THE CONTRIBUTORS
SIMON NAPIER-BELL
Simon Napier-Bell is rock manager, filmmaker, songwriter and author. Amongst artists he’s managed are The Yardbirds, Ultravox, Marc Bolan, Japan, Asia, Boney M, Sinéad O’Connor, and Wham!. In the ‘60s he co-wrote the song You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me; he’s also written four best-selling books about the music industry and has recently directed four major documentary films: Frank Sinatra at 100, 27 Gone Too Soon, 50 Years Legal, and now George Michael: Portrait of an Artist. He is originating producer of Raiding the Rock Vault, rated No 1 music show in Las Vegas for seven consecutive years.
KENNY GOSS
Kenny Goss is an art dealer and businessman. Born in Brownwood, Texas, in 1958 to ‘alcoholic, dysfunctional parents’, he never told them he was gay and describes his sexuality at that time as ‘this big pink elephant in the centre of every holiday’. After university, he ran a Cheerleader Supply Co, having been a gymnast and cheerleader at school. In 1988 he met George Michael in Los Angeles and they entered into a longterm relationship. Together they founded The Goss-Michael Foundation which deals in contemporary art, exhibits international artists, and is involved with a range of charitable causes and events.
STEVIE WONDER
Stevie Wonder is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. A prominent figure in popular music during the second-half of the 20th century, he is one of the most successful songwriters and musicians. A virtual one-man band, his use of synthesizers and electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of R&B. He also helped drive the genre into the album era, crafting his LPs as cohesive, consistent socially conscious statements with complex compositions. He has been credited as a pioneer and influence to musicians of various genres including rhythm and blues, pop, soul, gospel, funk and jazz.
STEPHEN FRY
Stephen Fry is an actor, comedian and author. As a member of the Cambridge Footlights Revue he met Hugh Laurie with whom he had great success in a television series, Fry and Laurie. Amongst other television roles, he was Lord Melchett in Blackadder and the host of the QI Show. He also played Oscar Wilde in the film Wilde. He is a prolific writer, contributing to newspapers and magazines and has written four novels and three volumes of autobiography. His voiceovers include recording audiobooks of all seven of the Harry Potter novels. On Twitter he has over twelve million followers.
PIERS MORGAN
Piers Morgan is a broadcaster, journalist, writer and TV personality. He began his career in Fleet Street as a writer and editor for tabloid papers, including the Sun, News of the World, and Daily Mirror. On television, he replaced American interviewer Larry King on CNN and for three years hosted his own show, Piers Morgan Live. He was a judge on both America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent and in the UK presented a series entitled Piers Morgan’s Life Stories. From 2015 he co-hosted Good Morning Britain. He has also written eight books, including four volumes of memoirs.
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer, songwriter and composer, the son of musicians Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. He has recorded nine albums, numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks, written two classical operas and set Shakespeare sonnets to music. In 2012 he married German art administrator Jörn Weisbrodt and he has a daughter, Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen. She was conceived via sperm donation by Wainwright and Lorca Cohen, daughter of Leonard Cohen, and she lives with her mother. Politically Rufus is a ‘complete libertarian’. He says, ‘No government should encroach on what goes on in the bedroom’.
SANANDA MAITREYA
Sananda Francesco Maitreya is an American singer and songwriter who came to fame in 1987 with his debut album, Introducing the Hardline, which spawned four major hit singles, If You Let Me Stay, Sign Your Name, Dance Little Sister, and Wishing Well. In 2001 he rejected the music industry as he’d known it till then, changed his name to Sananda Maitreya, and explained he’d watched his former self ‘suffering as he died a noble death’. Since then Sananda has released seven studio albums, four live albums, and has had three of his songs played in Judd Apatow’s film Knocked Up.
CHRIS CAMERON
Chris Cameron was musical director for George Michael on a large number of his recordings, concerts and tours, including 25 Live, the Faith Tour, MTV Unplugged, Pavarotti & Friends, The Mandela Day Concert, and Concert for Hope. He was also musical director for tours by Mick Hucknall and KD Lang. Chris has produced, written arrangements for, and played keyboards with a wide variety of musicians and performers throughout the world including George Michael, Randy Crawford, Miguel Bosé, The Stereophonics, Tina Turner and Take That. And for American TV shows such as Ellen DeGeneres, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman.
ANDREW RIDGELEY
Andrew Ridgeley was born in Windlesham, Surrey, his mother was Scottish and his father Italian-Egyptian. When they moved to Hertfordshire, young Andrew attended Bushey Meads school, and when 12-yearold George Michael enrolled, Andrew volunteered to take him under his wing. From that grew Wham!. When Wham! came to an end, Andrew at first tried Formula 3 motor racing, then made a solo album, then met and married Keren Woodward of the group Bananarama. They moved to Cornwall and these days Andrew participates annually in the Dallaglio Cycle Slam, a charity event helping young people tackle life in a positive way.
