A girl who I met through the George Michael Fan Club, (now extinct - the Club that is!) told me she would show me where George lived if I would take her to London. The chances for her to go to London were limited as she lived much further away and she could'nt drive at the time. So we arranged a trip during the week when I could do some work in London as well (long way to go otherwise!)

We eventually arrived in Hampstead and drove a short distance from the main High Street to a private road which went uphill and over speed ramps. To my dismay the road was occupied by various blocks of flats, and although expensive because of the area, was not at all what you would expect of a very rich pop star. (I'd spend my money more wisely and get something bigger and more private in it's own grounds) At the top of the road, she told me to bear left and then pointed to this little house sitting low and left of another block of apartments.

In front of the house is a block of four grotty garages, and at the time there was not even a fence to stop anyone from going up and knocking on the door! I didn't do this but waited at the top of the garage block right opposite his house and took a few pictures of the house and cars. The house itself is disgusting! What looks like a corrugated iron roof (It obviously is not!) slanting down towards the front with windows sticking out on the first floor like raised pop-up headlights on the sloping bonnet of a sports car. Can you picture that? To the right on the roof is a water tank on stilts with an old satellite dish strapped to it on a pole!

It's a right old abortion of a house! The right hand window on the first floor never has curtains drawn and you can see that the walls have varnished slatted pine wood planks diagonally across - hideous!

Anyway, enough slagging off. After just about 5 minutes I could see Hippy, his Labrador running around the front by the Range Rover (black with blacked out windows, he also had a metallic black BMW 850i with blacked out windows parked in front of the block of flats next door - this is a car he is rumoured to have hated, I've driven two and I think they're a good car!) Hippy was shortly followed by George (I could'nt believe my eyes!) and his then girlfriend who was a model, although I forget her name, but I know she was on the previous year's famous Pirelli calander. Suzanne (my friend) was brave at this point and called out to say "Hello George" and asked if he would sign something for her. He was grumpy and muttered something (I think "yes") and got in the Range Rover with Hippy in the back and girlfriend at his side after I said that I would move my car as it was slightly in the way.

It was now drizzling with rain and I wanted to keep our copies of 'Bare' dry! We walked over to the drivers window of his car and he dutifully signed each of our books (with a kiss on each) asking what our names were so that they could be personalised. I also produced a limited edition LWP US picture disc CD and a gold paint pen for him to sign with. When he tried signing the black and white picture on the CD (you know the one of all the people of course) the gold ink would'nt grip very well on the shiny surface. So he did it again on the silver play side on the reverse. I told him I had three copies of the album anyway, so it didn't matter! This also had a kiss on, obviously a habit regardless of sex! Hippy started to bark loudly in the back to which his girlfriend said "Be quiet!" but he carried on even more. George then shouted "Hippy!" loudly and Hippy shut up straight away! he knew who was boss! At some point in all of this George said he did not like people being so close to the house (we were'nt really) for which we apologised, but hey, how many times is this going to happen in your life? You sometimes just have to go for it and stuff the consequences! His girlfriend was smiling a lot all through this, she was very nice. We thanked him very much and he drove off with us following for a little while. I was so pleased with the signed book and CD. The CD is now framed with the CD booklet underneath and looks excellent - something to keep forever from the 27th of November 1992.

I then discovered that my company had a client in one of the flats in the apartment next door! When I went to see the client I could see that it looked like George was in. I came out at the end of the meeting just as George was walking out of his house to get in his Range Rover again with a friend or his minder/gofer. George drove and I followed him for several miles through London!

I've been back half a dozen or so times since with something of his to sign in the car just in case, but even though he has been there on occasions (or so it appeared) he has not come out at that point. I only stay for about ten or fifteen minutes - it's a bit naff to hang around all day, although Paul has once! It's just a bonus if he does happen to be outside when you're there.

Jonathan Flower