Pepsi & Shirlie have reflected on the 40th anniversary of Wham!’s ‘Last Christmas’, how George Michael fulfilled his legacy, and how they still feel his presence eight years after his death on Christmas Day.
The pair were backing singers and dancers for Andrew Ridgeley and Michael’s ’80s pop duo. In 1984, they all flew to the Swiss ski resort of Saas-Fee to shoot the video to ‘Last Christmas’, which Michael was convinced was destined to become the Christmas Number One – and Wham!’s fourth chart-topper – that year. The day after filming the snow-filled promo, Michael returned to London to sing on Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ – which ultimately beat ‘Last Christmas’ to the coveted festive Number One spot.
Since then, ‘Last Christmas’ has been covered by countless artists including Taylor Swift and recently, Sabrina Carpenter joined by Chappell Roan, and it officially ranks as the fourth highest-selling single of all time in the UK. At the time of writing, it is at Number Two in the chart.
Speaking to NME, Shirlie Kemp said she felt a responsibility to keep the legacy of Michael’s work alive. “It feels surreal to be celebrating the 40th anniversary of ‘Last Christmas’,” she said. “Also, it feels like we’re here to talk on George’s behalf because his music was his world, it was what he loved.”
Although ‘Last Christmas’ has topped the Top 40 around the Christmas period three times before, 2023 marked the first time it reached the peak on the actual day itself. Asked how Michael would have reacted, Kemp enthused: “We’d have been at his house having a party ‘cause he loved having Number Ones! And he loved Christmas. He would be relaxed and happy, opening the door with an excited, ‘Right! Come and see my tree!’. He’d have homely, cosy Christmas parties every year.”
Pepsi DeMacque-Crockett added: “George would always be there with a gift, and he’d get pleasure out of handing them over to his friends. Years later, he would make sure we all got hampers, and Christmas didn’t arrive until you received your George Michael hamper from Fortnum & Mason.”
At present, ‘Last Christmas’ is again the frontrunner to be Christmas Number One for a second consecutive year and, in a repeat of the 1984 chart battle, it’s pitted against Band Aid 40. Wham!’s chances are bolstered by a commemorative ‘Last Christmas’ 40th anniversary EP and a BBC Two documentary, airing tomorrow (December 14).
Check out our full interview below, where Pepsi & Shirlie also reminisce about booze-sodden antics in the Alps, “bizarre” incognito carolling with Wham!, discuss whether Michael would’ve wanted a reunion, and share their thoughts on the many ‘Last Christmas’ covers.
NME: Hello, Pepsi & Shirlie! The ‘Last Christmas’ video shoot sounds like a memorable affair, which began with one of Wham!’s party projectile vomiting into the filter of the pool and culminated in a naked steeplechase over hotel balconies. What do you remember?
Pepsi: “All of that! Shirlie and I tried to avoid a lot of that, so there was more going on that we didn’t know about. What people didn’t realise about the video was there was real wine in the glasses, so we were all getting really pissed! It was raucous. We were unhinged. Going back to Saas-Fee for the BBC documentary, there were a lot of moments where I thought, ‘I don’t remember this’, like seeing the mountains and taking in the fresh air. We were just in a chalet doing the video, getting pissed, with a lot of ruckus going on.”
Apparently around Christmas, you’d go carolling in Wham! with blow-up dolls. What was the reaction from residents?
Shirlie: “No one knew because we had long wigs on! I looked like Louis XIV with this long, curly wig. It was bizarre.”
Pepsi: “I’d hold the [charity] tin as we all sang ‘Jingle Bells’. Whoever was at the door would think, ‘Who are these people?’. Then suddenly you’d see their expression change as the penny dropped that it was George Michael, Andrew Ridgely, Pepsi & Shirlie… and the blow-up dolls! There was a point where we were hopping on buses, going from pub to pub, knocking on people’s doors. It was fab and very silly.”
Shirlie, you said after George Michael died, ‘Last Christmas’ became painful to listen to. Can you enjoy it again now?
Shirlie: “Yeah, now I’m so much happier because I think it’s his legacy and there’s a responsibility to make sure you still talk about him. He would hate it if we didn’t talk about him! He’d say, ‘Hang on, don’t forget me!’, and I can hear him. And I know his sense of humour, so he’d be really pissed off if we weren’t out here now talking about his talent, voice and songs, because that was his whole purpose. Every single moment of his life was dedicated to music. You’d get in his car and he’d play you demos of songs he was writing. Sometimes I hear him saying, ‘Don’t forget to tell them about this’. I feel he’s saying, ‘Don’t forget about me’. And we won’t – ever.”
