Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S15 Ep 22: Andrew Ridgeley

Episode Date: July 19, 2023

It was an absolute joy to cook elevenses for the one and only Andrew Ridgeley last week. Never before has a guest been more thorough and specific when we asked about their last supper. Arriving by bus, he told us all about the wonderful Wham! documentary, about his time in the band, his perfectionism when cooking, his epic 10-day bike ride across the UK and we discovered that not only are Club Tropicana drinks free…. they were also made of coloured water. Wham! Bam! Thank you Andrew Ridgeley! The brand new Wham! doc is so touching and available to stream now on Netflix. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Moms. I'm Jessie Ware and I'm in charge of the meal today, Mum. How are you? Fine, darling. I'm actually doing quite good innings in this series. Yeah, you are. Particularly with breakfasts. Yeah, you're good at breakfast, darling. How are you, Mum? I'm okay. How are you?

I'm okay. I got back from Portofino. How was your luxury trip? I mean, you know, it was work, but with a bit of luxury. It was a bit of work and a lot of luxury. Yeah, it was luxurious, to be honest. And I ate very, very good food. I drank the greatest Negroni of my life. Unfortunately, I had to drink it before I had to do a gig that night,

so I couldn't have another one. But Paolo in Portofino, Sandido Mare, go and have paolo's negroni it will change your life so i'm on food duty today and inspired by my italian getaway i have decided to do well actually also inspired by somebody that you're probably knowing about now because i always look on his Instagram I only get recipes from Instagram now I've decided um good old Ed Smith rocket and squash on Instagram his Saturday eggs that he always offers he did one the other day I was in Italy at the same time I

thought well why not bring it back for a Tuesday podcast it was folded eggs with slow roasted tomatoes and parmesan so I've got isle of white tomatoes that I've shoved in all different colors put it in the low oven with some salt and olive oil and some oregano from the garden that's been going on whilst I've been taking kids to school folded eggs I think potentially could be awful but why are they called folded eggs they're not scrambled and they're not a omelette so it's folded like shit's crepe folded. Did you fold it like paper? Or did you just fold it?

I don't know if it's even going to be folded at all. Or just pushed around a bit. Anyway, then with some parmesan on top, bit of rocket on the side with some lemon juice, some sourdough bread, toast. You've brought some pastries from airs in nunhead which we love and we have andrew ridgely on one of the members of wham who have got the most charming can we give people a clue before they do that well they're gonna be just do

yeah um wham bam thank you andrew you probably know all their songs because I was playing them when I was pregnant with you. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. Yeah. Young Guns. Wham Rap. Club Tropicana. Drinks Are Free. Last Christmas.

Careless Whisper. Andrew Ridgely, who was a member of Wham! with George Michael, is coming over to talk about... That fantastic... Fantastic documentary that's on Netflix. It was very much done like the supersonic Oasis one, where there's no seated interviews face-on. It's taken from many different interviews from George Michael, of course, because he's no longer with us.

And then Andrew also speaking over it. So it's just really you're in it you feel like you're having a conversation with them and it's really action-packed also god bless Andrew Ridgely's mum who made scrapbooks um so there's so much amazing content in it memorabilia cuttings and all of it it was a real insight into the journey of which was actually quite short-lived. But did they live? Did they live? Four years of fun. And just a friendship that started at such a young age and carried on and was just so brilliant.

Andrew Ridgely, coming up on Table Nines. Welcome, Andrew Ridgely. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. We met. Both of you. We met in... We're all friends now. We met in... We're bosom buddies.

But it's funny, we met very early in the morning on Radio 2 and had loads of fun with Zoe Ball. Yeah, well she is great fun. She's just amazing. Brilliant broadcaster and so warm and funny. Massive Wham fan too, that helps. Does help. Loves the Shufflepops.

Who isn't? Actually, I feel like you're about to get a load more Wham fans from this documentary. I watched it, it's amazing. Thank you, yeah. I think that Chris Smith, the director,

really has come as close as anyone, I think, to sort of identifying what made Wham! slightly sort of unique in its attraction to people, which I think essentially was, you know,

people could see the fact that Yogg and I were extremely close and i think that has an attraction in itself so um yeah i i thought it was about friendship as much as music and loyalty and love for each other and promoting each other i mean i found it really wonderful yeah well i'm glad you you saw in those terms because i know that that's exactly what chris was trying to convey was the essence of what wam was all about and and that was that was it really you know wam kind of evolved was just a development of our friendship in so far as you know we'd had the school band and then we continued writing songs together because we we couldn't see any

other way we didn't have any more friends that played instruments, so they'd left the school band. And so it was, you know, it was just the songs were our comments on our experience, so Wham! Rap, Club Trop, Careless Whisper, which were the first three that we wrote. Oh, my God. How young were you when you wrote those? You were teenagers? Yeah, we were 18 when we wrote. My God. How young were you when you wrote those? You were teenagers?

Yeah, we were 18 when we wrote those. But that's just, I feel, I think what for me I got from the documentary, apart from the beautiful friendship and also realising that you're dead cool, Andrew. And you are like, I don't know. I thought you were dead cheeky. So cheeky.

But yeah, I just think that it was, it's amazing. I mean, the idea that you wrote those songs when you were, maybe the naivy but yeah i just think that it was it's amazing i mean i the idea that you wrote those songs when you were maybe the naivety was part of it as well that you didn't have people record execs in your ears and things like that there was just freedom yeah we did we we were fortunate in many ways we weren't a and r'd mark dean who signed us who who was a he was a a friend of mine, he was part of a social circle.

