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for 20% off your first system. You're

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listening to the Witness History podcast

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from the BBC World Service with

1:30

me, Vicky Farncombe. I'm

1:32

taking you back nearly 40 years to

1:35

when the British band, WAM, became

1:37

the first Western pop act to

1:39

perform in China. It's

1:47

April 1985 and WAM are

1:49

on stage at the People's

1:51

Gymnasium in Beijing in China.

1:54

Lead Singer George Michael is centre stage

1:56

in a black suit with a royal

1:58

blue cummer band. Behind

2:00

him is Andrew the Snake swimming

2:02

his guitar and wearing a red

2:04

taught in suit. But. Something's

2:06

not right. George. She was never

2:08

nervous, ever ever had he went on stage.

2:10

they got stage fright. the ban says he

2:13

and seventy of his mouth to sing the

2:15

first line and nothing came out to. Simon

2:17

know p a bow Lambs manager

2:19

is what's in nervously from the

2:21

Vip bucks. Answer: he darts or episodes

2:23

again clapping and tried again. it still didn't

2:25

come out another third time around to sign

2:27

up for it to Madison from. Sign

2:30

the Ems are looking for the voice calls.

2:39

The know, understandable, Of.

2:42

This is an audience that Murtha.

2:45

Mom as a source to

2:47

Boston Pops also supplied Communist

2:49

China. They. Didn't know what you

2:51

have to do that when George kept

2:53

on the offbeat to try to get

2:55

into clap Along that's what he wanted.

2:57

applause so they don't very polite except

2:59

for that saw seconds so. How. Did

3:01

seen some space thing as some London.

3:04

Know that exuberant and two

3:06

teams on skimpy lot so

3:08

it's under performing and with

3:10

the wells, most sixes and

3:12

secretive countries. Just. Soft we

3:14

started managing them. my partner just summers and

3:16

I had dinner with some of the Bombay

3:19

Breasts are in London for a sign and

3:21

in restaurants And the very first don't think

3:23

you're Citrus's We want to be the biggest

3:25

group in the world you've got One year.

3:29

And I just burst out laughing. Isis: Completely impossible.

3:31

No one's ever been a big griffin and will

3:33

do on here because you have to do to

3:35

get stupid American to sixty percent of the world

3:37

markets. and that takes four or five years and

3:40

even the Beatles to five years since you can't

3:42

do it. And he said, well,

3:44

you've got one Yeah, that's what we want to like. I

3:46

quite like that is the arrogance of use. A

3:49

C Buses line as fast as

3:51

a math class idea. Perhaps.

3:53

we make you the first to have to find

3:55

common this china and you'd be on the news

3:57

and tv in front pages everywhere in the world

4:00

George said, yeah I like that, fix it. And

4:04

then the next day

4:06

I was saying how do I get into

4:08

China? In 1985 China is slowly

4:10

opening up to the West after

4:13

the death of Chairman Mao

4:15

Zedong ends decades of cultural

4:17

isolation. But getting in is still not

4:19

easy. Simon wastes no time.

4:21

He flies to Hong Kong where a

4:24

business friend helps him cross the border.

4:26

Well I was in China without permission, without

4:28

a word of Chinese, without even any, I

4:30

was so unprepared I hadn't even got any

4:33

Chinese money I was so stupid. He

4:35

calls the British Embassy and asks for a

4:37

phone book of all the Chinese ministers. And

4:39

so I sat down and I started phoning one

4:41

ministry after another. I did this

4:43

for two days and I was

4:46

so bored and so miserable at this horrible hotel

4:48

that I left and came back to England. And

4:50

I went back a month later and as I walked

4:52

into the holiday into the reception they said you got

4:54

a message and it was my

4:56

first taker and it

4:59

was the Minister of Energy. So

5:01

begins months of negotiations and

5:04

many many lunches. So

5:06

I came back next month there were three ministers

5:08

and the month after there were six and by

5:11

the 13th month you know I was entertaining

5:13

15 or 16 ministers and

5:15

their translators. They were greedy, I

5:17

mean they ate a lot. And I never said what I

5:19

was there for. When I was a

5:21

kid I learnt door-to-door selling and the

5:23

secret of selling a lot was not to say what you were

5:25

selling or to ask people if they wanted to buy it. You

5:27

just sort of made friends with them and

5:30

then eventually they didn't know how to get

5:32

out of it. And so I talked about

5:34

exchanging music and it'd be great in exergy

5:36

youth culture. And then maybe

5:38

on the second or third lunch I said you know

5:40

by the way you know I'm involved in a

5:42

band myself. I manage a band in England but no

5:44

more than that you know. And then

5:46

the time after I said you know if one day

5:48

there was an exergy youth culture it would be lovely if it

5:50

was my band. And then after the

5:52

lunch one of the ministers said I

5:55

want you to come with me to my office. So

5:57

he took me to his office and he had a red phone

5:59

on. this desk. The red phone goes right

6:01

to the top. So he picked

6:04

up the phone and spoke in Chinese and then turned

6:06

to me and said, yes you're invited to China. In

6:09

April 1985 the WAM entourage

6:11

arrived in China for a 10-day

6:13

tour. Their packed schedule includes concerts

6:16

in Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong,

6:18

a hike up the Great Wall

6:20

of China, a football match and

6:23

umpteen benefits and press conferences. I think

6:25

they see us as fairly safe. This

6:28

is George Michael talking to CBS News

6:30

from China. The videos which and

6:32

the records which after all they know

6:34

about us haven't shown any kind of

6:37

real rock and roll sex and drugs

6:39

angle I suppose. So you're saying

6:41

because of your quaint, hurt, wholesome image?

