From Cannes to WHAM! The Trashing of Lindsay Anderson

Lindsay Anderson’s documentary about Wham! in China, If You Were There.... , began with a foreword, in which he stated: “When editing was in its final stages I was dismissed by the WHAM! management. My editing crew resigned. No reason was given for this dismissal or for the recutting of the film.”

But in the forty years that followed very few people would see this simple statement of the truth because Wham! refused to allow Lindsay’s edit to be shown.

Until now I had always assumed that Wham!’s sacking of Lindsay was simply a matter of their philistine dislike of his film. I should have known that the real motives were far worse. Martin Lewis, the producer of the film, who resigned when Wham!’s management sacked Lindsay, tells what really happened in today’s Guardian (which a few days ago published an interview piece with Andrew Ridgeley that, predictably, glossed over what really happened).

The WHAM! affair played a significant part in blighting the career of one of Britain’s finest film directors. So after putting up with all the promotional bullshit that has over the last few weeks accompanied the release of Wham! 10 Days in China, it is good to learn the truth at last.

Given the skulduggery that led to Lindsay’s dismissal from a work that Martin Lewis described as “a carefully constructed cinematic tour de force”, it would be wonderful to think that WHAM! would at last allow his original version of the documentary to be freely shown, but I am not counting any chickens!

See also:

https://www.charlesdrazin.com/post/wham-and-lindsay-anderson

https://www.charlesdrazin.com/post/selling-out-to-wham