Mark Dean, if people haven't seen the documentary, signed you in a greasy spoon. Yeah, Mark Dean was an extremely good A&R man. And he'd signed, he'd had a hand, I think, in signing ABC and I think perhaps Soft Cell. He'd been at Phonogram or Polydor, can never never remember one of the p's and he lived down the road he'd been to the same college sixth form college as i was at and we had a mutual friend mark chivers who um they had a sort of post-punk band this was 78 79 called the quiffs in bushy and yeah and they were proper punk but they were a bit after the fact

so they they whilst they gigged around town and but they were a bit after the fact so whilst they gigged around town they never got a gig Peter Sullivan Angus Maclean they never had a drummer George actually famously drummed for them?

no he auditioned he auditioned but his image didn't really fit. He wasn't punky enough. Or his quiff wasn't big enough. He didn't. He had neither. He didn't have a quiff.

No, they didn't have quiffs. He had big hair. He had these great big curls at the time. He had big hair as well. You had a fabulous... There was a moment where you had a kind of mullet blowout. It was quite a look. I was trying to grow long hair.

This was about 84 and it was unsuccessful. It just went outwards. In a variety of ways. It went, that's like your brother. He can't grow it long. It just goes that way. Yeah, it did bush out a bit. It was a...

What was funny about that, one of the things many things uh that was funny about trying to grow long hair was it continued through our trip to china and then i realized that actually it wasn't successful it wasn't going to be a john taylor long mane and so i had it shorn off and when we got back to the UK after the trip to China, George decided we needed to re-record some of the stage footage. And I had to have a wig made. Oh my God, that's amazing. So in the video for Freedom, I am wearing a wig.

Wow, have you still got the wig? No, the wig was used for fancy dressing no longer exists your mum's scrapbooks puts any Jewish pushy mother to shame mum how many scrapbooks like 40?

51 I think they're just amazing you've just come here on the bus yes I didn't think a member of WAM was going to get the bus down to New Cross Garage, like bus garage. Dead easy. I like you even more. I like you even more.

The Wham! I'm like, you're cheeky, you're health conscious. You get the bus. I don't get the bus that much. Yeah, I get the bus all the time. I like, the number nine's my favourite. Where's it start and where's it end? Yeah, I get the bus all the time. The number nine's my favourite.

Where does it start and where does it end? Number nine goes from Fulham Broadway to... I think it goes to Aldwych. Yeah, I think that's where it ends up. But it was one of the first of the new Routemaster buses when you used to be able to get on the back as well. Which... For heaven's sake, you can't do't do anymore it used to be fun that when you jumped yeah it's great tom my stepson who was married at the weekend that we had between

the wedding and the reception we had a an open top bus tour in a in the old route master which has the little space for the ticket collector to stand it's a sort of cubby hole that you know the head height that you that you stand in with the unfortunately there's no ticket machine so so i couldn't know tell us a bit about you grew up and i was interested in your dad's egyptian well dad was part egyptian part egyptian yeah his mum was italian his dad was um I'm never quite sure whether they were Yemeni or or uh Egyptian of Yemeni extraction there were certainly I think they had as I understand it the family on my father's side uh on his father's side had come to Egypt from the Yemen um and they were they were Arab Jews and and my dad's mum was an Italian Jew.

How did you get that surname, Richly? Sounds so British. Yeah, well, he grew up in Alexandria and was sent to a British public school. And the family were expelled during the Suez Crisis at 24 hours notice. And they were given choices of where to be sent to, as it were. Some went to Israel, some went to France. And my dad, I think he was already in the...

He may have already been in the RAF at that time because being a British subject, I think he had to do national service. So he came to England and the family name was Zachariah, which I actually, I wish he hadn't changed because I'd have been the last on the register. When the names were the register. Z.

When the names were called out. Why would that be good? Well, it'd be A-Z, wouldn't it? Andrew Zachariah. Oh, yeah. Okay, fair enough. You could be first or last, really, in different situations. Yeah, first and last, which I probably have been on many occasions.

But, so, he was around, it was south, it was Richmond Way, and he was on a bus and he saw a road called Ridgely Gardens or something like that. And he chose that as our family name, which I have to say, I think benefited, probably benefited us growing up because... People don't know who you are well we were english you're more anonymous yeah well we were just english you know and i grew up feeling thoroughly english whereas i think for jog being your gospel penalty it was always a a juxtaposition his his his name and his his sense of being an English kid in an English school with a name that wasn't English, I think that would have created, well, did, create some difficulty for him.

You know, I don't think you ever really know quite where you know, where you stand because of that. I think that's true of lots of children of immigrant families, that you're not sure where your foot is. Yeah. To be honest. Yeah, well, I think Dad did me a favour, both my brother and I, in that sense. So you've got an older or a younger brother? Younger, yeah.

So do you think that that may be, I know that you talked about in the documentary that he was the new kid and they said who's going to look after him. Do you think that maybe pulled you towards feeling like you wanted to be, or was it just chance that you were sat next to each other? No, he was brought in by our form tutor and the form tutor asked, you know,

who was going to look after the new boy. And I'd never had a new boy delivered unto me before, so I put my hand up. Did you practice any Judaism? Did you have any Jewish...? No, my dad was an atheist. Oh, OK, fine. And where's your mum from?

Mum was English. She grew up in Twickenham. Scottish and English are her roots. What do you think you are? I'm English. english so you're english okay thoroughly english i like two cups of imperial ale gray tea black in the morning okay two pieces of toast cold thin one butter a little bit of salt the other frank cooper's sounding like a bit of a kind of American psycho, this is quite kind of Okay, carry on, carry on

Frank Cooper's which marmalade? Oxford It's a bit Kathy Bates misery too, I'm not sure This is, okay Does it have to be at a certain angle, the knife as well, Andrew? Is this okay? Okay, I'm now terrified about cooking for you, but carry on There's symmetry in your life.

How thick is the butter on the toast? Thinish, actually. But I like proper butter. There's some very good Cornish butter that is made, which I can get when I'm back up. Or the French salty butter. No, that's not Cornish. Or the French salty butter. None of that far. No.

