George Michael is due to appear at the new Wembley Stadium next month in the first concert to be staged there, but yesterday he made a lower key appearance in a rather shabbier venue.

The icon of late 20th century pop arrived at Brent Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning to plead guilty to driving while unfit through drugs.

It was not to be his finest performance. Michael initially entered the wrong plea, and then gave an impromptu address to the court about how he had been living “in a combination of misinformation and shame for eight months”.

He had arrived at court wearing a black suit jacket over a black shirt and blue jeans. It was a sharp outfit though it did not compare with the slit suede jackets of his heyday. He was also required to use his real name, Georgios Panayiotou.

Every performer knows the importance of a big entrance. Michael swept into the chamber and sat beside his lawyer, Brian Spiro.

District Judge Katherine Marshall told him he was in the wrong place. “The defendant goes in the dock in this court,” she said.

Duly installed, Michael said he would plead “not guilty”.

Mr Spiro looked concerned. “No!” he could be heard to whisper. “Guilty.”

The singer, a man who once drove millions of teenage girls crazy as he did the jitterbug on Top of the Pops, required a moment with his barrister.

Michael said: “My point was a different point. I plead guilty due to tiredness and prescribed drugs.”

The judge said he had to give a plea based on the wording of the charge against him.

Michael said: “So I just say one word. OK, guilty.”

Later the prosecution said that further tests were required on Michael’s blood sample to establish what the drugs were.

The charge related to an incident at 3.20am on October 1, 2006, when several motorists called the police, concerned that a junction in Cricklewood, North London, was being obstructed by the preeminent British soul singer.

He was described as being slumped over the wheel of his Mercedes and in a “semiconscious state”.

At the beginning of that year, police had found Michael similarly slumped in his car close to Hyde Park, and had cautioned him for possessing cannabis.

On the second occasion he was again cautioned by police for possession of cannabis, and charged with driving while unfit through drugs.

At the end of that month he appeared on the South Bank Show, smoking a joint before a concert in Spain. “This stuff keeps me sane and happy,” he said. “I could write without it . . . if I were sane and happy.”

His legal team had hoped that Michael might not need to appear in court, as the trial clashed with his European tour and his Wembley Stadium booking. However, Judge Marshall insisted that he should appear on the first day of proceedings.

After his plea had been established, Michael asked to address the court. “I’m not used to defending myself in a position where I am ashamed of something,” he said.

“If I had known the day after the charge was brought that the legal option of accepting a punishment without taking responsibility for something I didn’t feel I was guilty of, I could have saved everybody a lot of time and trouble.”

Michael said he had been working particularly hard that week. “I was not in my normal physical state and I am totally prepared to accept the correct punishment for that,” he said.

Judge Marshall added: “There is still an unresolved issue about what the drugs were.”

The case was adjourned.

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