JOHNNY DOUGLAS
Johnny Douglas was born in Hull in 1970. Age 19 he was offered a record deal with EMI as an artist but instead focussed on writing and producing. He signed a publishing deal with Rondor Music where he was mentored by Rod Temperton, who wrote many of the hits for Michael Jackson. In 1966, while Johnny was producing singer Lisa Moorish, he met George Michael and started working with him. He was the only person whom George ever co-credited as a producer and they also co-wrote songs together, including Spinning the Wheel, Older, Fast Love, Amazing and Shoot the Dog.
RICHARD MADELEY
Richard Madeley is a journalist, television presenter and writer. With his wife Judy Finnigan, he presented This Morning, and later the chat-show Richard & Judy, a mix of celebrity interviews, household tips, cookery and phone-ins. His solo projects have included the ITV series Million Pound Giveaway and being stand-in for The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2. He was the main relief presenter of Channel 5’s The Wright Stuff, and since 2017 he has been one of three main relief presenters of ITV’s breakfast show Good Morning Britain. He writes an ‘agony uncle’ column for The Telegraph.
VAUGHAN ARNELL
Vaughan Arnell is one of Britain’s leading directors of music videos. Amongst his most acclaimed are Sam Smith & Normani: Dancing with a Stranger – The Pet Shop Boys: Monkey Business – James Blunt: Bonfire Hearts – Elvis Presley with Kate Moss: The Wonder Of You – Robbie Williams: Party Like a Russian – George Michael: Let Her Down Easy, Fast Love and Outside. Vaughan says, ‘Every artist or track – at any level – has a special meaning. My approach has always been to understand that meaning, love it, and create the most iconic image I can imagine.’
LESLEY-ANN JONES
Lesley-Ann Jones spent twenty years as a newspaper journalist on Fleet Street. Born in Kent, England, she is the daughter of acclaimed sportswriter Ken Jones. For six years Lesley-Ann was showbusiness feature writer for the Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday, touring with Paul McCartney, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Queen. She then moved to the Daily Express as columnist and feature writer. Her interview subjects have included Tony Blair, Frank Sinatra, Raquel Welch, Mel Gibson, Charlton Heston, Brigitte Bardot and Princess Margaret. Her books include novels and biographies, notably of Marc Bolan, Freddie Mercury and David Bowie.
JO WHILEY
Johanne Whiley is a radio DJ and television presenter. Her first radio show was interviewing musicians on BBC Radio Sussex for a show called Turn It Up. After studying radio journalism at City University London she got a job as researcher on a Radio 4 youth culture show. When presenters Terry Christian and Gary Crowley left, she took over. In 1997 she got her own programme on Radio 1, The Jo Whiley Show. She was also a presenter on Top of the Pops and did frequent television interviews. She currently presents her own weekday evening show on Radio 2 show.
PETER TATCHELL
Peter Gary Tatchell is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia. Best known for his work with LGBT social movements, he has been campaigning for human rights, democracy, LGBT equality and global justice since 1967. Among his many involvements, he was a leading activist in the Gay Liberation Front and in the LGBT group Outrage. Through the Peter Tatchell Foundation, he currently campaigns for human rights in Britain and internationally. His political inspirations come from Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst, and Martin Luther King, and he has adapted many of their methods in his contemporary non-violent struggle for human rights.
SEAN SMITH
Sean Smith is Britain’s leading celebrity biographer. Besides his masterful book on George Michael, his works have included biographies of Robbie Williams, Kate Middleton, Kylie Minogue, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Victoria Beckham, Jennifer Aniston, Cheryl Cole, the Spice Girls, Ed Sheeran, J. K. Rowling, Kim Kardashian, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Sean specialises in meticulous research and going ‘on the road’ to find the real person behind the star image. He has been described by the Independent as a ‘fearless chronicler’ yet while never pulling punches he always manages to write about his subjects with respect.
JON SAVAGE
Jon Savage studied classics at Cambridge then became a music journalist at the dawn of British punk. He wrote for Sounds, Melody Maker and The Face. Throughout the 80s and 90s, he wrote for The Observer and the New Statesman, providing highbrow commentary on popular culture. Jon has written many books on music and pop culture, including England’s Dreaming, a history of punk rock. His book, Teenage: The Prehistory of Youth Culture, follows the history of youth culture from Victorian times to the end of the 2nd World War. His latest book, 1996, recalls the cultural turmoil of that year.
