyfriend Jamie Morrison to help her get through yet another heartache

"It was a very strange situation for me to be in. Deep down, she is a very caring girl and a nice person to be friends with."

The keen polo player - his father owns the Royal Berkshire Polo Club in Windsor - also revealed that it was him who introduced the singer to George Michael through his father's music connection.

His dad Bryan has looked after stars including T-Rex, Pink Floyd, Robin Gibb and George in the past.

He added: "I put her in touch with George Michael and she struck up a close friendship with him. They were good for each other for a while."

Until she admitted her disgusting habit of sorting through George's dustbins to scoff leftover food...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/

Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

Publication date: 2002-10-22

Thanks, Geni. :o)

By LINDA STASI

---

SURLY HURLEY: Liz Hurley is in a bad mood since learning that moms have less fun. - Scott Barbour/Getty Images

October 6, 2002 --

LIZ Hurley is upset. About her sex life. Again.

 

And it's all her baby's fault. According to the tabloids in Britain, Hurley's been whining that motherhood has ruined "it" for her. It's not that she's enjoying sex less, it's that she's getting less sex. This is a revelation? You ever meet a woman who said that giving birth improved her sex life?

 

Maybe the model-turned-actress-turned-mom should have talked to the billions of women who came before her about motherhood and sex - including Lisa Bonder, the ex of her ex, Steve Bing, whose offspring also bears an uncanny resemblance to Bing and his billions.

 

Hurley's reportedly been complaining that it's not just motherhood, but single motherhood that has turned her hot sheets cold, because, she said, men just don't want to get involved with a single mom. (Or maybe they just don't want to get involved with a single mom who's had a giant, public paternity fight.)

 

Meantime, Hurley's also saying she wants another baby. Considering her current dilemma, that might not be as easy as it sounds. And really, if she's having this much trouble finding a guy after one baby, she may have to marry Rosie O'Donnell if she has two.

 

What's really puzzling however, is how someone with no thighs to speak of can have so much trouble with men in the first place. Isn't she supposed to make up for the rest of us?

 

First she had a long-term lover (Hugh Grant) who got caught with a hooker because Hurley wasn't enough for him, and then she had a short-term lover (Bada Bing) who said he wasn't enough for her, claiming she's had more men than George Michael.

 

So, you see? Even supermodels can be lonely. Lonely - but fat-free. Hey - I'll take it.

Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

Thanks, Geni. :o)

From The Daily Record, the newspaper that checks, re-checks and checks information again,

if you catch my drift. ;o) :

"GEORGE MICHAEL lost his wallet - and his cool - at LA airport. Bearded and beleagured Michael, berated in America for his outspoken attacks on president George Bush, blew up at loyal partner Kenny Goss, fuming: "For f**** sake, it's your job to watch forpickpockets - do I have to do everything myself?" No word on precisely how much George lost. But a record industry honcho says: "If he loses Ken's love and support he'll be in dire trouble. Right now in America, Kenny Goss is George's only friend"

http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_681912.html?menu

Thanks, Kristine. :o)

From the Boy George boards:

Thanks, Elena. :o)

http://www.people.co.uk/homepage/features/page.cfm?objectid=12239196&method=thepeople_full&siteid=79490

HOT PEOPLE: GEORGE MICHAEL

SOME Greeks are trying to stop GEORGE MICHAEL singing at the 2004 Athens
Olympics because 1) He's Anglo-Cypriot; 2) He doesn't speak Greek; and 3)
They're a little bit homophobic.

Thanks, Geni. :o)

George Outside of the Versace fashion show:

Thanks, Paulette. :o)

No place like Wham!
Source: Daily Mail - London
Publication date: 2002-09-24


GEORGE MICHAEL is so distressed at the thought of punters tramping through his drawing room to view his pounds 8.25 million house in South Kensington that he has withdrawn it from sale less than two weeks after putting it on the market. The Victorian six-bedroom house was previously owned by Chris Evans, who bought it only last year for pounds 6.7million but never moved in. In terms of cost per square foot, it is the most expensive house in Britain. A prospective buyer, who had an appointment to see it over the weekend, had the viewing cancelled at the last moment and was told: 'George doesn't want people trailing through his house and has withdrawn it.' However, I gather the former Wham! star will be reluctantly welcoming buyers again in a few weeks' time - following a vetting procedure to ensure they are not mere sightseers. Optimistically described in a brochure as an 'outstanding reconstructed Italianate villa', the house includes a drawing room, library, dining room, playroom, and master bedroom with bathroom and two ensuite dressing rooms. It also boasts underfloor and ceiling heating, and a naff central vacuuming system. Although neighbours include David Bowie, the house's so-called award-winning garden does not impress. 'It looks a shambles,' says my man on the property ladder. Publication date: 2002-09-24


Thanks, Geni. :o)

Get George that Free Your Mind Award at:

http://www.mtve.com/european/

Thanks, Elena. :o))

http://uk.music.yahoo.com/020913/242/d9jae.html

Charvet Slams George Michael

Former Baywatch hunk David Charvet says he thinks George Michael has made a
big mistake in challenging the President of The USA in his single Shoot The
Dog.

While he admits that he's not supportive of President Bush's plans to
attack Iraq, the actor-turned-pop sensation says he thinks that trying to
tackle political issues through song isn't necessarily a good idea.

"I think when people to do that, I don't know what they're trying to
prove," he told us. "We're entertainers, I don't think we should bring
political elements into this and try to preach."

In reference to George Michael's controversial stand, Charvet added:
"Whatever he's tried to do I don't know if it's working. Did I find it
effective? No. I didn't find it offensive that he should be saying that.
But did I find it effective that for somebody who has an incredible voice,
is an incredible songwriter and has made incredible records to have come up
with some thing like this? I think it's to his disadvantage, especially to
someone so talented."

Asked if he'd ever consider airing a grievance through one of his tracks,
David replied: "I'm not at the level to criticise anybody. I'm just here to
do something that I really love and I don't think I'm really in the
position to criticise anybody or to be political."

David's brilliant debut single, Leap Of Faith, is released on September 16th.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020913/80/d9k8y.html

and http://www.hellomagazine.com/2002/09/13/georgemichaelhouse/

Friday September 13, 05:18 PM

George Michael sells swish Chelsea house

LONDON (Reuters) - Singer George Michael is selling his west London
mansion, one of Britain's most expensive houses, without ever having moved
in, his spokeswoman said on Friday.

Michael wants a reported 8.25 million pounds for the Victorian house, a
stone's throw from the homes of Madonna, David Bowie and British model Liz
Hurley.

"He is selling the house in Chelsea," his agent said. "He never moved in,
he lives in another house in north London.

"He bought it intending to move in but now has decided not to live there."

Although cheaper than some of Britain's biggest palaces and country houses,
the house is among the most expensive in terms of money paid per square foot.

The house has six bedrooms, its own tower and a walled garden. It also
comes with its own parking space, a luxury in traffic-clogged London.

A short bus ride from central London, the property lies between South
Kensington and Chelsea, two of the most desirable addresses in London.

It dominates the quiet west London street where Ferraris and Porsches
jostle for space under the watchful eye of private security cameras.

"This house always commands the most extraordinary price every time it
sells," Jonathan Hewlett, of estate agent FPD Savills, told the Times
newspaper.

Michael, 39, bought the house last year for a reported 7.25 million pounds
from British television and radio presenter Chris Evans.

The singer found fame in the early 1980s with the pop band Wham! before
going solo and scoring hits with the albums "Faith" and "Listen Without
Prejudice Vol.1".

Thanks, Geni. :o)

September 13, 2002 Most expensive house in Britain just got dearer By Anne Spackman, Property Editor

CELEBRITIES cannot wait to get in to Gilston Road, London SW10. This small street in South Kensington, once nicknamed Goldman Sachs Alley, is certainly an A-road when it comes to the residents. They include David Bowie, Rowan Atkinson and Tom Ford, the fashion designer, as well as a smattering of wealthy industrialists. One house in particular has had more than its share of famous owners. With its tower and walled garden, it is one of the most conspicuous and attractive houses in the road. It is also, in terms of pounds per square foot, the most expensive house in Britain. It hit the headlines last year when Chris Evans, the ginger media mogul, bought it for £6.7 million. Then it hit the headlines just a few months later when he sold it to the singer, George Michael, for £7.25 million. At £1,700 per square foot it set the record for a property in Britain. Now, less than a year later, George Michael too has decided to sell. He is hoping to achieve what would be a new record-breaking price of £8.25 million. Plenty of estate agents think he could get it. “This house always commands the most extraordinary price every time it sells,” says Jonathan Hewlett of FPDSavills. “It is a mixture of its provenance, its appearance and its location on Gilston Road, which has become a destination address.” Gilston Road sits in the patch of South Kensington which includes Tregunter Road, where Madonna also bought and sold within months. Its white stucco houses offer a mix of grand rooms, gardens and parking, which can be had for a few hundred thousand pounds in most cities, but command millions in west London. It was not always so grand. The first famous owners of George Michael’s house were members of the Flick family, whose German industrial empire included the Mercedes-Benz car company. They bought the house in the late 1980s, from an old lady who shared it with dozens of cats, for £1 million. It was one of the first houses in London to go for a seven figure sum. The Flicks brought over builders from Germany completely to remodel the property, creating the basis of the house as it now is. A subsequent owner, an American banker from Morgan Stanley, turned it into a more family-friendly home. At 4,250 square feet it is not particularly large, but its pavement appeal is enormous. “You would be thrilled every time you came home to walk up to the front door and think, ‘This is my house’,” said David Forbes of the estate agency, Chesterfield, who has sold several houses in Gilston Road. “It has great presence on the street, with its lovely walled garden. It has always been a marker house for the market.” Clearly these virtues are sufficient to persuade people to buy, but not to convince them to live there. One problem might be the bedrooms. The master bedroom, with large windows overlooked by houses at the rear, offers little privacy and the other bedrooms are rather small. “It’s all hat and no cattle, as they say in Texas,” said one agent. “You walk into a wonderful series of reception rooms, with a lovely library, a fine drawing room and huge kitchen, but after that it fizzles out.” Square feet are cheaper away from the A-roads Regency town house in Cheltenham Five bedrooms, four reception rooms and four bathrooms. It is a Grade II listed building and has a landscaped garden with two garages. It costs £595,000, which is £245 per square foot.   Five-bedroom Victorian terraced house near Highbury Fields in North London It is situated on a residential tree-lined road and has a large reception room, two bathrooms, a cellar and back garden. It costs £555,000 or £350 per square foot.

Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

 

Sat 20 Jul 2002

 

Chrissy Iley on George Michael and Kenny Goss

http://news.scotsman.com/archive.cfm?id=778522002&rware=PAZCNSYHUYMV&CQ_CUR_DOCUMENT=10

How has the singer’s Texan boyfriend reacted to George’s Shoot the Dog single which was released last week and reportedly causes offence to Americans?

When George Michael was caught with the detective in the toilet, he said he felt reckless and weak. Weak, maybe, but I don’t think he’s ever been reckless. His life is close-knit, sticking with friends who have always been friends, the same manager, the same publicist, guarding everything close. At the time of the incident, he said he’d been extremely stupid but implied he had done it for the thrill of being caught. He was sure he would never get caught but at the same time he was tortured about having to keep all his emotional life inside.

Remember all the brouhaha he made about not wanting to make babe videos because he didn’t want to sell himself as a sex symbol? It may have been the case but it was also because he couldn’t stand his own process of lying by omission. Sure, he gave us ambiguous lyrics that could have meant this, could have meant that. We can all relate to love, right? If you love somebody, you want them. They have the power to undo you. If you crave them, it’s because they’re part of your soul. You’re made of the same flesh. Isn’t that the type of thing he sings about?

Weak George has been with soft-spoken Kenny Goss for several years now. They have been the picture of decorum, supportive of each other, but not given to any big public displays of affection. Now, all of a sudden, George announces that they are not monogamous. "This is not an uncommon state of affairs in long-term gay relationships. It’s not open in any emotional sense, just purely physical, and that’s the way we choose to live. If people don’t like it, they can stick it up their..."

What I find objectionable is that now he likes to speak for gay people. I know plenty of gay couples who are monogamous and plenty of heterosexual couples who are not. Some of them claim to love each other and some of them do this "emotional love and physical love are different things" routine. It’s entirely dependent on the temperament or psyche of the couple in question and nothing to do with their sexuality.

Betrayal basically does not have an agenda. It does not come with caveats that make it sugar-coated. So why would George Michael do this? He gives us one very public image of the long-suffering sensitive soul who wrote his best songs in the vortex of grief he felt when his lover Anselmo Feleppa died in the early 1990s. One has always felt that Kenny was the rebound, the stepping stone, the substitute for the great passion, but George would never want to get rid of him, would he? He knows too much.

People who know Kenny say he’s quite charming and extremely sweet. I suppose he’d have to be to put up with some of the deep-to-shallow personality swings that are part and parcel of George Michael’s persona. The singer has never been exuberant. That might be construed as too threatening. Soon after his arrest he spoke of how liberated he felt. But who made the prison he was freeing himself from? Only George, and now George fears being cornered again. That could be why he’s made these statements about not having a monogamous relationship with Kenny - because he fears what

else may come out of the closet, who may want to attack him now that he has penned this piece of political pop.

There is a place for heartfelt politics in pop. Bono, for one, can do it. But then Bono could sing about a cup of tea with angelic conviction because the U2 man has truth, has enlightenment, has worked out his place between his devils and his angels. George Michael is still trying to find his, still fumbling, so he is in danger of looking stupid, especially when his lyrics are riddled with cliché and the tune is unsummonable.

The idea of George putting politics into his pop songs is as incongruous as Prince Charles believing passionately in a man’s right to wear a bikini. It seems to me that George Michael no longer has the tragedy and the passion, the exquisite painful pleasure of regret, remorse or something to rejoice about in the love lyric. Perhaps he tired of writing songs that were decidedly ambiguous and wanting to please all of the people all of the time. So instead he’s gone for shoot the dog. Maybe a relation to Wag the Dog.

Perhaps because his career in America had already hit a suspiciously homophobic blip after his adventures with policemen in public places, he felt he had nothing left to lose. But he can’t even be straightforward about what inspired it. It can’t be because he suddenly got interested in politics. No, it was because the grief over the deaths of his mother and Anselmo meant staying up "and watching a lot of serious late-night television like Question Time and Newsnight because I couldn’t sleep". Hello? Since when do pop stars want to go to sleep at 10:30?

Anyway, he feels that Tony Blair is too much concerned with showing unquestionable obedience to George Bush. Many of us have a similar concern. So he thought now was his chance to have a go at the culture of fear, retribution and mindless bigotry. How mindless is it, then, to show an animated video where Tony Blair is a poodle? Poodles, as we all know, are the most intelligent of dogs, along with Border Collies. They are manipulative and clever and have been the companions of such luminaries as Winston Churchill, John Steinbeck, Jack Lemmon and me. Poodles are brave and stoic. They are not confused in their hearts.

The whole thing is extremely distasteful. I would say this is the real act of weakness and recklessness. How does it reflect on his relationship with Kenny? If I were Kenny, I would want to stop my lover from making a fool of himself. So this implies either that Kenny is so in love with him he doesn’t see it, or that George is unresponsive to his pleas.

Kenny always seems somewhat outside of things. I’m not sure if he’s been the muse for many songs of late or whether this is simply George acting out a midlife crisis, trying to find a new direction. He says that he didn’t know he was gay until he was 27. He’s used to living in that grey world of confusing himself in order to confuse other people.

Of his old songs, he says: "I kind of gave people what they wanted without lying to them and tried to imply in every way that I could that I was not completely straight, but nobody took the hint." This lying by omission approach at least makes for more interesting songwriting territory than giving us his naive and crass political statements without ambiguity, charm or debate. He’s trying to carve out a new macho niche for himself, the tough guy. He’s even criticised the lovely Graham Norton by saying that he is only two steps away from being John Inman and that’s a stereotype. I think look up stereotypical gay man who hasn’t come to terms with his sexuality in the dictionary and whose picture are we going to find? n

> ATTACHMENT part 2 image/gif name=ts.gif

Posted on Tue, Sep. 03, 2002
New names picked in the fame game BY PAUL MAJENDIE Reuters LONDON - What do Osama Bin Laden, Stella McCartney and Ronaldo have in common? In the fame game, they are just three of the 500 new names to merit a place in one of the world's oldest reference books — Chambers Biographical Dictionary. "The basic criteria have kept the same since the first edition in 1897 — achievement and recognition. Those are the key watchwords," editor Una McGovern told Reuters on Tuesday. A new edition only comes round every five years and she was the first to admit: "It is a difficult job for editors to decide who goes in. We try to reflect international coverage and who people would look up." The 2002 dictionary, being published this week, certainly mirrors a society obsessed by celebrities — the largest number of new entries comes from the world of arts and entertainment. ....Fitting 17,500 entries into the dictionary is a real masterclass in the art of precis. Editors have just 150 words to tell all about George W. Bush, George Michael and David Beckham — but Sunday's birth of soccer idol Beckham's son Romeo came too late for the dictionary deadline. Other big names, from Microsoft founder Bill Gates to children's writer Roald Dahl, are treated to bigger panel biographies but never on first entry in the dictionary...

Thanks, Geni. :o)

DONATELLA DANCING http://www.vogue.co.uk/Gallery/Versace_Couture/Default.html

ONE of the highlights of Couture Week was definitely seeing Donatella Versace being swung around the dance floor by George Michael, while Prince provided the soundtrack. After her show last week, DV, wearing a plunging black catsuit, had in fact admitted that her collection had been inspired in part by the diminutive rock star, who is a regular on the DJ decks in Paris' Ritz Club, before inviting all her models, friends and guests (including Elizabeth Hurley, Puff Daddy, David Furnish, Chloe Sevigny, Rupert Everett and Men in Black II star Rosario Dawson) to join her for endless Champagne at the Ritz's huge Casino-style blackjack tables, amid the magicians and clairvoyants. Michael took to the dance floor with his hostess only when he could be prized apart from his boyfriend, Kenny Goss. For the rest of the evening, the two were seen clinging tightly to one another's hands. "Donatella and Michael have been friends for years, but this is the first show invitation he has accepted," says a rep. "Donatella is friends with all the celebrities that come to her shows. Rosario is becoming a new friend because she is brilliant and beautiful and very Versace." Click HERE to see all the photos from the party. (July 18 2002, AM)

Thanks, Helen. :o)

Sunday Mirror.......