Oh, gosh. I was about to offer you the French salty butter, but I will put it back in the fridge. Okay, so that's what you have every morning. Yes. So we're cooking for you. If I'm, you know, on my tod, that's what I like.

Have you eaten a bit this morning? Yeah. So you've had your toast. Yeah, but I mean, when I say thin, I mean almost Melbourne. Yeah, let's talk about this precision, Andrew, because word on the street is you're a perfectionist when it comes to being in the kitchen. I think that's probably fairly close to the truth.

Throwing a whole bowl of fresh pasta out if you've cooked it for 30 seconds too long i've heard that did happen on one occasion yes yeah i'm particularly very particular about how the pasta is cooked uh yeah i these days i mean i don't actually cook from uh these days because uh i can't see the point in cooking for one but when karen and i were living together i I did mostly cooking. She is an outstanding cook. She can cook anything from anything.

Now, this is Keira of Bananarama, who you went out with for a very long time. We did step out for a considerable amount of time. Did you meet on the Band-Aid song? No. No, we knew each other sort of from mutual friends from the mid-'80s. Okay. And then our relationship sort of from mutual friends from the mid eighties. Okay. Um,

and then, uh, we, our relations were started in 90. And she's an amazing cook. Yes, she is. Yeah,

she's, yes, she, so she can, she can cook from sort of anything. I, I religiously followed, uh,

recipes until I sort of got to a point where I could, my piece de resistance is saffron risotto with a um pork and fennel salsiccia and a red wine tomato reduction that sounds delicious it is it is exceptionally good i had it at a hotel in chavinia and the um funny enough the guy the the hotel owner was was that year's president of the Relais and Chateau. And food was outstanding. We were served this dish on one evening. And I asked the chef if I can have the recipe.

And he gave me the recipe. And I put it somewhere safe and couldn't find it for years. And I was trying and i was cooking this and it was never quite right and i knew that there was a missing ingredient and the missing ingredient was there was a glass of white wine as well as red wine in the reduction so that makes all the difference so you're do you like food or you're a foodie? I like food a lot. So do you like Italian food, or do you like... I like all food.

There's nothing, apart from oysters, which I can't really eat anymore because I've had one too many. Bad times. Holy smoke. End of the world. Armageddon-type events. Yeah, there's nothing I won't eat.

I'll eat tripe offal and you and you do you have a house in Cornwall don't you or you used to yeah so you've you've obviously eaten so well there too I believe yeah there are some where are some of your favorite spots in Cornwall oh well number six would be my favorite that's the one where I follow the pastry chef. Chris McClurg. Chris McClurg. I'm desperate to go there and it's Paul Zanesworth. Paul Zanesworth, yeah. Whereabouts is it?

It's in Padstow. It's in Padstow. Okay, so that's like the food. But you can't get in. You have to book by... I mean, the food at number six is at a level that... I've not been to the Fat, Duck and Brave.

It has some Bloomingdale's place. But it is superior to almost anything I've had elsewhere. level that i mean i've not been to the fat duck and brave uh it has some bloomin towels place but it it is superior to almost anything i've had elsewhere it's proper event dining now where else do you love in cornwall um malcolm barnacott steak and sillon pasty oh absolutely for me the non-pariah of pasties. It's not a traditional pasty, of which there are several good ones, but the Steak and Stilton, absolutely. It's a sort of a flaky.

There's short crust pasties, there's flaky pastry pasties. This is a flaky, and it works fantastically well. Chuffs used to do a steak and silt, but they now do it with a Cornish blue. But Cornish blue has a different texture. It doesn't work as well. We've got, I think, the biggest foodie we've had. I mean, you're as obsessed about things as this is. Yeah, we like that. I'm loving this, and now I'm terrified that my folded eggs are going to go to show.

What do you eat when you're cycling? What's your fuel? Well... You don't have an electric bike, so it's all Andrew. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, well, whatever you can get your hands on, to be honest. It doesn't matter what you eat,

because it depends what sort of cycling you're doing. So do you build up for a big cycle ride, like lots of pasta, like you're doing a marathon? No, no. Generally, the rule is that that you kind of eat normally you want a certain protein bias to a degree and carbs at certain points but uh but you know we're not elite athletes so generally you eat whilst you ride the idea is so you can keep your energy levels up is to eat regularly whilst you're riding.

Which is what the pros do. They eat while they're on the bike. Yeah, it's a drag. Jesus. Most of the stuff that you eat is very, very sweet because you need the fuel. Yeah. There's no way around it. That immediate

sugar conversion to energy, you need that. Clearly I know nothing about exercise and conversion. Yeah, because that wouldn't be my... Yeah, I mean, you do get sick of it. And do you wear shorts? Yes.

No, well, I kind of imagined you walking in your one shorts today, but you didn't. You walked in in trousers looking perfectly normal. Who chose all those outfits? Was that you or George? Largely, they were, they developed from our sort of, what we were wearing. What we wore when you were clubbing.

I mean, we, yeah, I mean, we only had a couple of outfits between us um probably three maybe four outfits at that the most and we we we rotated the the clothes initially we i had a shirt a black and white shirt which appears in several shots and george has it on as well and right and his his string vest which i wore on the shots and so yeah we had we had that didn't everybody want you to wear their clothes um so the choose love yeah that that was katherine hamlet yes and that stayed that that that um well we we we Well, we appropriated the big letters on white T-shirts for Choose Wham. Choose Wham. Yeah, but it was a Catherine Hamlet design, the Choose Live thing,

but we thought it was an appropriate... Did you know her? No, no, didn't really know any fashion people. So you used to... So when you were young and you were friends from school and you used to go clubbing a lot, where did you go? We went all over. We used to go into the West End. We used to go to Beat Root and we used to go to Mud Club.

Where was Beat Root? Beat Root was on Greek Street, I think. Okay. But initially, when we were younger, when we were 16, 17, we used to come up to town and we used to go do any old dive and just go disco dancing.

