While they were in Los Angeles, Chris and Neil shot the video for “Suburbia” and invited me down to the filming in East LA. We covered the making of the video for Video One and the guys were surprised at just how many fans they had in the rough inner city.
In 1986 with the success of their first two albums the Pet Shop Boys were pushed to go on tour. I asked Chris and Neil in an interview about playing live and Chris said that they hadn’t done it yet because they were frightened that they’d end up being boring on stage. Neil was working on a theatrical production to back up their onstage show but it proved way too expensive and was shelved.
Krista and I with Neil and Chris on the Nightlife tour, 1999 act.
It wasn’t until 1989 that the Pet Shop Boys were able to stage the tour that they had dreamed of and it contained all of the immense, colorful elements that the two of them had conceived three years before. The tour earned them great reviews and made the Pet Shop Boys a must-see live
Every time Chris and Neil come to town I always get together with the two of them both for fun and for work at their concerts and on the radio. Often Krista and I will join them for lunch where they show up in their regular clothes then catch up with them backstage at night while they are in full costume. Whatever they are wearing or wherever you meet with them, they remain the nicest guys to hang out with.
Part Four – YOUNG GUNS
George Michael. That name conjures up so many different images to so many different people. I have many words that describe my thoughts of George; star, talent, voice, performer, writer, giver, friend, but the one that sticks in my mind the most is metamorphosis.
I first met George in late January 1983. I had been playing Wham!’s debut single “Wham Rap!” for several months on the radio and was now into their latest release “Young Guns.” Wham! were in LA hoping to promote their record and get some American success with it. So far, outside of KROQ, they hadn’t had much recognition. MTV didn’t know what to make of these white boys from England wearing leather jackets and trying to rap and Top 40 radio was having none of it. Rick Dees said famously “The day KIIS FM plays Wham! is the day we sign off the air.” So when George and Andrew sat across from me that morning they knew they were in the only friendly spot in town.
George was nineteen at the time and Andrew had just turned twenty, and as much as they wanted to be pop stars they were first and foremost two young guns having a paid working holiday in America.
Our on-air interview went great. A lot of listeners already knew the songs from hearing them on KROQ and seeing them on my new TV show, MV3, so they were excited to call in and talk with the two lads. George and Andrew joked with the callers and were absolutely at ease on the air. They had nowhere else to go and they sounded so good on the radio that I asked them to stay a little longer.
I went into a commercial set and the first ad that played (I made sure it was first) was for my gig that night at the 321 Club in Santa Monica. After it finished playing and the next spot ran I noticed George and Andrew whispering to each other.
“What’s up guys?” I asked.
George looked a little embarrassed when he asked, “We were just wondering how much it is to get into that club?”
I laughed, “For you?” They nodded.
“Don’t worry; if you want to come I’ll put you on the guest list.”
George smiled and then looked at Andrew doubtfully.
Andrew took a breath, “Could we get a couple more people in with us? We’re here with…”
I cut him off, “Pepsi and Shirlie?”
They grinned and I could see I had guessed correctly.
“That’s fine,” I said. “I see them in the videos all the time. It would be great to have them there. I’ll even take care of your drink tab.”
That night the four of them turned up in their best all-leather Wham! outfits. I set them up at the bar, which I know was wrong as they were all underage but my flawed logic justified it by saying that as they were from the UK and the drinking age there was eighteen it was OK, and I told them to come up to the DJ booth whenever they were ready to say hi to the crowd.
About thirty minutes later they all appeared and I faded down the music and chatted with them on the microphone. They talked to the kids in the club for about a minute then I put on the promo twelve-inch I had of “Young Guns.”
As it played, George flashed a glance at the other three, then leaned in to me, “Could we sing along to it?”
I thought that was a great idea so I stopped the vinyl and told the crowd what was happening. I grabbed an extra XLR cable so the mic was now able to reach the dance floor and the four of them readied to bust into their moves.
I restarted the song and right there in Santa Monica Wham! played their first ever US show to an audience of enraptured club-goers.
After the song finished I yelled to George – I had to yell, he had my microphone – “Want another?”
“Wham Rap?” he suggested.
With Wham! on MV3
I said yes and put the single on and the four kids from London showed the LA crowd just how it was done.
At the end of my DJ set I joined them at the bar.
“Did you have a good time?” I asked.
“Great,” answered George. club gigs coming up do you?”
“You don’t have any other
I did, and that next night Wham! performed their second American gig ever with me at Dillons in Westwood.
Wham! had one more day in Los Angeles and I brought them down to MV3. Sadly we weren’t set up for a live performance but instead we did a really fun ten-minute on-camera interview.
Before the four of them left they made a special point to say thank you to me for spending so much time with them when so few other media outlets were showing any interest. It was my pleasure and zero problem. After all I was already playing them on the radio and on TV so why wouldn’t I, and they had been so great with the listeners at the clubs. But George never forgot.
Ten months later Wham! was making it big and I was the one asking George for the favor.
MV3 had gone off the air and I was working on a new show that would shoot its pilot in Britain, MV Network. But CBS was demanding big names. I called George and asked him if he could find time in their jammed schedule to shoot with us in London and he didn’t think twice. His reply was quick and simple, “yes!”