What has George Michael got to hide? He was spotted at Stussy in Covent Garden, London, buying 20 hats. Is he joining his friend Stephen Gately in the follicley challenged stakes? Or just giving pal Boy George a run for his money in the millinery department?

Thanks, Geni. :o)

Worst week for the Beeb.

George's TV tantrum

TROUBLED singer GEORGE MICHAEL is now at war with the BBC over a warts’n’all documentary planned for the New Year.

George was set to tell all to the BBC about his life since his controversial Shoot The Dog single was released.

He and his boyfriend KENNY GOSS had agreed to be followed around for four months for the programme.

But George has pulled out after the BBC’s My Worst Week series retold the story of when he was arrested for lewd conduct after flashing at an undercover police officer in Los Angeles in 1998.

A BBC insider said: “George chucked a complete tantrum over it.

He said he was outraged that we would bring all those humiliating details back up and then expect him to co-operate with interviews for another documentary.

“He told us in no uncertain terms that he won’t be helping the BBC out.”

BBC Choice boss Stuart Murphy yesterday confirmed that the deal with George is off.

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Elena. :o)

http://www.hellomagazine.com/2002/08/16/albertentertains/

16 AUGUST 2002

One of Europe's most eligible bachelors, Prince Albert of Monaco, has been
out and about in St Tropez - currently Europe's hottest destination -
showing off his beach volleyball talents by day and then partying with the
stars into the early hours.

Albert spent Wednesday afternoon at St Tropez's exclusive Nikki beach
resort playing a few rounds of beach volleyball before retiring to his
luxury yacht with U2 singer Bono and his wife Ali.

The prince, who is a big fan of U2, had invited Bono - real name Paul
Hewson - and Ali to spend a few days on his yacht as part of their 20th
wedding anniversary celebrations. The big day is not actually until next
Wednesday, but the couple are already celebrating their two decades
together in style.

In the evening, they all moved on to get down at the recently re-opened
club and restaurant, the VIP Room, where French singer Johnny Hallyday's
son David was holding his 36th birthday bash. Also on hand to party into
the small hours were U2 guitarist The Edge and singer George Michael.

Thanks, everyone. :o)

 
 http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12103357&method=full&siteid=50143

WOODY'S ON SIDE

US actor defends George Michael's anti-Bush single

He's one of Hollywood's hottest actors and, with Natural Born Killers among his starring roles, is no stranger to controversy. But now Woody Harrelson has taken another brave step - he's passionately defended George Michael over his anti-Bush and Blair single Shoot The Dog. The 41-year-old star - currently appearing in On An Average Day opposite Kyle MacLachlan at the Comedy Theatre in London - has hit out at the backlash against the song's lyrics which criticise George Bush, Tony Blair and the war on terror since September 11. At his play's after-show party on Wednesday night, Woody told Jessica: "I saw the Daily Mirror's front page on George Michael and I thought it was brilliant. I've always been a fan but he's right up there now. I think he's a great guy. "I haven't seen the video for his song but I was fascinated by what he had to say. "He's incredibly brave to have done that song. Especially when doing something like that could be considered very dangerous in today's world." Harrelson - who is famous for his role as the dim barman Woody in Cheers and who stunned audiences with his powerful portrayal of a murderer in Natural Born Killers - is the first American to stand up and defend the 39-year-old British singer. The former Wham! star caused outrage by using the Daily Mirror's Howdy Poodle front page, which poked fun at the special relationship between Britain and the US, on the single's cover. "I can't believe he got so criticised in America for it. It's so unfair," said Woody. "I hear he's too scared to go over to the States now. What a joke. I'd really like to meet George. "I want to congratulate him on standing up and speaking out. "I totally support him and wish him all the best. It would really make my day if you could set up a meeting with me and George. I just want to shake that guy by the hand." He also had nothing but praise for the Daily Mirror. "I have one thing to say about the Mirror - it's amazing," he said. "The paper's stance on the war against terrorism is just right. It's so bold. "The war against terrorism is terrorism. The whole thing is just bullsh*t. What you guys have done is very brave." Woody - who was with his wife Laura and their two daughters Deni, nine, and five-year-old Zoe at the party at Adam Street private members' club - has been living in London for two months. He has homes in Hawaii and Costa Rica and proclaims to be a vegan, although he was gobbling up the canapes at the party. "I love it over here, man," he grinned, sipping a pint of beer. "I've been really busy but now the play has started I want to have a little fun. There's a little spot I go to but I'd rather not tell you where it is." London cab driver Les Dartnell also attended the play. In June Woody was wrestled to the ground by policemen and arrested after he went berserk in the back of Les's taxi. The cabbie said the star acted like a "caged animal". Within minutes of Les picking the actor up from Chinawhite at 2am, Woody had trashed the cab. He then booted the door open and made a run for it. Les dropped the charges after Woody paid him £542.96 and the two men shook hands after the play. "He said, 'No hard feelings'," said Woody. "He seemed like a nice guy. It's just one of those terrible circumstances."

Thanks, Elena. :o)

http://uk.music.yahoo.com/020806/242/d6rxf.html

'Kittens Stand-up For George Michael


        With the dismal chart performance of his controversial Shoot The
Dog single still fresh in his mind, George Michael looks
        like he could do with all the friends he can get, escpecially as
the tabloids have declared his career over!

        Luckily, Atomic Kitten and Sugababes are on hand to provide some
much-needed support, despite the fact they prefer his
        earlier work.

        "He's just getting himself into trouble, isn't he?" 'Kitten Liz
McLarnon admitted, regarding the satirical track, which last week
        debuted in the charts at a lowly No. 12, "But at the end of the day
it's up to him. Free speech and all that."

        However, bandmate Jenny Frost admitted that Shoot The Dog is
nowhere near as good any of his previous material. "I still
        love George Michael," she confessed, " But I'm still in my Father
Figure phase. That and Fast Love are my two favourite
        George songs."

        However, it isn't just Jenny Kitten who wishes George would go back
to writing tunes like Praying For Time, so too do the
        Sugababes.

        "I think George Michael has written a load of good songs," Heidi
admitted, "I think at the moment he might be bored writing
        good songs 'cos he's written so many. I think he's just having a
bit of laugh!"

        Sugababes will release their next single, Round Round, on August
12th, while Atomic Kitten's cover of Tide Is High follows on
        the 19th.

http://www.dotmusic.com/charts/top75singles.asp

http://www.dotmusic.com/charts/commentary/content.asp

12 SHOOT THE DOG (George Michael)

  Presenting George Michael - political satirist. After the rather
underwhelming response to his last single Freeek (a
  Number 7 hit in March lest we forget) George Michael clearly needed
something provoke a response from people. As a
  result he has elected to release this wonderfully controversial single
about the relationship between the leaders of the
  UK and the US and which comes complete with a frankly quite hilarious
animated video that sees the cartoon George
  leap out of a toilet in the oval office, boogaloo with George Bush,
parade on Tony Blair's bed in a thong and play his own
  backing singers in drag. If he wanted publicity then he certainly got it,
declining to release the track in America and
  prompting some national newspapers to decide that it represents the end
of his career. The single itself (let us not forget
  the music after all) carves a funk groove so deep you could fall down it.
It is based on Love Action (I Believe In Love) by
  the Human League and actually wears the sample so prominently on its
sleeve that Philip Oakey's original vocals break
  through into the mix during the playout. For my money it isn't actually
half bad and it is certainly far from the career
  ruining slice of garbage people are too quick to make it out to be.
Nonetheless when Freeek was released I pointed out
  that his superstar status rested on his next single being much much
better and in that sense Shoot The Dog actually
  falls some way short. Number 12 is far from the worst chart position of
his career but it is nonetheless his first to miss
  the Top 10 since his all time nadir Cowboys And Angels missed the Top 40
altogether in March 1991. It is clear that
  his new album (when he finally finds a record company to release it for
him) won't produce any smash hits but you can
  guarantee that causing a few American DJs to have a sense of humour
failure isn't going to be his chart swansong, no
  matter what a few ignorant newspaper journalists would have you believe.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,4-2002341258,00.html

What are you up to George?

GEORGE MICHAEL looks like he is recreating the infamous pose that got him
busted in a Los Angeles loo in 1998.

Either that or he's attempting to run away from all the bad publicity
stirred up by new single Shoot The Dog.

The singer is seen arrived home in Hampstead, North London, yesterday after
a stroll.

George is in Britain to promote Shoot The Dog - but things have backfired.
The track, attacking the war on terror, has prompted an angry backlash and
is not getting much airplay.

 

---

 

 

Online chat with George !!!

When ? Wednesday July 10th, from 7 PM (UK Time) until 8 PM (UK Time)

Where ? http://music.tiscali.co.uk/news/show.php?id=8029

 

STD - Release date - Monday 29th July 2002.

George on TV:

Trevor McDonald interviewed George. You can see the interview Friday July 12th at 20:00 UK Time on ITV.

George is also in 'My Worst Week' on BBC 1 next Tuesday July 16th at 22:35 UK Time.

 

Thanks, Geni. :o)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4456258,00.html

Who's a cheeky boy?

Critics of George Michael's satirical protest song have missed the point

Charles Shaar Murray
Observer

Sunday July 7, 2002

 

'With the release of his George Bush and Cherie Blair-referencing new single,' snickers the Popbitch website, 'we would like to commiserate with George Michael on the death of his career.'

