George Michael’s estate in legal battle over lost album recordings

George Michael ’s estate is suing his former best friend for charging fans to watch scenes from the recording of a lost album, it has been reported. The Wham! singer’s lawyers are taking Andros Georgiou, 63, to court over 90 minutes of footage shot in 1992 and 1993, according to The Sun. Last month, Georgiou launched a website charging fans to watch the film Trojan Souls – The Greatest Album That Was Never Made. The album would have collaborated with other famous singers such as Sir Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Janet Jackson, Aretha Franklin and Bryan Ferry. Fans are asked to pay £4.99 for 48 hours of online access to the 90-minute video, and for £19,99, they are promised access to previously unheard recordings of Michael’s unreleased songs from the record. Georgiou shot the video using a camcorder Sony gave him while they were in Japan on the pop star’s Faith tour. Lawyers for the singer’s estate have now lodged a case against Georgiou at London’s Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court. Most of the film shows Michael playing the piano, performing vocals with backing singers and talking to producers about his track list in a studio in Los Angeles. He lost interest in the album when the health of Anselmo Feleppa, his partner at the time who later died from Aids-related complications, declined. The album was never finished. Georgiou, who was estranged from the singer before he died on Christmas Day 2016, told The Sun that the case was one of “sheer greed”. He said: “First and foremost – my brother in arms, my best friend, George Michael to you, Yog to me – would turn in his grave knowing what Russells [the estate’s lawyers] are attempting – and spending his money to do it. “It is well known Yog and I were working on Trojan Souls through my record label, Hardback Records. “The film I have released was shot by me, with Yog’s full approval. This was a home video leaked over 30 years ago. It kept resurfacing on YouTube. “So I decided, if you can’t beat them, put the film out myself, since others were already profiting from my home video.” Georgiou and Michael shared a close friendship for decades after their fathers moved to the UK from Cyprus together in 1953. The pair later fell out after Michael’s arrest in an LA public toilet in 1998. However, they had planned to reconcile before the singer’s death in 2016, speaking on the phone in the final weeks of his life. Michael died of natural causes at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, aged just 53. Robobuild Limited and Big Geoff Overseas Limited, the holding companies Michael used to manage royalties and world tours, have bought the claim against Andros and Tribe Media, the production house distributing the film. Lawyers for Michael’s estate were contacted for comment by The Sun.