TOM ROBINSON
Tom Robinson is a singer-songwriter, bassist, radio presenter and long-time LGBT rights activist. Perhaps best known for his hits with The Tom Robinson Band, Glad to Be Gay and 2-4-6-8 Motorway, he currently presents his own radio show on BBC’s 6 Music on which he plays songs based on a certain theme and listeners’ input. He also has a BBC radio show broadcast at 2am on Monday mornings in which he introduces music by new local bands. Nowadays he rarely performs live other than two annual free concerts, known as the Castaway Parties, in South London and Belgium every January.
MIKE READ
Mike Read is a radio DJ, writer, journalist and television presenter. His broadcasting career began in 1976 at Radio 210, Reading; he then moved to Radio Luxembourg. He is best known for his subsequent work as a DJ with Radio 1, as a presenter of Top of the Pops, and of the children’s show Saturday Superstore. He has also been a broadcaster for Capital Radio and Classic FM. In 2004, he was one of the contestants in the ITV reality show I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! but was the first celebrity to be evicted by the viewing public.
CHRIS PORTER
Chris is a record producer and engineer of over forty years’ experience. He has worked with some of the world’s most successful music artists including Wham!, George Michael, Take That, Gary Barlow, Pet Shop Boys, Tina Turner, Cliff Richard, David Bowie, Hall & Oates, Chris de Burgh, Elton John, Aswad, Emma Bunton, Diana Ross, The Alarm, Gary Moore, Phil Lynott, and Simple Minds. Chris has recorded every genre of music from rock to classical, from bands to symphony orchestras, as well as working on film and DVD scores. Chris now co-owns a studio complex with fellow record producer Hugh Padgham.
PETE PAPHIDES
Pete Paphides was born in Birmingham to a Greek Cypriot father and a Greek mother. His father ran a local fish and chip shop and the family lived upstairs. Pete read philosophy at the University of Wales and for five years thereafter was the chief rock critic of The Times. Since then he has written for The Guardian, Melody Maker, Time Out, Mojo and Q magazine and made documentaries for both BBC Radio 4 and Radio 6. He is married to the novelist and Times columnist Caitlin Moran. This year he published an autobiography, Broken Greek, that received rave reviews.
ANDY MORAHAN
Andy Morahan studied film-making at the knee of his father: film, TV and stage director Christopher Morahan (Jewel in the Crown). Andy was at the centre of the music video revolution in the late ‘80s and ‘90s and his video collaborations include The Pet Shop Boys, Wham!, George Michael, Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, AC/DC. Feature films include Highlander III and the third film in the Goal series. He also directed George Michael Live in London, shot at Earl’s Court at the end of the 25 Live tour
ADAM MATTERA
Adam Mattera was the editor of Attitude magazine from 1999 to 2008 and his celebrity interviews redefined the status of the magazine. Besides George Michael, they included Madonna, David Beckham, Tony Blair and Elton John. After his interview, George commented, “You know more than my f-ing therapist knew in the first ten years of knowing me”. Adam also writes on popular culture and gay issues for The Observer, The Sunday Times and Time Out. Among other celebrities he has interviewed are Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Prince, Luther Vandross, Janet Jackson, Julie Walters, Liza Minnelli, Tony Curtis and Diana Ross.
MARTIN LLOYD-ELLIOTT
Martin Lloyd-Elliott has worked for thirty one years in full-time private practice as a chartered psychologist and psychotherapist, working with over 1500 clients. He also coaches business executives and management teams in cutting-edge leadership skills, specialising in the creation and development of ‘super teams’. He sees psychotherapy as an alliance between himself and his clients. His therapeutic style is primarily Jungian and integrative. He sees his work as being primarily about creating a safe, respectful, and sacred space, where his clients can find the truth of who they are, what they want to be, and how they would like to live.
DICK LEAHY
Dick Leahy was born in 1937. In the late 60s he was appointed A&R manager of Philips Records and in 1970 became managing director of Bell Records. There he oversaw hits from David Cassidy, Gary Glitter, the Drifters, the Delfonics, Barry Blue and Showaddywaddy. In the early ‘80s Dick formed a music publishing company with former Pretty Things manager Bryan Morrison. Morrison and Leahy signed Wham! before they had a recording contract and for the next twenty years Leahy was considered George Michael’s closest ally in the music business. Latterly, he lived in Spain where he died in August 2020.
