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Behind the scenes

Inside this issue: Wham!'s Last Christmas turns 40

The Big Issue's first bumper Christmas special is out this week! Buy the magazine to read all about Last Christmas, the classic

Inside the Big Issue: Last Christmas at 40.

Christmas came early for Andrew Ridgeley in 1984. The previous year’s festivities were barely over when he heard a song he felt was a dead cert to be the next Christmas number one. Even better, it had been written by George Michael for their band Wham!.

Four decades later, the song’s enduring appeal means that, as long as Christmas is celebrated somewhere in the world, Last Christmas will be part of the soundtrack. It’s quite an achievement. Especially for a pop duo who were just 21 when it was released and were viewed as transitory pop pin-ups rather than cultural titans at that time.

But Ridgeley, talking to Big Issue, says the song’s long afterlife was quite deliberate. “George set himself a task as a songwriter to write a Christmas song that would endure and be perennial,” says Ridgeley, now a youthful 61. “It’s such a big ask. That’s why there aren’t that many really awesome Christmas songs. But Last Christmas was a song we both recognised as being a classic, and one we felt would be a shoo-in for Christmas number one.”

Ridgeley is speaking to the Big Issue 28 years to the week since George Michael broke a long media silence by giving an exclusive interview to our magazine in 1996.

Last Christmas finally made number one in the UK singles chart in 2021. In this week’s issue, read all about the Christmas classic.

What else is in this week’s magazine?

The unflagging volunteers making sure children in poverty aren’t left out this Christmas

Thousands of children in poverty in north-west England will wake up to sacks of toys on Christmas morning, as if by magic, thanks to hundreds of volunteers who have worked tirelessly through the year. They buy, wrap and deliver the presents to food banks, schools, women’s refuges and social services to reach families in need. “Every child should enjoy the magic of Christmas,” says Dee Drake, the founder of the Toy Appeal. “We give a little joy on Christmas Day.”

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Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart were Trumped but are still top of the pods

When Rory Stewart predicted that Kamala Harris would “win comfortably” he proved even best-selling political commentators can get things drastically wrong. But the O2 Arena-filling popularity of The Rest Is Politics, his podcast with Alastair Stewart, remains undimmed

The wait for pension credit has left low-income pensioners facing the cold

 Winter fuel payments have dominated the headlines ever since the government decided to remove them from all but those in receipt of pension credit. But if Labour thought the fallout couldn’t get any worse, they were wrong. Waiting times for pension credit claims have doubled in the space of just one month, leading to fears applications won’t be processed in time for the imminent cuts to winter fuel payments.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. This Christmas, you can make a lasting change on a vendor’s life. Buy a magazine from your local vendor in the street every week. If you can’t reach them, buy a  Vendor Support Kit.

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