We used to go to Harrow and we used to go... But then when I met Shirley, or rather when Shirley and I started stepping out together, which was... I met her at the... She'd gone to the same school, so I knew of Shirley. She was in the year above. Anyway, I met her at the, she'd gone to the same school, so I knew of Shirley, she was in the year above.

Anyway, when we started Stepping Out, we used to go to Bogart. Bogart? Yeah, because they had a sort of new romantic night on a Tuesday where they played sort of alternative, because at that point in time, disco had kind of petered out and there was this sort of funny lull where there was a shalimar and sort of not really the sort of disco dance stuff

that I like, nor George. Night. And so we'd go to Bogart's, we'd go to various places. New Penny in Watford had a... Monday was the new romantic night. And they played things like Blue Ronda and the Turk various places new penny and watford had a had a monday was the new romantic night so and and they played things like blue rondo and a turk and and more esoteric um perhaps the avant-garde side of

dance and you know at that point in time that that whole scene had been born really out of punk alternative and an alternative scene the new wave and there was an evolution of new wave. Bands like Haircut, Blue Rondo, Spandau, all sort of came about in that late... So who were your biggest influences? Well, musically, really, Jog and I bonded over Elton John. But we had really wide and Catholic taste in music. He never admitted it, but we were fans

of Genesis. We went to see Genesis at Earl's Court in 78 and at Nedworth. Wow. I don't know how folded they are, but I attempted the fold. They're very folded. Okay, and then we've got... I can see folds. Okay, great.

Okay, good. There's some slow-roasted tomatoes with a bit of oregano and parmesan. Danny, you just need to spin. I say. Mmm. Well, I'm going to have a little taste. Nice. There's some toast as well.

Very nice eggs. Okay, good. What are you doing at the moment? Well, um... You're busy. Very nice eggs. Okay, good. What are you doing at the moment? Well... You're busy. Yeah, very busy with promoting the Echoes from the Edge of Heaven singles collection and the Netflix documentary. And also in developing further legacy projects.

And the voyage. You're going to do a one voyage. That would be brilliant i would i think that's going to be the way that all legacy goes in actual fact i think the advances in technology i mean i went to see i have you seen it jesse yeah oh my god it's mind-blowing isn it? Would it be helpful because you could do your own dance moves? I'm sure there are others that do it better. But you can't not believe that they're there. You cannot convince yourself otherwise.

No. I absolutely thought I was watching over. Yeah. This is delicious, Jessie. Really delicious. Thank God for that. I want to know about what was fuelling those mad wham days, food-wise. What were you eating or drinking?

Because you were massive stars. Probably you could ask for whatever you wanted. What was on the rider? What were you eating after a big, sweaty gig? We always beat a hasty retreat from gigs. Jog didn't like to stick around. Why didn't he like to stick around? Because it was just so crazy outside?

Yeah, I think to have to go through the scrum and spend God knows how long signing autographs and whatnot was not something that he wanted to do after a show. Because you can end up being there for God knows how long. So the rider, we'd have a little bite prior, with the tour catering, and we ate whatever they gave us. Really? So you were just like the easiest to work with?

Yeah, I was. Tell me more. You know, Yogg's legendary stints with the hairdryer are stuff of legend indeed. So much so, there were times where you could smell the burning hair because as he you know trying to get it as straight as possible young stad was a restaurateur and i remember we go around there after school on occasion it was the angus pride in edgeware and i'd never had a

steak it was at jack's the first time I ever had steak when I was 16. Was it a great steak? It was a good steak. It was a bit of a revelation because, in fact, we never had beef. We had pork and chicken at home and lamb because it was cheaper. But my mum was a good cook. What was she cooking for you? What were you requesting?

Well, in those days, you didn't request anything. You got what you were given. Yeah. And you ate it. And then you wished you had some more. But because Dad was brought up in Alexandria, he had a... ..you know, a palette that so we had middle eastern mum would

cook middle eastern stuff um she'd do tagine she'd do um falafel occasionally so we um we developed a pretty rounded palette because you didn't have any choice because you ate what was cooked the only thing I never liked was stove is on a Monday which was cold roast lamb with onions and boiled potatoes sort of cut up and really didn't like cold lamb at all I get you with the cold lamb because it's the fat that kind of comes around it and it all looks really sad and it's quite kind of powdery and it's not a good cold meat no no yeah you never get cold lamb sandwiches do you no no it doesn't work so that was your monday stove is on monday stove is it's a scottish dish oh okay right. And it was basically rough, sort of cut potatoes and onions

served with yesterday's lamb. And then Sunday would always be pilchards on toast. Did you like that? I liked it apart from the bone. You know, the bone that you had to... You could eat the bone, but I was never keen on that bone, so... George's dad had an estate restaurant, but were you eating lots of Greek food when you were going round to his house?

Yeah, there was quite a bit of Greek food, so my first experience of taramasalata and hummus, domades. I wanted to know, if you were going to cook for us, would you be doing the saffron risotto? Probably yes. I think I'd like that. Yeah. I really would like that.

So, would you give me the recipe? I will. Do you feel funny about it? Do you conflict with that? Or is it like your special... Did you hear he hesitated? He hesitated.

There was a hesitation there. You did hesitate. There was a hesitation. Yes. But the answer is yes. Because I had to think, it's not my recipe. I am merely a steward. So, yes. We won't tell anyone.

No, good. So, your last supper. You're going to have your last supper. You've got a starter, a main, a pudding and a drink of choice. What's going to go in that last supper?'ve got a starter a main a pudding and a drink of choice what's going to go in that last supper what would it be i think so i'm allowing myself an amuse bouche because i am you can eat the whole day if you want oh really we have someone that ate the whole day do you like you're not going to eat for six months nicely ever he's not going to eat ever

again would it start with that cold toast marmalade? It would. It would definitely start with that. Mariage Frere Imperial Earl Grey. Two cups, light infusion. Which make? Mariage Frere. I can't say I've got it.

