Boy George

COMING SOON!

Boy George shot to fame in the 80s as the lead singer of Culture Club, and his androgynous looks made him a poster boy for the New Romantics. But drug problems have followed him ever since.

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Boy George
born: 14-06-1961
birth place: London

George Alan O’Dowd grew up in a lively household with his four brothers and one sister. Despite being part of the large working class Irish brood, George has claimed to have had a lonely childhood, referring to himself as the “pink sheep” of the family.

To stand out in the male-dominated household he created his own image on which he became dependent. "It didn't bother me to walk down the street and to be stared at. I loved it," he’s reminisced.

George didn’t exactly conform to the typical school student stereotype and with a leaning more towards arts rather than science and maths, he found it hard to fit in with traditional conformist masculine subjects. With his schoolwork suffering and an ongoing battle of wits between him and his teachers, it wasn’t long before the school gave up and expelled George over his increasing outlandish behaviour and outrageous clothes and make up.

Suddenly George was in the big wide world without a job. Taking the plunge with any work he could find that paid him enough money to live on; he worked on farms picking fruit, as a milliner and even a make-up artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company - where he picked up some handy techniques for his own personal use.

The famous British New Romantic Movement that emerged in the early 1980s was a calling card for George, whose flamboyance fitted their beliefs perfectly. The attention the New Romantics attracted inevitably created many new headlines for the press and it wasn’t long before George was giving interviews based purely on his appearance.

Around this time Malcolm McLaren, the manager of the infamous Sex Pistols, was also managing a group called Bow Wow Wow. Fronted by Burmese sixteen-yea- old Annabella Lwin, McLaren wanted someone to give Annabella a bit of a jolt on the stage and strengthen her vocally - cue the talent of a certain Boy George.

After George made a few appearances, to much audience acclaim, inevitable friction between the two big personalities began to surface. However George, by now, was inspired to form his own group and the answer came in the form of The Sex Gang Children. Bassist Mikey Craig and drummer Jon Moss were next to join the group, followed by Roy Hay. The group soon abandoned the name Sex Gang Children to settle on Culture Club, on the basis that the group consisted of an Irish singer, a Jamaican-Briton, a Jewish drummer, and an Englishman.

Success came early and the band signed with Virgin Records in the UK and Epic Records in America, releasing their debut album Kissing To Be Clever in 1982. It was their third single from that album, Do You Really Want To Hurt Me that scored a huge success by reaching the number one spot in 16 countries.

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