9. George Michael - "Fastlove"

Or, "Have we all found something we agree on?"

Aside from a brief mention in my first post, I haven’t really spoken about my parents in this blog. But, of course, they were a huge influence on what I heard and what I listened to as I was growing up.

These people aren’t my parents. This is a stock photo I found on Google.

My Dad grew up on his older brother’s Beatles records, and loves The Eagles and Hall & Oates. He was delighted a few years ago when he discovered the term “yacht rock” as it encapsulates all his favourite music, plus he’s been wearing deck shoes since at least the early 1990s. My Mum is a little more difficult to pin down, as she tends to like individual songs rather than specific artists. She did introduce me to Maxwell, however, and if I had to name one song that I know she adores, I’d say “Somebody Else’s Guy” by Jocelyn Brown. They retain a capacity to surprise (my Dad recently asked, “Is this Young Thug?” about a song on the radio¹), they instilled in me a love of soul and disco, and they’re responsible for a lifelong hatred of the music of Barbra Streisand (who they adore).

In the Spring of 1996, though, there probably wasn’t much music on which the three of us agreed. I was into novelty records and Britpop, neither of which piqued their interest. Looking now at the albums that had been big hits in the couple of years previous, there are names that are synonymous with home: Deacon Blue, Simply Red, Seal, Wet Wet Wet, Mariah Carey. These were all artists who took things a little too seriously for my tastes, but there was one person we all loved equally.

I remember my parents being excited at the prospect of George Michael’s third solo album, Older, which was to be his first in nearly six years. I was nine, so I didn’t have too much context and the record’s lead single, “Jesus to a Child”, was a downtempo ballad, so didn’t really grab me. But then there was “Fastlove”.

I was captivated. This had groove, it had rhythm, it had a swear word in the third line! It seemed to be about something hedonistic and immediate. It shot to Number 1 and, less than a month later, the album followed.

Yes, yes, 1996 is Britpop and all that but, in my house, it felt like Older was on constant rotation. And there’s some revisionism about the record; you don’t hear it spoken about much nowadays but all six of its singles reached the Top 3, which was near-enough unprecedented at the time.

“Fastlove” was the obvious stand-out hit, but I loved—or, at least, learned to love—all eleven tracks. The dancier numbers (“Star People”, “Spinning the Wheel”) were my favourites to begin with but soon, the subtler tracks (“The Strangest Thing”, “Older”) would burrow into my brain, where they remain to this day.

But above all, George Michael was—and perhaps still is—the artist that genuinely unites my parents and me. We all like classic soul, and there’s always the odd track that will grab the three of us, but this feels like the first time that connection was happening in real time.

The rest of the decade was spent with George Michael as a tabloid fixture. The death of Princess Diana resulted in the release of “You Have Been Loved” as a single (only kept off the top spot by some Elton John about a candle or whatever) and his stock was as high as it had been for a decade.

And then he was arrested.

At that age, I didn’t understand what he’d been arrested for and, looking online now, there’s a blatantly homophobic edge to the way it was reported. But rather than dwell on that, let’s focus on “Outside” because the point at which the public bathroom transforms into a disco with revolving chrome urinals is one of the greatest music video moments of all time.

This picture really doesn’t do it justice.

The older I get, the more I adore the bravura of this move. No apologising for his sexuality, no apologising for who he is, just a full-on, camp-as-Christmas, in-your-face riposte.

The 21st Century was a less commercially successful time and he remained never far from the tabloids. To his fans, he seemed unsatisfied, and we worried, but it was still an enormous shock when he died on Christmas Day 2016.

I’d left the UK by then but the first people I wanted to talk to about it were my parents. It didn’t—and to some extent, still doesn’t—seem real.

Weeks later, my parents told me they’d had friends reach out to them about George Michael’s death. My Mum and Dad were such huge fans and, as well as soundtracking much of my childhood, his music was the accompaniment to many people’s memories of social events in the house where I grew up. Later in 2017, my parents and a few of their friends organised a George Michael night. Ostensibly just a dinner party, but one where George Michael’s records would play throughout. It was a celebration of a life, a celebration of one person’s music, but also a chance for friends to reminisce on important and formative memories.

I think George would’ve liked it.

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What didn’t get to Number 1 because of this song?

Er, nothing, really. For the three weeks “Fastlove” was Number 1, the remainder of the Top 3 consisted of the previous Number 1 (Mark Morrison’s “Return of the Mack”) and the next Number 1 (Gina G’s “Ooh Aah… Just a Little Bit”).

So what was Number 4 during the reign of “Fastlove”?

• Manic Street Preachers - “A Design for Life”

An absolute God-tier track of the Britpop era.

I once read an interview with Pet Shops Boys’ Neil Tennant where he complained about the Manics because their lyrics don’t scan and they put the stresses on the wrong syllables (“AH design / FOR-OR life”) but I don’t care—it’s all part of their charm. Few bands were as consistent or vital as MSP in the 90s.

• Suggs - “Cecelia (feat. Louchie Lou & Michie One)”

I was today years old when I discovered this was a Simon & Garfunkel song.

The names Louchie Lou & Michie One have been in my head for nearly three decades now, and I know absolutely nothing about them. Turns out they’re a London-based ragga duo who met at a Rebel MC gig, which is exactly what you want them to be, right? Thanks, Wikipedia.

• Liverpool FC & The Boot Room Boyz - “Pass and Move (It’s the Liverpool Groove)”

This is the second time a football team’s FA Cup Final single has been mentioned in this blog.

It’s no “Anfield Rap”, is it?

1. Reader, it was indeed Young Thug.