- Place – Wembley/Edgware
- Time – 1979/80
- Artist – Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou – Singer & Songwriter/Record Producer
Georgios Panayiotou
Was an English singer, songwriter and record producer. Known as a leading creative force in music production, songwriting, vocal performance.
My Good Fortune
Whilst working at De Lane Lea/CTS in Wembley I had the very good fortune of having an account at a local restaurant, “The Angus Pride Steak House” all paid for by the studio. I would visit there at least twice a week.
It was here I would wine and dine my clients to entice them into choosing the studio again for any future work.
In the early part of the week I would book a table for my wife Susan and me and invent fictional clients to satisfy the accounts department at the studio.
Every Friday night however, I would book a table for up to six people and take my favourite clients to enjoy an evening of extravagance. When the occasion demanded I would book several tables for special events like an artist’s birthday party.
This made me very popular with Jack, the owner of the steak house, and of course the clients that dined there.
Like all great restaurant owners, Jack made the atmosphere in the restaurant incredible. He had a fantastic way of making every one of his customers feel very special.
Over time we became so friendly with Jack and his wife Lesley that on most nights, after the last customers had left, we stayed behind drinking well into the early hours of the morning.
My Son Wants to Get In to the Music Business
Almost everyone I knew had a relation or a good friend who wanted to be in the music industry and Jack was no exception.
He asked me if there was anyway I could help his son Georgios, who sung and wrote songs and desperately wanted to break into the music business.
Having met his son several times, his image wasn’t one of star quality.
Georgios was a rather over weight, shy and spotty youth who helped serve at the tables, he was often referred to by some, rather unkindly, as Fat Georgie the Greek. It was a different time but I always felt this to be a little cruel.
Anyway, with a due sense of dread, I asked Jack if he could get a cassette for me to listen too.
After listening to the material and taking into account that they were basic demos, I felt the songs and vocals were nothing special.
I did explain to Jack that this was just my opinion and that each week in the top twenty record charts there were several artists and songs that I had no idea who could have signed them and why.
As a favour to Jack, I did several copies of the cassettes and said I would give them to various A&R friends I had.
From then on, towards the end of our Friday night, early Saturday morning binges, Jack would always play us one or two new demos that his son had just completed.
A Rae of Sunshine
One of my guests whom had also become a very close friend was Sonnie Rae, a record plugger for the very successful label Stiff Records.
Sonnie had the nickname “Sunshine” because of her bubbly, positive character. She was, at the time, the number one radio plugger in the country.
I asked her if she would play her boss, Dave Robinson the owner of the company, a copy of Georgios’s tape.
Sonnie kindly did so and Dave Robinson apparently said,
“Even with the lights down low and the volume up high, no cigar.”
I received several passes from various companies, but I never told Jack any of the flippant remarks regarding the refusals, which were common place from A&R people in those days.
I did tell him to explain to his son that he should never give up, keep persevering and remember the Beatles were turned down by almost everybody. There are so many record companies and you only need one to get excited about the material.
Maybe You Too
I’ve never known any artists that submitted their material to a record company and was signed with their first approach. Sending product in by post would usually result in never being listened to at all.
Going It Alone
Eventually, having worked a Stiff for some time, Sonnie decided to go freelance.
Even with so many hits under her belt, she was very nervous about not having the safety net of a guaranteed wage from a successful record label.
Nevertheless she started The Sunshine Record Plugging Company.
I went to see her at the newly acquired office just off Ladbroke Grove, where she played me one of the first single she had been employed to promote.
It was called Young Guns Go For It, by a new band called Wham!
On first hearing it sounded OK but nothing too special, but she was so enthusiastic and was convinced that it was going to be a big hit, I encouraged her enthusiasm.
Georgios Finally Signs a Deal
The following Friday, Sue and I were at Jack’s when he excitedly told me that his son Georgios had managed to get a recording deal and was just about to release his first single entitled Young Guns Go For It.
Jack went on to tell us Georgios had now changed his name to George Micheal and the name of the band was Wham!
I was stunned, but not as much as Sonnie when I told her that one of the members of the band was none other than Georgios the waiter.
Georgios, now George had obviously been working with the top stylist money could buy.
He had lost a huge amount of weight as well as having some wonderful dental work done.
He was a world away from the restaurant waiter with the unkind nickname.
George Micheal had been created.
After the band had a couple of hits, I spent several hours with Jack one evening, explaining the tricks and scams that record companies can use to camouflage royalty accounting. Jack went to get a pen and paper and wrote down everything.
It could have been coincidence but a few months later Wham! Changed record companies.
The rest, as they say, is history. George Micheal went on to sell over 120 million records worldwide.
Going Solo
I clearly remember one night after the restaurant had closed, Sue and I were sitting at the bar with Jack when he told us that George wanted to go solo and asked us not to say anything to anyone.
He then played us Careless Whisper. I had never been a fan of Wham! and could never see George other than the chubby waiter.
Hearing the song for the first time after a few drinks and with it being very late, it sounded like I was having a long ride in a lift.
Whispers On the Radio
I think it was some eighteen months later I was working in Austin Texas.
Whilst listening to the radio in the car, I heard the number one record in the USA was Careless Whisper, it was the first time I realised the song now sounded like a classic and the waiter was a star.
When I heard and saw the video of Faith, I thought this was one of the best pop songs and videos I had ever seen.
Nothing succeeds like success.
I would say, that I am pleased that no-one I gave the tape to, decided to sign George.
It’s possible without the vision of Simon Napier–Bell, (The manager and architect of Wham!) George may have returned to serving at tables for the rest of his life.
Thanks, But I’ll Make My Own Coffee
In the late eighties George and his cousin booked into my studio in Chiswick West London, to work on a track with the band known as Boogie Box High.
Ben Matthews, is an excellent recording engineer and often worked at the studio when not working with his successful Rock band Thunder fortunately for me, he was available to record the Boogie Box High sessions.
I decided to keep away, whilst they were there as I don’t think I could have resisted asking George to fetch me a cup of coffee.
Georgios Finally Chose to Leave George
The last few photographs I saw of George were very sad. It seemed to me that before he’s untimely death he had reunited with Georgios Panayiotou, deciding to leave the creation of George Micheal to history.
There ain’t no rule in rock n roll.
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