I apologise. It's only because that's the nearest place to me. But Fortnum is another, for various a fine tea, but I'm sure we'd do an equally good one. So that, yes, with my two pieces of toast, one, butter, sea salt, the other, Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade. The butter and sea salt the other Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade the butter and sea salt

and then Frank Cooper's Oxford Marmalade or actually Wilkins and Son do a very, the tawny marmalade is exceptional then, Elevenses yeah, you love an Elevenses, I love those so my Eletta

my De'Longhi Eletta Cappuccino. Yeah. And I get that coffee is, everyone loves coffee, but Italian coffee is the only coffee worth drinking. I hate to say it, but UK roasters don't come close. What about Australian coffee places, like All Press, do you not like their cappuccino? You're giving such a,

I've never seen you have such a dirty look on your face, Andrew, to be honest. Strictly Italian. It's Lavazza. You like Lavazza? Lavazza, top class. They're top class bean. I'd say if you're going...

You're losing me, Andrew. You're losing me. Lavazzaa really? yeah really? yeah Gianluigi is it Gianluigi

or Gianluca Levatsa 18 whatever 86 they know what they're doing are you a Virgo? no my dad was what are you?

just you're not doing bloody star signs I don't know I'm just trying to understand Andrew's method and his obsession with no I'm an Aquarius I'm an Aquarius. Just you're not doing bloody star signs. I don't know. I'm just trying to understand Andrew's method and his obsession with... No, I'm an Aquarius. I'm an Aquarius, apparently.

So, okay, this cappuccino. Yeah, so Levant's the top class. So top class is a really good all-round mix. Great espresso and also fantastic cappuccino. When you're in Soho, where do you go for your... Cafe Italia. Yeah. Bar Italia.

We just had someone last week... And do you think they serve barista coffee no they serve Italian coffee but I love this you live in central London don't you when you're here uh yes I have a place in central how fun yeah it's great for food as well yeah oh yeah so like where when you're not in cornwall and you're here in central london where's your first port of call bocca di lupo oh you you okay fine what's the order uh the the say so this is so so we're going on to aren't we with lunch okay finish 11 okay sorry with my elevenses i will have to have a some form of donut. So the Marks and Sparks Yum Yum. They are really good. That would be my sort of donut affair of choice to go with my cappuccino.

Do you keep them in the house, Yum Yums? Yes. And can you manage just one? Yes. Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that will last you a week then? Well, there's four in a pack. Four in a pack. Yeah. So yeah. And that will last you a week then? Because it's usually five young...

Four in a pack. Yeah. So I may not have elevensies every day, depends what I'm doing. But yes, I will endeavour to... Only one. Have you done any exercise in between your toast and your yum?

He's got to walk to M&S to get yum. Or cycle. No, generally I train in the afternoons. You train? You call it training? Yeah. It's training, Mum. Mum, how long was the bike ride that you just did?

How long was it? Ten days and a thousand miles. Shit. It was John O'Groats to Land's End, and it was pretty brutal at times. We had some shocking weather. What was it? Were you raising money for charity? Yeah.

Which charity? Papyrus. The prevention of suicide in young people. I have a friend whose daughter unfortunately took her own life in November 21. She was 17. So Ben joined me

and it was conceived originally as my birthday beano, my 60th birthday beano and he asked if we could attach a fundraising element to it, which, of course, I couldn't say no to. I wouldn't have wanted to either. So we've raised nearly 25K from a target of 10. Yeah, yeah.

Well, we'd better make a donation later. Oh, well, you're very kind. Yeah, definitely. You're very kind indeed. For Ben, certainly, it gave it a real purpose um and and um i trained a lot with benji's a very good friend of mine and um we we spend i mean i started training january the first and most of the guys took it very very seriously because it it was well i think you'd have to otherwise you wouldn't be able to do it no no that's true

you need stamina for that for chaps our age I mean some younger chaps I think the record for doing it is something ridiculous like 38 hours God knows how you do that ours was not the quickest route I wanted to take in

the scenic route but you're still doing 100 miles a day. Yeah, round about. Jesus. Keep on talking about your last supper. Oh, yes. So you've had a coffee and a yum-yum at 11's, is it? Yeah, I have. And then, as it's my last supper...

You're just going to have one yum-yum or two? No, no, no, one. I don't want to spoil my lunch. Okay, sorry. Yeah. I will have a pint of Harviss Sussex Best at the Harp, Chandler's Place. Okay. Prior to my lunch.

A pint of Sussex Best? What did I just miss? Sussex Best, darling. Harviss. What is that? I don't even know what it is. Harviss. What is it? Is it cider or beer oh my god what is

it it's coffee it's nectar from the gods is it a drink yes it's nectar from the gods it's it's england's finest example of a best bitter okay OK. And it is... Harvids have brewed for centuries and it's one of the very well-established breweries of which there aren't so many left. Would you describe this as a craft beer? No. I know nothing about beer.

This is Ale of Old Albion. OK, so you're going to be there with your, like, kind of tanker... What's it... What are they called? Tankered. Tankered, yeah. Yeah, sort of sort of but no it'll be a straight glass fine okay so you're having that so i'm going to have that prior to my lunch and i think i will lunch at i think i'm going to lunch at wilton's wilton's yeah in wilton's or i'll get my chum Mark to do lunch at Brooks or maybe the Great Gallery

where's Brooks I think we've just got to Wilton's is that the music place no no Wilton's on German Street I've never been

oh it's near oh oh yeah maybe me and you will go it's very English darling

what are you going to eat there silver salt so at Wilton's I will have smoked eel and horseradish to start. And then I will follow with the Colston Bassett Stilton souffle. That's what I'm going to have. That sounds quite yummy. And I will have a white burgundy.

