Maria Leaf
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL)
As George Michael was starting his solo career, he performed at the since-demolished Capital Centre in Prince George’s county.
More than 29,000 people came to the US kickoff of the “Faith World Tour” on August 6th and 7th 1988.
For Seth Hurwitz, who now is the Chairman of the Board at I.M.P, this was his first arena show as a promoter.
“I just kind of bluffed my way along and was like OK, sure! Hurwitz told WMAL when the call came in to book a venue. “We really came out of the whole alternative sort of punk rock stuff and hadn’t done these big glamorous stars like that”.
So Hurwitz took another chance and invited George Michael to dinner the night before the show.
“He was just super nice and normal….real sweet, real polite had a lot of poise and class. He just wanted to have fun the night before his big tour too, so he was happy that the local folks invited him to dinner.”
Hurwitz says he is indebted to George Michael for taking a chance on a smaller, independent promoter.
“He was this big pop star that was cool. He wasn’t uncool. Everyone loved him. He was a great, talented pop star who came to entertain.”
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (Photo: 9:30 Club)