Shooting with George and Andrew in London 1983
Wham! was rapidly becoming one of the biggest pop groups in the world but George continued his friendship. He was developing into a major star in his own right but he never forgot his roots. Even though he would be shooting shows and interviews for Dick Clark and for Friday Night Videos he always found time to do my radio show and then sit down for a TV interview.
Wham! November 1984 with the release of Make It Big
In early April 1985 I received a call at home from George. He had just been told that Wham! was up for best New Video Artist at the American Video Awards that were being televised live from Los Angeles. He knew this would be huge for Wham! but that there was no way they could be there as they had just been invited to be the first western pop band to perform in the People’s Republic of China.
George wanted to know if I could do him a favor. Would I go on his behalf and if Wham! won to accept the award for them? Of course I said yes and on that night in April 1985 I was thrilled when Wham! won and I heard my name announced and I ran on stage to accept it from Grace Jones, Jack Wagner and Lorenzo Lamas on national TV.
Over the years I stayed in contact with George and we would meet often and not just for work. Despite being one of the biggest solo stars in the world he remained a huge music fan, and we hung out and watched Morrissey at the Fabulous Forum on June 2, 1991, the same venue that George himself had headlined and sold out three nights at with his Faith tour less than three years before in October, 1988.
Accepting for Wham! at the American Video Awards 1985
So my word for George, me
tamorphosis, comes from watching him transform from being that nervous, fun-loving kid, to becoming one of the biggest, most exciting performers on the planet. He truly was a miracle of nature, that little caterpillar who emerges from his cocoon to evolve into a beautiful butterfly. His voice, his talent and his songs helped change pop music but inside he remained the same; a loyal and honest friend.
POLICY OF TRUTH
On the subject of friends, there are two that I cannot avoid mentioning. Neither knew each other but they did have one deadly connection.
One of the prime rules of journalism is that a journalist shouldn’t interfere with the story. The reason being that any interaction they have with the subject will change the outcome and therefore bias the reporting. I’ve never understood that. Why not try and change things for the better if you can? Have you ever watched the reports coming in of starving chil-dren in Africa and screamed at the TV, “Just give them some food!”? But instead the camera moves on leaving the child to its hunger and misery.
I’m not a journalist. I’m a DJ. I’m allowed to interfere if it makes a difference. I didn’t once, and a friend died. After that I vowed, “never again.” And when, in August 1995, I was given a second chance to make a difference, I did so even though my job was threatened and lawyers were woken out of their beds at 6am to shut me down. This time I refused to remain simply a passive observer. The life of a good friend and the fate of the biggest electronic band in history hinged on what was I was about to do early that Thursday morning.
There were, of course, many times when all I could do was report the story. I was on the air when John Lennon was brutally murdered outside his New York cooperative on Dec 8, 1980. I was a DJ at the hard rock station Magic 98 in Bakersfield and it didn’t take me a second to pull off the Zep track that was playing and cut in to break the tragic news. For the rest of the night the station paid tribute with all Beatles and Lennon cuts interspersed by sobbing calls from distraught listeners.
Other tragedies would fall upon me to bring to my audience. Less than four months later I broke the news about President Reagan being shot by a crazed, Jodie Foster-obsessed assassin. Then on January 28, 1986 it was my somber duty to inform Southern California that the Challenger had exploded less than a minute after liftoff. I had few words to describe that moment. I left it to David Bowie to speak for me. I played three songs back to back from that icon that seemed to fit the moment, “Space Oddity,” “Ashes to Ashes” and “Heroes.”
My personal involvement in public tragedies began innocently enough with the first TV show I hosted, MV3. I got to know a lot of the acts that appeared on the show. Many became close friends.
One of those was Jeffrey Spry, the lead singer of the California band, Felony. Jeffrey, along with his brother, Joe, had been trying to make it in the music world for years. I had never met anyone who wanted to be a rock star more than Jeffrey. He loved the attention and the spotlight. If Freddie Mercury and Adam Ant had had a child together, that offspring would have looked like Jeffrey.
He played on the good looks and camp feel he possessed and accentuated them with his spandex pants, flowing shirts and leopard print jackets. Those clothes, coupled with his long hair and high cheekbones made him every kid’s idea of what a rock star should look like. In fact, I’m sure that’s how his finished look came about. He probably stared in the mirror and asked himself that exact question, “What should a rock star look like?” And out popped the fully-formed Jeffrey Spry, lead singer of Felony.
When I asked Jeffrey to appear on MV3 it was as though he had won the lottery. He was in studio at KROQ guesting on the morning show with Ramondo and me. The radio station was already playing Felony’s first single, “The Fanatic,” and Jeffrey could always be counted upon to show up at a station event to perform. Bikini contest – Felony was there! In-store appearance – what time does it start? Club gig – when should I go on? And to be completely honest, we loved having Jeffrey, Joe and the band at our radio shows. They were great with our listeners and would sign autographs all day long. But a shot on TV – that was another story!
