Young Guns in China

George and Andrew won hearts and minds in 1985 as first pop band to visit

- BY MARC BAKER

The year was 1985. China was starting to open up to the rest of the world politically and economically, but culturally it remained largely cut off from the West.

Enter George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley... and Wham! Just like that, everything changed.

Now, in a new documentary charting how the boys became the first Western pop group to play in China, the music mogul who made it happen tells how Communist ministers thought he was buying coal when he first started negotiating the tour.

Simon Napier-Bell, who managed Wham! from 1983 to 1985, says: “I started looking after Wham! after seeing them on Top of the Pops singing Young Guns in September 1982. They didn't have a record deal and didn't have a proper manager. Their lawyer was looking after them.

“We went to dinner at the Bombay Brasserie in London. I said, ‘Right, let’s discuss what we're going to do’ To which George replied, ‘We want to be the number one group in a year!’ I just burst out laughing... George said, ‘Well, you've got one year’.

“My business partner Jazz Summers jumped in saying, ‘Maybe we could make you the first Western pop group to play in China. That would get on the news all over the world and would rush things a bit!’