As it's my last. So you're going to... Where is Brooks? Where is Brooks? Brooks is a gentleman's club. You're just with a load of blokes? Yeah. So, but Brooks is... I don is a gentleman's club. You're just with a load of blokes? Yeah. I don't see you like that.

I tell you why I like Brooks. It's very similar in so far as you can have deviled kidneys for your lunch. You can have smoked eel. Old school. It's traditional English, which you don't fare that you just don't get anywhere else you can have lamb chops you like roast beef and yorkshire pudding oh yes me too but hang on i just feel like you devil kidneys that's going in your last supper as a kind of thing is that like something that you well pine after or you just want it as your last thing

i really like devil kid i used to make devil kidneys myself actually but um yeah um they're they're not difficult no they're not they're dead easy but you've got to like kidneys yeah that would be the thing love them so brooks does all those things and it has savoury so you know so after you've eaten your meal you can have um welsh rare but or you can have sausages for your afters it's brilliant before you have yeah so in between in between so you don't have a sweet you do have a sweet yeah yeah I do but but you've had your yum yum at 11 that's well I probably would I have something after probably not at lunch I probably save that for my teases okay what's your teases? Oh my God, Andrew, I love this. Cup of tea at four?

No, it wouldn't be a cup of tea. Actually, I probably wouldn't have a hot drink at four. Oh. Or I might have a little espresso and a piece of Malcolm Barnacott's Bakewell tart. That's probably what I'd have. And, okay. Or, as it's my last yeah i will i will have a crumpet slathered in butter yeah and strawberry jack boddington's strawberry jam so boddington's

cornwall that they they have a i mean i know, like 99 grams of strawberries in 100 grams. It's the most sensational. I might actually, as my last, have a little half a crumpet and a scone. Just have a full crumpet and a full scone, Andrew. You're going to die. He's not going to fit his supper in. Are you stupid? You're going to die.

I say go for it. Thank Christ he didn't eat all this when he was in Whammy. Wouldn't you be able to move? There'd have been no dancing. He would have just been like... I might go halves. I couldn't eat a whole scone and a whole... And I have got dinner.

Okay, okay, okay. So now we're getting to dinner. So supper. This is really meticulous. This is kind of... It's my last meal. No, I know, but like... I mean, this is like... No, I'm... No,ulous this is kind of it's my last meal i know but like i mean this is like no i'm no but i'm kind of i'm a met it's so specific like i like it yeah i don't think

we've ever had this precision in our five years my last meal will be yeah at boccadalupo okay and it kicks off with the the sage leaves stuffed with anchovy. Oh, yes. But are you having an aperitivo? Yes, they do a very nice vermouth, actually, a white vermouth. Which? Which is a lemony, well, herbaceous like they all are. But I do...

Just neat vermouth, not with a drop of... a little ice and we'll have it'll have a tiny do just a twist of lemon yeah um but you you don't go for a full martini then no no no i wouldn't i'd i'd have that i'd have the little the vermuth and then i'd have um an ice glass of probably fresco balde pomino bianco which is a sort of burgundy style Italian Chardonnay. And they also do the stuffed olive, which is a minced pork and veal, parmesan and chopped olives. Jesus.

Breaded. Oh yeah. Oh my goodness. Do you want me to take you there as well? Yeah. Okay. In fact, I want to be one of your new ex-girlfriends. That's what I want.

Seeing as you have such good relationships with all of them, they go in your hand. I can be your of your new ex-girlfriends that's what I want seeing as you have such good relationships with all of them they go in your and I can be your eating partner ex-girlfriend I'm actually

I'm dining there tonight with Shirley and Pepsi oh I love that yeah yeah yes and then I will probably follow that up

with they have a there's a form what's the pasta called oh it's little twist trophy yes I had it in yeah yeah i love that green beans potato and uh parmesan or pesto that yum and they do what's

nice about bdl is they do small plates so you could you can have a couple without um you know and share because i will be dining with you so, is that a pre-meat patty? Yes, yes, it would be. And then for your main dish, your secundi? Your secundo? Yeah, probably. They do the sweetbreads. They do grilled sweetbreads with artichoke.

Maybe I would try it with you. Is it delish? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's your last supper, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yes sweet bays are delicious but they change the menu virtually daily so so there could be things that as and when or should andrew do you have your own table there when you walk in they. I do have a spot that I like. Signor. Signor Idgley, come over. Would you have a pudding?

Yes. I would ask them to make... So when I first used to go, I can't remember the barman's name, but he made this zgrupino, which is lemon sorbet that is sort of whipped up with vodka, but I like it with gin as well,

and grated lemon zest. That gives it... The lemon zest gives it that real perfume and the citrus oils are really intense. It gives it an intensity that doesn't have unless you grate the zest in. Have you ever been tempted to have your own restaurant? I have been tempted.

I did have a bar with some friends on occasion which had a restaurant. We opened it the day that the markets crashed in 1990, I think. So it didn't do very well. Where was it? It didn't survive. It was actually in Rickmansworth. Where's that?

Rickmansworth. It's north, north, darling. Well, it's't survive. It was actually in Rickmansworth. Where's that? Rickmansworth. It's north, north, darling. Well, it's northwest. Yeah. Is it Hertfordshire? Yeah, it's just outside the... Watford. Near Watford.

