Review George Michael Freedom. Disappointing documentary skims the surface of a complex artist. Petra Verkaik 2009 more. The first inkling that there might be a George Michael documentary in the works came back in 2. George reached out to fans via his website to ask for rare photos and footage from 1. In the end, I didnt see much in the way of such fan content in George Michael Freedom last night, a new documentary shown in the UK last night that took us through the now fairly familiar stages in Georges career Wham, tight shorts, Top Of The Pops, Making It Big, Going Solo, Mega stardom with Faith before finally slowing down the frenzied pace in the very late 1. George attempted to step back from the rather crazy level of fame he had attained at that point. Offers news, comment and features about the British arts scene with sections on books, films, music, theatre, art and architecture. Requires free registration. Last month, internet service provider Cox began charging residential customers in Arizona, Louisiana, Nevada, and Oklahoma an extra 10 for every 50 gigabytes of data. Dig Out Your Soul Deluxe Limited Edition Box Set' title='Dig Out Your Soul Deluxe Limited Edition Box Set' />The particular focus was on 1. Listen Without Prejudice album which is reissued on Friday and the infamous Sony court case. Watching Freedom was inevitably incredibly poignant, given the fact that George is no longer with us, but in an attempt to dispassionately judge the merits of the documentary, we really need to put the sad events of last Christmas to one side. Also, lets not forget, Freedom wasnt made as a tribute to a deceased singer, it was more or less finished before George passed away. An introduction by Kate Moss and a final image of a smiling George with 1. One of the main problems with Freedom was a lack of focus. Was it a career spanning overview Was it about the making of Listen Without Prejudice like those normally excellent Classic Albums docsWas it an examination of Georges personal life, of grief and lost love, or was it concerned with the Sony dispute  a courtroom drama In the end, it was bits of all of the above, but anyone really interested in one aspect may have been left disappointed. The new Nest Thermostat E, like its predecessor, is a smart thermostat that promises to save you money by learning your habits and adjusting your air conditioner or. Wedding Band Requests Dear Bandleader thank you for your letter. I really do think you have an attitude problem and do want a few requests played if you dont mind. Entdecken Sie die groe Vielfalt an Angeboten fr Pop MusikCD BoxSets Sammlungen als Limited Editions. RiesenAuswahl fhrender Marken zu gnstigen Preisen. Classic music collections containing legendary artists and top hits, curated for your enjoyment in comprehensive CD collections. George was a brilliant songwriter and a superb singer, but he wasnt renowned for his documentary making skills. He directed Freedom with longtime friend David Austin and narrated it. Dos This Program Must Be Run Under Win32. How impartial can you really be when the subject is yourself What I really wanted was a forensic examination of the Sony court case. One of those documentaries where everyone involved gives a detailed account of what happened when, and why. But we got nothing like that. To be fair, George did give time to record executives like Sonys Paul Russell and Clive Davis where they tried to put their point of view across, but it was obvious where your sympathies were supposed to lie, and thats one of the reasons this issue isnt as engaging as it should be. Its hard to share Georges sense of burning injustice. Sony in the USA didnt apparently get behind Listen Without Prejudice, so it underperformed in America. This was an album for which he only made one video and refused to do anything to promote. As he explains in the documentary, with his second solo album George wanted to put behind him the character that was the George Michael of the Faith era sunglasses, leather jacket, gold earring and focus on the art the songwriting and recording music. However, crucially, he wasnt prepared to make this change and just shrug off any resulting lack of sales. Record companies do need tools to do the job of promotion, and when Clive Davis likened it to a film star not getting on the bandwagon and going to premieres to promote a movie, he had a point. Although the Listen Without Prejudice album sold better than Faith in the UK, the singles still suffered, badly. Yes, Freedom 9. 0 is a great song, but it only reached number 2. Britain and that was the one track that actually had a video David Bowie was as big a rock star as it gets, especially in Britain, in the early 1. Berlin in 1. 97. 7 to make Low and Heroes expecting to have a hit album like Ziggy Stardust. Neil Young made On The Beach after Harvest. As he said in the sleeve notes of Decade, Heart Of Gold put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there. In some ways George was echoing both of those moves, but when it was a rougher ride and the LWP album didnt perform as well as Faith he threw his toys out of the pram. Similarly, when George wanted to walk away from his Sony contract, because of how relations had broken down they had a lack of respect for him it comes across as very naive, him thinking that they arent going to fight to enforce a legally binding contract. There was a lack of detail and a lack of analysis in terms of the court case. As this excellent 1. The Independent testifies, after George lost the case, David Geffen paid 4. Sony to buy him out of his contract. Why didnt Freedom contain an interview with the man who was willing to spend 4. There was no serious examination of the Listen Without Prejudice album in Freedom. We had to watch as people like Liam Gallagher, James Corden and Stevie Wonder listened to tracks such as Praying For Time and endure them telling us how good they are we already know, thanks. Compare and contrast this to the insight that Francis Whatelys David Bowie Five Years documentaries offered, where multi tracks are studied, and musicians and singers who worked on the recordings were interviewed and were mostly perceptive and enlightening. Where were the contributions on Freedom from people like engineer Chris Porter and bass player Deon Estus, both of whom worked on Listen Without Prejudice and both of whom had been with George since the early days The documentary was more preoccupied with showing us the surface glamour  with endless shots of supermodels on various video shoots where it should have been digging below the surface and getting to some deeper truth. The documentary was also overly reliant on giving Georges contribution via archive interviews. He didnt know it of course, but its sad to think that George had one final opportunity to tell his side of the story on camera but chose not to, presumably because he was unhappy about his appearance. The best section of Freedom was the exploration of Georges relationship with Anselmo Feleppa. This was really moving and even though I knew most of the basic facts, it was revealing and interesting, for instance, to hear how Anselmo being terminally ill, had informed Georges astounding performance at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. Ultimately, George Michael should have narrowed the focus of Freedom. There was too much ground to cover in too little time and it felt mostly like light entertainment. Im really not interested in what James Corden, Ricky Gervais or Naomi Campbell think of George and his music, but there was undeniably an element of lets get lots of famous people to say nice things about me. Nile Rodgers was great value as always, and Elton John also contributed well, but any documentary that purports to be exploring the life and contradictions of George Michael should have included something from his old pal Andrew Ridgeley the man who gave him the confidence to perform in the first place. The truth is, a better, more insightful documentary would have been made by an independent, experienced film maker with a grittier more journalistic approach, but for better or for worse, George typically wanted to control everything. He wanted to be the director, he wanted to be the narrator. Cast Software Vs Sonar Platinum. It doesnt necessarily make for a better finished product. You can trace this behaviour right back to 1.