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Plans to ‘celebrate’ the 25th anniversary of George Michael’s Older pushed back to 2022

‘Team GM’ Praying for Time

By Paul Sinclair

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44

Having not even tweeted about the 25th anniversary of George Michael‘s third solo album Older on 13 May this year, the very next day GM’s official twitter account promised fans ‘something special’ later this year, in way of celebration. That now will not happen with George’s team citing “reasons beyond our control”.

The full statement posted yesterday on twitter was as follows:

For reasons beyond our control, due to global supply and manufacturing difficulties, it is with great regret that we have had to delay plans to mark and celebrate the 25th anniversary of Older until the first half of 2022.

Team George Michael via Twitter

We still don’t know what these ‘plans’ actually are, but manufacturing difficulties only really applies to vinyl right now so clearly a vinyl reissue of Older is the minimum we can expect. There are no such issues with CD manufacturing, so they could have chosen to split the ‘celebrations’ and issued something on CD this year with vinyl to follow next. The fact they haven’t done this makes SDE wonder if CD are in their plans at all.

While it’s certainly true that there are great challenges right now with vinyl production, one suspects that the team started work far too late on these plans to ‘mark’ the 25th anniversary of Older (which is already five months past). The lead time for vinyl is around six months at the moment, so if they’d got their act together in the autumn of 2020 they could have easily have delivered something in May (or early summer) this year. And let’s face it, there were no production issues in late 2019, when the Symphonica album was being prepared to be reissued on vinyl. TWO YEARS LATER there’s still no sign and Amazon France now have a pre-order listing showing a release date of September 2022! George Michael fans need the patience of a saint.

Sadly, this is yet another case of SOMETHING NOT HAPPENING on the watch of George’s de facto manager, David Austin. Since George’s untimely death on Christmas day in 2016 there has not been one single reissue campaign of any Wham! or GM album (Listen Without Prejudice was all but completed before George died). The Japanese Wham! Singles Collection: Greatest Hits CD+DVD was admittedly an interesting release, although it seems unlikely that was driven by the team in the UK.

For now, we wait with interest to see what exactly the Older plans are and if they can keep to the promised timetable of “first half of 2022”.

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44 Comments

44 thoughts on “Plans to ‘celebrate’ the 25th anniversary of George Michael’s Older pushed back to 2022”

  1. While I agree the reissue campaign for George Michael has been a major disappointment, I believe it is reasonable not to “split” the release of vinyl, streaming, and CD releases and that doing so doesn’t warrant speculation that there is no plan for CD release at all. Split releases are sloppy non-events. I’ve been on this site for years, so I obviously understand your love for the CD format, but the fact of the matter is that vinyl is what is “trendy,” “hip,” “sexy,” whatever you want to call it, not CD. Releasing a deluxe edition without a vinyl alternative is lame and I don’t blame them for delaying it if that is the issue.

    That said – agree completely on Symphonica – no idea what is happening there.

  3. Well I guess we’ll all be older by the time this eventually comes out. I think your suspicions are right Paul that this is the result of leaving things too late. Still you gotta have faith it will come good in the end.

  4. I am not saying I don’t believe there are logistical problems with vinyl at the moment but there must be ways around it if you are determined. Every day there are new announcements about reissues which for some, are an absolute waste of vinyl and paper. I’m not going to list examples as all acts have their fans but GM is a shining light and should have the utmost care and attention lavished on his modest but precious body of work. Someone needs to step down and let a professional take over. Why would any interested parties veto a reissue campaign when they would all benefit? Even Prince had his wishes overruled when it came to the almighty dollar, I am lead to understand.

  5. I cannot imagine the personal difficulties one can experience in life which prevent him to be effective in his job, so I will grant Austin a justification.
    It’ s just that he appears not to have demonstrated much during his “career”, to begin with the aborted musical one.
    Indeed, if one cannot make it he should delegate or pass the responsibility to someone else.
    In this way, he gives the impression of just easily living an easy life out of a non deserved salary, out of George’ s immense generosity even after his passing.

