The RIP thread...

Just saw this, whaaaaaaaaaa?!?!?

Last Christmas.

2016 be gone. Please.

Blimey - I was only moments ago singing along to 'last Christmas' with junior BGA. End of an era. RIP.

George was making dance music videos on Ibiza years ahead of the UK dance mafia hearing about Amnesia etc. Even Wham Rap has a place in stuff completely ahead of it's time.

RIP. My favourite.

https://youtu.be/QKwWYpb1a4k

Is this really something you want to admit on an openly searchable forum? Retract your statement and I promise to edit this and remove the quote. Maybe.

Yes, and I'd be more than happy to repeat it. Of course I don't like everything they've done, e.g. a large percentage of album tracks, but there's a surprising number of decent lyrics, and as party music goes it's considerably more sophisticated than, say, most of the output of the 1990s or 2000s. I'm not a fan and I don't think it's 'great', but I've never understood the vilification.

Thanks, I didn't know that.

Oh, now George Michael, too. Such a good singer, who at one point seems to have had some real inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPWHkK-_a_A

By all accounts extremely unhappy and rather lost for a long time. RIP George.

'I'd say love was a magical thing,
I'd say love would keep us from pain,
Had I been there, had I been there.'

Wrote Careless Whisper when he was 17 because he could

A real talent. He did some silly things, but such a shame that his private life was used against him by the media.

At this rate will there be any A-listers left by the end of 2017 ?

1. Fair enough

2. George Michael - thought it was a hoax at first. It's not like when Lemmy went or anything but still, he's always been around making decent pop tunes and 53 is way too young anyway.

Fuck that's a hit. Pretty gutted. RIP George you legend.

Not one of his best songs but one of the best, most public fuck yous, ever.
https://youtu.be/gwZAYdHcDtU

Older is a proper good album, his talent for pop was ridiculous and it's awful that he's been taken so young. RIP

Ah fucking hell George. I'm not even a proper fan but you were one of us and one of ours and I'm spinning through the most ridiculous range of memories, thanks for all those, I'm glad you were around x

I feel like George Michael dying on Christmas Day, at lunchtime, is peak 2016. It really can do one.

fuck you 2016. :(

hold tight ls and gs. still five days to go.

RIP rick and george

RIP the Greek God of Pop.

What a year 2016 has been.

Genuine shit news.

Guilty pleasure of mine, Wham! made some killer stuff(apart from the commercial winners, 'Blue' and 'Nothing Looks The Same in The Light' both corkers) and his solo albums all kicked.

Faith will go down as one of the finest albums ever produced

RIP George Michael

FFS, why can't James Corden go and play on the motorway or something

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yd_IsB3LoOY

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3CASJmZL1Ug

Ha! My wife owns a little pre-school, and bubbles was there at the start.....I'm not jimmy saville!

But anyway, it kind of pales into insignificance after George's demise.

And yep, 'Cowboys and Angels' is my favourite.

http://www.tom-cox.com/2016/12/goodbye-kind-friend-rip-bear-1995-2016.html?m=1

Dead but 4 evva in our meemz

Nicely done. RiP

I always liked this affectionate interviewer's joke:

Perhaps this is the strangest thing about Michael – the disjunction between what he regards as public and private. For many years, he was so embarrassed about his sexuality that his private self was hermetically sealed. He has said it took him so long to come out because he didn't want to upset his mother. But now, having been outed, or having outed himself, in such an uncompromising manner, it's as if nothing can embarrass him any more. This is me – like it or lump it. His private self has become wholly public. You sense he would regard it as an act of hypocrisy not to answer questions about drugs or sex. Meanwhile, his public self – most obviously his music – has become private; virtually a no-go area. To ask too much about the music becomes an act of intrusion, voyeurism even.

We retreat to the safe ground of sex, drugs, gossip and conspiracy theories.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/dec/05/george-michael-interview-music-sex-drugs

This is also quite sweet, as a follow-up:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/dec/26/george-michael-press-encounters-publicist-tabloids

Fantastic was the first album I ever bought. £4.99 from Woolworths. I used to spend all afternoon listening to it in my room and can still remember the words now.

RIP George. One of East Finchley's finest 😞