Making of the Older Album

Interview with Paul Gomersall By Mark Cunningham Originally published by Sound on Sound 1997.

With years of record label legal wrangles finally behind him, George Michael set about making an album to put him back at the top of the charts and consolidate his status as serious artist/producer.Working the desk on the Older sessions at SARM West was engineer Paul Gomersall, who tells Mark Cunningham about the making of the album. Twelve years ago this summer George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley as Wham! were bouncing around in their white shorts, singing ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ to a worshipful Top Of The Pops audience.Back then, there was little to suggest that Michael would make it big, then bigger still as one of Britain’s premier pop songwriters and solo performers.

The emotional ballad ‘Careless Whisper’,from that same summer, was the first sign that Michael had ambitions above Wham!‘s apparent disposability, and his debut solo album, Faith, displayed clear indications of a burgeoning maturity but it was in 1990, with Listen Without Prejudice (Volume One) and quality songs such as ‘Praying For Time’. ‘Soul Free’ and the beautifully-textured ‘Cowboys And Angels ’that critics began to favourably compare Michael’s writing skills with those of Elton John.Owing to well-publicised legal fisticuffs with his former label, Sony, Michael was unable to release new product for six years, but the public never lost interest, and the response to his recent dance hit, ‘Fast Love’, and its new parent album, Older, has been little short of ecstatic.