Wham star's past Christmasses in Barnet
HIGHGATE resident George Michael will be hopeful his Christmas single December Song tops the chart today, but as well as eying his future career, the singer will also spend Christmas recalling his childhood in Barnet. Music legend George, who lives in Hi
HIGHGATE resident George Michael will be hopeful his Christmas single December Song tops the chart today, but as well as eying his future career, the singer will also spend Christmas recalling his childhood in Barnet.
Music legend George, who lives in Highgate, will be joined by family this Christmas. But he says he won't be replaying the kitsch scenes from his major festive hit Last Christmas.
"It almost makes me cringe now," he said. "In those days I wanted to have long, blond, straight hair because I didn't really want to be me," he said. "Looking back I suppose I could have done without those curtain rings in my ears as well. But then again, Andrew and I were just young guys having fun and that's an age when you're still experimenting with your image, so of course mistakes were made."
The new hit samples Frank Sinatra's 'Christmas Waltz' - and there's a good reason why.
"It's Frank Sinatra who evokes Christmas for me," he said. "I think it's because, every year, during the festive school holidays, I used to work behind the bar of my dad's restaurant in Edgware and he'd always play Sinatra records during December for the customers. So that association is very strong for me.
"I wanted to capture, in a very authentic way, that feeling of warmth, tinged with a slight melancholy that I used to feel at that time of the year.
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"When I was growing up I remember my parents as being constantly stressed and always very busy, but at Christmas everyone would calm down and be nice to each other for a few days, and that used to make me feel very safe. I didn't feel particularly secure as a child, which I think came from my parents being so busy and distracted."
According to the weather forecasts, this year the star looks set to have his ideal Christmas.
"Why doesn't it snow at the right time any more, like it did in the 60s?" he said. "If it could snow on Christmas Eve or something that would be perfect.