Popbitch is not alone in its verdict on 'Shoot the Dog', George Michael's satirical take on the 'war on terror', and its animated video, which depicts, among other things, the President of the United States having foreign policy explained to him by a general with a sock puppet, popping up (literally) in bed with the Blairs, and tickling Mr Tony's tummy - 'Good puppy!' - on the White House lawn. The Sun said more or less the same thing, declaring the release of the record to be professional suicide and throwing in terms such as 'sleazy' and 'pervert' for good measure.

In his Guardian column last Tuesday, Rod Liddle, editor of Radio 4's Today and renowned for his frequent defence of giving airtime to British National Party leader Nick Griffin, weighed into the debate, also on the 'nay' side. Not content with giving Michael a good kicking, Liddle attacks Bono and Bob Geldof, dismissing the very notion that a mere entertainer might not only hold political views but claim the right to express them in his work.

What Liddle is actually doing is defending the current-affairs establishment's monopoly on political comment. He does concede that 'there have been a few occasions in the history of rock and pop music when musicians have genuinely captured the mood of an angry minority', citing Neil Young's 'Ohio' and the Sex Pistols' 'God Save the Queen', but qualifies it: 'back then, pop musicians were not the establishment, as they have since, sadly (for them and us) become'.

That, however, is precisely the point. After all, George Michael is no banner-waving, dog-on-a-string crusty. He's the Elton John of his generation: a bona-fide pop star with almost two decades' worth of international hits in his CV. If something with the political content of 'Shoot the Dog' had been released by Billy Bragg or Joe Strummer, or some other veteran ranter from the punk era, it would simply have been business as usual.

By the same token, much of the video, currently showing only on MTV, replicates the tone, style and production values of the opening titles to the cheeky but scarcely radical Have I Got News for You, wherein its core political gags - Dubya is a cretin, Blair is a creep - are more or less standard assumptions. It's only because a critique of the 'war on terror' features in a single by a household pop name that it seems shocking to those accustomed to the quiescent popsters, adolescent and senescent alike, who showed up for the jubilee concert to have their heads patted by royalty.

It may not be a great record - and with the authority vested in me by the British Board of Popular Culture, I regret to inform you that it isn't - but its existence is immensely encouraging. The political silence of rock's lambs has been deafening over the past decades - one of the saddest popculch spectacles I've ever seen was a documentary about Sean Lennon and Lenny Kravitz attempting to put together an all-star record protesting against the Gulf War and finding no performer with serious clout willing to join in - and the post-11 September phenomenon of Paul McCartney and Neil Young's 'give war a chance' records is dispiriting. Ever since Bob Dylan imported the topical polemic into pop >from the folk world in the mid-Sixties, the 'protest song' has been an intrinsic part of the pop palette. It is sad not only that it has fallen into disuse but that some would still deny its intrinsic legitimacy.

'"Shoot the Dog' is political satire, expressing my personal opinion about the lack of public dialogue between the government and the British people today,' says Michael. 'I wrote it to get people talking, not to change the world and certainly not to cause offence. If it stimulates debate and makes people dance and laugh, I think it will have done its job.'

Publicity-seeking career move or heartfelt personal statement, 'Shoot the Dog' is still a blow against a manufactured consensus in which genuine debate has been marginalised by knee-jerk accusations of 'anti-Americanism' or 'anti-Semitism' from governments that want only a one-way conversation with their electorates and a media complicit in the charade.

Even if he does not release the record in the States Michael, by putting his well-coiffed bonce above the parapet when the majority of his colleagues are keeping their heads down, has proved himself a smarter, braver man than most of his peers. And most of his critics.

· 'Shoot the Dog' is released on 5 August on Polydor Records

 

Thanks, Britt. :o)

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002302006,00.html

 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002301995,00.html

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/1542802/detail.html

http://europe.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/05/george.michael/index.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/newsid_2097000/2097635.stm

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/homepage/features/page.cfm?objectid=12013529&method=sm_full&siteid=81959

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/chartnews/020705_georgemichael.shtml

http://www.thisislondon.com/dynamic/news/story.html?in_review_id=632446&in_review_text_id=602863

 

 

 

 

George on the phone giving an interview:

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0207/03/tl.00.html

http://www.vh1.com/news/stories/1455955.jhtml

George on MTV:

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1455955/20020703/index.jhtml?headlines=true

http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/04/george.michael.song/index.html

http://www.undercover.com.au/20020704_georgemichael.html

BW2228  JUL 03,2002       11:08 PACIFIC      14:08 EASTERN

( EW)(NY-GEORGE-MICHAEL) Singer George Michael Sets the Record Straight On the Controversy Surrounding His Latest European Single/Video, "Shoot the Dog"


    Entertainment Editors

    NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--July 3, 2002--The song and video in question, "Shoot The Dog", is definitely not an attempt to express anti-American sentiment, nor an attempt to condone the actions of Al-Qaida. I have lived with an American citizen for the past six years, and have had a home there for the past 10. And I would never knowingly disrespect the feelings of a nation, which has suffered so much loss, so recently, for any reason.
    The debate which I hope to encourage by lampooning the relationship between our two leaders (and I think it is fair to say that lampooning is principally an American invention, born out of a desire for true democracy), is one that I think would protect all of us, but it would seem that neither the British nor American governments are keen to have us raise our voices, or ask a few simple, terrifying questions:
    Saddam Hussein is without question now capable of changing the face of the planet. The level of destruction possible if this madman is cornered is too awful to put into words. So what should we do? Do we hope that time and his age will remove him from us all (don't forget, he is in his sixties, and God may smile on us in that respect), or do we bomb Iraq and hope to get rid of his regime right now? And, most frightening of all, if we do go looking for him, and succeed, isn't it possible that he will behave as he always has, like the bad guy in some tacky movie, sat in a room with nothing to lose and a few terrifying red buttons at his fingertips. Isn't that almost inevitable?
    I do not believe this is melodrama. I believe this is the most important decision that our respective Government's have ever had to make on our behalf's. I cannot speak for America, I would not presume to, but there is no doubt that here in the UK, we are not being asked what we think. Like many of you over there in the States, we are just praying that Tony and Dubya know more than we do, because prayer is all that appears to be allowed.
    "Shoot the Dog" is simply my attempt to contribute to the public debate that I feel should be taking place regarding Iraq and Saddam Hussein. I have tried to convey my message with humor, because the public is rightfully scared of these issues, and humor has often been a useful aide to political debate. And believe me, however irreverent I may be of Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush, my intentions are genuinely to do something, however small, to protect all of us, the people I love, and the people you love, from a disaster that we have the power to avoid.
    The record was never intended for American release, for the precise reason that I felt it could be misread in this very way, and it makes me truly sad that this press statement has been necessary. Once again, no offense to Americans was intended, but politicians are humans, not Gods, and God knows, there has never been a more important time to remember that than now.

    Sincerely,

    George Michael

 

The barrage:

MP3 STD version at 

 http://wallwey.bei.t-online.de

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/38112000/rm/_38112631_michael00_holt_vi.ram

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/default.stm

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002301113,00.html

THE SUN:http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,5-2002301051,00.html

http://www.league-online.com/news.html

http://infobrix.yellowbrix.com/pages/infobrix/Story.nsp?story_id=31026926&ID=infobrix&scategory=Business+and+Finance&

 

http://www.nypost.com/sports/18345.htm

Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=14776550

 

"Pop and politics"
Guardian

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/redbox/story/0,9029,748118,00.html

 

Groo. George Michael has sex with Cherie Blair

Play Louder

http://www.playlouder.com/news/3753.html

 

Gossip Directory

Daily Record - Glasgow

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/192/daily/daily/page.cfm?objectid=11998616&method=full

Video dogs Bush-Blair relationship
CNN / Inside Politics
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/07/02/blair.bush.reut/index.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,748202,00.html

 

MTV Europe plays STD every hour on the hour.

You can also see the clip on line at http://www.mtve.com/european

 

More Links:

http://www.advocate.com/new_news.asp?ID=4889&sd=07/02/02

 
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=11999682&method=full&siteid=50143

Joke of the day:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,56768,00.html

 

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/news/story.jsp?story=311097

http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/philip_hensher/story.jsp?story=311075

http://music.tiscali.co.uk/news/show.php?id=8021

http://www.dotmusic.com/news//July2002/news25606.asp

http://www.megastar.co.uk/megastar/news/2002/07/01/sMEG01MTAyNTUzMTYyMjM.html

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,747696,00.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=311075

BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/music/newsid_2077000/2077598.stm

NME:
http://www.nme.com/news/102215.htm

Ananova:
http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_619500.html?menu=

Sky News:

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30500-12018395,00.html

Miami Herald:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/entertainment/3576725.htm

 

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020701/80/d2c7u.html
 

 

 

 

Thanks, Ioggie on G-Mail:

Hi

 

I heard on MTV's  Fridge, the video will be shown from 4.00 am GMT tomorrow

 

(or 6 am Central European Time, or 5 a.m Western European Time

 

To check your time zone http://greenwichmeantime.com/

 

Thanks, everyone. :o)

Links to all sorts of articles about STD:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=11996638&method=full&siteid=50143

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020701/80/d2c7u.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/music/newsid_2077000/2077598.stm

