wham 1985 us tour

Wham Whamamerica Tour

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Whamamerica! (also advertised as Make It Big Tour ‘85) was a concert tour by English musical duo Wham!. It was launched due to the success of their 1984 certified multi-platinum studio album Make It Big, which sold four million copies in the United States by the end of the year. The tour spanned nineteen days between August and September 1985, comprising nine shows across the United States and Canada.

The Whamamerica! tour began in late August 1985. It went around the United States, opening at Poplar Creek Music Theater in Illinois in the Midwest, then heading across the border to Canada and all the way down the West Coast to northern and Southern California, south to Texas and then back east to Philadelphia and Detroit. Michael’s look had changed with his hair cut to a shorter length and the colour being close to his natural darker shade. He also had a new designer stubble and larger earrings, a leather jacket and fingerless gloves. Their last ever live US performance was at the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit. They had played to over 302,568 fans.

Opening acts

Katrina and the Waves (Los Angeles, Oakland, Miami and Philadelphia) The Pointer Sisters (Toronto, Oakland, Miami) Chaka Khan (Los Angeles, Philadelphia)

Philadelphia

"Everything She Wants" "Credit Card Baby" "Blue (Armed with Love)" "If You Were There" "The Edge of Heaven" "Like a Baby" "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" "Heartbeat" "Where Did Your Heart Go?" "Love Machine" "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" "Freedom" "Careless Whisper" "Good Times" "Everything She Wants"

George Michael - Lead vocals Andrew Ridgeley - Guitarist

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Wham! (formed in 1981) is a British, unabashedly pop duo comprised of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, who rose to worldwide fame with their single “Wake Me up Before You Go Go” in 1984, hailing from Bushey, Hertfordshire, England.

Bushey, Hertfordshire-natives George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley first met at Bushey Meads School and with shared interests performed with the ska group, the Executive together. Upon the band’s dissolution Michael and Ridgeley were determined the continue performing and dove into a recording contract with the independent label Innervision. Ahead of their debut album the pair released the single “Wham Rap!”, which failing to enter the charts led the group to appear on “Top of the Pops” in 1982, where they performed the single “Young Guns (Go for It!)”. The live show caused an upsurge in popularity and led to the single ultimately rising to No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart.

The singles “Bad Boys” and “Club Tropicana” followed by the end of 1983 turning Wham! into pop royalty alongside Duran Duran and Culture Club. The band subsequently released their debut LP “Fantastic” which was help aloft the UK Albums Chart for two weeks. Legal battles ensued with their label Innervision, which ultimately transpired in Wham! signing with Sony’s Epic Records and Innervision filing for bankruptcy. With major-label backing, the duo’s subsequent single “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” topped the charts in the UK and the U.S., proving their first huge success.

As a result Michael was already planning his solo career, and the duo’s next single “Careless Whisper” was credited at Wham! featuring George Michael in the U.S. In 1984 the pair retuned to release the chart-topping single “Freedom”, followed by the No. 1 full-length “Make It Big”. The christmas single “Last Christmas/Everything She Wants” followed the same year, proving the be the highest-selling No. 2 single of all time. In support of their full-length record Wham! embarked on a UK arena tour and became the first UK band to play a show in China. Annocuning their breakup in 1986, Wham! released the farewell single “Where Did Your Heart Go?”, and the North American full-length “Music from the Edge of Heaven”.

