It’s a Major Award! The Grand Prize of all Prizes!
George Michael was bringing his 25 Live to San Diego and you better believe my tickets were secured. It was going to be somewhat of a reunion for my cousin Andrea, and friend Bridget, my two concert dates from our Faith tour night way back nearly two decades earlier (read about the Faith tour experience
https://www.jukeboxjournal.com/musical-memoir/george-michael-the-wham-faith-years).
Susanne would also be with us this time and I was beyond excited to have all my George fan besties on board for this momentous occasion, the return of the love of my life. Speaking of the love of my life, my actual real life hubby was definitely a trooper for all his support and patience as the shenanigans played out.
A local radio station was running a contest for George Michael’s upcoming concert tickets. This wasn’t your normal contest where caller number 10 gets two tickets to the concert. This was the big daddy contest with separate rounds and a GRAND prize! There would be five winners a day for five days. Those 25 winners would each receive the most recent album, 25 box set including the videos. The 25 winners would also be placed into the drawing pool for the GRAND prize. 10 tickets to 25 Live at San Diego Sports Arena, pre-show dinner for 10 at EXY, Greek Fusion restaurant in the Gaslamp, 2 tickets to the Las Vegas show, including airfare and hotel!!! I already had the four tickets to the show for me and my George besties and the latest album box set but I was obviously going to be calling in to try and get my hands on that GRAND prize. I made it in as one of the 25 and was more than excited to wait and see if I could possibly be the big winner. The final day came and went without any breaking news or notifications but the following week as I lay in bed sleeping, my phone rang and I answered in a half dream state. It took a few seconds for my brain to process the news coming into my ears but once I understood what was happening my legs and voice took over as I catapulted out of bed and ran up and down the halls screaming. Brian was instantly in a panic upon waking to such chaos. He kept asking, “What happened? Are you ok? What’s wrong?”. All very sweet reactions from a concerned husband but also all in vain because I was too wrapped up in my frantic celebration and euphoria or possible temporary insanity to provide him any relief. Eventually he was able to figure out what was going on and he laughed at me and all my crazy and tried to get more sleep. I wrapped up my call and started texting everyone I knew. This was breaking, urgent news, it truly was safe to say, “It’s a major award!” and I was crazier than ‘The Old Man’, Mr. Parker in A Christmas Story, as I wandered around the house on cloud 9. I take that back, cloud 9 isn’t high enough to describe the state I was in.
I invited more girlfriends to join us for our epic night. I wrote up a ridiculously silly invitation, choreographed a dance (really we just studied the choreography from the Outside video) for us to perform at some point at the show, coordinated matching police costumes for our Fab Four to wear, booked a limo and waited in great anticipation for one of the best nights of our lives, or at least of mine. June 17, 2008, the big day had arrived, we all met at my house and practiced our moves, blasted a George only playlist, made each other up and had so much fun. The limo arrived carrying us off to a delicious dinner and we continued on our path to the show. Upon exiting the limo I realized I had the original four tickets but the envelope of contest prize tickets had been left behind at home. Remember when I previously mentioned that Brian was a trooper? I immediately called him and put him on the task to leave work, drive home and collect said envelope of tickets and bring them to our limo in the Sports Arena parking lot. He again laughed at me and set forth on the mission assigned. Truly a knight in shining armor and possible saint status especially when you consider I was literally dressing up in hopes George might see me and reconsider his romantic choices and if he would have I’d have to say, “Brian, it's been a great 10 years of marriage but I think this is where we part ways.”. I have since matured and grown enough to understand it doesn’t work that way and I would never attempt to or encourage anyone to “turn” someone else. However, it did make for a very chill husband because in all my glorious groupie attempts at GM concerts he knew there was no threat, totally unphased. I for one was a bit delusional but had a great time trying.
The four of us with the originally purchased tickets had great floor seats with an open section between us and the closest first section of seats. We used that open walkway as our stage before the show started and while lights were still up. We performed our ‘Outside’ dance moves in front of an entire crowd of awaiting fans at a packed Sports Arena. We made all sorts of friends and cracked ourselves up while we sang our hearts out and boogied the night away. The next morning my friend Bridget forwarded an online article about the concert in an email with the subject line: “GM Review - we’re famous! ;)”. In the comment section Cesar from Tijuana wrote something about enjoying the girls dancing in the cop outfits. We all got a kick out of this in our email threads and laughed at each other’s stories and pictures from the night. My sister in law, Erin, childhood friend, Michelle, Andrea’s childhood friend, Nina and others were among those in the nosebleed section and they had their own set of adventures to laugh at.
Four days later on June 21, Andrea and I were on our way to Vegas for show number two on my big GM tour adventure. We spent all day at the hotel pool, and lounging in our cabana with personal misters. Fun fact: upon describing our upcoming GM getaway experience with personal misters Andrea understood this as we would be receiving poolside personal Mr.s as part of the GRAND prize. We still crack up when we picture us in swimsuits, daydreaming of our night ahead at George’s concert as we sip on frozen cocktails brought to us on silver platters by cute poolside servers. Andrea was still nursing her then baby daughter, Marley and between the all day sun and pumping and dumping back in the hotel followed by a sweaty night of dancing to the setlist in a crowded arena, we were a bit like one of those best friend comedy movies after the show was over. I was all pumped up to go hunt my idol down or go Vegas club hopping but my sidekick was literally all pumped out so back to the ac in our room we went and to catch up on some much needed sleep it was.
Six days later, June 27 and I was now at The Honda Center for my last show of the tour. This was not part of the prize but more of a can’t be over yet and cousin Corin (the original chauffeur for Faith concert) needs to make it to a show and Susanne wants one more show as well because she lost the name pull for Vegas to Andrea. We once again donned the police hats and walked in proud carrying large homemade signs for our George. On this magical ending to a great run I was lucky to meet Deon Estus, bass player for Wham! As well as on Michael’s Faith album and tour, among many other credits. His biggest or most recognizable personal hit was ‘Heaven Help Me’, which included backing vocals by George. I remember how much I loved that song when it came out. I also met George Michael’s father, Kryiacos Panayiotou, also known as Jack. I was starstruck in my encounter with them and they were gracious enough to let me take pictures with them.
The three shows were like a dream come true for me. The talent and energy were still in full force on stage. The signature dance moves, the voice like honey, (I swear, no other voice like his). I made it to the front couple of rows at some point, I know he saw me. He was beautiful and sweet, kindness poured out of him. I got kicked out for trying to get closer again at another point, I made my way back in like a ninja in the night. Again, as mentioned earlier, I have since matured. Well, at least when it comes to groupie antics. I have graduated to higher concert goer standards, a much more civilized experience is part of the plan these days. Thank goodness though for these wonderful and wild memories. How would I behave if I could go again right now? I wish I could find out. Have you been lucky enough in life to see George Michael live in concert? Let me know in the comments.