    But forgive my ignorance: apart from coloured or PD versions of albums, and the boxset full of gadgets that the industry could always set up building on almost nothing, is the Wham! / GM catalogue actually really so rich in extra tracks / B sides? From what I bought (I stopped at Freedom 90) he was very meagre as regards flipsides in that there was always an instrumental version of the song. Never seen many originals, if I remember correctly.
    An as far as unreleased tracks are concerned I think I remember reading somewhere an interview with his producer (Chris Porter or someone equally closer to him in the studio) where it was said that he was a perfectionist and there was not much left over from his sessions, or in any case so incomplete that it would be impossible to release.
    (I realise this appears to be in contrast with the surfacing of the very – nice – but – spoiled – by – vocoder This Is How, but still…)

  6. Very depressing. As much as I claim about the mishandling of Prince and Michael Jackson’s unreleased material, and there are HUGE problems a casual fan would not identify, what has happened with George is about the worst I could imagine. George was, to me, the only person capable of joining that solo artist stratosphere ONLY held by a few: Elton John and Stevie Wonder in the 70’s, and Prince and MJ in the 80’s. It seems likely that he had some top rate material in his vaults based on a few of the leaks. Sadly, since George was a little eccentric with his music, some may feel it should stay unreleased. The one auto tune ruined song we got from the Christmas movie shows how Austin & Co have very little interest in George, and probably could care less if we ever get anything near a full album. Even though George had somehow been convinced auto tune was a great supplement to his voice, a lot our age were horrified when he used on “True Faith.” It was not quite as bad on “White Light,” but after the seemingly flawless single “An Easier Affair,” I had hoped for more funky material and less generic flavor of the day stuff. I’m sure there’s 30 or so quality George songs and maybe another 30 less stellar tracks. I say release it all in a box set so the fans can decide. But, almost five years from his passing, nearly nothing. I guess I can look forward to the next Prince release, even though Controversy and Dirty Mind are apparently not worth remastering and releasing at this time, but Welcome 2 America was. SMH.

    1. I think they wanted to at least give us something fresh and concrete with Welcome 2 America. Now we see why he let it stay buried and released Art Official Age instead which was more inspired and fresh. However I am glad to have heard it. They just gave us Sign O The TImes Super Deluxe so we need to chill for a bit.

      MJ Estate messing up big time with their releases, even sent out a statement saying they are not interested in releasing anymore unreleased material. Shame.

      1. Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you. Nice to see somebody else does not gush over Welcome! The fact that over 5 years after his death that For You, Prince, Dirty Mind, Controversy, Around, Parade, Lovesexy, and Batman have not at least had a remaster is insane. A lot of the fans that got into him early are not only aging, some are sadly dying off. Waiting for 50th anniversary dates will be a shame. We don’t have forever. George’s people and MJ’s people are even worse, as stated.

  7. I for one would love to see Wham! get some love and see Fantastic, Make It Big and The Final all receive the super deluxe treatment. There is plenty of material for all 3 and of course Wham! in China: Foreign Skies DVD included as part of the Make It Big set. Instead of copious coloured vinyl releases all 3 receive LP picture discs and double or triple LP sets.

    1. They just need to make a complete Wham set with everything. No need for tons of different releases. One big set with 4-7 CD and 2 DVD should cover everything and then some. I doubt there is too much pre solo career in the vaults anyway, but I’d welcome it. Not having remasters of any Wham albums in full is crazy. The solo stuff is in better shape, but it’s the outtakes I’m upset with not having. And no original I Want Your with Part 1,2, and 3 connected like the 12 inch and original cd single remastered is in line with George’s hate for the song. But I sure want it.

      1. The full ‘monogamy mix’ of I Want Your Sex was on one of the Blank & Jones So80s comps, but yeah I agree it should have been on the Faith reissue.