Live reviews

was watching MTV one day and bad boys came on from that minute i was hooked and a fan. i lived in Wyoming in 80's i went to Vegas to meet my mom and was make it big was my second concert ever. i always had hair parted on side before George but when came back from Vegas to po dunk Gillette i had blonde highlights and was first male to have one let alone both ears pierced in northern Wyoming. i woulda got some real shit if wasn't friends with the whole different packs in town. played football and was starter so jocks didn't mess me too much my bestest friends were a nerd and a i guess call them stoners so i was ok there, it was the triple attention from girls that got me and i was already kinda a player but i got so many girls the 3 years of high school i was such a slut and stayed that way until first monogamous relation shit which met her at wham concert. i won 6 of 8 George Michael look alike contest while living in Vegas over the years but the best was the one held by John Casablanca and had George n Andrew as final judges and when he picked me i was almost a freaking puddle and when i told him we were brothers from different mothers except he got all the gay genes and i got all the asshole ones cause i was like said a slut i didn't have one girl ever and very few more than 3 times. told he got the sensitive caring part and i got all the bad boy genes and there was a dinner with just wham the bands manager and certain guests George's sister was on who arriving late saw me n Andrew talking and she totally thought i was him until Andy said sis that's not George its winner and she looked at me closer and was wow gotta ask mom if she had twins and gave one up. i saw wham 5 times and George like 4 once in England but wham had 2 members and even tho Andrew only put out one album and it was a rock album (Shake You only release find it and listen ya like it) he was still good enough if had right management to be good not like George but he woulda had longer career in music than he had and he was robbed but hey he can drive better than George . Wham came and went too fast and it wasn't fair losing my brother on Christmas (my kids hugged me almost all day and didn't even open presents till 26th. but we loved Prince and losing my idol and my brother same year and on my birthday and Christmas they were worried old man have heart attack. but i will tell everyone that the entertainer who does George at Vegas world is as close to his voice (i still look more like George than anyone ever will )but I think George would give seal of approval if ya never got to see or just miss him like me go see the stars at Vegas world their Cher and Beatles are also the best i ever seen. LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU MY BROTHER AND THO ONLY GOT TO MEET AND TALK TO YOU 2 TIMES YOU ARE MY BROTHER THE BETTER HALF OF ME AND WISH IT WAS ME GONE CAUSE YOU HAD MORE TO GIVE YOUR FANS AND YOU WERE WAY BETTER THAN I WAS. TAKE CARE OF PRINCE AND A GOOD BUDDY TROY GENTRY (HE LIKES CALLED T-roy HE WAS A FAN OF YOURS AND YA WILL LIKE SINGING WITH HIM. SEE YA SOON UNFORTUNATELY MY OLD ASS ISN'T FIGHTING THE MEDICAL CRAP BUT I AIN'T SCARED I AM EXCITED TO BE WERE MY IDOL AND BROTHER N 3 BEST FRIENDS ARE PARTYING WAITING FOR ME.

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Wham! was around for too short of a time, but their mark on pop history is indelible. It does not seem possible to stand still at a Wham! show or a George Michael concert for that matter.The synth leads are off the chart catchy and the beats are absolutely irresistible.

These performances feature a great line-up of musicians often including a large group of backing soul singers. This works particularly well for R&B flavored songs such as "Freedom" in which the backing vocalist belt out the lyrics like a baptist church choir. The crowd goes absolutely nuts for this one and more than willingly chime in. George Michael is as charismatic and uninhibited as ever! You can often find him prancing around the stage and getting up in the audiences faces, reaching out for their hands.

While Wham! often uses a large backing band to fully maximize the breadth of their sound, they are also known to perform some songs like "Wham! rap" with very minimal accompaniment. Sometimes George Michael will perform this just behind a prerecorded backing track, other times behind a full band. This track shows the versatility of Wham!'s music and is one of the first instances of rap music integrating into the sound of mainstream pop. The song features heavily non-syncopated funk chords, air-tight drum beats and huge bursts of brass all underscoring the rhyme of George Michael's lyrics.

The light show in and of itself is considered a highlight of the performance. The sparkling display of projections and contorting computer graphics displayed behind George Michael and his band perfectly match the elaborate glam style of their sound. George Michael still keeps the sound of Wham! alive performing classics such as "I'm Your Man" and "Everything She Wants". He is also praised for his diverse range of covers. You can hear anything form a Police hit single to a more obscure cover of a Rufus Wainwright composition.

Wham! spent the 80’s battling it out with the likes of Duran Duran and Culture Club for the crown of best ‘pop act’ and in many people opinion they were considered the winner! Formed by George Michael and Andrew Ridley, the duo dominated the top of the charts and achieved a great deal of critical success. After they broke up, George went on to have an amazing solo career spanning many decades.