Yeah, near Watford. What was on the menu? Well, they did very nice quenelles. What are quenelles? Sort of like a fish mousse, hot fish mousse. Oh, this is the 90s. It's like mince fish and then you kind of steam it yeah and then serve it with a spew or something yeah it is a bit like

a filter fish yeah yeah very nice though yeah so uh yes that's about the only one that i can remember i wanted to also know about that in in the documentary it talks about George coming out and sexuality. And around the time it wasn't really noticed in the, he was on his own kind of journey of discovery and experiences. But the press were more obsessed with you at that time and what you were up to. And your romances and kind of being a bit naughty was that on purpose did you kind of talk to each other and go you know what i'm gonna go and be at the front center of every tabloid and and to detract from him when he was kind of because i i see you as a big brother to him you were looking after him always but was that ever a

conversation or was it just complete yeah it was it was and we we did very very little consciously um except for for the you know the songwriting and the decisions with regard to to career and what we'd be doing next outside of that um you know we didn't consider celebrity or the fame aspect as something that we either cared about would utilize to enhance us as individuals so i mean and they say personalities celebrities blah blah blah it was just a consequence it was a byproduct of of what we did and so um and because i was, you know, I had fairly glamorous girlfriends here and there. And I was, and, you know, George, because of his sexuality, he was rather more discreet. And the places he went to weren't the sorts of places where you had paparazzi. I mean, he didn't know when he was gay. When did you know he was gay? weren't the sorts of places where you had paparazzi and the press.

I mean, he didn't know when he was gay. When did you know he was gay? Well, I think he came to realisation fairly early on, insofar as his late teenage years, really when he realised that he wasn't bi, but he actually was, you know, he preferred men. But it took him a little while to come to the decision to tell Shirley and I, me. But did you know?

No, no, I didn't. And because we had girlfriends and he, I knew he had girlfriends here and there, and so it wasn't something that i was aware of um he did keep it very private yeah um so so when it came to the you know the the press in general because i was out and about and and with girlfriends and rather poorly behaved on on occasion um that that was that was meat and drink to them so they they they loved they loved that poorly behaved what you got drunk yes i imagine you being ever you know squaring up to a paparazzi it was just that you were having fun yeah younger really cheeky um i i did not um the press and i had a very um antagonistic relationship yeah really yes i i uh i i didn't care for celebrity or fame it was it was nothing that i'd ever aspired to. The only thing I ever wanted to do

was to be in a band, make records and perform. And so the rest of it was just noise. And famously, there was an occasion where, I think Jog and I, I'm sure it was Jog, we were at a club. And when we exited, the photographers turned their backs on us. And I thought, magnificent, I've won. And I remember Piers Morgan, he told the story that that's when my celebrity ended.

Absolute nonsense. celebrity ended which of course absolute nonsense but for me that was that was a real win you know that that that they thought that that I cared a jot about having my fizzog in that yeah that's the difference isn't it lots of people do music to be famous and you did music to do music well i don't know i mean if you well you think of some of the um like x factor or pop idol lots of people i'm sure somehow they don't really sing and they become famous also people feel like they need to seek press for validation to be relevant all of that i find it really refreshing that you were completely uninterested disinterested in that and also I think you say the most brilliant thing when you're doing that interview and the I mean some of the press was so rude to you too they I mean even like god rest her soul

Paul Yates calling you the mate like and you you're about to go and do a sold out stadium farewell farewell show and it and you laugh it off so brilliantly but also it's but but then when you say i i'm gonna go out like with grace you say i'm gonna and i just felt and you really have i i was gonna say the same thing is it because you just felt like you could never reach that height of not fame but success again so you just felt like you could never reach that height of, not fame, but success? Again, so you were just like, you know what? I've had a really good time with my best friend. Yeah, it was largely that. I'd achieved the only ambition that I ever held,

and that was to be in a band with George, with my best friend, make records, and be a success. Make it the biggest. And so, obviously, it was an ambition realized early in life. But I genuinely didn't have any other ambitions. I didn't really want I didn't at that point. I wanted to step away from sort of the limelight because it was very intrusive. At that point in time, I had a very attractive girlfriend and the press scrutiny had got even

more intense and I just wanted to remove myself from that so which so I went and I lived abroad and I didn't really have any other ambition or aspiration in in music I think what I probably should have done was was knuckled down and and after a little hiatus and perhaps written more songs. And writing for other people as well, maybe. Yeah, yeah, but that wasn't something that I felt that necessarily would be an option for me. So I stepped back and life sort of took over in other ways, just generally speaking.

I moved my girlfriend at the time. We lived in Monaco for a short while. And then we moved to the States so she could pursue her career. So that took me into the late 80s. And then I came back and I recorded the solo album, which I didn't really want to do. I wanted to record a single, Test the Water. But the industry had changed changed Sony needed an album so um you know I had to spend 18 months writing and recording and now which was a bit ill judged to be honest I think the the style wasn't the right style for

me to have chosen at that point but I think it was a bit of a no-win situation if I tried to replicate you know a wham sound I'd have probably got no thanks for that either so and also George is doing very well and then it becomes you become pitted against each other and it kind of feels oh well I suppose it could have been that but but I think besides the friendship but it was just your absolute loyalty to your friend and your and generosity and generosity and that you celebrated success and kind of promoted it and cherished it and and the I just felt that was the grace for me that you that you accepted it me he was an extraordinary talent and his songwriting and everything but the fact that you just were there and you supported it

yeah but and you you didn't say oh well i i don't know many musicians that have reached that level of success but yeah we'll be able to do it as beautifully as you did it andrew i agree that's kind of you to say but you know he he was my best friend and um you know he was equally as generous with me in many ways and you know the affection with which we we held each other was a genuine one and and and and endured and i could only you know i could it's not in me to be resentful not of him um and and i was from when it became apparent that his talent was really developing and that it was a talent of exceptional proportions,

which was fairly early on, really. When he wrote Young Guns, on the back of the failure of Wham! Rap to be a hit first time round we didn't have we had a couple of other tracks that we were working on but nothing of that quality and he he literally pulled that out the bag and that was a moment of wow this is this is slightly different gravy and then he did the same with bad boys which he hated because he felt compelled to to to write to follow up on the success of young guns it was formulaic he he

didn't it's a really good track uh it's really well produced but the the sentiment was somewhat um inauthentic and um and contrived and he hated that he hated that aspect of it not being a being not being authentic but and then but then club trop which um you know we knew we couldn't release initially when we released the album that was the single that came out with the album and with the video it just liberated it liberated as i said in in netflix it liberated pure wham you know from that point it was like not doing this silly rebels without a cause a clue um and so and and we were able to to just be ourselves far more and and and at that point we were far more comfortable in in our presentation and our image and that became definitive well pure wham really and allowed us to sort of move on without any

encumbrance on that last show the final show was there any moment in that show where you were like oh i could do this again or were you very much like you know what thanks for the good times see you later no i always wanted to um i love performing you know we formed our school band and and and you write songs you perform them you know maybe you'll get enough money together to record a demo maybe god willing you get a record deal so but you start off writing performing and and so and that i don't think that ever changes that's what is core and central to it and so um i i i'm on record as saying that I wish we had toured that last show and given our fans the opportunity globally to bid them farewell.

