When Shirlie Kemp was at secondary school, there was a boy in the year below her who used to carry a violin case around. His name was Georgios Panayiotou, though he later became known to the world as George Michael. The boy had a friend called Andrew Ridgeley, who later became known as the other one in Wham!

“They looked a bit too young for me,” says Kemp, 57. “They didn’t appeal to me at school at all. If you’d told me then, ‘In years to come, you guys will all be in this band,’ I’d never have believed it.”

She means that when she says it: one of five...