  8. Without re-treading the ground laid out above and below. Sometimes people are just out of their depth. Just not very good at their job. I should know, I spent the best part of 15 years in an over-promoted position, before committing career suicide and being infinitely happier for it. But that wasn’t being entrusted with the back catalogue of one of Britain’s greatest ever artists. It’s not like Austin has 40 albums to curate. The list isn’t massive. I just don’t think he can be up the task.

  14. Dear George Michael Estate if anyone is reading here is what we would like:

    For all of the albums to be available on vinyl;

    Fantastic
    Make It Big
    The Final
    Faith
    Older
    Songs From The Last Century
    Patience
    Symphonica

    If you wanted to have them as a boxset like Sade did with her hers that would be welcome.

    I would welcome expanded editions of the above albums. Just the 7’ 12’ & B sides as extras originally released. But make it complete. The Faith or Listen ones were not. Would also like the Wham! film Foreign Skies as an extra.

    Photography books or books not Bare would also be welcome. I say not Bare because the author sold stories & he was someone who George Michael considered a friend.

    Thank you

  15. Someone needs to fire David Austin and hire someone who knows what they are doing. With a deceased artist who is obviously not going to be producing new work, the ONLY thing to focus on is reissues, so they should, by now, have catalogued what they had in their “vaults” and been tracking down whatever may be missing that would require licensing, and they should have had the reissue campaign planned out at least five years in advance from the point where they had a reasonable understanding of what material there was to work with. Anniversaries aren’t surprises. (“What? Last I knew, it was only three years. Now it’s been 25? I was so busy working on this crossword puzzle.”)

    We’ve gotten LWP, which was already in the can when George passed on. And we got Last Christmas–the glorified compilation album with one extra song. Hell, even just putting together a compilation of previously released non-LP songs would be SOMETHING at this point, and there are certainly enough of those out there.

    1. They don’t care. George didn’t care about his own music. He had venom for IWYS, and for many other songs. He had such a negative attitude about some really brilliant work, yet embraced Auto Tune, as copying the trends of young people was more important than figuring out how great his past was. As silly as Wake Me Up Before You Go Go is, it is a classic, and puts a smile on my face. Fire David Austin? Or Dallas Austin? Or Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man. It doesn’t matter which Austin is in charge. Nobody cares about George’s legacy or music.
      If we can go 5 years after his death with nearly nothing, the sad truth is there just has not been that big of an outcry from fans. If 100,000 signed a petition, and said they would deposit a certain amount for things, maybe that would change something.
      It appears the Corporate types think the financial gains for George are all in the past. A shame, as he was to me, one of the top ten artists ever. That says a lot due to his fairly low output of material. Prince would sometimes record more tracks in a two month period than George did in his lifetime. Not fair to compare anyone to Prince, but George did not record that much. It seems his love for music started to decline after Older, and doubt there are too many outtakes after that. And the modern ones may be polluted with Auto Tune, like that awful New Order remake. At least White Light was a decent song despite the Auto Tune…..I’d love to have that album. In conclusion, for my money, the Suits don’t care about milking George’s vaults, and have no interest no matter who you hire or fire.

      1. “A reissue program barely alive…. gentlemen, we can rebuild it, to make the world’s first bionic, er, super deluxe edition”. Joking aside, I agree. ‘They’ seem to be taking their cue from George who didn’t really give a shit. Sony had to nag and nag him to get him to agree to the Faith reissue, which offered nothing unreleased. Same with LWP. That took so long GM wasn’t even alive when it finally happened. Says it all. With George and Wham! fans should set their expectations to VERY LOW and then still wait to be disappointed.

  16. It wouldn’t be a George Michael reissue if it wasn’t released massively late. It’s quite understandable though, I mean, David Austin is extremely busy managing his own world class career and it’s a super labor intensive process to dust off a few old tapes and get them printed on vinyl and cd. All this in a time when labor and vinyl can’t be found anywhere. Poor David Austin, having to manage all this!

  17. I remember at the London screening of the Freedom documentary a few years back, a rather smug David Austin replying to an audience question about managing George’s legacy in the Q&A session after the film, that “fans will not be disappointed”…

    Yeah right!

