Continuing our series on London's best murals.
If you're going to make a mural of the Wham! singer, then you might as well Make It Big.
You could walk up and down Kingsbury Road many times and not notice this two-storey mural. It resides down an alley close to the Tube station, and we could only get this full-shot by using the panoramic setting.
Painted in 2020 by Dawn Mellor as part of the Brent Biennial, the nine-metre high artwork is a tribute to singer-songwriter George Michael, who died in 2016. It features numerous moments from the singer's life and career, with a few nods to the local area.
George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou) spent most of his childhood in Kingsbury, attending Roe Green Junior School and Kingsbury High School (as did two-thirds of the Sugababes, a generation later).
The mural was co-commissioned by Studio Voltaire, Brent Borough of Culture 2020 and Create London. Let's pick out a few details:
1. George's silhouette: From the video to Careless Whisper (1984)
2. A Los Angeles police helicopter: From the video to Outside (1998), which made sport of Michael's arrest for cottaging earlier that year.
3. Yellow-brick road: The Wizard of Oz motif could represent a life's journey, and is also a reference to the LGBT+ community and gay culture.
4. Blow-dry: A famous image of George Michael blow-drying his hair during Wham!''s 1985 world tour.
5. Monopoly board: The Go square has been changed to GoGo in reference to Wham!'s most famous hit. The extensive use of Monopoly on the mural may also be a reference to the estate agent, upon whose side wall the mural is painted. Winkworth apparently furnished the artist with many cups of tea. The 'Community' card could be a reference to his comments when given community service after the cottaging incident: "I'd service the community, but I already have."
6. Television set: A reference to John Logie Baird, whose early experiments with television included the erection of a large mast for receiving signals on Roe Green, just down the road. George is watching a programme that looks like the Monopoly jail space, but instead of 'Just visiting', it says 'just abolishing', perhaps a reference to campaigns to abolish anti-gay laws, including Section 28.
7. George and dog: George was a life-long dog man. Here, he's pictured with his last dog, Abby, who died two years after him.
8. George and Andrew: The Wham! duo are pictured wearing t-shirts carrying the slogan 'Choose Life', practically the group's motto.
The mural, entitled George Michael TV Outside is at 499 Kingsbury Road, Kingsbury NW9 9ED, right next to Kingsbury Tube station.
See our full series on London's best murals, including:
- The Battersea mural
- The Fitzrovia mural
- The Battle of Cable Street mural
- The Sutton Heritage Mosaic
- Dalston's Hackney Peace Carnival mural
- New Cross's Riders of the Apocalypse mural
- Brixton's Nuclear Dawn mural
- Peckham's RUN mural
- Whitechapel's Sidney Street mural