They were considered an amazing live act! George Michael has a voice to rival any and has since gone on to fill in for Freddie Mercury on Queen tours. They were always upbeat, energetic and bags of fun. They owned the stage and did all they could to get the atmosphere vibrant, with people dancing, singing and generally having the time of their life. With songs like Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Club Tropicana, Freedom and Careless Whisper among a host of other chart toppers they are never going to struggling getting people in a good mood, are they? Wham! made wonderfully crafted and catchy pop songs, it’s almost impossible to hear their songs and not get them stuck in your head. To put it simply! They are one of the best pop bands to come out of the U.K

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George Michael Forever

Celebrating George Michael's music, life and legacy

Concert Review: Wham! delivers slick package to euphoric fans

June 29, 2019

Wham! performed in Miami Baseball Stadium as part of the WhamAmerica! 1985 tour on September 6, 1985. This concert review was written by Annie Hull and published in St. Petersburg Times newspaper on September 9, 1985.

From the start, British pop supergroup Wham! has treated itself to an exclamation point following the title of the band. And they deserve that punctuation mark when it comes to record sales. Wham! is the first album of the decade to produce three consecutive No. 1 singles.

But when it comes to live performances, a crotchety old English teacher would have whipped out her 1 red pen and slashed away the “!” in – Wham! She and other discerning pop ‘music fans would have suggested Wham, with a comma. Their concert last Friday evening at the Miami Baseball Stadium was full of pauses and dragged-out versions of their records. When a band only has two albums to draw from, it makes every song good to the last teenybop drop. Musically, the show was excruciatingly dull.

Wham! is George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. Both 22 years old, they have managed to catapult from nobodies to teen idols. This is their first U.S. tour. They should be riding around the country in a secondhand Greyhound playing tiny concert halls, in Santa Fe or Boulder or Birmingham. Instead, these guys are playing a limited stadium tour and will probably come close to selling out each time they blow into town. It’s the Age of MTV Reason, where logical rock ‘n’ roll dues are never paid. Wham! is making it big with no visible scars to show for it.

BUT LOGIC plays no part in the teen idol business. In Miami, Wham! delighted more than 34,000 absolutely berserk admirers, most of whom were young and female. The scene near the stage was something out of an old American Bandstand clip, when the girls would see Elvis or Fabian and start speaking in tongues. ‘ Wham!’s music wasn’t what evoked the squeals and shrieks. Sure, it was decent enough Bazooka formulaic pop. But what made the crowds go wild was the video screens, especially when the camera lingered on George Michael’s black leather-swaddled rear end. ‘

The concert opened not with roaring vocals, but with an instrumental version of “Everything She Wants.” The Wham! boys pranced “back and forth across the length of the stage for a good five minutes, with not one peep coming from Michaels’ mouth or one lick coming from Ridgley’s guitar. They sashayed across the stage as if it were a Miss Universe Pageant swimsuit competition. This type of sexual camp invited riotous behavior from the girls up in front.

Wham! played for almost two hours, but their set was mostly songs from their second album, Make It Big , the record that made Wham! recognizable in the U.S. They played a few songs from their first album, Fantastic, which initially bombed in the U.S when it was released here a couple of years ago. The crowd knew the lyrics word for word. Wham! also introduced a new song called “The Edge of Heaven,” which is a decent little pop tune with an un-Wham!-like semi-steaming guitar solo.

The music was an unsurprising yet accurate delivery of their recorded songs and videos. What the music was lacking in soul, Michael and Ridgely made up for in their erotic aerobics. They are fit for any Las Vegas revue or chorus line. These guys work. Throughout the entire two hours, they were crooning, running, gyrating and doing Singin’ In the Rain improvisations.

EVERYTHING ABOUT the show was shiny. Most outdoor concerts consist of dirty ankles and warm beer. Not the Wham! show. It was played on a green baseball field with Pepsi as the main beverage. Even the battalion of glistening, yellow Port-o-Lets that flanked the right of the stage appeared more prop than necessity. Wham! is a toy store gadget that sings of credit cards and love machines. But that’s what most of its listeners seem to identify with.

