On June 1, 2024, Yours Only George is celebrating its 27th anniversary. Shannon and I started this site in 1997 back when AOL gave free space for web sites. We later moved it to a webhost and bought the domain www.yogworld.com.
We had our first fan club in 1986 and came up with the name “Yours Only George” in the early 1990s. The name not only represented fans dedicated to George Michael, but also spelled out “YOG,” George Michael’s nickname. The name “Yog” was originally given to George Michael by Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley.
I am forever thankful to Shannon for her friendship and support. There is no better friend in this world than Shannon. This site would not be here without her.
Over the past five months, I have been going page by page to update the site. Considering that it is two sites in one and it has about 500 pages, there is a lot to work on!
I am posting my Top 5 Favorite things about the site from the last 27 years:
5
The George Michael Links section is really the beginning of the entire Yours Only George web site. Back in the mid 1990s, I had gone to a seminar, and the gist was that links were a key to success. It was only later that we became known for the George Michael news. At one point, I think there were at least 400 links. I recently deleted any that were no longer available.
4
I remember being shocked when I saw the Yours Only George website listed as a source for a few George Michael biographies. The first one is George Michael: The Biography (Amazon Ad) by Rob Jovanovic. The second one is George Michael: A Life (Amazon Ad) by James Gavin. I was also recently approached to write a George Michael book. Maybe some day I will!
3
When George Michael died, one tabloid picked up on the fact that Andrew Ridgeley called George Michael “Yog” in his Twitter post about George Michael dying. The writer wrongly said Andrew’s nickname of Yog stood for “Yours Only George.” The nickname “Yog” derives from the Greek pronunciation of George’s given name: Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou. The “G” on “Georgios” is pronounced with a “y” sound like “yogurt.” Unfortunately, this inaccurate information has propagated to other sites.
2
It was an absolute thrill when we interviewed Shirlie Kemp. I wish I had dated the article. I think it was in February 1998. We interviewed Shirlie when she was running the George Michael fan club during the Aegean record label era. Some day I hope to interview Shirlie again.
1
My absolute favorite memory was finding out that George Michael not only knew about the Yours Only George web site, but George Michael also had the Yours Only George web site bookmarked on his computer! This was in 2004. Jill Taylor, a DJ, did an Internet search before her interview with George Michael, and she found the Yours Only George web site. She mentioned the site during the interview. George was very nice, said he knew about the site, and even had it bookmarked on his computer.
I never had the chance to meet George Michael, but knowing George visited the site is the next best thing.
I will be posting a second article with the Top 5 saddest things that have happened over the last 27 years on the Yours Only George site.
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