Andrew Ridgeley

“We were both dabbling with music but no, I persuaded George, railroaded him really into forming a band. I think we both had the belief that we would make it. That was the central pillar around everything else.”

“We were in a little bubble to a degree, but you'd never really know what was going on elsewhere, you'd done a tour in the States and then you wouldn't really know what the reaction was out of the shows because it wasn't immediate on Instagram and Twitter. It wasn't perhaps as broad as it is these days, it was fab though.”

“Certainly that's what I like in a lot of the music that I listen to, kind of a sexual energy. Guitars and rock get it across best for me.”

“To actually pursue our ambition to its zenith, we should have made another album, because in the States we'd only had one successful album. In a sense, Wham! failed in its ultimate goal, even though it got 75 or 95 percent of the way there.”

“I could see no other way of doing something with my life apart from music.”

“Give yourself a healthy bit of distance between your fame and reality because they are two different things.”

“I had posted a note on my bedroom door for my mum to 'wake me up-up before you go-go' - and that gave George the idea for the song.”

“The great thing about dancing is it's a way to get close to a beautiful woman you have never met.”

“Nothing had prepared me for the depth of pain George's death precipitated.”

“George is very, very single-minded in his approach. And I think a lot of the things that he has said and done have been misconstrued as arrogant rather than the single-mindedness they really are.”

“Our demo tape we got signed on was composed of three songs, 'Wham Rap,' half of 'Club Tropicana' and a verse and the chorus of 'Careless Whisper' and we thought that was good enough.”

“George was a late arrival at school and he was sort of put in my charge, and one of the immediate similarities was that we both enjoyed music - specifically Elton John.”

“We made a decision very early on that George would be the main songwriter because it was very apparent to all of us that he was better at it.”

“It goes without saying that when it came to musical talent, George was in a completely different league to me - as he was to most people!”

“My parents actively tried to discourage me from going into music - especially Dad, because of the troubled times he had in his youth.”

“It's 33 years since we drew Wham! to a close and a lot of people's perspectives have changed and a lot of the rough edges have been knocked off.”

“George had performed musical alchemy, distilling the essence of Christmas into music. Adding a lyric which told the tale of betrayed love was a masterstroke and, as he did so often, he touched hearts.”

“On Christmas Day 2016, the greatest singer songwriter of his generation, an icon of his era, George Michael, was lost. A supernova in the shining stars had been extinguished and it felt like the sky had fallen in.”

“I'd rather be called lightweight than serious any day.”

“I achieved my ambition early in life.”