Turn That Noise Down - Andrew Ridgeley

So many well-known albums turn 30 this year and Steve Taylor-Bryant and Susan Omand travel back to 1990 to revisit some of the sounds of their youth that made parents shout "Turn that noise down!" This week, Steve makes a discovery...



I shall be honest, shall I? I know who Andrew Ridgeley is because I grew up in the 1980’s and, as much as you may want to admit you didn’t know who Wham! were, let us face it, you did. What I did not know was that Andrew Ridgeley continued making music. Obviously, George Michael went on to global mega stardom but the next time I saw Andrew Ridgeley was on television reminiscing about George after his sad passing, I had no idea Ridgeley made albums after Wham! I thought he had become a pig farmer or something, rumours and whispers were not my thing, but that nugget is stuck in my head for some reason.

However, make an album he did; Son of Albert is thirty years old this month and, as it's my duty to review things within that criteria, I sought it out. Except iTunes does not seem to think Ridgeley made an album either. I genuinely cannot get a copy online and I am not stretching our overworked keyworking posties by buying a second-hand cd from someone in Wakefield*. A quick check on Wikipedia shows that Son of Albert “was one of the worst received albums of 1990, achieving only half a star in a savage Rolling Stone Magazine review” with Ridgeley quoted as saying that “it was disappointing and depressing to receive quite such a beating over that album”



The world is currently in a horrible place, and I for one don’t want to pile on to any anguish that Ridgeley has from the somewhat spectacular fall from grace he had after Wham! so how about we be kind, we remember that Ridgeley was talented and was one half of an incredible duo. Let us remember that Ridgeley co-wrote one of the best songs to come out of the 1980’s and never actually has to work again due to the royalties from that song. Let us play that song now and forget about the solo album and critical beating a nice guy once took…







* The second-hand cd from someone in Wakefield is still available on Amazon - Ed