A man of culture
Eighties pop icon Boy George is on his way to Tauranga to perform. UNO caught up with the Culture Club frontman and solo artist to chat about life, love and all those timeless hits.
WORDS Karl Puschmann
“I’m always learning how to be me,” Boy George tells UNO around the midpoint of our chat. As the ornately made-up face of the 1980s globe-conquering, new wave band Culture Club, Boy George appeared extremely comfortable in his porcelain-powdered skin.
Even in an era where androgyny was en vogue, Boy George’s extravagantly glamorous look turned heads. His singular style of bright colourful clothing, big floppy hats and penchant for vibrant eye-shadow, coupled with his sexual ambiguity, almost dared people to try and put him into a box.
“You have to evolve your own ideas of who you are,” he continues. “Let alone being in the public eye and having to live up to an idea of yourself that isn’t really true.”
When UNO calls he’s in Phoenix, USA. He’s on tour with fellow English new wave group Squeeze, and only a few short hours away from going on stage. He describes the setlist as “a real mixture of everything I’ve ever done”, which is a lot more than you might expect.
Between 1982 and 1986 Culture Club released four albums, starting with 1982’s Kissing to be Clever, which reached No.2 in our charts, and was quickly followed a year later by the global juggernaut Colour by Numbers, which nabbed our coveted top spot and stayed in the charts for 46 weeks. As a solo artist Boy George himself has released nine studio albums, seven DJ albums and a whopping 48 singles, to the delight of a dedicated fanbase.
Tonight, he’s headlining the show but he doesn’t mind the order.
“Whether it’s opening or closing, I go on with the same mindset.” Then he chuckles and adds, “But I like the dark better… because I’m a goth.”
That’s one of the curious facts about Boy George. Before taking the vibrant Culture Club to the top with their unique, chart-friendly blend of pop, reggae and soul, he was a diehard goth obsessed with groups like Siouxsie and the Banshees.
“I was a massive Banshees fan and was known as the London Siouxsie Sioux clone,” he laughs. “I used to dress exactly like her. When I first started Culture Club, we were called In Praise of Lemmings. You can’t get any more goth than that!”
It makes you wonder what would have unfolded if In Praise of Lemmings hadn’t taken on a new drummer who did not dig their gloomy vibe.
“When Jon Moss came along he brought his sunshine with him,” Boy George says of the drummer who provided the Culture Club’s distinct groove and would later become his romantic partner. “He was really into pop music and saw something different happening from punk. Jon picked up on what was coming and he saw me as part of that. I ended up being in a band that was much more eclectic. Which is a good thing because it definitely reflects who I am as a musician. I like everything. There’s no music I don’t like.”
When it comes to his own music, he has no pretence. He’s a popstar writing pop songs. The songs have to capture you.
“I’m a melodic writer,” he says. “I’ve got no indulgences. I only write pop songs so I always have a hook. There’s a simplicity to songwriting that people don’t realise until they’re doing it all the time. It’ll take you five seconds to learn a song I’ve written.”
Fortunately, there’s a little more time than that to learn – or, perhaps, relearn – the words to all his hits. We’re still a few months away from the inevitable sing-alongs that are bound to occur when he hits the stage at Wharepai Domain on January 18, 2025.
The Timeless Summer Tour will be his first-ever shows in Aotearoa. But his schedule is jam-packed before then. He’s got the American tour to finish, a big Christmas reunion show with Culture Club in London, an exhibition of his art to curate, DJ sets to put together for parties he’s playing at and – after all that – he’s applying the finishing touches to an 80s-inspired album he describes as “my version of David Bowie’s Pin Ups” that’s releasing next year.
Juggling so many different and varied projects suggests a highly disciplined timekeeper and super-efficient organiser.
“Not really,” he laughs. “I don’t think rock and roll people should do timekeeping. It would be disappointing if they did. In fact, I confuse myself with the different things that I’m working on. I just enjoy that craziness. It’s like living in a wild forest.”
He once described Culture Club’s songs as ‘his heart, his life’, as he poured his every emotion into them. Which you might think would have been awkward seeing as the person he was singing about was behind him playing drums.
“No, it wasn’t at all,” he says. “There were times when I would say to Jon, ‘This song is about you,’ and he’d roll his eyes and say, ‘No, your songs are about you.’ And they were, to an extent.”
Thinking back now, he says he’s “shocked at how unradical I was when it came to love”.
Thanks to his flamboyant look and playful ambiguity, he was considered something of a sexual radical in the 80s, but he says that underneath the bright clothes, big hats and bold make-up were “old fashioned” romantic views.
“Back then I was like, ‘I want a boyfriend.’ Now I can’t think of anything more ghastly!” he hoots. “I wish I’d been as free-spirited then as I am now. It’s so funny how your perspective on life and love and all that stuff changes as you grow and go through things.”
It must be curious, then, to return to these songs a few decades on. Perhaps similar to reading an old diary.
“Some of those older songs don’t necessarily have anything to do with the way I am now but they have a connection to a past that was important to other people and I respect that,” he says. “I love what I do.
I respect the audience. And I get more emotional on stage. There’s no hostility ever. There’s only love.”
Which is when he says he’s still learning how to be himself. That’s because there’s Boy George the icon, and there’s George O’Dowd, the man behind that soulful and emotive voice that captured the world’s imagination in the 1980s.
“Every day of my life I experience how people behave towards me when I’m in sweatpants and how people behave towards me when I’ve got a big hat on and loads of make-up. It is remarkably different,” he says. “I’ve had to learn to get comfortable with being both Boy George and George O’Dowd. I don’t talk about Boy George like he’s a third person but when I’m dressed up people treat me differently and it’s a whole other thing.”
Then Boy George laughs and says, “When people see me not dressed up they’re like, ‘Oh, do you still do music?’. The answer is, I don’t stop.”
Timeless Summer
Promoter and Bay local Glenn Meikle is behind the new Timeless Summer Tour, featuring Boy George. UNO quizzed him about one of the Bay’s biggest events of the summer.
What was your inspiration for creating the Timeless Summer Tour?
At the heart of it, we are in the event business. We already had the R&B and reggae music genres covered so we wanted to cover a different genre that caters to a different audience. This means we’re providing wide appeal through our events.
An event’s first line-up is crucial to get right. How did you select the acts?
We wanted top-tier acts that everyone knows and are a lot of fun. These four acts – Boy George, Bonnie Tyler, Little River Band and Starship featuring Mickey Thomas – have big hits that people can sing along to and, for some, reminisce about when those songs were released.
How did they respond to being asked to perform in New Zealand?
They’re excited to come to New Zealand. We’re far away but we live in a beautiful country, which is always appealing.
What is the appetite for live music like here in the Bay?
It’s always strong in the Bay of Plenty, especially in summer. There really is no better place to be in summer. Having live entertainment to cater to local and visitor tastes is an added bonus.
Can we expect this to become an annual part of Tauranga’s calendar?
We’d love for this show to become a staple of Tauranga’s summer calendar. If the demand is there we’ll certainly do our best to make that happen.
For tickets, visit timelesssummertour.com