Which football match were Wham! watching when they wrote Last Christmas? | The Knowledge

"We were killing time on a Sunday, said Ridgeley later. It was winter, early 1984. The Big Match was on, which was the only live football on TV in those days. Neither of us were really watching it. I was more interested in football than he was and his attention was clearly elsewhere. He had a four-track tape recorder in his bedroom and suddenly jumped and ran upstairs."

"Assuming the football was live, as Ridgeley suggests, we're pretty sure the match in question was on ITV on Sunday 12 February 1984, with the evocative kick-off time of 2.35pm: Luton 0-5 Manchester United in the old Division One. That was the only live Sunday game in February 1984. You can watch the whole match and the full four-and-a-half-minute buildup on ITV here."

"The section about Wham!'s Last Christmas says Andrew Ridgeley was watching football at George Michael's parents on a Sunday, when George got the melody and wandered off to record it upstairs. Greatness obviously awaited but I want to know: which match was it? It's 1984, a Sunday and presumably on terrestrial TV. Was the second half worth Ridgeley not getting involved in the recording?"

Andrew Ridgeley recalled watching football at George Michael's parents while George Michael suddenly composed the melody for 'Last Christmas' and ran upstairs to record it on a four-track tape recorder. The event occurred on a winter Sunday in early 1984; George later dated the song to February 1984. The Big Match was the only live Sunday football broadcast then, suggesting the specific fixture was ITV's Sunday 12 February 1984 kickoff at 2.35pm: Luton 0-5 Manchester United. The match featured goals by Bryan Robson, Norman Whiteside and Frank Stapleton. 'Last Christmas' reached UK Christmas number one in 2023, having been kept off the top spot in 1984 by Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas'.

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