29 February 2003 - The Sun

British tabloid The Sun goes for George, by printing following heading:

"George's new grave-yard: NOT content with ruining his career once, GEORGE 
MICHAEL has performed a second anti-war song."


28 February 2003 - MTV

George will record and videotape a special version of "The Grave" for MTV; it will air on MTV Europe from on March 3rd. 
Don Mcclean's original lyrics will be kept as they were.

The video can be seen op MTV's website: http://www.mtv.co.uk

Don Mcclean himself is proud of George. He is said to be delighted that George chose one of his songs to show his feelings:

 "I am proud of George Michael for standing up for life and sanity. I am 
delighted that he chose a song of mine to express these feelings. We must 
remember that the Wizard is really a cowardly old man hiding behind a 
curtain with a loud microphone. It takes courage and a song to pull the 
curtain open and expose him. Good Luck George"
(Don Mcclean)

links:
http://www.nme.com/news/104326.htm
http://www.orange-today.co.uk/entertainment/story/sm_756015.html

link to audio-/videofile of "The Grave" at MTV:
http://www.mtv.co.uk/mtv.co.uk/en/dynamo/features.jhtml;jsessionid=HHGADABT5RAHJQFIAIICFFGAVABQMIV0?id=30026756



28 February 2003 - Graham Norton show

28 February 2003 - Richard And Judy show

George made an appearance on The Richard And Judy Show today, it was broadcasted via Channel 4.
You can read the transcript in the interviews section (TN).

link to transcript:
http://forums.aegean.net/showthread.php?s=0e491084b189a42343c403864761abbf&threadid=2960

link to pictures:
http://forums.aegean.net/showthread.php?s=1024ceb9e6d864de901c85e40c476878&postid=45470



27 February 2003 - Capital interview next week

The Capital Radio interview has been postponed to next week (March 6th) as George stayed up late last night and is trying to keep his voice for his appearance in the Graham Norton show tonight (channel4)
27 februari 2003 - Capital Radio uitgesteld


27 February 2003 - BBC Radio 2 interview

(thanks to Knobby and BBC for the (webcam) pictures)

George Michael has been speaking out against a war in Iraq.  Last week he performed an anti-war duet with Ms Dynamite at the Brits, and this week he has accused Tony Blair of "arrogance" for ignoring the majority of public opinion against war with Iraq.  But does a pop star have
enough experience and information to comment on foreign affairs or should it be left to the politicians?
(source and audio)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/jeremy_vine/

George gives a over 20 minute interview to British BBC Radio 2 in the Jeremy Vine show.
You can read the transcipt here (as written by Dax Phandi voor Planet George), <<but mind you there are still some errors in the transcript, Jules >>

link to (webcam-)pictures:
http://forums.aegean.net/showthread.php?s=3a8fde17d29c54b93c641f008e20243b&threadid=2860

link to transcript:
http://www.jeannettenuman.com/julesrules/georgemichael_TN/030227_bbcradio2.html
 
link to BBC Radio's website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/jeremy_vine/index.shtml#george

link to George's profile:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutmusic/profiles/michaelgeorge.shtml


26 February 2003 - upcoming: Capital Radio interview

Capital FM will have a George Michael interview during the program "Drivetime", Thursday 27th of February from 18.30 hrs and 19.oo hrs (GMT). Capital FM can be listened to online via http://www.captialfm.com



26 February 2003 - HARDtalk - BBC World interview

George gives an interview in 30 minute program "Hardtalk" on BBC World. Broadcasting will be at 11.30 hrs, at 15.30 hrs and once more at Thursday 27 February at 23.30 hrs (all GMT times).
You can listen to the interview in realplayer here or see the video link here
The BBC article is added here

link to video-file:
http://forums.aegean.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2839

links to transcript:
http://forums.aegean.net/showthread.php?s=3a8fde17d29c54b93c641f008e20243b&threadid=2850
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/2808095.stm

links naar artikelen:
http://infobrix.yellowbrix.com/pages/infobrix/Story.nsp?story_id=36957132&ID=
infobrix&scategory=Business+and+Finance&
http://uk.music.yahoo.com/030226/140/du61s.html
http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_754941.html
http://www.dotmusic.com/news/February2003/news28448.asp
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6047982%255E401,00.html


26 February 2003 - phone interview GMTV

George gives a phone interview to GMTV, where he was a guest earlier this week; he gives his respons to the many telephonic reactions the program received.
One of the reactions is whether George knows what's happening in Iraq and whether he understands what Saddam Hussein is doing, to which George responds that it's always hard to understand ones suffering, and that there is a terrible situtation going on that has to be stopped, but the way people think to put a hold to it, brings terrible consequences with it.
Another question is whether George is anti-America, and whehter his arrest in LA in 1998 has anything to do with this. George answers that that has nothing to do with it, that it didn't even cross his mind. George says not to be anti-America: he is living with an American and had had three relationships with Americans in the past.
To the question whether Faith (the new version with Ms Dynamite) will be released as single, and profits would go to charity, George answers that he doesn't see the point in that. He believes in bringing the matter under attention to be able to bring pressure to the British government. He hopes it just doesn't come that far that money funds will be necessary. 



