By George, he’s back in the Club
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Changing times … the new Boy George is a non-smoking, clean-living Buddhist.
Source: News Corp Australia
AUSTRALIA A was the first place Boy George realised Culture Club had made it globally when they toured here in 1984. And in 2011 Australia was the place Boy George decided to put the Culture Club reunion on hold.
The chart-topping band had been in the studio testing out new material and healing old wounds. When an offer came in to play a New Year’s Eve show in Sydney (via a warm-up gig in Dubai) the band were soon sent down under on an unlikely bill that featured Jamiroquai, Pet Shop Boys and Guy Sebastian.
“That tour was a bit of a f— up,” Boy George says. “And we knew it.” The musician says the band were talked into the premature comeback tour and he took swift action when he got back home.
“I fired my manager and told the band ‘We’re not doing any more gigs until we’re ready and there’s a new record’. I was just not ready to go out on a f—ing tour and it felt like we were being pushed into it.”
George says money was never a factor. “I didn’t need the money. Long term, it doesn’t matter how much you get paid. If it’s not great it’s a waste of time. I realised I had to take charge of the whole thing. Through all of that experience I decided I needed to make my own record. I was no good to Culture Club as I was, I had to go off on my own.”
Fresh start … Boy George, pictured in 2006, doesn’t like to talk about his battles with addiction.
Source: News Limited
The band had tried to replace George in 2006, with auditions held for a new singer to take part in a TV show and tour that never happened.
“We don’t talk about that!,” George laughs.
New solo album This Is What I Do captures what those in Sydney heard — Boy George’s soulful new voice. He credits the new range with giving up smoking.
After studying Buddhism, more than George’s voice has changed. He prefers not to talk about his time in jail or battle with drugs directly, but touches on his growth as a result.
“I took some very difficult routes up the mountain. I can’t say it was anyone’s fault but my own. I had to grow into myself and I have. I have come out of such a chaotic situation in my life that everything feels wonderful now.”
Likewise, he’s far more comfortable with planning for the next instalment of Culture Club, with new music to avoid being merely a nostalgia trip.
Pop icon … Boy George isn’t one for clinging to the past – he prefers to look forward.
Source: News Corp Australia
“People say to me ‘You sold 50 million or 150 million’ and really, who cares? It’s so irrelevant. I’m not dismissing it but I don’t want to rest on that. I’ve never tried to cling on to my past. My career with Culture Club in the ’80s was a big, glorious accident. I wanted to be (punk icon) Siouxsie Sioux, not Boy George, the cuddly pop star girls screamed at.”
After their work on This Is Who I Am, producers Youth and Richie Stevens are working on the new Culture Club album, with Trevor Horn also potentially in the mix.
“Everything we’re doing now is about legacy,” George says. “We need to respect what we were. I’ve reached the point where I’m able to see that what we did together was really important and had a social and cultural impact. People thank me for helping them come out or change their sex or come to terms with who they were as a kid. Some kid in Ohio could see someone who was a bit like them and make a connection the same way I did with David Bowie. What we did together was special and it got kind of lost in all the showbiz and drama.
“So it’s nice to do again with a bit of dignity.”
Boy George’s abum This Is What I Do (Kobalt) is out now.