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30500-12018395,00.html

http://www.dotmusic.com/artists/GeorgeMichael/news/July2002/news25606.asp

 

Thanks, everyone. :o)

From The Mirror:

GEORGE GOES POLITICAL

George Michael next week releases the most sensational and controversial record of his life. Called Shoot The Dog, it's a sharply political satirical expose of Bush, Blair, the war on terror and America's response to the events of September 11. For George, 39 last Monday, it represents as he admits: "The biggest risk of my career." The lyrics poke fun at Cherie Blair, criticise husband Tony's poodle-like behaviour towards the US President, and express his concern at the world situation. The single's cover features The Daily Mirror's Howdy Poodle front page from earlier this year which mocked the special relationship between Britain and the US. George - no stranger to controversy after his arrest for lewd conduct in a Los Angeles toilet - wrote the single mainly before the World Trade Center disaster. He was smoking cannabis as he grieved his mother's death and watching late night TV discussions on the impending threat of an Islamic fundamentalist war with the secular West.   RISK: George Now it looks eerily prescient. As George says: "I watched those planes crashing into the Trade Center on TV and couldn't believe that my worst fears that I'd been putting down in this song were actually happening." Shoot The Dog will redefine George Michael's career. He knows that by being so political he'll invite criticism.   But he says: "I am British, I live here, I pay my taxes, and I'm very, very worried that we are now the second most dangerous country in the world thanks to our special relationship with America. "I want this record to start a proper open debate about what Tony Blair and our other political leaders are doing in our name." George's use of our front page represents the first time a national newspaper has been used this way by a major musician. George says: "I read the Mirror's coverage of the war on terror and found myself agreeing with so much of it. It was refreshing to see such bold, questioning journalism in a tabloid paper. "The Howdy Poodle front page just summed up what this record's about so I used it on the cover."   For Shoot The Dog he has commissioned a hilarious video from the animation team behind ITV's hit show 2DTV. He mercilessly sends himself up in the clip which takes a dig at his former pop images as well as including some near-the-knuckle moments of him romping naked - apart from a leopardskin thong - in bed with Tony and Cherie Blair. In Monday's Mirror, in a world exclusive interview, George Michael goes political for the first time and explains why he's made this record, why he feels so afraid to live in Britain, why he distrusts George Bush, and what he really thinks of Tony and Cherie Blair. It's George as you've never heard him - and it's a fascinating insight into the mind of our most gifted contemporary songwriter. For the full lyrics, go to: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=11992068&method=full&siteid=50143

 

 

 

Thanks, Geni and Helen. :o))

Want to see 25 secs of the new STD vid ? 

Go to: 

http://www.mtv.it/musicnew/News_page.asp?ID=P%20%20%20%20%204909&NAME=George%20Michael&IDNEWS=9CBCFCBCCBDF45898DB68F12FCC8C191

 

 

The new Shoot The Dog video will be shown on MTV on July 2nd. 

There was a short exerpt from the video on VH1 yesterday. 

 

http://www.seriousaboutnews.com/mk/pages/index.shtml

 

POP STAR PICKS MK CARTOONISTS

POP superstar George Michael has asked city cartoonists to draw the promotional video for his new record.

The music legend will be featured wearing 'vampish' women's clothing for his forthcoming single 'Shoot The Dog'.

Animators behind television satire 2DTV now face a race against time to meet the record release date over the next month.

Staff at its Stony Stratford office are working around the clock - with some staff having to leave or postpone their holidays in a bid to beat the deadline.

Tim Searle, joint creator of 2DTV Limited, said: "It's dead exciting. We have dealt with many celebrities, but George is the biggest.

"We thought it was a prankster pretending to be George's manager at first. But it wasn't. George is a big 2DTV fan.

"We met up with George himself in London on Monday to discuss the storyboard.

"He's very on the case and suggested 'you can dress me up as a woman'. And, momentarily, he will be - in very vampish clothes.

"We are now drawing the storyboard, then timing it out to the track to synchronise the cartoons with the music."

George usually appears in 2DTV cartoon sketches involving his mates Geri Halliwell and Sir Elton John.

Tim said: "George has a cracking sense of humour. We're lucky we don't have much of a dig at him in the show. George plays the straight man out of the three."

Sir Elton and Geri are mercilessly pilloried on the show. Last November this newspaper revealed that Sir Elton had allegedly had trouble keeping his hair on about 2DTV poking fun at his wig.

His cartoon will not be appearing in George's new promo video.

As for Geri, Tim said: "2DTV - apparently, it's humour is flying over her head."

She appears on the promo cartoon along with President Bush and Tony Blair.

Tim added: "The song is vaguely satirical, although I'm not allowed to go into much detail at this point, suffice to say, it's a dance song with a political message."

Mr Searle wouldn't reveal how much the contract was worth, but said: "It's a darn sight more than our normal work. With George being an international star, we are hoping this will raise our profile in the United States."

Tim said on Thursday: "It's going to kill us. But we've managed to push the original deadline back three days.

"I was going to go to France in a camper van next week. That's on hold. I have pulled a couple of workers back from Italy. They will get back tomorrow (June 14) . One girl was on honeymoon. I asked her, but she understandably refused."

The satirical comedy, hailed as the 21st century Spitting Image, scooped the press prize for arts and special programmes at May's prestigious Montreux TV festival.

Record makers Polydor were unavailable for comment.

 

From Yogmael:

------------------------------------------------
>From the Human League website, www.league-online.com

It can now be revealed that the major UK artist who has used a heavy League
sample for their next single is former Wham singer George Michael. His new
single 'Shoot The Dog' relies heavily on arrangements from one of the most
famous Human League singles 'Love Action' and it it also believed to contain
Phil's original vocals. Technical has described 'Shoot The Dog' as 'very
good' and the League were given the track for approval last month.
The choice of 'Love Action' comes nine years after the fondly remembered Top
10 Utah Saints single 'I Believe' that also sampled some of Phil's vocals
from the Dare song in 1993.
George's effort is released to radio stations as a promo next week and is
expected to hit record stores towards the end of July, so in the meantime,
you may sadly have to put up with the banality of Radio One in order to hear
it.

George Michael Splashes Out On Kitchen for Gay.com UK 18 June 2002

singer George Michael is splashing out on an expensive country kitchen for his Hampstead home. The £50,000 kitchen from designers Chalon in London's King's Road will apparently have a rustic feel. George is said to have fell in love with the farmhouse style. Maybe George or partner Kenny Goss fancys playing the role of 'the Naked Chef'.

 

Just went to the Aegean website and checked the news section:

Surprise, surprise. George's new song Shoot The Dog will be first played on July 2nd, so two weeks later than the original date. But have no fear, George has a good reason for it: He wants the STD video to be released at the same time as the new song hits the airwaves. The song will be released on CD one month later. 

 

Thanks, Helen. :o)

Despite months of research, the BBC has dropped a documentary it was making on George Michael.

The makers concluded that Michael is worth in excess of £100 million but, unusually, after consultation with Michael, according to my insider, the project was dropped.

My source says; 'George agreed to co-operate with another project if they left him alone on this one."

Glad to see the independent spirit of the BBC shinning through.

 

Yes, there is a new G-song coming our way !

Title: Shoot the Dog

Radio release: June 20th

Release: Late July

Type: Up-tempo!

You can read all about it at the news page on the Aegean site at http://www.aegean.net

 

Thanks, Iogie. :o)

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/

Which pop star is so stingy he's not even prepared to fork out for his own, er, undies? The man in question - who's just left his teeny pop band to go solo - is apparently a monster in the trouser department. Fans gasped when they spotted his manhood flopping about in shiny, see-through trousers. Classy guy.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/758363.asp

 

SOUTH KOREA HAS a tradition of eating dog meat — some men claim it increases their sexual prowess — but it does have laws designed to curtail extreme cruelty to the animals — such as boiling them alive. This week, just as the World Cup soccer finals begin, Osbourne, Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Kid Rock, Joe Pesci, George Michael, Tea Leone and Charlize Theron are among the hundreds of celebs who have signed the PETA-sponsored petition. Fighting the dog-chompers can be risky business

 

Thanks, Elena and Helen. :o))

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002250559,00.html

                              Shish, we are trying to listen

                         PICTURE the scene. You're considering
                         signing a deal with V2 records so you
                         ring up the boss and arrange a secret
                         late-night meet at your favourite kebab
                         shop.

                         The boss insists on a sneak preview of
                         the CD so you play it on your car stereo while
munching a doner.

                         That's exactly what GEORGE MICHAEL and RICHARD
BRANSON did the other
                         night in Bayswater, West London.

                         But unfortunately for them my snapper happened to
be queuing for a shish
                         at the Halepi takeaway.

                         George is yet to decide who to sign his album with
after his single Freeek! -
                         a one-song deal with Polydor - limped into the
charts at a disappointing No7.

                         After buying lamb in pitta, the pair retreated to
George's Range Rover to
                         listen to the singer's offerings.

                         An onlooker said: "George put the CD in the stereo
and turned the volume
                         right up. Richard seemed to like what he heard and
they chatted for 15
                         minutes."

                         A spokesman for George said: "He's still not
signed to anyone yet but his
                         album is due out at the end of the year."

 

---

 

 

---

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Paulette. :o)

From http://www.momblog.co.uk.

"Famous for What?
George Michael flew to Florida on 28th April using British Airways. We
watched him being led through the queues and taken through security without
having to spend time with the talentless/luckless crowd.."