OWEN JONES
Owen Jones is a columnist, broadcaster and writer and was born in Sheffield. His father was a local authority worker and trade union shop steward and his mother was an IT lecturer at the University of Salford. He says his parents taught him a ‘passionate hatred of injustice and bigotry’. He is a weekly columnist for The Guardian and in 2011 published his first book, Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. The Independent on Sunday named Jones as one of its top 50 Britons of 2011, for the manner in which his book raised the profile of class-based issues.
DYLAN JONES
Dylan Jones, journalist and author, attended both Chelsea School of Art and Saint Martin’s School of Art, studying graphic design, film and photography. He then worked for both The Observer and The Sunday Times before being appointed editor of GQ magazine in 1999. He brought in a roster of high-quality writers and took the magazine in a more political direction, at one time hiring Boris Johnson as the magazine’s car correspondent. Dylan has penned multiple books and artists’ biographies and in 2013 was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for services to the British publishing and fashion industries.
JO HEMMINGS
Jo Hemmings is a behavioural psychologist. She is a registered member of the British Psychological Society and of the Association of Clinical Psychologists; she is also a member of the Association for Coaching. She specialises in media and celebrity analysis as well as being a dating and relationship coach. Jo is the consultant psychologist on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, appearing regularly on the show, as well as making appearances on BBC, Channel 4, C5, and Sky News. She also helps behind the scenes at reality TV shows where she gives both producers and contestants psychological advice and contestant selection assessments.
SIMON HATTENSTONE
Simon Hattenstone was born in Salford. He was severely ill with encephalitis for three years as a child and is now an Ambassador for the Encephalitis Society. He is a features writer and interviewer for The Guardian but for three years wrote a sports column in which he described the vicissitudes of being a die-hard Manchester City supporter. His interview subjects have included George Michael, Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder, Serena Williams, Desmond Tutu and Judi Dench, and he is among the few journalists to have interviewed the anonymous graffiti artist Banksy. He also writes about crime and justice.
KEITH HARRIS
Keith Harris began work in the music industry in 1974, joined Motown Records’ UK operation in 1976, and rose to become UK general manager. In 1978 he moved to LA to become operations manager for Stevie Wonder but returned to the UK in 1982 to form his own management company. He still represents Stevie Wonder and holds an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Westminster. He was awarded an OBE for services to the music industry in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2015 and is currently Director of Performer Affairs at PPL and Chairman of Music Tank.
PROF. AMANDA HARCOURT
Professor Amanda Harcourt is a legal and policy advisor for the creative industries focussing on copyright, entertainment contracts, talent advocacy, rights management and intellectual property rights and policy. Her work has included six years with Fremantle Media where she had responsibility for the legal aspect of the worldwide roll-out of the television format Pop Idol / American Idol. She has held academic posts at universities in the UK and USA and prepared government submissions on copyright and performers’ rights policy in both. She is visiting Professor at The Institute of Brand and Innovation Law, Faculty of Laws, University College London.
ANDREW GRAHAM-DIXON
Early in his career Andrew Graham-Dixon won the Arts Journalist of the Year Award three years in a row. He is chief art critic of The Sunday Telegraph, a regular contributor to BBC Two’s The Culture Show, and has presented many BBC documentary series on art. Programmes he has presented on other subjects include The Real Casino Royale, 100% English and I, Samurai. In 2010 he interviewed John Lydon for a Culture Show special about Public Image Ltd. In the same year he published a biography of Caravaggio and wrote and presented a BBC documentary entitled Who Killed Caravaggio?
PAUL GAMBACCINI
Paul Gambaccini is an American-British radio and television presenter and author. Born in the Bronx in New York City, he studied history at Dartmouth College, then attended Oxford University. He was a BBC Radio 1 presenter for sixteen years and a founding presenter on the classical music station Classic FM. Also, for 13 years he reviewed films for breakfast television. He annually presents the Ivor Novello Awards, the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, and the Music Industry Trust’s Man of the Year dinner. In 1995 he was named Philanthropist of the Year for his work on behalf of the Terrence Higgins Trust.
CAROLINE FROST
Caroline Frost is a broadcaster and journalist of twenty years standing with wide-ranging experience of both print and digital media. With an emphasis on the field of entertainment, she regularly writes and speaks about the media, politics and social issues. She has done so for the BBC, the Guardian, MSN, Business Insider, Huffington Post, Daily Mirror and News Limited in Australia. Her first encounter with George Michael was when she was a schoolgirl fan of Wham!. As she watched his career develop she was able to write about him from both that perspective and as a journalist specialising in entertainment.