“The Whammer Boys are like people I know,” says David Gohman, 20, of Orlando. “I don’t know any guys who act like Springsteen. Wham! is much more about real life.” Springsteen, who often sings of unpleasant truths like unemployment and broken dreams, is idealistically a million miles away from what the kids at Wham! understand. They are infinitely interested in a cool haircut and a private cordless phone in their bedroom.

The crowd seems to appreciate Wham! for much more than their music. Wham! is a total pop package to be reckoned with. “They are sex symbols, but to both men and women,” says Christopher Vidal, 25, of Key West. “They are universal and glamorous.”

Joni Romanchek, 16, of Satellite Beach, says she started liking Wham! “before anyone else did. They are total entertainers.” She admits partiality towards George Michael, as does most everyone else. Wham!, for the most part, is George Michael.

Though the crowd was largely young girls, there were quite a few exuberant mothers in the audience. Hanging over a stadium rail was a young boy trying to get his mother’s attention. “Mommy, mommy,” the kid whined and tugged on his mother’s tight Calvins. Mommy, however, was in Wham! bliss and couldn’t hear a thing. Her binoculars were bouncing wildly on her chest and she was dancing to “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”

OTHER MOTHERS, however, were less pleased with the Wham! concert. Several parents were separated from their children in the crush of the crowd. Fire hoses were turned on the crowds to cool them down and to keep them back from the stage.

Susan Croughwell, 40, of Miami, was soaked by the water and somehow lost her daughter in the chaos.

“The water is a big problem,” Croughwell said, dripping from the onslaught of a hose. “Okay, sure, at 5 o’clock when the sun is out. But now it’s dark. People are getting trampled on for no reason. And no one is telling the crowds to scoot back,” she said. In fact, every few minutes near the front of the stage, a stretcher would haul off a body that had been battered by the heat and crowds.

“I don’t know what their parents will say when they get home,” Croughwell said. “The ones on stretchers look like they’re tripping out on acid. I mean, 20 years ago when I was a hippie, drugs weren’t that bad.”

Over 130 fans were treated in the first aid room, according to Mark Knobel, medical events supervisor for the City of Miami. “These are young kids, they are excited, they can’t sleep or eat the night before the show. They’re vulnerable.” Knobel said most of those treated were young girls with heat exhaustion or high anxiety. There were reports of a possible ruptured spleen and fractured skull due to the surges of the crowd near the front of the stage. Very few cases were drug or alcohol related, according to Knobel.

Aside from the first aid room, the rest of the night was good-hearted hysteria. Katrina and the Waves took the stage first and played a ragged seven-song set. The Pointer Sisters followed with an energetic hour of their most recent music, but the big stadium seemed to swallow their spirit. Still, the music was just fine. They came on at twilight in their infamous neon can-can outfits, kicking and strutting and doing the Neutron Dance. They plugged the show into more energy than Whaml’s music would generate.

But Wham! is the reason the crowd came. They were not disappointed. In pretty wrapping paper held together with hairspray, the Wham! boys were presents from heaven to their young fans. It will be interesting to note how long the kids will fancy their Wham! toy before they throw it down for a new sensation. For now, Wham! has their undivided loyal and financial attention.

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Freedom, a constant theme in George Michael’s work, something he craved and cherished, this liberation that he gave his audience through his music, is his enduring spirit and his everlasting legacy. The Irish Times, “Freedom: George Michael gets his final right to reply – and it’s a thing of beauty,” October 15, 2017

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Wham!’s influence felt in China after landmark 1985 concert

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BEIJING (AP) — George Michael’s death brought back memories in China of the heady 1980s when Wham! was the first major Western band to play in the country after the death of Mao Zedong and decades of cultural isolation.

Many Chinese who had never even heard of the band lined up for hours to buy $1.75 tickets to the groundbreaking April 1985 concert at the People’s Gymnasium, the biggest stadium in Beijing at the time.