But I also understood Jog's point that there could only be one final concert. Well, you know, Elton John's kind of proved that otherwise. Yes, 330 farewells, but yeah. You would have both been 60 now. Because I remember Elton mentioned in his performance at Glastonbury that that was George's birthday the day he was performing. Did you miss him? Oh, of course.

You know, one would miss, one misses any friend. I mean, I've been very fortunate. I haven't lost many friends, many of my peers. Andy Lever died, he was in our first school band. He died tragically young. One or two others, but, you know, no one with whom I had such a close bond with. And so, yeah, there are moments of course that that that uh you know you wish that

you could be doing things together and or whatever it may be so yeah he he's missed him by a lot of people in in a variety of different ways and you know it's it's when you especially him being, he and I having such a close bond. That sort of bond you only really form at school when you're immersed in each other every day in such an intense sort of way. You're learning together, you're playing together, you are wholly immersed in each other uh and and and we were and that was and you don't get the chance to do that later in life really i mean you do with perhaps with your wife or when when you're courting there's something very special about those school relationships yeah 100 can i ask you it may be too hard to answer but is there one nostalgic taste or smell that can bring you back to those wham days immediately? Well, funnily enough, there would be two in actual fact.

Because when our first kind of taste of life as it might be, as wealthy, urbane, sophisticated people. Our publishers, Dick Leahy and Brian Morrison, two giants of the music publishing industry at the time, and our mentors in many ways, they took Yoganai to langans in 18 early 83 the hotel no langans okay where's that langans brasserie is it still there yeah yeah yeah it's opposite green it's opposite green park tube station so you went there yeah so so that was a that was a proper sort of celeb haunt in the early 80s. And it had a great atmosphere.

It had a really sort of louche but stylish, sophisticated atmosphere. And Langdon's itself does a spinach souffle with anchovy sauce. And Brian, who was a real bon vivant brian morrison he um he suggested that we try we try that and that was a a real wow moment you know this is this is the way that one would like to live you have you said you had two yes and the other one so that was a kind of my food moment in many ways, following on from my steak moment at the Angus Pride. Angus Pride.

When we were shooting the video, or prior to the shoot of the video for Club Tropicana, when we were staying in Pike's Hotel, Simon Napier-Bell who is still alive and well, I saw him when I was in Thailand earlier this year he was our manager, an extremely urbane and

sophisticated bon vivant and Simon lived very very well and we were dining at Pike's and they had a dining room which was actually on the roof.

It was a roof terrace and he ordered a white Rioja, the Marques de Murrieta white Rioja and white Rioja is a fantastic wine, especially the Marques de Murrieta, this particular, and it was an absolute epiphanal moment. It was like, oh, wow, this is proper wine.

And so, yeah, that moment. So they are my sort of two food and drink moments, formative. And, yes, I still absolutely love that White Rioja Marques de Murrieta. What was the cocktail on club tropicana the cocktail i think i think it was colored water to be honest okay yeah yeah because it got poured into the um into the swimming pool but you surely were drinking on the job for that video um yes there there was an actual about a really attractive um barmaid oh fancy that so the attractive barmaid. I fancy that. So the attractive barmaid, do you remember what she was making you?

Not really, no. I wasn't really looking at the drinks. You were looking at her eyes. I was looking at her bikini, to be honest. But yeah, despite your reputation, it never puts the women off, Andrew, does it? It hadn't seemed to so far.

And on that note, enjoy your dinner with your ex-girlfriend tonight. It's been a pleasure to have you, Andrew. Thank you so much for all your wonderful stories. I found it all so fascinating and I implore everyone to go and watch the documentary. that was really lovely wow i've never had such information given to me about particular food and drink yeah very precise but he looks very precise j Jessie. He's very, very neat. Yeah.

The way he eats is neat. Yeah. The way he, like, butters his toast. Very neat. The way he eats his toast. It's also quite dainty. Not dainty. That's the wrong word. It's kind of...

There's a symmetry about Andrew Ridgely. It's quite measured. Yeah. He was very polite and lovely. And I've learnt a lot about food now. I know. Yeah. Are you going to go for those deviled kidneys no not I might go for the stuffed olive yes defo I'd like to go for that and I'd like that white

wine that he drank that seminal moment of white rioja I don't think I've ever had a white rioja no um I really loved chatting to him I loved hearing hearing his stories. I mean, I've seen the documentary. We've seen it. And that was so warm and generous. And he just is... He's a gracious man. Yeah. I just find it really funny that they have to leave a venue straight away

to avoid the hordes of screaming fans. And now he's getting the bus to the house and probably not getting bothered at all. And he quite likes it that way, right? He has a life that isn't... I don't think he ever did want the celebrity. He wanted the music, didn't he? That's what he said.

Yeah. That was not the thing that he ever wanted, and he walked away from that. That makes him so cool. Yeah, very. Very cool. Andrew Ridgely, thank you so much for coming on. The Wham! documentary is out on Netflix now.

The Wham! limited edition box set, Echoes of Heaven, is out now. It is so good. Again, so considered and nostalgic and brilliant. Thank you for listening. We'll see you next week. You're not going to want to miss next week's episode