The little article goes on to say"...the plane landed safely with a long
delay while George got off before any wannabe, like me, could pounce on him
as he reached over to grab his luggage in the conveyor belt hell."

From the Austin Chronicle in a column- "After A Fashion" (5/17/02)

"OIL FROM THE GRAPEVINE?....and that Eighties glamour boy George Michael was in town last week, reportedly dropping into Oilcan Harry's askign to see the wine list!!!! There was no word as to whether or not he visited the restroom."

Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

Hello

 

If you're short of some George Michael videos in your collection set your VCR's ready for MTV Europe Top 10 at 10 next Wednesday 15 th May: George Michael!

Schedules: 10.00H am to 11.00 am CET and 10.00H pm to 10.00H pm CET.

 

 

Freddie Mercury tribute concert to be released on DVD

A DVD of the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert is set to be released on May 13.

The concert took place at Wembley Stadium, and featured stars such as David Bowie, George Michael, and the surviving members of Queen.

Footage from Queen's reunion concert in Amsterdam earlier this week has been posted on the internet.

It can be seen at www.queen-fip.com.

The tribute concert DVD will include rehearsal footage, a documentary on the show, videos and a fan photo section.

The second half of the show has been re-mastered, and includes surround sound.

Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor, scriptwriter Ben Elton and members of the cast of the Queen musical We Will Rock You will be appearing on Parkinson on May 18.

Ananova: Story filed: 09:53 Friday 3rd May 2002

 

Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,4-2002181564,00.html

 

 

Time out for sad George

GEORGE MICHAEL is to stop work on his eagerly awaited album because he is too depressed.

The star is down after his single Freeek! only reached No7 in the charts and the death of his puppy.

A pal said he is planning to spend two more weeks finishing a song in Sarm West Studios, Notting Hill, before taking at least four months off.

He will stay in Dallas with Texan boyfriend KENNY GOSS.

The pal added: “George is depressed and says he is too down to make music.

“He was really upset Freeek! did not do better last month – he put his heart and soul into it and was secretly expecting to be No2 behind GARETH GATES.

“It didn’t help when his dog drowned. George is going to take a long holiday so it doesn’t look like the album will be finished until Christmas.”

From Aegean:

There will be no 'Audience with George'. 

From Yogmael:

From the Aegean forums:

lizard Admirer Member # 1561

posted 08 April 2002 17:39                        i have a scoop for all u gm fans in the u.k, i have heard from a very reliable source that he will be doing "an audience with George Michael" - which of course will be pre-recorded but the whole programme is live muisic, kind of like when he did mtv unplugged but with interviews and special guest duets!!!!!!!!!! can't wait!!!!!!!

 

Thanks, Nico. :o)

This week a nice two page article in Heat Magazine.
> It discusses what George said about Geri in the radio interview. With 3
> pics, one of them a little pic of G, K and Geri in St. Tropez. Nothing
new, but still very nice.

Thanks, Paulette. :o)

Hi,

George is on the front cover of The Advocate (pic in right hand corner) April
16th edition. There is a small article inside about Freeek! and in the same
article Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman are mentioned.

Thanks, Ioggie and Elena. :o))

Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

The Syndicate Effects George Michael's 'Freeek'
By Katie Makal
March 25, 2002 02:46 PM PST

	Opening and Closing Scene Click for Large Image

Spindly robotic arms fine-tune his techno-pounding heart, then launch George Michael's Freeek character in a flying vehicle toward his fate in a darkly glowing "Blade Runner" vision of a tawdry urban core. So opens "Freeek," George Michael's visually charged $1.5 million music video for his comeback dance single directed by Joseph Kahn (Moby "Westside," Aerosmith "Fly Away from Here"), of Palomar/Supermega, with 180 visual effects shots created by new CGI firm The Syndicate, a ComputerCafe partnership. The video debuted March 18, 2002. The 180 effects shots in the 4:28 video were completed in four weeks.

Freeek -- George Michael's character who is variously costumed as a super-sexual hero, a pinstriped banker, a cowboy salesman, and an oversized DJ clad in a black leather full-body spiked suit -- parodies the rampant commercialism of sexuality as he romps through a seedy, futuristic downtown scene toward his ultimate showdown with a red-hot, spiny-backed super-vixen.

The video is packed with all the assorted delights one might expect as Michael sings, "Get yourself some action," including a voluptuous nude cyber-girl whose internal circuitry illuminates as she switches it on by tilting her head. The cyber character, developed as 3D geometry, was match-moved to the background plate and her internal workings were animated to reveal themselves glowing from beneath her skin.

	Futuristic City Click for Large Image

The visual tone for this campy, sexually-charged music video was set by George Michael and director Joseph Kahn, and implemented by independent visual effects supervisor Eric Durst ("The One," "End of Days"). Kahn, a longtime George Michael fan, was surprised to get a call from the singer-songwriter last December and to find himself sitting in his London flat listening to "Freeek" the next day. "This was the first time I met an artist without first hearing the song," said Kahn.

"George played 'Freeek' and asked how I envisioned it. I said a super-hero treatment could provide the textual and visual foundation for the song's charged sexuality. George was fascinated. We kicked around some ideas and I headed back to California to prepare for an early January shoot," said Kahn.

Kahn quickly called Durst, whom he had met several years earlier but had not had occasion to work with. "Things moved forward at light speed. Joseph showed me a treatment on Friday. I immediately called ComputerCafe, whose work with me on the motorcycle scene in the feature film "The One" was really impressive, and booked their new partnership The Syndicate to handle the visuals. On Monday I saw the final treatment and on Tuesday the three-day shoot at Universal began," said Durst.

"The video required a tremendous amount of highly detailed work, from animating individual products to 'Tron'-izing Michael's energy suit to creating the flying cars and people. It was very impressive to see one or two artists take on key scenes that required different skill sets, track, animate and light elements, and integrate them into the larger piece. It's a tribute to The Syndicate's style that individual artists complete key scenes, rather than taking an assembly line approach," added Durst.

During the shoot, The Syndicate received dailies -- 35,000 feet of film in all -- and ran it into flame* to set the tone, and to break out the shots and determine the best method for handling each one. "George Michael, Joseph Kahn and Eric Durst were very open to our ideas and experiments," said The Syndicate creative director Ron Honn. "The process was highly collaborative. George and Joseph kept telling us to have fun and be creative while we produced some 180 effects shots in a little over four weeks."

	Doberman Transformation Click for Large Image

While nearly every shot in "Freeek" is visually enhanced, three pivotal scenes comprised the core of The Syndicate's work: the opening dark city fly-through, the central dance sequence, and Michael's climactic love battle with the sexual super-vixen.

"The cityscape matte, executed by Deak Ferrand ("Lord of the Rings," "The One," "X-Men"), is an ominously detailed, sci-fi matte painting that reveals its charged identity as the camera approaches through glimpses of building signage playing composited videos and cutaways of street action. "We employed a 2D/3D process, creating 3D geometry to map the 2D painting elements to obtain the correct parallax perspective as the camera moves through the environment from Michael's point of view," said Honn. "We then mapped bits from the product advertising parodies onto the skyscraper video screens to introduce the song's theme of rampant sexual commercialism. Finally, we joined Michael's tracking 3D camera moves and added additional 3D flying vehicles to complete the effect of a busy nighttime downtown scene in what appears to be a seedy bit of old '70s Times Square transported to the future."

In the featured dance sequence, Michael controls four leashed Dobermans who morph into dominatrix-outfitted dancers for an exuberant number that was filmed on greenscreen and composited in flame* onto a surreal floating set. "To enhance the suspended space vacuum effect, we created a futuristic 3D dance floor environment around which rotate huge beveled metallic rings that complete the surreal atmosphere."

	Particle Transformation Click for Large Image

"We tried different looks for the vacuum environment, experimenting in 3D and placing the black-clad dancers against a white background, which played nicely and gave the sequence an unusual look," said Honn, crediting his design team for exploiting the reverse black-on-white look, which was "one of those happy discoveries we made along the way."

The finale, Freeek's main street sexual showdown with a super cyber-vixen, is one of Honn's favorite moments. Michael, dressed in a glowing red superhero energy-suit, saunters down the avenue to face off with a cyber-vixen who seemingly arises from a nether dimension wearing a matching red-hot red sexual energy suit. With a wave she sends a tsunami of sexual energy down the street, literally tearing products out of store windows and blowing everything at Michael, who casually tugs at his elbow, halting the flying products in mid-air, as the charged couple embraces, two creatures with the same thought.

"This sequence was fun," noted Honn. "We displaced the environment and added particle debris to the blown-away products, which were rendered and animated individually, giving them individual and group motion as they respond to the vixen's energy blast."

The video comes full circle, ending as it began with an animated CGI fetus moving in time to the breathing of George Michael's character. As the image fades down, the robotic arms, from the opening "cryo-chamber" scene, eerily return to begin attending to the fetus.

	Sexual Energy Wave Click for Large Image

"From the rough sketches Joseph provided, The Syndicate connected all the dots and delivered great images," said Durst. "They really grasped the essence of the director's vibe and put a shape around it. We had a great combination of people and personalities who were open to ideas, and we came up with some great stuff."

