A snippet about The Executive from George Michael's documentary called Freedom. This snippet includes a bit of a demo song called - Blood Is Thicker Than Water by The Executive - 1980. There is also another 3 tracks by The Executive - Rude Boy, Can't Get Used To Losing You, Für Elise. A very short demo of Für Elise is available to download - please join Skaville City Community on Discord to get it. [ Ссылка ]
George Michael & Andrew Ridgeley were both in a Ska band called The Executive before they formed up the pop duo called Wham! This is the rarest demo tape of Ska during the 2 Tone era & is so scarce that only a few tapes existed. Whether this tape still exist's who knows???
If anyone does have this ultra rare cassette tape please let me know. We might not ever get to hear these recordings, but it is worth mentioning about this tape because someone might have it & a chance that they might share it just can't be missed. I can only hope.
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George Michael actively pursued a career as a ska musician before going on to find success in Wham and later as a solo artist.

Michael and his best friend Andrew Ridgely formed their 2-Tone influenced band The Executive along with Paul Ridgely and David Austin in 1979. The band banged out happy, sunny syncopated 2-Tone styled ska and later entered a a sixteen-track studio to cut a demo tape, recording an original titled "Rude Boy" plus a ska cover of the old Andy Williams' classic "Can't Get Used To Losing You"and a ska version of Beethoven's "Für Elise."

According to a George Michael fan web site, the band played local gigs close to where they lived and spent a lot of time hawking their demo tape around the A&R departments of London-based record companies. Rumor has it that a copy even made its way to Dave Wakeling of The Beat who were running their own Go Feet label in Birmingham.

"George and Andrew would take time off from school and college, travel to the capital and then sit around in the waiting rooms of the music business until some lethargic talent-spotter finally agreed to see them. But even when they were granted an audience, the A&R man who lolled in his chair on the other side of the desk invariably pressed the STOP button before their tape had gone very far. 'Come back in the next millennium,' seemed to be the general consensus among the major labels, thought Andrew, and even those sympathetic to the ska cause failed to offer them anything resembling a deal. Andrew was cocky enough to attribute the negative response of the record companies to the advanced ages and modest IQs of the men who staffed the industry's A&R departments. George was confident enough to think that perhaps "Rude Boy" was sufficiently derivative to deserve all the rejection it had heaped upon it. He would do better next time..."
Though they lasted only 18 months, Michael and Ridgely ended up using the constant A&R rejection of The Executive to start over with Wham. The truth is that The Executive was part of the many copycat ska bands that popped up all over the U.K. during 1979-1980 in the wake of The Specials, Madness, The Selecter and The Beat's ascent into the charts and on Top Of The Pops..

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