Andrew Ridgeley shared with NME that Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks was not let into Wham! ‘s Hollywood Park concert in 1985 by the band’s security. Ridgeley told the story of how he tried to calm the furious rocker down by explaining:
“Our tour manager said: ‘You’ve got to get down here because Stevie Nicks has been refused entry by the security.’ The security were young kids who didn’t know who she was, and she was bloody furious – rightly so! I wasn’t able to calm her down completely because it wasn’t long before we were due onstage, so I could only spend a few minutes trying to placate her ire.”
On the one hand, Andrew had just met his idol; on the other, he tried to defuse the situation before going up on stage; he continued:
“But it’s great to meet one’s idols – although not when they’re in such a bad mood. She was spitting feathers, and it wasn’t what I needed before going onstage.”
Wham! had the chance to do US stadium shows and have their Hollywood Park concert with the infamous run-in their security had with Stevie. However, the shows almost didn’t happen, as Andrew explained in his autobiography ‘Wham! George and Me,’ where he wrote:
“American concert promoters weren’t easily convinced to book stadiums for a band with no stateside touring pedigree, regardless of our global success. In order to achieve this aim, our US agent played a clever game. They identified the areas where our record sales had been highest and invited ticket applications for shows to demonstrate that we would easily fill such enormous venues.”
You can read Andrew Ridgeley’s interview with NME here.