"I just love The Syndicate's philosophy and style and knew they could handle this complex project. They've always been committed to elevating the visual effects capabilities of the desktop. With their enormously talented staff, they can handle any challenge seamlessly," said Durst. "We had great communication from the big opening scene of the matte painted cityscape through the climactic face-off with the cyber-vixen."

The Internet played a key role that kept the far-flung partners in the creative loop. The Syndicate, working in Santa Monica and Santa Maria, created five FTP sites to provide high- and low-res dallies to Kahn in Hollywood and on an assignment in Florida, to Durst's California home, and to Michael's staff in London. "The FTP kept everyone involved throughout the project," said Durst. "In visual effects, it is crucial that you carry everyone along the production path, getting creative input from everyone, which often uncovers new approaches and results in a better product."

CREDITS
Production Company: Palomar/Supermega
Director:	Joseph Kahn
Producer:	Greg Tharp
Production Designer:	Stephen Platt
Visual Effects Supervisor:	Eric Durst
Visual Effects Companies: The Syndicate/ComputerCafe, Santa Monica
Executive Producers:	Jeff Barnes Kenny Solomon
Visual Effects Producer:	Jonathan Stone
Digital Effects Supervisor:	David Ebner
Creative Director:	Ron Honn
flame* Artists:	Tim Bird (13 Hands) Kevin Mosley (13 Hands)
Animators:	Mike Bozulich Akira Orikasa Domenic DiGiorgio Taron Jeff Goldman Steve Arguello Minory Sasaki Gabriel Vargas
Graphic Artist:	Glenn Hiramatsu
Data Manger:	Ron Honn
Digital Matte Paintings:	Deak Ferrand (Hatchfx)
Tools
Hardware/Software:	Adobe After Effects
	Discreet flame*
	eyeon Digital Fusion
	NewTek LightWave
	pmG project:messiah
	5D Cyborg

Thanks, Elena. :o)

http://www.dotmusic.com/charts/commentary/content.asp
>
> 7 FREEEK (George Michael)
>
> Ooh now this is an interesting one. The last time we saw George Michael
was
> three years ago at a time when he had
>   played a blinder regarding the incident in the public toilets and proved
> that even when you have no choice, the ability to
>   laugh at yourself is one to treasure. On the back of that he had also
> released a greatest hits album and scored some
>   massive hit singles in the shape of Outside, As and If I Told You That.
> Basically as the original teen pop star turned
>   mature artist, he was still the man. Now he is back with his first album
> for six years and is about to celebrate the 20th
>   anniversary of his first releases with Wham! Let's face it, it wouldn't
> be George Michael unless he tried to make an
>   impact and Freeek does its best to shock with its censor-worrying video
> and raunchy, semi-explicit lyrics. Musically it is
>   best described as I Want Your Sex crossed with Monkey and maybe a pinch
> of TooFunky. This is of course the problem
>   as it is essentially the same record he has been making for the past ten
> years. As Michael Jackson has already found to
>   his cost, the 21st century audience isn't content to welcome back
> superstars with the same act that made them famous
>   years ago. They want something interesting and different. Much was made
> of the fact that George Michael stood little
>   chance of topping the charts with his comeback single owing to the
> presence of Gareth Gates in the shops, but as it
>   turns out even without him he never really stood a chance. Number 7 may
> not be a bad chart placing but for a single that
>   was almost universally expected to go Top 3 it is something of a
> surprisingly poor performance. Freeek is actually a very
>   good and in truth quite exciting single but I can't be the only one
> hoping that his next one is much, much better.
>
>
Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

Thanks, Paulette. :o)

Here are some pics from the Radio 1 Interview:

And thanks, Terri. :o)

Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

Here is  the entire Radio 1 interview. You can listen to it 

at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/jowhiley/interviews/george_michael_mar2002_one.shtml

George, hello, how are you?
I'm good, I'm good

I'm really pleased that you've come in today because I've been wanting to talk to you for ages. You're very attentive I have to say... attention to detail.
Absolutely, well you see the thing is I don't do very much in terms of interacting with the media so when I do I like to speak to people personally.

The single, Freek has been driving you mad - tell us why?
Really one of the reasons I'm here is because of the media. It's not like I sit, hating the media - it's just that I don't like to get involved. I like to get on with what I do. I'm writing some fairly controversial stuff for this album and people are going to get the whole thing wrong if I don't actually pop up once or twice and tell people what I mean.

So that's what you're going to do for us today?
I want to give people one clue. Before you write in to tell me what you think it's about just replace the voice of George Michael with the voice of the internet and commerce.

In the studio working on the album… which is going to be out when?
Aiming for November. I've been working on it for the best part of 5 years. I find it much harder to make records these days.

What are you writing about?
It's interesting. I don't have a great deal to write about - being happy and balanced and feeling as good as I do. I have a fantastic relationship, things in my life that I thought I'd never have, so writing an album about me would be really boring. I could write a bunch of love songs about Kenny but I don't really want to do that. Actually the first time we met I wrote a song (about him) it's a B side called 'Safe' and he wasn't that impressed.

Madonna... you were saying that you've encountered her working on her album and stuff.
Yeah she's been down at the studio doing some demos for her album. The kids were running around, beautiful kids she's got.

There was a rumour going around that you worked with Daft Punk.
We worked together last year and we met up last week and we'll do something at some point. I knew with this album I wanted to collaborate simply because I'm bored. To be honest it's about me having more confidence than I used to - not like the old days when my ego demanded that I did everything and demanded that people knew that. And about 15 years later I worked out that most people didn't even know that I produced my own stuff.

Who else are you working with on the album?
I'm doing most of it myself but with Freek the guys I've been working with, we've spent 5 years trying to get a sound together and for me to get over my mother to be really honest. In the last year it's all come together and will be by far my best record in terms of pop music.

You talk about your mother - was that it, it just completely changed your view?
I think what would have misled my fans is that after the whole arrest business I looked on form again but with hindsight I did it to myself and I tried to work out why.

Did what to yourself?
The arrest.

You mean you made it happen?
I was sunbathing for God's sake in a park opposite the Beverley Hills Hotel and I was trying to work out why I would do that to myself. It certainly wasn't because I wanted to be outed in that way and I worked out that I knew I'd have to defend myself. I'd gone through losing my mother and a partner before that and my life hadn't been about me forever and suddenly it was a way about making my life about me and for 6 months it worked. I had to fight, make the video, the single, finish the greatest hits. I did the Parkinson interview and in reality when you saw me on the Parkinson interview I was doing well - but soon after that and that Christmas I sank again. I went through the rest of the period grieving for my mother which is actually in reality about 4 years and I was very impatient with myself all the way through that I thought should be over it. I couldn't understand why my writing wasn't coming together and was very tough on myself. But now I literally haven't felt stronger in my life and it's the way I felt just before my mother died and I met Kenny - and basically I feel like that again. Like I can take on the world again and I think that shows in this record and I just pray to god that I get a nice run of good luck.

You've got a minute on Oasis...
Oasis are the most amazing band that I've ever seen live with the possible exception of U2. The critics made one member of Oasis feel that they were the whole of Oasis and he promptly wrecked the best band we had in 20 years when really it was an amazing chemistry. They should never have got rid of the drummer in the first place. The best album is the first album. Currently, I like Hindu Times but I think it's depressing and years ago it would've have been a B side and I think it's really depressing to look at something as inspirational as Oasis in 1991 and hear something 10 years later that could have been made at the same time.

George describing the video:

It wasn't inspired as much by the internet as by watching late night TV. I've had a very quiet life making this record and the truth is that when you watch late night tv culture, you feel at my age like the world's gone mad. When I thought of the song, I wanted it to represent the victory of commerce and certain types of commerce around sex over all of us. There's so much money involved, I wanted Freek to sound like this kind of steamroller of sex that you couldn't get out of its way. It's amazing how the attitude of some miserable old cow in the 1900s - Victoria - her husband dies and the rest of the country has to go into mourning with her and we all suddenly are not supposed to enjoy sex in the slightest. My mother had some very Victorian ideas that I know, looking back, affected my views on my sexuality and it seems ludicrous to me that it takes hundreds of years to work its way out of the culture but the truth is that's what's happening now.

George, you're pretty raunchy yourself, the stuff you've done in the past - pushing boundaries.
Yeah but none of it has been unhealthy. I'm being attacked for doing something that's not aimed at kids when everything that is aimed at kids is directly subversive and is talking about now. I find it amazing that I can sing lines like "Come on kids, don't be scared, it's a tits and arse world, you've got to be prepared" and people think I mean that. They don't think, "What's he trying to say", they think, "George Michael wants kids to get involved with sex". It's like everybody, are we this bad now, this lazy. Believe me, I do not think kids should be rushing towards the internet.

George gave an interview at Radio 1. You could hear it today, March 18th.

This is a transcript. LOVE what he says about Kenny !!!

Basically he was talking about Freek being a statement on the way commerce
rules our lives (sexual commerce) and we haven't managed to avoid it. We can't
avoid it.

He was amazed that people were saying the video is degrading women. He said
that his audience is 30-32 and it wasn't aimed at kids.

The album is due for November - between now and then George won't see much
daylight. (although he will probably see a lot of digital late night tv)
Again, this relates to Freeek. He took insporation form the late night digital
tv trash.

He didn't write what was reported to Gareth. He just said good luck and enjoy
what happens this week. Nothing more. Don't forget, the report was from BMG NOT
George's people. They said what would benefit their own camp.

