Club Fantastic Tour (also advertised as Club Fantastic ‘83 Tour) was the debut

concert tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...

by English musical duo

Wham! Wham! (briefly known in the US as Wham! U.K.) were an English pop duo formed in Bushey in 1981. The duo consisted of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. They became one of the most commercially successful pop acts of the 1980s, selling more ...

, launched in support of their first studio album ''

Fantastic The fantastic (french: le fantastique) is a subgenre of literary works characterized by the ambiguous presentation of seemingly supernatural forces. Bulgarian-French structuralist literary critic Tzvetan Todorov originated the concept, characte ...

'' (1983). It was sponsored by Fila sportswear and spanned two months from October to late November, comprising 30 sold out shows across England, Scotland and Wales.

Background

Wham! announced a tour in August. Their co-manager

Simon Napier-Bell Simon Robert Napier-Bell (born 22 April 1939) is an English record producer, music manager, author and journalist. At different times, he has managed artists as diverse as the Yardbirds, John's Children, Marc Bolan, Japan, London, Ultravox, B ...

had a plan to raise some revenue; if little money was to be made from records, then it was time for the duo to begin performing with a 30-date tour of the UK. Napier-Bell secured a £50,000 sponsorship deal with the

sportswear Sportswear or activewear is clothing, including footwear, worn for sport or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons. Typical sport-specific garments ...

manufacturer Fila, with

George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV Generation, MTV generation and is one of the List ...

and

Andrew Ridgeley Andrew John Ridgeley (born 26 January 1963) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer, best known for his work in the 1980s in the musical duo Wham!. Early life Ridgeley was born in Windlesham, Surrey, England, to pare ...

wearing the company's clothing on stage throughout the tour. Halfway through the tour Michael lost his voice and had to cancel ten consecutive shows with concerts pushed back and rescheduled.

Concert synopsis

The show started with Michael entering the stage right-side in yellow Fila sports gear, and Ridgeley entering the stage left-side in red Fila sports gear while the band played "Bad Boys". Pepsi and Shirlie, backing singers and dancers, ran on stage for "Club Tropicana". Ridgeley then announced the next song, "

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

", a slow love

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

. He held a plectrum in his mouth and shook hands. They then sang " Wham Rap!", dancing as a foursome. They continued with "A Ray Of Sunshine", which ended the first part of the set. During the break a screen appeared and the crowd were shown family photos such as Ridgeley in pyjamas, and a young Michael in glasses. A mixed compilation of the group's

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devi ...

s was played. Then Michael sang "Careless Whisper" to a

backing track A backing track is an audio recording on audiotape, CD or a digital recording medium or a MIDI recording of synthesized instruments, sometimes of purely rhythmic accompaniment, often of a rhythm section or other accompaniment parts that live musi ...

on his own. He and Ridgeley changed into white Wham! singlet T-shirts and sang "Bad Boys". "Love Machine" followed, then "Nothing Looks The Same In The Light". "Come On" ended the set, with the two playing a mock game of

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

, occasionally whacking a

shuttlecock A shuttlecock (also called a birdie or shuttle) is a high-drag projectile used in the sport of badminton. It has an open conical shape formed by feathers or plastic (or a synthetic alternative) embedded into a rounded cork (or rubber) base. T ...

out to the crowd. The encore was "Young Guns" with the duo wearing camp cowboy outfits, "Wham Rap!" with them wearing white, and finally Chic's 1979 disco hit "Good Times".

Opening acts

The group decided to go back to their clubbing roots and had Gary Crowley (of

Capital Radio Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. ...

) as the opening DJ act. Also included were some body poppers called Eklypse who did dance routines for over an hour before the show.

Set list

The first set saw the band play most of the hits from the ''Fantastic'' album before George Michael was on stage alone singing tracks like "Careless Whisper", an unreleased track. The average set list was as follows: #"

Young Guns (Go for It) "Young Guns (Go for It)" (also listed as "Young Guns (Go for It!)" on some releases) is a song by English pop duo Wham! first released as a single in the UK by Innervision Records in October 1982. It was written and co-produced by George Michae ...

" #"

Club Tropicana "Club Tropicana" is a song by English pop duo Wham!, released in 1983 on Innervision Records. It was written by members George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. History "Club Tropicana" was written in 1981 in Ridgeley's living room, before the ba ...

" #"Blue" #" Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" #"A Ray of Sunshine" Break #"

Careless Whisper "Careless Whisper" is a song written by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. Released on the 1984 Wham! album ''Make It Big'', the single release was credited either to ''Wham! featuring George Michael'' (in North America and several other count ...

" #" Bad Boys" #" Love Machine" (The Miracles cover) #"Nothing Looks the Same in the Light" #"Come On!" #"Young Guns (Go for It!)" #"Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" #"

Good Times ''Good Times'' is an American television sitcom that aired for six seasons on CBS, from February 8, 1974, to August 1, 1979. Created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans and developed by executive producer Norman Lear, it was television's first Afric ...

Tour dates

Tour dates as printed in the official Club Fantastic 1983 tour programme.

Personnel

* Shirlie Holliman * Pepsi DeMacque Musicians * Tommy Eyre — keyboards * Deon Estus — bass guitar *Trevor Morrell — drums *Robert Ahwaii — guitar *David "Babs" Baptiste — saxophone *Paul Spong — trumpet *Colin Graham — trumpet *Janey Hallet — backing vocals *Gee — backing vocals *Jenny — backing vocals *Danny Cummings — percussion *Mike Brady — recorder *Barry Mead — tour manager *Ken — production manager *Glenn — Guitar Tech *Wendy — Assistant Tour Manager *Lesley Morrall — wardrobe *Mel — hair & makeup *Promoter — Harvey Goldsmith Entertainments *Management — '

Simon Napier Bell Simon Robert Napier-Bell (born 22 April 1939) is an English record producer, music manager, author and journalist. At different times, he has managed artists as diverse as the Yardbirds, John's Children, Marc Bolan, Japan, London, Ultravox, B ...

& Jazz Summers *Personal security — Dave Moulder * Concert Publishing Co. — programme & merchandising Sponsor * FILA — sportswear

Comments

Gary Crowley stated "Some of my bestest bestest memories will always include my stint as Wham!'s warm-up man on their debut Club Fantastic UK tour, 1983. The nearest I’ll ever get to being in the Beatles’ A Hard Day's Night." – 26 December 2016

References

{{Wham! George Michael concert tours 1983 concert tours