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Rock In Rio
In January
1991, George was scheduled to make an
appearance at the Rock In Rio II festival at the
world famous Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro,
performing on the 25th and then closing the festival three days
later. On that closing show, the band struck up the opening bars
to "Careless Whisper", with George
introducing the song with "Now I'd like to bring on a great
friend of mine, Andrew Ridgeley,
who co-wrote this song ten years ago." With that Andrew
strode out on stage to be greeted by a deafening roar of approval
from the 100,000 crowd. The reunion went down a storm, the crowd
appreceating every number the pair performed.
Afterwards,
George said, "It was something we
wanted to do just once, to show people we were proud of what we
did. It was an incredible night. I've never known an atmosphere
like it. It was very emotional when Andrew
came on. We are still the greatest of friends."
Andrew agreed, "It was a very special night - we had a great time. After a few bars of 'I'm Your Man' I looked over at George and it was like nothing had changed. We were two mates enjoying ourselves again."
Andrew joined him on, "Freedom 90", "I'm your man" and "Careless Whisper".
According to the press or whoever, George met Anselmo during/after this gig. Anselmo had been a huge fan of George for ages, and had front row tickets boths days - hoping that George would notice him. In which he didn't. Then, after the 2nd day there was a party, and Anselmo got in by saying that he was a famous Brazilian designer. That's how they met - according to some people. I don't know, but this is kind of sweet, don't you think? Imagine yourself in his shoes. A huge fan of George, and he ends up falling in love with you - and you change his whole life. I wish - for George's sake - that he didn't have to lose him the way he did. It sure hell caused him more pain than he deserves. But on the other hand, some really good songs came out of it...
Baby Don't Change Your Mind!
Anyway, on this gig he sang a lot of covers. I.e.: "Ain't nobody", "Baby, don't change your mind", "Back to life", "Fame" - by David Bowie - , "I knew you were waiting for me" - alone - , "Don't let the sun go down on me" - alone, "Ain't no stopping us now", "Calling you" and "Killer/Papa was a Rollin' Stone". Plus, of course, his own songs.
