Wham! their tour of China, received its world premiere as part of the festivities. For several years after becoming a solo artist, Michael spoke negatively, in public, about his time with Wham, partly because of the negativity of intense media coverage on Ridgeley. Michael complained of the constant pressure he felt, and he claimed that the duo had been mistreated financially. He also spoke disparagingly about some of the videos and songs from the Wham repertoire, especially the video from "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", and the songs from Fantastic. However, his perspective on the era softened somewhat in the
Wham! David (Austin) Mortimer, Andrew Leaver and Paul Ridgeley. When this group split, Michael and Ridgeley eventually formed Wham, signing with Innervision Records. British graphic design studio Stylorouge was credited with adding the exclamation point to the name of the band. Michael took on the majority of roles and responsibilities within the band—composer, producer, lead singer, and occasional instrumentalist. Still teenagers, they promoted themselves as hedonistic youngsters, proud to live a carefree life without work or commitment. This was reflected in their earliest singles which, part-parody, part-social comment, briefly earned Wham a reputation as a dance protest group. The debut record