6:43

Yeah, on stage anyway. This afternoon

6:46

12,000 Chinese fans packed

6:48

the workers stadium in Teking though

6:50

they had a problem saying the name. The

6:52

nearest they get is Wei Mu, which means

6:55

brave and audacious. Tickets for

6:57

this one Teking concert were not easy

6:59

to come by. Police were on hand

7:01

in case of trouble and just as

7:03

youngsters queued all night, suitably elated when

7:05

they got the ticket and the free

7:07

WAM defense that went with them. I

7:10

mean not one young person had ever heard of Wei Mu

7:12

or you who they were and I thought it's going to

7:14

be disaster because when we get to the concert there's going

7:16

to be press and journalists from all over the world and

7:19

they'll see at once that nobody in the audience knows

7:21

a single word of any song. So

7:24

I decided we'd make a record of

7:26

all WAM songs sung in

7:28

Mandarin Chinese. On one side

7:30

was the Chinese version, on the other side

7:32

was the WAM version. Back

7:35

then China was just going

7:38

through reforms. We had just

7:40

opened to the outside world. This

7:42

is Chinese singer Changfang Wan speaking

7:44

to the BBC years after the

7:46

concert. It's her voice on

7:48

the cassette B side. It was a

7:51

very memorable night, a whole

7:53

new experience for us and I

7:55

remember everyone was a little stunned. and

8:00

join the crowd and people were like wow

8:02

why is he here? Oh

8:04

this is my big mistake. We had this lovely

8:06

opening at which we'd chosen as a beautiful

8:10

breakdancer from North London and

8:12

I said after about 10 minutes on stage the second

8:14

10 minutes jump down and go around the audience. Trevor

8:17

the breakdancer gets the cloud a bit

8:19

too excited. They went absolutely berserk. It's

8:21

all on film. They were absolutely mad. This

8:24

is George talking to UK TV show

8:26

The Tube on Channel 4 in 1986. And

8:29

then what happened was in the period between

8:31

Trevor going off and when we went on

8:34

there was an announcement over the loudspeakers that

8:36

there would be no more dancing or clapping.

8:38

No one was allowed to get out of

8:40

their seats, they weren't allowed to participate. They

8:43

were told it was banned. The police were trying

8:45

to contain the crowd telling them not to

8:47

stand up. The Chinese audience were pretty well

8:50

behaved. It's not just to

8:52

sedate fans affecting George Michael's nerves. There

8:54

were 90 news crews from around

8:56

the world, 90 television crews. And they came

8:59

out and said they didn't look at an

9:01

audience which is what they're used to looking

9:03

at. They looked at the sternest critics which

9:05

are journalists, photographers and no buzz

9:07

coming back from them. So I

9:09

can see why they came out or a bit terrified. One

9:12

song changes everything. Wake

9:14

Me Up Before You Go Go finally on

9:16

that song by opening his arms wide,

9:19

like two yards wide and bringing them

9:21

together, they finally got the idea, oh

9:23

you're meant to clap on

9:25

the off-beat and they began to do it. Andrew

9:29

was playing guitar, George was constantly

9:31

walking across the stage interacting with

9:33

the audience, singing with them. The

9:37

speakers were so loud, boom, boom,

9:39

boom. Our Chinese concerts

9:41

were never that loud. My heart was jumping out

9:43

of my chest. The following

9:45

morning... They were on ABC,

9:47

NBC and CBS News in America

9:49

on television. 24-7,

9:52

every hour on the hour, the top thing

9:54

on the news for a week was WAM.

9:57

And by the end of that week, they were a household name.

9:59

Do you think it changed? to China in any way?

10:01

Yes, China was doing a lot of things to try

10:03

and bring in foreign investment. That was one of the

10:06

key things which made the world believe, yes, it's really

10:08

a new place and they're looking at doing things in

10:10

a new, modern way and integrating

10:12

with the world. Simon Napier

10:14

Bell still works in the music business.

10:17

He was speaking to me, Vicky Farncombe,

10:19

for that edition of the Witness History

10:21

Podcast from the BBC World Service. If

10:24

you've liked this podcast, please check

10:26

out our other programmes on China.

10:29

Just search for Witness History in

10:31

China. Thanks, bye-bye.