25 February 2003 - upcoming: Richard en Judy show

Friday the 29th of February George can be once more heard via a phone interview with British Channel4, in the Richard and Judy show, at 17.00 hrs GMT time.



25 February 2003 - Channel 5 interview

George does an interview with Channel 5's Kirsty Young on Channel 5 about his anti-war opinions. You can read the transcript in the The News Item section (thanks to David "teabag" Brent)

original link:
http://forums.aegean.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2817



25 February 2003 - George Michael TV 

(thanks to "georgewham" of Ægean's forum for the pictures)

George appeared on tv once more: this time on GMTV.
George criticized prime minister Tony Blair's opinion, and called his "arrogance" bigger than what he remembered from Margaret Thatcher. 

Singer George Michael accused Prime Minister Tony Blair of being "more arrogant than Thatcher" by ignoring public opinion over a possible war with Iraq. 

The Chart-topper accused Mr Blair of "madness" for not listening to the estimated 80-90% of the population who were against attacks without backing from the United Nations. 
"I think that at least half the country believes what I do - that we should not be a part of this war," the singer told GMTV. "But I think something like 80 to 90% believe that we shouldn't if there's no UN resolution."

Michael said that he could not understand why Mr Blair was not listening to the people. 
He said: "Surely that's more arrogant than we can remember from Thatcher".
He said that he was "Thrilled" when Labour came to power in 1997 but he has become disillusioned with Labour's centre politics. 
"Every single tax pound I paid since I was 18, 19-years-old had gone to Thatcher. As far as I was concerned, I had a cruise missile with my name on it," Michael said.

(source: sky news)


link to pictures:
http://forums.aegean.net/showthread.php?s=0d9f77710cf4a6ddcd30c8384ae06e18&threadid=2794&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

more links:
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30500-12255741,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2796541.stm
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12674934&method=full&siteid=50143



24 February 2003 - Flander tv
Jim TV will broadcast (pieces of?) the Brit Awards on Thursday 6 March and/or Sunday 9 March.

link:
http://jim.be/music/news/?id=3392



23 February 2003 - top 10 sexiest moments

Link to a new (?) top at eonline: sexiest music moments. George is ranked 10 in the list

link:
http://www.eonline.com/Features/Topten/SexiestMoments/



23 February 2003 - BBC Breakfast show

George Michael gives an in-studio interview on BBC's Breakfast With Frost.
You can read the transcript in the The News Item section.

source: BBC 
video link "latest program" (for as long as it will be there): here

other links to audio/video:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.porritt/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast_with_frost/2792027.stm (video: "latest program")

links to transcript:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast_with_frost/2792067.stm


links to pictures: 
http://forums.aegean.net/showthread.php?s=054b10422914892a85293cf92eb21c50&threadid=2805&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

more links:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_753894.html



22 February 2003 - Faith released? 

Rumours go that the rewritten new version of Faith will be released for charity.


21 Fbruary 2003 - recorded in London

George's contribution appears not to be recorded in Los Angeles, but in Royal Park Studios, Londen the Sunday before the ITV broadcast.

link: http://www.thisislondon.com/news/showbiz/articles/3504503



21 February 2003 - Brit Awards reviews

Top-selling tabloids the Sun and the Daily Mirror represented polar opposites in their coverage of the Brits protest on Friday.

The Sun, which supports Blair's aggressive line on Iraq, gave its entire front page to a picture of Justin Timberlake fondling Kylie Minogue's behind during a dance routine. It did not report Martin's statement and mentioned Ms Dynamite's version of "Faith" only in the final two paragraphs of its main story, disparaging it as "the biggest flop of the evening."

Conversely, the Daily Mirror is running an antiwar campaign called Not in Our Name." Its headline alongside the same Timberlake-Minogue picture was "Brits Stars Blitz Blair: PM's War Plans Slammed," and it printed the rewritten "Faith" lyric in full.
(source: Los Angeles Times)

link:
http://www.calendarlive.com/music/grammys/cl-et-sutcliffe22feb22,0,867043.story?coll=cl-home-more-channels

more reviews:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2785809.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2784279.stm
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=599&ncid=762&e=9&u=/nm/20030220/media_nm/arts_brits_dc
http://www.itv.com/news/1912893.html
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=17610
http://www.calendarlive.com/music/grammys/cl-et-sutcliffe22feb22,0,867043.story?coll=cl-home-more-channels

link to pictures:
http://forums.aegean.net/showthread.php?s=cb03ea4bdbd2bd27fac796b02ac69d53&threadid=2752&perpage=15&pagenumber=1


links to audio and video files:
http://www.gmlive.co.uk/index.htm
http://www.skyradio.nl/britawards/britawards.html



20 February 2003 - Brit Awards

Ms Dynamite's duet with George Michael was broadcasted tonight on ITV and BBC Radio1. The tv broadcast was seen by 50 million people.

Apparantly, his contribution to the duet was dangered as he hurt his back prior to recording the video. So he called in an osteophath to ease his pain in time to record his half of the duet.