Inside the 12,000-strong stadium seated spectators watched in bewilderment as Michael and Andrew Ridgeley danced in big-shouldered jackets with bleached and feathered hair. The backing dancers’ strapless costumes and polka-dot miniskirts also stunned the audience in China at a time when people still dressed in similar shades of green and gray.

“It was the first time a Western band had come to China, everyone was ready to make some noise and stand,” said Li Ji, a restaurant owner who went to the concert in his 20s. “But there were so many police officers there, people didn’t dare to.”

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Wham!’s manager Simon Napier-Bell had spent 18 months persuading the Chinese government to let them in and secure their place as one of the world’s biggest bands by telling them it would help them attract foreign investment.

The police had warned spectators to stay seated, worried that they would be unable to control the crowds and that there might even be riots. Some young Chinese who got up to dance were hauled away by security officers.

The Wham! concert influenced Chinese musicians, who had never seen electric guitars played on stage and began to get interested in rock ‘n’ roll.

Huang Wen, a music writer, said that the performance had an impact on big-name musicians, including the godfather of Chinese rock, Cui Jian. “In the early 1980s, pop songs from Hong Kong were very popular in mainland China and after the concert college students and people in the music industry started to get interested in rock ‘n’ roll,” she said.

Li said the army department that his parents worked for had given out tickets as a benefit. He attended the concert along with his parents’ colleagues and their kids.

“I remember there was a little incident during the concert, the main lights went out because there was a problem with the electricity, so the bassist danced a little break dance,” Li said. “It was the first time people saw that and it was so popular, people liked it.”

State media said Monday that the concert “was a sensation.”

While young Chinese today don’t know the names George Michael or Wham!, many instantly recognize his well-loved songs “Last Christmas” and “Careless Whisper.” The latter song had already been translated into Chinese and sung in several versions before the 1985 concert.

AP researcher Yu Bing in Beijing and news assistant Fu Ting in Shanghai contributed to this report.

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How Wham! broke cultural barriers in 1985 with their history-making concerts in China

28 April 2023, 13:33

George Michael had achieved a lot in his life at a relatively tender age.

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But it'd doubtful he thought being a global ambassador bridging the gap between East and West political relations was one of them.

By the time George Michael and his best friend Andrew Ridgeley were just 22, they'd already scored two No.1 albums in the UK as well as three No.1 singles as Wham! .

After releasing their second album, Make It Big , which spawned the singles ' Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go ', 'Everything She Wants' and ' Freedom ', they became pop phenomenons in the United States too.

School friends and fresh-faced superstars, Wham! had truly made it big by that point. But they had established a dedicated audience in an unexpected country: China.

• Wham!'s 10 greatest songs ever, ranked
• Why did Wham! break up?
• When a teenage Wham! proved their comic credentials in cute early promo video for 'Young Guns'
• When the Queen asked to meet George Michael: Royal was Wham! fan and 'knew all their hits'

The past half-century has shown us that musicians can make an enormous impact on people's perceptions of the world which can also change the political landscape and break down cultural barriers.

Though the two fast-rising pop stars from Bushey, Hertfordshire were riding high at the top of the charts, I doubt they would've expected to write themselves into the history books for doing exactly that.

One of the most transformative moments in music history took place in April 1985 when the chart-topping pop duo became the first-ever Western act to perform in China.

It didn't come together without any hitches as you'd expect, given that China had shut their doors for years during the Cultural Revolution.

But the band's co-manager Simon Napier-Bell spent the best part of 18 months wining and dining Chinese officials to get Wham! to be the first Western act to perform there, pipping Queen to the post who were also vying for the same thing.

George and Andrew were not only two handsome boys with incredibly infectious pop songs, they also had a cleaner image than Queen frontman Freddie Mercury .

Napier-Bell leveraged Freddie's flamboyant outfits and rock 'n' roll image against them, and quickly booked the concerts before the Chinese government had a change of heart.

