An extraordinary and sometimes hilarious tale of how things can go very wrong, and very right, in the music business.

Before Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, before the sold-out stadiums, and before superstardom, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were two 17-year-olds with big dreams.

In 1979, Michael Burdett spotted their potential in a church hall and subsequently took
them into a studio to record their very first demo tracks. But there was a twist – at that point they were the two singers in a ska band. Michael tried to get them a record deal. This musical plan didn’t quite work out, but what happened next changed pop history forever.

Now, in this funny, surprising, and uplifting solo show, Edinburgh award-winner Michael Burdett takes you behind the scenes of George and Andrew’s early musical ambitions before they formed Wham! – from record company rejections to the first glimpse of George’s genius. All before the global fame that saw them go on to sell over 30 million records.

40 years after first taking them into the studio, Michael did something remarkable with the recording they had made together. He travelled to every county in the UK and photographed random strangers listening on headphones to the first song George and Andrew ever wrote. Could people guess who they were listening to?

For anyone who is a fan of Wham! or Dave Gorman’s travelogue works or if you just want to hear James Acaster reading George and Andrew’s first rejection letter, this show is for you. Before Fame is a quirky, funny and uplifting solo show that will make you scratch your head at how coincidence shapes destiny. It’s told with wit, warmth, and a healthy dose of self- deprecating humour. Before Fame, in Michael’s words, is a show about two musical geniuses and an idiot. Spoiler alert: Michael is the idiot.