Ramondo and I were hyping a clothing store appearance we would be making together that weekend and sure enough Jeffrey volunteered to come down to Seal Beach with us and say hi to the fans. As we played his single on the air I mentioned to him off mic that I had just signed to do a TV show that was starting in January. We were going to be on broadcast television in LA, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, St Louis and more than thirty other cities. Jeffrey literally hugged me and said two words, “I’m there!” For the rest of the radio interview that morning Jeffrey was distracted. His mind was already on his television performance and the lights, camera, action! that awaited him.
Three weeks later Jeffrey, Joe and the rest of the band arrived early at the Burbank soundstage for their performance on MV3. I was wearing a cutoff Felony t-shirt in their honor, an outfit that I liked so much that I wore it at a multitude of gigs thereafter and in fact it appeared in a number of publicity shots and newspaper articles over the next year. And every time that shirt would appear in a ‘Richard Blade’ interview, Jeffrey would call me the next day to give me a big thank you.
Felony rocked MV3. They came to play and did just that. There was a live audience of more than a hundred teenage dancers who jammed up against the stage as the band tore into “The Fanatic.” They sang along with Jeffrey and knew all the words because of the song’s popularity on KROQ. On the chorus which featured the line “chasing limousines” they almost drowned out the lead vocal. Felony was a hit.
The massive TV lights were roasting Jeffrey who was dressed in a head-to-toe leather outfit, scarf and white high-heeled boots, but he didn’t want to slow down or blow the moment. They willingly reshot “The Fanatic” a second time to give us extra camera angles to edit from and then performed their next single “What a Way to Go.” Even an hour into the shoot Jeffrey still kept the energy up and worked the crowd, shaking hands with his fans and chatting with the girls between takes. Backstage, after we wrapped, Jeffrey came into my dressing room and cried, “This is the best day of my life.” And that was no show business B.S., he meant it.
At a club gig with Jeffrey Spry of Felony
That performance on MV3 led to a lot of good things for Felony including a tour and an appearance on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. “The Fanatic” also ended up on the Valley Girl soundtrack. Jeffrey LOVED it all. He worked the success as much as he could and for the next year he probably came to at least half of my live appearances. Every time he brought with him a big smile and a new story ‘from the road’.
We started playing a couple more songs from Felony on KROQ over the next eighteen months including “Vigilante” and then “Gladiator School” but neither took off. Jeffrey stopped coming to my gigs as much and then dropped off the radar completely. Apparently this rapid fall from grace was taking a toll on both Jeffrey and the band, and behind the scenes even the relationship with his brother was becoming strained.
I would only hear from Jeffrey a couple of times a year over the next decade. He’d always make a point to phone me on my birthday, and occasionally there would be the late night call saying he was working on new music and that it was going to be bigger than “The Fanatic.” I’d tell him to get me a copy when it was ready and would wish him well. I didn’t realize that one day he would do just that and the repercussions it would have.
March 1992. MV3 was becoming a distant memory as we moved into this grunge-powered decade. I was keeping the ’80s alive on KROQ with Richard Blade’s Flashback Lunch but many of the acts that had seemed so important back in the day were rapidly being forgotten by today’s radio audience who were being fed a constant diet of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. The ’80’s revival had not yet started and groups from A Flock of Seagulls through to Spandau Ballet called it a day. It was into this hostile environment that Jeffrey reappeared.
I was finishing my show when Margie, who was working the
front desk, called back to the studio and said I had someone waiting upfront to see me. I remember it vividly. I was getting ready to phone my mum in England to talk with her before it got too late – the time difference of eight hours often made it hard – and she was going through a tough time back in the UK; my Dad’s birthday was rapidly approaching and it would soon be the ten-year anniversary of when he had passed away so unexpectedly. I was making sure to speak to her every day that week, to let her know she wasn’t truly alone. I delayed the call to find out who was waiting for me and because of that I missed talking to her.
I went out to our station lobby and instantly recognized who was waiting for me there – Jeffrey Spry! I hadn’t seen him in more than seven years but he looked exactly the same. He was even wearing the leather outfit that he’d worn on MV3, complete with the scarf and boots. I almost wanted to search the office for the time machine he’d arrived in.
“Great to see you, Richard. I drove all the way from Vegas to give you this. I’ve got new music.” He proudly held up a cassette.
I knew what the next words would be before they tumbled out of his mouth. “It’s better than ‘The Fanatic.’”
I smiled and led him back to one of our production rooms to listen to it. The next three minutes were some of the most uncomfortable of my life.
Jeffrey’s new song was bad. I mean to the point it was almost unlistenable. Nothing about it worked. Not the lyrics, the music and least of all, the vocals. When the cassette finished and the torture ended, the inevitable question was asked, “What do you think?”
I’ve been in that uncomfortable situation many times, when an artist asks you for your opinion of their work. Prior to this, the one that stuck in my mind the most was when I was with Movietime and battled with fellow host Greg Kinnear for the honor of being flown down to the Florida Keys to cover the world premiere of the latest 007 movie, Licence To Kill.
World in My Eyes: The Autobiography Page 42