After two warm-up shows in Hong Kong, the boys arrived in Beijing for their first show in China, which went a bit more awkwardly than they'd anticipated.

Held on 7th April in a Beijing gymnasium for 15,000 local fans, a breakdancer was sent out to warm up the crowd before a booming voice from the public address system warned everyone that dancing was strictly not allowed.

When George and Andrew eventually came on stage backed by an 11-piece band, the crowd stood motionless as they'd never been to a concert before and didn't know how to respond.

The show's host Kan Lijun remembered: "No one had ever seen anything like that before. The singers were all moving a lot and it was very loud. We were used to people who stood still when they performed."

During 'Club Tropicana', George encouraged the crowd to clap along, who could only muster a soft applause as they were scared of acting out of turn.

As the show went on the response got more like a typical gig, with Napier-Bell recalling that some pockets of the crowd "even learnt to scream when George or Andrew waved their butts."

Any of the native audience members who dared get a bit too loose however was eventually dragged off and escorted out by security officials.

George later reflected on the concert, saying that "it was the hardest performance I've ever given in my life."

"I couldn't believe how quiet the crowd was at first. I didn't realise that they weren't clapping because they thought we were begging for applause."

"And I didn't realise that they weren't good at clapping in time to Western music because their sense of rhythm is so different to ours" he added.

WHAM! - LIVE IN CHINA 1985

Despite the strangeness of their first performance, Wham!'s second show in the southern city of Guangzhou a few days later was much smoother, with their whirlwind experience in the country being captured in the documentary Wham! in China: Foreign Skies.

It took another decade for another Western act to perform in China, Roxette. But already the cultural impact the Wham! gigs had on Chinese citizens was immense.

One fan who attended the Beijing show admitted that "the music was really instrumental in cultivating our rebellious spirit", which was the beginning of a new era for the country and its people.

After George's tragic passing in 2016, Chinese media paid tribute to the history-making appearance with Ridgeley, which evidently made a lasting impact as they called Wham!'s 10-day trip a "sensation".

Pop stars and political ambassadors that changed the cultural history of China. Not bad for a couple of bright-eyed boys from Bushey, Hertfordshire.

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How Wham!'s 1985 Concerts in China Broke Cultural Barriers

The past half-century has brought a handful of those remarkable moments when the barriers that separate cultures evaporate in a way for all the world to see.

It took Wham!'s manager 18 months to convince Chinese officials

Wham!'s groundbreaking presence in the Middle Kingdom came through the efforts of co-manager Simon Napier-Bell, who spent 18 months wining and dining Chinese officials to get his boys through the door. As he told the BBC in 2005, his pitch came down to a language all cultures understand: By welcoming a successful group known for hits like “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” and “Everything She Wants,” China was also signaling its openness to foreign investment after the closed-doors years of the Cultural Revolution .

With British rockers Queen also pushing perform first, Napier-Bell helped his cause by preparing brochures of the competing groups. One displayed Michael and Ridgeley, two fine-looking lads with winning smiles, in wholesome shots. The other showed Queen's frontman, Freddie Mercury , doing his usual flamboyant poses.

Wham! got the gig, and Napier-Bell quickly booked the performances before anyone in the Chinese government had a change of heart.

Concert goers were told not to dance and were confused when Michael prompted them to clap along

Following two shows in the more modernized outpost of Hong Kong, Wham! arrived in mainland China with reporters from the British tabloids and a documentary film crew in tow to capture the duo being tourists while being gawked at by locals.

Their first performance, held April 7, brought in a reported 12,000 to 15,000 curious fans to the People's Gymnasium in Beijing. Those who paid $1.75 per ticket – or got them for free through government ministries – received a cassette featuring Wham!'s songs on one side and the Chinese versions delivered by singer Cheng Fangyuan on the other.

Underscoring the challenges facing the Western performers, a warm-up act was sent out to entertain the crowd with breakdancing. Shortly afterward, a voice blasting from the public address system warned everyone that dancing was not allowed.