At time of the Brits, George was in London and not in LA as reported by many media, where he had dinner with Janet Jackson the night before the Brits.
George Michael's publicist first said he was live from LA, then claimed he taped his half in California "last week". It was actually recorded in Royal Park Studios, Ealing, last Sunday. 

In a backstage BBC Radio interview, Ms Dynamite mentioned that George contacted her first, long time ago, saying that he loved her album. Ms Dynamite contacted George when she got the idea of doing Faith with re-written lyrics; George himself also wrote a new verse of Faith for the occasion. 
In the ITV tv interview with Kate Thornton she said that she and George never actually met. met him; he was too busy working on his album for them to actually get together. 

-->
A little piece of the transcript (as written by reflectionsofgeorge):

Q	 Right, let's talk about this collaboration.  Noone expectedyou to share the stage with George Michael.  It was an old idea of yours,yeah?
 
A 	Well basically in terms of the song Faith, I really likethat song and I wanted to do it as a cover months ago.  And then we justforgot about it cos everything got too busy and then for this my A&R reminded me and I was like yeah I'd love to.  I contacted him, lets change around the words...
 
Q	 Now slow down!  How do you contact George.  Its not like...umm Yellow Pages...George Michael's there
 
A 	Well he'd already shown some interest in working with me so you know I felt pretty confident about asking him.  He told me before that he was a fan of my 	music so I felt pretty confident about it.  I was 
so happy when he said that he wanted to be part of it and he loved the idea.  We started writing, putting it down.
 
Q	 Did you write together or did you do it alone?
 
A 	No.  We decided the concept together but he wrote his part alone and I wrote my part alone.  
 
Q	 Did you ever meet?
 
A 	No we didn't get to meet cos he's really busy. He's working on his album.
 
Q	 You know who was the last one he did that with?  Aretha...IKnew You Were Waiting For Me...they never met .  You're in good company.
 
A 	That's very nice to know.

<--
Ms Dynamite revealed that George supported the changes to his song and rewrote one of the verses himself. She said: "George called me. "He was really lovely, very supportive 
and said some nice things about my music. "We had a couple of conversations 
and then it was all sorted. He couldn't have been nicer."
 

links to news about the Brits:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/showbiz/articles/3490663?source=Evening%20Standard
http://www.itv.com/news/199654.html

http://www.mtv.co.uk/mtv.co.uk/en/dynamo/features.jhtml?id=30026454&subject=MTV%20News%20Round-Up%2017/02/2002&type=News&area=Search%20MTV
http://www.news24.com/News24/Entertainment/Abroad/0,6119,2-1225-1243_1322267,00.html
http://www.itv.com/news/640300.html



19 February 2003 - Shirlie stops

Shirlie will stip with her activities for AEgean. It's not know yet who will take over her work. According to Shirlie, things will change at Ægean and it's website (http://www.aegean.net orhttp://www.georgemichael.com).



18 February 2003 - Madonna copy cat

Madonna is set to cause controversy in her home country with a new video which will act as a thinly veiled critique of George Bush's policies on Iraq.

Madonna's UK spokeswoman, Barbara Charone, confirmed that the promo would contain an anti-war message.
"This is not going to be another George Michael," she said, referring to the singer's Shoot The Dog video, which featured a caricature of Tony Blair as President Bush's lapdog and was not well-received in the US.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,892837,00.html


17 February 2003 - Brits

Thursday the 20th of February, George will duet with Ms Dynamite during the Brit Awards in London.
Ms Dynamite who marched in the protest against war in Iraq last Saturday wants to ventilate her displeasre about a possible war in Iraq, and has re-written George Michael's song 1987 song "Faith". She asked GM for permission, who was this much enthousiastic that he volunteered to sing with her during the Brit Awards.
As GM is in Los Angeles at the moment, his contribution is pre-recorded and will be seen via video-satelite, as Ms Dynamite will sing her part in London.
Ms Dynamite is nominated for four Brit Awards.

The show will be broadcasted on British ITV on Thursday nigt.
links:
http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_751533.html?menu

http://forums.aegean.net/announcement.php?s=d0146a6cbde9abf877640a650b0e04c6&forumid=2

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,4-2003072552,00.html

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/24by7/twentyfourseven/page.cfm?objectid=12644897&method=full&siteid=106694

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/music/newsid_2772000/2772935.stm

http://www.dotmusic.com/news/February2003/news28332.asp

http://uk.gay.com/headlines/3768

http://www.mtv.co.uk/mtv.co.uk/en/dynamo/features.jhtml?id=30026454&subject=MTV+News+Round-Up+17%2F02%2F2002&type=News&area=Search+MTV

http://www.itv.com/news/497225.html



7 Fbruary 2003 - musical?

London West End is living a 80s revival. As rumours go, a musical based on Wham! will be made next.
George and Andrew are said not to be involved.

source: http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12241865,00.html



6 Februari 2003 - devotion

British band Black Box Recorder has put a new song of praise to Andrew Ridgeley on its forthcoming, new album - Passionoia. In the song, female singer Sarah Nixey sings about her crush on Andrew.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/story/0,11712,886701,00.html

January news
news index