He also did a quickfire question testimonial with Jo:

What can't you live without?
Kenny, Music. Equally.

What tv show would you like to be in Sex in the city or The simpsons? The
network says you can only do one.
Sex in the city. Might get to meet Mr Big.

Would you appear on Who wants to be a millionaire for Charity?
Of course

Favourite Tv shows of the moment?
The office
Rock profile

They ask you to appear on This is your life Geri. Would you?
No. I appeared on the this is yout life with martin. But otherwise I don't see
why not. Geri is a lovely girl. It's really very difficult to maintain a
relationship with someone who lives for the press. I don't feel I am being used
by her. If I was worried I would never have approached her. She is good
company. I was drawn to her. The truth is we don't see much of each other. She
still has friends. Geri has never listened to one piece of advice I have ever
given her. (Talks about the Brits legs episode)


You see some of your stolen items on ebay. Would you bid for them?
I had 5 years worth of work stolen on the computer. They have my entire album
on a G4. Luckily it was all backed up.

Female friend asks you to be a donor for her child?
No. I know I am missing a lot by not having kids. I have a motto. If you're
never gonna have the joy of knowing kids, have the joy of knowing sex.

When are you performing live?
Next year. I think I'm gonna do something that blows everything seen recently
away. I'm thinking of having a more wearable version of the red suit for the
encore.

"Kenny's so disinterested in my career! I wrote "Feels good to be FREE" about
him, and he wasn't too excited! It's not as if he played it repeatedly or
anything"

"I worked 5 months on the song and the video, and I had to DRAG him in to watch
the video! He likes it when everybody else likes it! If the album is a big hit
like I think it will, he will love it!"

"He shuts up most of the time not to hurt my feelings" (about the music)

Thanks, Elena. :o)

November is the word. :o)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020318/80/cu88w.html

Monday March 18, 01:06 PM

        George Michael "freaks" out

                          LONDON (Reuters) - George Michael's latest single
"Freeek" has been released, accompanied
                          by a video featuring dogs mounting each other,
nudity and swearing, which has kept censors busy
                          in both France and Britain.

                          "I've realised that...starting with this single,
I've actually written some fairly controversial stuff for
                          this album," the 38-year-old star told BBC radio.

                          Freeek, which has been edited by both French and
British broadcasters, is Michael's first
        self-written single since October 1998.

        Michael said he had spent nearly five years working on a new album
but could not say exactly when fans should expect its
        release.

        "For me to get it out in November I won't even get another week off
between now and then."

From G-Mail:

George Michael has admitted defeat in his chart battle with Gareth
Gates.

He sent him a magnum of champagne with a note saying the Pop Idol
runner-up would be number one.

George's comeback single Freeek and Gareth's debut Unchained Melody are
both released on Monday.

Full story: http://www.ananova.com/yournews/story/sm_544935.html

All you want to know about Freeek! But beware: the site is in (proverbial) Greek.

There is a very possitive article about George in OK! Mag issue 307 (pages 74-79) with lots of pics. 

You can download Freeek! at http://www.rtws.com/george/freeek.html

Thanks, Joyce. :o)

The Freeek! video can been seen  in full and uncensored at the Aegean site. Click on News there and enjoy. :o) http://www.aegean.net (Beware that only the medium version of the video works properly!)

Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

Publication date: 2002-03-02

Hi,

I hope you have a firm grasp of science fiction movies, because boy, G has been watching them to record his new video Freeek!. I'll try to give a brief description, so you have an idea of what you can expect.

You all know the 10 sec beginning on Aegean. Rerun that and then we see a Blade Runner like city. And the return of the red devil-alien.  After some Sex in the City you see George standing in a sort of Contact like machine to travel through space and guess what he has on reins while wearing a Faith-SM-suit ? Doggies that change into women. Yes, we are puppets on a string, girls. ;o) Love the puppeteer. ;o)

Then we get George in a AIDS-Batman suit in the street. You see a big screen and in one of the images G is dressed as... a Texan. Jeeha! My fave Americans. ;o) (The dentist is present, but not in the form that we all thought. I got to get some Freeek! toothpaste and soda asap now.) 

About the naked butt (or is it a chest?) rumours... It's hairy, but not as we know it. ;o)

After some pump and grind you see G performing a flawless choreography. In the Outside style with lots of leather and girlies.

And a re-booty is not a restart of your Windows computer, if you catch my drift. ;o)

Then he does the chicken dance on the street in his red devil-alien suit. I mean, he walks like those Godzilla like creatures. Plateau shoes are back with a vengeance. How can he walk in them ? ;o)

Never seen George when he comes out of a body builder gym ?  Then you have got to watch. Kenny, you have done a very nice job, dear. ;o) Those muscles on him just kill me. ;op---

G gets it on with his adversary who is a woman. How does the battle end ? You'll see. ;o)

Then we see G panting in his red devil-alien suit again.

And the last image... Have you seen A Space Oddessy 2001 ? Yes, 'the child' is shown. 

I must say that the video is really funny and tongue-in-cheek, just like the Freeek! lyrics. Great vid!

Got to re-booty my VCR now. Kenny, beam me up. ;o)

You can order the different CD's (maxi's and single single) at http://www.proxis.be 

This is the Freeek! cover:

More info at http://www.undercover.com.au/20020226_georgemichael.html

Hi Yoggies,

I'll try to write a report on the Freeek! video as soon after TMF Flanders has shown it on Wednesday February 27th at 07:30 Belgian time or 06:30 GMT. (So the Freeek! video world première is for Belgium and not for the UK.)

Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

Thanks, Orange. :o)

Thanks, Elena. :o)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020217/80/csfsx.html

Thanks, Kris. :o)

Raiders Take Everything They Want

Pop star George Michael has been burgled by a gang who then drove off in his £80,000 sports car, according to reports. Police were called to the singer's £3m home in Hampstead, north London, after raiders stole property worth thousands of pounds.

They are then believed to have driven off in the star's Aston Martin DB7. The £100,000 haul included paintings, jewellery, gold and silver music discs and designer clothes.

Heirlooms given to the singer by his mother, who died of cancer in 1997, were among the items stolen, the News of the World reported.

'Sofas upturned'

The thieves also caused £200,000 damage to the futuristic house, which was unoccupied at the time.

A friend told the paper George's living room was "a real mess, with sofas upturned and other items of furniture thrown about the room. It really did look like a bomb had just hit it."

Michael, whose hits include I Want Your Sex and Careless Whisper, also owns a £1.5m house in Oxfordshire, an £800,000 beachside mansion in St Tropez and a £2m house in Los Angeles.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said a formal statement was still awaited from the victim. "There have been no arests and inquiries are continuing," he said.

Last Updated: 22:56 UK, Saturday February 16, 2002

Thanks, Elena. :o)

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002071736,00..html

George takes on Gareth

GEORGE MICHAEL has taken up GARETH
GATES's challenge and will release his single
Freeek on March 18 - when the Pop Idol
runner-up brings out a cover version of the
Righteous Brothers' Unchained Melody.

Thanks, Elena. :o)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020214/4/cs9nf.html

Thursday February 14, 08:14 AM

Elton John and partner named Britain's most romantic gay couple

        Elton John and David Furnish have been voted Britain's most
romantic same sex couple.

        Sir Elton and Furnish were supported by 31% of voters in a
Valentine's Day poll by
        RainbowNetwork.com.

        George Michael and his long term partner Kenny Goss were runners
up, with 28% of the vote.

        The actress Sophie Ward and her partner Rena Brannan were found to
be the most romantic lesbian couple.

        Some 19% of RainbowNetwork members voted for the pair, who made
headlines in 1996 when Ward came out and left her
        husband.

        Sandi Toksvig, the comedian and television personality and her
partner Alice Arnold, the radio presenter, scored 14% of the
        vote for their relationship.

        Peter Mandelson and Reinaldo De Silva received only 8% of votes.

Thanks, Ioggie. :o)

From G-Mail:

Hello,

Tomorrow, February 5th,  is the big Freeek day! For the people who have been away for a
while, Freeek is the title of the new George Michael song. Freeek! will be
played February 5th simultaneously by 23 radio stations at 8.10am. If you are
not sure that Freeek will be played on your local radio station you can try
to listen to it on the internet. Of course we going to do our very best to
get the song on the G-Michael.com website. For now you can already read the
lyrics and listen to a radio commercial / announcement of Freeek on
http://www.g-michael.com


With kind regards,
Samiech

The George Michael Experience at G-Michael.com
www.G-Michael.Com



You are receiving this message because your are subscribed to G-News. To
(un)subscribe please go to http://www.g-michael.com. For problems/questions
email [email protected]


From Whamsake:

Polydor Records will release George Michael's first new single of the
millennium on 18th March 2002. FREEEK will go to radio stations on 5th
February. 2 different CD singles (Parts 1 & 2) and an additional
2-track CD are planned for release at the moment. Content and art work
are decided as we speak. The CD's catalogue no. for Japan is: UICP 5014

Thanks, Helen. :o)

By Gum! The massively expensive video for George Michael's comeback single Freeek is all about going to the dentist. the mini film - shot in LA - cost £2 million and features George dressed in a dentist's outfit with hundreds of actors and actresses. Record company Universal put their money where their mouth is to show George they are 100 per cent behind him.

Want to see the GMKG News from 2001 ? Click here