The crowd then watched in near silence as Michael and Ridgeley bounded onto the stage in their big-shouldered suits, backed by an 11-piece band and dancers, and launched into their greatest hits. "No one had ever seen anything like that before," remembered the show’s host, Kan Lijun . "The singers were all moving a lot and it was very loud. We were used to people who stood still when they performed."

At one point, while singing "Club Tropicana," Michael attempted the tried-and-true rock tradition of getting fans to clap along, only to have the confused audience respond with polite applause. They eventually picked up on how to clap to the beat, recalled Napier-Bell, while some "even learnt to scream when George or Andrew waved their butts."

Michael called the concert the 'hardest performance I've ever given in my life'

Following an intermission, in which Wham! heeded their hosts’ request to remove the intimate moments from the “Careless Whisper” video on display, the band returned for a somewhat looser closing run. More brave souls attempted to dance, especially in the upper areas of the arena, and while security largely left the Westerners alone, they hauled off the Chinese offenders who dared show off their moves.

Afterward, Michael reflected on the difficulties of their undertaking: "It was the hardest performance I've ever given in my life." he said. "I couldn't believe how quiet the crowd was at first. … I didn't realize that they weren't clapping because they thought we were begging for applause. And I didn't realize that they weren't good at clapping in time to Western music because their sense of rhythm is so different to ours."

Still, the tour must go on, and Wham! delivered a second, smoother show in the southern city of Guangzhou a few days later, their whirlwind 10-day trip all caught on the documentary Wham! in China: Foreign Skies.

Wham!'s concert opened the door for more mainstream music in China

It would be another decade before the next major Western act – Roxette – would perform in China, but there was no getting that glimpse of Western culture back in the bag. By some accounts, the man known as the godfather of Chinese rock, Cui Jian, attended the concert in Beijing, one year before his own breakout performance in the same city the following year.

Another young fan from the time named Rose Tang, who became a student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, told The Washington Post about how the songs of Wham! and other foreign groups became part of their movement. "I was dancing to their music in underground disco and rock parties in my art school in Chongqing," she said. "The music was really instrumental in cultivating our rebellious spirit."

Following Michael's death in 2016, the Chinese media paid tribute to his historic appearance with Ridgeley three decades earlier, calling it a "sensation."

If it’s true that guilty feet have got no rhythm, then Wham! at least helped an indeterminate but undeniable segment of the Chinese public find their footing amid those transformative times.

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• September 1, 1985 Setlist

Wham! Setlist at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, CA, USA

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Tour: Whamamerica! 1985 Tour statistics Add setlist

• Everything She Wants Play Video
• Heartbeat Play Video
• Credit Card Baby Play Video
• Like a Baby Play Video
• Freedom Play Video
• If You Were There ( The Isley Brothers  cover) Play Video
• Blue (Armed With Love) Play Video
• The Edge of Heaven Play Video
• Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Play Video
• Young Guns (Go for It!) Play Video
• Bad Boys Play Video
• Careless Whisper ( George Michael  song) Play Video
• Everything She Wants ( performed twice this show ) Play Video

Edits and Comments

21 activities (last edit by rlp132 , 7 Feb 2019, 17:33 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Everything She Wants (2)
• Credit Card Baby
• Like a Baby
• Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
• Young Guns (Go for It!)
• Careless Whisper by George Michael
• If You Were There by The Isley Brothers
• The Edge of Heaven
• Blue (Armed With Love)

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Festival Time!

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Day on the Green 1985 #2 setlists

Wham! Gig Timeline

• Aug 28 1985 CNE Stadium Toronto, ON, Canada Add time Add time
• Aug 30 1985 Hollywood Park Racetrack Inglewood, CA, USA Add time Add time
• Sep 01 1985 Day on the Green 1985 #2 This Setlist Oakland, CA, USA Add time Add time
• Sep 04 1985 Southern Star Amphitheatre Houston, TX, USA Add time Add time
• Sep 06 1985 Miami Stadium Miami, FL, USA Add time Add time

18 people were there

• drdickvagesq
• Maximomoor3939
• potatomutato
• trashyashell
• zoemeanslife

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