I ,also, am who I am because of Wham! Part 4

Part 4 (of 4)

Part 4 (final part)

Continued from Part 3

Deon Estus

During the Fantastic album overdub sessions, I got to know Deon Estus. What to say about this man? Truly unbelievable, larger-than-life, awesomely talented bassist/musician/showman.

Watching him record a take was like going to the Deon Estus cabaret show. It was so fun to see. Everything had to be set up just so, he'd tinker and adjust every aspect of the amp, its position in the room, channel settings, baffles, you name it, a true perfectionist. The whole time Deon would be talking — to himself, to anyone in the studio, or the control room, but mainly with George and Steve, and mostly with Steve.

Deon would wrangle with Steve about every aspect of his bass and bass amp set-up, he'd change the way Steve had set up mics, or amp settings, and then Steve would somehow try to change it all back, quite often in the end just giving in so we could actually do some recording! Then Deon would go through a warm-up ritual, like a sportsman, maybe up to an hour of just jamming along and getting his fingers really firing, and then he'd start to do takes. He hated the idea to do drop-ins, to record the song in short sections, step by step, he wanted to do everything in one live take and was never satisfied with his playing. Steve would have to caress and careen his ego, telling him how wonderful his playing was, that we'd got what was needed. Eventually when we were all absolutely sure that it was an absolutely perfect take, still Deon wanted to erase it and go again (not keep it and try another, erase it and do it again)... and this guy could talk Steve Brown under the table... and that really is something... quite a show!

Deon Estus