Shirlie, George was your best friend, and that close relationship is reflected in the response you used to give when he played you his demos…
Shirlie: “If I played him a song I’d written, he’d say, ‘Well, where’s the chorus?!’ I’d think, ‘You cheeky sod!’ So whenever he’d play me something, I’d always respond, ‘Yeah, but where’s the chorus?’ [Laughs] That was our little in-joke.”
Did he play you any early versions of tracks that ended up becoming massive hits?
Shirlie: “‘Careless Whisper’ was the first thing I heard long before Wham! or record deals, because he wrote that when he was 17. I’d just picked Andrew up and he played me a tape of ‘Careless Whisper’. I remember hearing it and going cold, thinking I’d never heard a male vocal like that. I had an absolute sense that everybody would know about George – that it was his destiny and always going to happen for him.”
Pepsi: “On tour with Wham!, there would be a moment where George would sing ‘Careless Whisper’ solo and we’d look at him mesmerised just knowing that one day he was going to be the ‘George Michael’. A solo career was inevitable.”
Shirlie: “That’s why when Wham! split [in 1986], it was such a happy time because we knew he going to go to the next level.”
Andrew Ridgely has maintained that Wham! was never meant to outlive youth, and that a reunion would’ve never happened if George was still alive. Do you agree?
Shirlie: “I don’t know. One of my last conversations with George was when he said, ‘The best time of my life was when we were younger in Wham!’, so maybe it would have happened because he was someone who was very nostalgic – he loved talking about the past. They were his best days with more freedom, before he became a global solo artist. You become a prisoner with that type of fame that he experienced, so he would always say to me, ‘My best times were Wham!’”
How did feel to return to the Swiss Alps scenes of the ‘Last Christmas’ video this year?
Pepsi: “Obviously, George was missing but we knew he would have been so happy for us to be there and he was all around us while we were there. There were moments where I choked up because I wished he was there – but his energy was there.”
‘Last Christmas’ is currently the bookies’ favourite to top the Christmas chart again this year…
Shirlie: “Let’s hope so!”
Mirroring the events of 1984, it’s competing against Band Aid 40…
Shirlie: “When I saw that Band Aid had made a documentary, I thought, ‘Oh no!’. It’s funny. It’s history repeating itself, but whichever song gets to Number One, it’s win-win.”
Would George have wanted to achieve the Christmas Number One two years in a row?
Pepsi: “Of course he would! He always had to be Number One. Hello?!”
Suddenly, Pepsi’s Zoom screen goes black and animated fireworks sparkle in the background.
Pepsi: “That’s a sign! That was George!”
Shirlie: “I tell you, he’s still around. There’s loads of signs from him.”
How does he make his presence felt?
Shirlie: “This time last year, I visited a medium and she talked about George, but not in an obvious way. She said, ‘You had a friend who passed away but he wants to tell you he’ll be with you in the mountains’. I couldn’t understand what she was talking about because I don’t go skiing. Then in February this year, we got the call saying we were going to Saas-Fee. When I was telling everyone that story in the mountains, all these Christmas trees suddenly toppled over like a domino effect. And I know that George was there.”
Pepsi: “And now he’s showing us he’s here with sparkles!”
So many acts, including Beyoncé, Blossoms and Jimmy Eat World, have covered ‘Last Christmas’…
Shirlie: “Nobody does it like George, though! I listen to them all and think nobody does it like him. I’m never impressed. I just think no, leave it alone. There have been times when we’ve [Pepsi & Shirlie] thought about singing it and then realised, ‘Don’t even think about it!’.”
Could any big pop acts today write a timeless Christmas classic?
Pepsi: “With Christmas songs, it’s a case of not being too self-conscious. You need a little cheese, glitz and tinsel, and to throw caution to the wind. I think so many acts out there are too conscious about how they look or are perceived. The great thing about ‘Last Christmas’ is it’s based around genuine friendship, which generates that warm nostalgia.”
The ‘Last Christmas’ 40th anniversary EP is out now – listen and order here. Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped airs on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on Saturday December 14.