Culture Club featuring Boy George!
Before there was Adam Lambert the most beautiful man in my lifetime was Boy George, front man for the 1980’s most popular group “Culture Club”. He was unique and knew exactly who he was. The other members of the band were Roy Hay on guitar and keyboards, Mikey Craig on and Jon Moss on drums. This group was so hot they transcended color lines and got just as much play on r&b radio stations.
The first song I heard by Culture Club was “Time” or was it “Do you really want to hurt me”, I’m not sure but I thought the group sounded amazing and I know they rocked audiences throughout the 80’s. Both songs are featured on their first album “Kissing to be Clever” which made Boy George a worldwide celebrity!
Boy George was born George Alan Dowd on June 14, 1961 in London. He was discovered by music exec Malcolm McLaren and after performing with Bow Wow Wow featuring Annabella Lwin went on through trial and error to form the group who became known as Culture Club by 1981. The name chosen once they realized the group consisted of and Irish transvestite, a Jamaican, a Jew and an Englishman. The group signed with Virgin Records in the UK and Epic Records in the US (Virgin didn’t have a US Rep at the time) and alas, their debut album “Kissing to be Clever”. During the 80’s Culture Club had seven straight top ten hits in the UK and six top ten hits in the US. By the time the second album “Colour by numbers” was released in 1983 the band was the most popular pop/rock group in America and England. The album featured the hit song Karma Chameleon and became no. 1 single in the UK and no. 2 in the US. The third album “Waking up with the house on fire” didn’t go over quite as well in the US because it only reached platinum status while albums one and two went quadruple platinum.
Another wonderful thing about Boy George is his biting wit! Basically he didn’t take crap from anyone and would give as good as he got which also added intrigue to the group.
The downfall to a lot of great rock bands tend to be drugs and Culture Club was no exception. During 1985 Boy George fell prey to heroin and his relationship with fellow band member Jon Moss which had always been rocky began to fall apart completely. The next album “Luxury to Heartache” wasn’t on the charts very long and in July of the same year Boy George was arrested in the UK for possession of Cannabis and a few days after that Michael Rudetski who played keyboard on the Luxury to Heartache album was found dead of a heroin overdose in Boy George’s home. While Boy George battled his heroin addiction as well as a dependence on prescription drugs Culture Club broke up. Boy George began a solo career in 1987. He didn’t have a hit again in the until his song “The Crying Game” in 1992 which was featured in the movie by the same name in 1995. The Crying Game is an excellent movie featuring Forrest Whitaker, Miranda Richardson and Irish actor Stephen Rae and was nominated for an academy award.
In 2005 Boy George was arrested in New York on suspicion of possessing cocaine but the charges were dropped. He was arrested a year later for falsely reporting a burglary and in 2007 he was arrested for suspicion of assault and false imprisonment. He was given 15 months in jail.
Today Boy George still entertains and does live performances. Although not as pretty as he used to be I feel he is still a beautiful man in a lot of ways. I remain a fan and he has a special place in my heart. I love to pull up the old videos, look at the old photographs and listen to the old albums and I’m sure that all true fans feel the same way!
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