On December 10, 1999, George Michael was the guest of the morning show at 98.8 Capital FM Radio. This is a 6-part interview by Neil Fox, and the transcript was posted on the Capital FM radio website.
The charming Mr. Michael joined our inimitable Dr. Fox for a good old chin wag to chat about life, the universe, vicars and big hair…
It was breakfast time, and most of us were just coming to terms with a new day, but these two had been up since the crack of dawn, chatting away like old mates catching up on all the goss…
Part 1
First they had a chat about George’s latest album, ‘Songs From the Last Century,’ and how he came to make the very difficult choices of what to put on the album, what to leave out and why he made those decisions.
Part 2
Then it was time to talk about their mutual mate, Robbie, and the pressure that George reckons he’s under to keep rolling out the hits – and he’s been there!
Part 3
There was a quick prediction for Record Of The Year 1999 and then Foxy tried to pin George down on a ticklish subject – when, oh when are the fans going to be able to see him perform live again!!???
Part 4
George talks about his fans and how he seems to get one of two very extreme reactions from them when they meet face to face…
Part 5
Then it was time to talk about the contenders for the Christmas Number One spot… and that’s when George made those comments about Cliff Richard…
Part 6
Almost time to bid their fond farewells, but before he nipped off for a hearty breakfast, George let Foxy and the listeners in on his plans for New Millenium Eve and a naughty secret he’s been keeping hidden from us all. Bad boy George!
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Part 1:
George & Foxy kicked off their chat by talking about George’s new album, ‘Songs From The Last Century‘ and debating whether or not they were morning people…
Foxy: Friday breakfast, bit of ‘Faith’ there, get’s us in the mood for Mr George Michael. Morning, Sir. How are you?
George: Good morning, good morning.
Foxy: Obviously you are a morning person. Look at you, bright and breezy today. Chipper.
George: This morning I got up bright and early because I knew I had to do this. Actually, I heard you, I could hear you at about seven o’clock in the morning… actually, when do you start, six-thirty?
Foxy: Six
George: Well, I got up just before seven so I heard you…
Foxy: Very impressive.
George: …and I was sitting there thinking, ‘How does he manage it?’ How do you manage to sound like your normal chirpy-chappy self…
Foxy: I don’t know. I don’t know how Tarrant does it.
George: …when it’s dark. It was dark, d’you know what I mean?
Foxy: And cold.
George: And cold.
Foxy: It’s horrible, I know. This time of year…Tarrant, I have to take mybhat off that he’s done it for so many years. I don’t know how he does butbthere you go.
George: I hope they’re paying you well!
Foxy: Erm…
George: Ha ha, that’s another subject altogether!
Foxy: No, they are. How can I complain? I’m having a great time. It’s so nice to have you in again. The last time you were on, you spent a couple of hours taking calls and what have you. We’ve got some e-mails and some questions from listeners since we announced this on Wednesday morning. But, erm, everything seems to have been going pretty well for you over the past twelve months. The new album is very chilled and cool and lovely…
George: Thank-you. Thank-you very much.
Foxy: You’re obviously very pleased with it. How did you choose records to go on there? ‘Songs in the Twentieth Century’ – it must be impossible…
George: Well to be honest, I kind of thought that if I called it ‘Songs From The Last Century,’ I mean I know it sounds kind of big, but if you think about it, it’s just saying that, they’re really just songs that I thought I’d like to have a go at, that I’ve always wanted to sing and I’m not trying to say that these are the songs of the Twentieth Century because otherwise where are The Beatles, where’s Elvis, where are all the huge ones? That wasn’t the point of it at all, it was just a basic way of saying, these are songs that… in a way, I kind of wanted to say that the last century wasn’t all about rock and roll, you know, because mostly that’s what it’s going to be remembered for. But there are all kinds of fantastic things that were written before then, and a couple since then.
Foxy: Well, let’s play ‘Roxanne’, because this is the one that we played as the exclusive, I think it was a Thursday evening we ended up playing this one. It was incredible, when we announced it the day before that we were going to be playing the new George song ‘Roxanne,’ how many fans from around the world knew about it by the next day because of the e-mails we got from around the planet after we played it were quite phenomenal. But here we go, it’s Friday breakfast, George Michael is our guest today, here is ‘Roxanne’…
Foxy: … ‘Roxanne’, a rather more chilled-out version than The Police did. When it first came out did you just love that record?
George: Er, to be honest with you, it’s not one of my favourite Sting songs, it’s really not. It’s like…
Foxy: Ideal to choose, then, for the album.
George: …Well really, to be honest, in terms of the people that have been writing and the people that have, er, impressed me during my career, the two writers I think I most respect, that are British writers – because most of the material is older and it’s American – but the two writers that I really wanted to acknowledge in a way were Sting and Bono because they’re my two …I think they’re the two best writers of the time that I think my career has spanned. So really it was a matter of what Sting song can I do? And that one just kind of came into my head. I don’t know why, really, it really isn’t one of my favourite things, but I really …I do really like the version that I’ve done, I’ll be honest. I kind of prefer the version I’ve done.
Foxy: It’s funny because when you started saying ‘It’s just some great songs from the… well here’s one, actually, I didn’t really like at all but it was a… I’ll kind of do a good version.’
George: I don’t know why, it was just that I really wanted to tip my hat to Sting.
Foxy: Well we’re also going to play ‘Miss Sarajevo’, obviously, which is a Bono song, a bit later on this morning. I hope you can hang around, we’re just going to take a break. It is breakfast, Friday morning, George, our guest, and we shall be back.
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