  18. Sorry but we all have eyes and can see that every artist has calibrated their releases factoring in the delays with pressing vinyl records so as Paul stated, this is alone down to sloopy and late thinking by whoever is running his estate.
    We even have artists scheduling releases in the next year, and Kylie’s example is perfect for someone who won’t even have to wait until then and clearly the release was not considered years ago.

  19. Hopefully it will be along the lines of the LWP box CD wise, although not knowing much about GM’s catalogue not sure if there is enough extras for a deluxe. I picked the LWP box up on the cheap and it’s the only GM I have and am waiting to see if any other reissues appear before I buy more. LWP was a revelation to me and it’s become one of my most played box sets.

  20. No surprise at all! No disrespect to the great man himself but GM fans were used to waiting a long time for activity in his lifetime – DA and whoever else is running the show now are sadly continuing his legacy! His catalogue deserves a full extensive super deluxe reissue campaign starting from the earliest Wham! releases right up to his final solo material. Granted, some special edition solo stuff has surfaced over the years but there is so much more that can be done – for example the Listen Without Prejudice/MTV Unplugged package was all wrong – the MTV Unplugged element should really have been a standalone audio/video release! Must try harder.

  22. Giving this a positive spin…’Older’ on a deluxe cd reissue,the Blondie box set and 50th anniversary of ” Ziggy’ (what’s happened to Hunky Dory though?) all to look forward to….

    1. You can include Deep Purple In Rock (50th last year) and Fireball (this year). I believe Warners have the rights to these 2 albums and I haven’t heard anything regarding a 50th re-issue for these 2 classic albums. Maybe there’s not much left in the vaults after the 25th anniversary re-issues but what the hell, put them in a box and label them 50th Anniversary and I’ll buy anything from this Band (within reason of course!!)

  23. Probably David Austin is too busy living “la Bella Vita” with Andrew. Or probably he is too busy with his new album coming out in 3023 with George’s lyrics and choirs :-)

  24. Seriously, what are they doing? Napping all day? This legacy reissue campaign, if you want to be generous & even call it that is not befitting of the Man’s talents! It’s a genius of an album which still sounds great to this day so I hope whatever is being planned by David Austin & his “workers” is worthy of what the album stands for.

  25. Such a shame. But, to be honest, I was not expecting anything from the GM camp this year, so I decided to concentrate on the fact that my favourite George Michael album will get a reissue after all. Hoping for the cd format. Fingers crossed it won’t be too long until the release (but I won’t bet anything on this)

  28. There are also issues with the production of bespoke card and paper parts due to manufacturing and shipping delays from China (where most such things are made). However, given the overall picture, it seems unlikely that this is a *major* aspect of the delay.

  29. Has anybody considered that maybe G.M. left his affairs in such a complicated mess
    that there are a myriad interested parties with the power to veto?

    2. Yes, this is an astute comment highly likely to be the case. Who owns any demo/alternative versions if they exist? And who owns Michael’s estate?

      1. I’m not sure things are that complicated. George was ultimately on one record label for most of his life with Wham and as a solo artist, although we know what Older was on Dreamworks and Symphonica on Virgin (which is why the reissue – if it happens – is via Universal). Any demos made while under contract to a label are normally owned by the label, although George being powerful might have had full ownership with a licensing deal.

  30. Patience, yes, it´s not only an album title by George but also something the fans have to be. Even the Beatles weakest album ” Let it be ” ( that is not just my opinion ) has been released on year later than it´s 50th anniversary, so …

    1. Patience. Yes. It’s only been about five years now. We all can wait another 30 or so years to have something to look forward to in our old folks home should we live that long.

  31. In the pandemic times kylie (and many others) issue a studio album last year (with the correct tracklisting) and a BIG reissue in multiple formats this year. The older album is getting even older. As the artist himself said: “Thank you for waiting .Again”. Patience indeed…

  32. Am I alone in hoping that the ‘team’ embraces the nominative determinism opportunity here and puts out whatever this thing is as ‘Even Older’?

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