George Michael collaborator says no hologram as tech isn’t good enough

George Michael won’t be doing a hologram tour, his former song writing partner and friend David Austin says, because the technology isn’t good enough to create a show that does justice to his songs.

“We were going to see if we could do a hologram idea in the middle of the Royal Albert Hall,” Austin said. “But I went around to some people who did the Tupac hologram and they were really s***.

Speaking at a screening of new Michael documentary Freedom Uncut at Soho House last night, Austin said: “The problem with holograms is people just don’t engage, 20 minutes in... people are on their phone... There won’t be a ‘HoloWham’.”

Austin had done some research. “I went to see a company in Milan there and one in Vegas” Austin said. “There was some people who were ahead of the game and there was some people who weren’t but it just didn’t work.”

An ABBA hologram concert is showing in Stratford, while a George Michael video show will tour this year. Other stars including Whitney Houston and Elvis Presley have been recreated as holograms.

Austin said he’d heard good things about the ABBA show. “I was talking to someone who was raving about the ABBA thing. They’ve obviously thrown a lot of money at it and it’s jammed full of hit records” he said.

The ex-Wham! singer, left, died in 2016. Austin also said he wouldn’t put out unfinished songs, unlike the estates of Amy Winehouse and Michael Jackson. “George’s body of work is his body of work,” he said.