DAN FORSHAW
Dan Forshaw is an English jazz musician and music educator who plays the bass clarinet, tenor, soprano and alto saxophones, and the Electronic Wind Instrument. In 2005 he moved to New York to study with saxophonist-composer Branford Marsalis, saxophonist Eric Alexander, and postbop jazz saxophonist Ravi Coltrane. Since then Dan has been a prominent figure as a jazz player and music educator in the United Kingdom and Ireland. He now lives in Cambridgeshire where he runs an educational programme that enables students from all over the world, (including one student in Antarctica) to study with him via Skype and videos.
PAUL FLYNN
Paul Flynn has worked as a journalist for over two decades. He began writing at City Life magazine in Manchester. He now lives in London and over the last twenty years has been a contributing writer for Fantastic Man, i-D, GQ Style, Man About Town, and The Gentlewoman. He is currently the senior contributing editor at Love, a columnist for Attitude, and a weekly columnist for Grazia. He has also written for the Guardian, Observer, Sunday Express and Sunday Times. His book Good As You, a pop cultural guide to British gay equality was published in 2017 by Ebury Press.
CHENG FANGYUAN
Cheng Fangyuan, aged 10, sang opera at school and learned the erhu, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument. In her teens, she swapped it for a guitar and started to sing pop. By the mid 1980s she’d been named one of China’s top ten singers. She then married the actor, Wang Gang, a true show business marriage, but being forced to live under the spotlight almost inevitably led to divorce. After living mostly abroad for ten years Cheng recently returned to play three sold-out concerts in Beijing. Her reputation for personal integrity had not just won fans: it had kept them.
JAKE DUNCAN
Jake Duncan, from Dunbar in Scotland, is one of Britain’s most experienced and respected tour managers. Apart from tour managing Wham! and George Michael, he has tour-managed artists as diverse Bay City Rollers, Deep Purple, Ozzy Osbourne and Jason Donovan. These days he works mainly as a tour accountant, including for The Who, Little Mix, Linda Lewis and Tears for Fears. Now 60, Jake started in the late 1970s for £8 a week, with nightly drives of 400 miles and sleeping in the van. He insists his real passion is for the world of football, helping young players realise their dreams.
GARY CROWLEY
Gary Crowley is a DJ and radio and TV presenter. While still at school in the 1970s he founded a fanzine, interviewing all the most significant new wave bands. On leaving, he joined NME, taking over from Danny Baker as telephone receptionist. In 1980, aged 19, Capital Radio made him Britain’s youngest radio DJ, during which time he compared Wham!’s first national UK tour. Since then Gary has never been without his own radio show and nowadays broadcasts on BBC Radio London. In his career he has interviewed virtually every British music star and most of the visiting American ones.
JANE EVA BARRINGTON-COOPER
Jane Barrington-Cooper started her working life in the showrooms of well-known fashion houses. She later became a fashion stylist and then morphed into interior design. She studied art in Rome and in London, at the Palladio Academy and The Royal Drawing School in Shoreditch. She was married to the late Dr. Barrington Cooper, MD and psychiatrist to many people in the entertainment world and through him became friends with George Michael and his partner Kenny Goss. Jane is a respected artist whose work is shown in many leading galleries including at last year’s Summer Exhibition at The Royal Academy
MIKE BATT
Paul Flynn has worked as a journalist for over two decades. He began writing at City Life magazine in Manchester. He now lives in London and over the last twenty years has been a contributing writer for Fantastic Man, i-D, GQ Style, Man About Town, and The Gentlewoman. He is currently the senior contributing editor at Love, a columnist for Attitude, and a weekly columnist for Grazia. He has also written for the Guardian, Observer, Sunday Express and Sunday Times. His book Good As You, a pop cultural guide to British gay equality was published in 2017 by Ebury Press.
RICHARD AYOUB
Richard Ayoub always juggled his career in television and media with a passion for helping the underdog. He began his philanthropic activities at the age of nineteen, fundraising in his hometown of El Paso to send a local gymnast to the Olympics. His entertainment career was capped by two Emmys and multiple awards for journalistic excellence. He ran newsrooms in Texas, Arizona, Florida and Los Angeles and was also a media coach for TV personalities. When he was asked why he stepped away from entertainment to lead Project Angel Food, he said, ‘I received the call. And I answered it’.
BRIAN ARIS
Brian Aris began his career photographing the troubles in Northern Ireland, the plight of Palestinian children in Jordan, the civil war in Lebanon, famine in Africa and the Vietnam War. In 1976, he changed direction and become a photographer of fashion models and stars of the music industry. Some of the names amongst the many he has photographed are the Queen, and most leading figures in the royal family, The Beatles, Blondie, Tina Turner, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Ozzy Osbourne, Meryl Streep, Van Morrison, Sophia Loren, Madonna, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Joan Collins, Kate Bush, Wham!, and George Michael.