George: A Memory of George Michael

Before he left Roe Green, further evidence of the precocious artistic nature of Georgios Panayiotou came to light. He contributed two poems to the junior school’s 1974 yearbook. They demonstrate a highly developed and mature sense of rhythm and imagination in someone so young. Neither is particularly cheery. The first, ‘The Story of a Horse’, is signed by Georgios Panayiotou, 4S. It began:

Once there was a lonely horse, weeping on a stack of hay

The gun was ready, the bullet was hot, the horse had broken a

leg that day

The second, entitled ‘Sounds in the Night’, was a freestyle verse signed Professor WhatsIsname (Alias G. Panayiotou 4S):

… Now what have I forgotten to tell you, I’m sure something slipped my

Tongue. Ah! Now I remember, you’ll guess what I have

To say to you … I am BLIND!!!

Georgios didn’t have far to go when he started senior school at Kingsbury High: it’s next door to Roe Green. He would not be settling in for the long haul, however. Jack had plans to take his family up to the next stage of middle-class Englishness: he wanted them to move to the countryside.

In January 1975, Jack bought a house on Oakridge Avenue, Radlett, that would be the family home for Georgios throughout his teenage years. The detached four-bedroom white house was simply stunning, although it required a great deal of initial building work to convert it into the spacious, stylish, open-plan Mediterranean-style mansion that Jack had set his heart on. It was at the end of the road; just green fields lay beyond, with trails that were a dog walker’s paradise. The back route into the centre of the pretty Hertfordshire town and its railway station was a brisk ten-minute walk.

They couldn’t move in immediately, so had to live in the flat above the restaurant in Station Road for a few months. Being able to eat in the Angus Pride all the time wasn’t ideal for his waistline and Georgios, who was prone to gaining a few extra pounds, was on the chubby side when they finally moved.

The restaurant was proving to be a great success. Some people found Jack Panos a little brash and extrovert, but his son was very gracious about what he called his dad’s ‘heroic effort’. Inevitably, Georgios was the product of both his father and his very English mother. Jack was an astute businessman; material wealth mattered to him. Lesley was a kind and generous soul who cared little for money. Georgios, too, was never motivated by money – much easier not to be when you have some – but he had his father’s strong will to succeed. He was, however, raised in very much a female household, spending most of his time with his mum and two sisters. The two girls also had a profound and underestimated influence on him: Yioda was thoughtful, serious and contained. Melanie was much more flamboyant and extrovert; she was also something of a mother hen where her kid brother was concerned. Georgios would prove to be a mix of both personalities.

The sisters had it much tougher than the son of the house, although he was indulged rather than spoiled. The girls were not even allowed to have boyfriends. And if they went out together, perhaps to the ice rink, then their younger brother would have to go along, too. A close friend observed that the sisters did have some difficult times dealing with their tough, patriarchal dad, particularly during their teenage years. As a boy, Georgios felt guilty that he always seemed to get his way whereas his two ‘wonderful’ sisters never did. He recalled, ‘I was always the one who was going to get the easy ride.’

Georgios would have to change schools when they eventually moved. As part of Jack’s master plan of social improvement for his family, he was keen to send his son to private school, but this was not greeted with any enthusiasm. In an early indication of his stubbornness and resolution, Georgios refused, feeling he would be more comfortable in a state school. He would soon be an adolescent teenager with the usual anxieties of that age; it would be hard enough in any new school but particularly one where he was concerned he would feel out of place: ‘My friends would have called me a sissy. Plus I would have been intimidated by it and I really didn’t want to be with those kinds of people.’

Faced with his son’s immovable ‘force field’, Jack relented and let Georgios have his way. Instead, he was enrolled in Bushey Meads School in Coldharbour Lane, Bushey, five miles away from his new home. There, he would soon meet someone who was to change his life.