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Friday, September 26, 2008, 12:00
Assembly Hall Theatre
Tunbridge Wells
Singer/songwriter George O'Dowd, from Eltham in London, returned to the live concert stage this year after a 10-year absence. Better known as Boy George, he has, over the past 26 years, seen both the exciting highs and the painful lows of life in the music industry.
Although better known these days for his brushes with the law, it can't be denied that George played a crucial role in the New Romantic movement of the 1980s, with his band Culture Club. His music, often referred to as 'blue-eyed soul' was influenced by rhythm and blues and reggae, with glam influences coming into his later solo efforts in the 1990s.
Culture Club released their first album, Kissing To Be Clever, way back in 1982. The band's name was an in-joke about the cultural composition of the band, which included a transvestite singer with Irish origins (George), a Jamaican-Briton on bass, a Jewish drummer and an Anglo-Saxon Englishman on guitar.
The album's third single, Do You Really Want To Hurt Me, reached number one in sixteen countries and brought the band world-wide critical acclaim. Later their biggest hit came with the anthemic Karma Chameleon. Still a party favourite, the song reached number one in numerous countries, spending three weeks at number one in the US and six weeks at the top spot in the UK.
George's androgynous style and open homosexuality caught the public eye and he soon had the press interested in his dramatic personal life. The bad times began in 1986 when George developed an addiction to heroin and later to prescription drugs. Things quickly went from bad to worse with the heroin-related death of keyboardist Michael Rudetski, who was found at George's home. Culture Club never recovered and the band had split by late 1986.
George found some solo success in the 1990s, particularly with a version of the song The Crying Game for the film of that name. In the meantime, he was keeping busy with his own record label and was even presenting a weekly chat and music show on a satellite radio station.
Boy George remained a figure firmly in the public eye. Although he never reached the same level of success as in the 1980s and early '90s, he had a second career as a popular house music DJ. London mega club Ministry Of Sound hired him to compile one of their first CDs, and it promptly sold 100,000 copies.
In 2002, Boy George released U Can Never B2 Straight, an "unplugged" collection of rare and lesser known acoustic works. It contained unreleased tracks from previous years as well as some ballads from Cheapness And Beauty and the Culture Club album Don't Mind if I Do. It received the best reviews of Boy George's solo career, many of them highlighting his strong songwriting abilities.
In the last few years George has been in the press again after various run-ins with the police. Most notably he was sentenced to community service in New York for drugs possession and was photographed cleaning the streets there. But last year he toured the world as a DJ and, regaining the feel for live concerts, he scheduled a tour of the US, which was later cancelled, followed by a tour of South America and 30 dates in the UK.
Boy George has lived his life under the scrutiny of the media but his talent remains unquestionable. His beautiful voice and his songwriting skills made him a star and he is, once again, doing what he does best. A new single, called Yes We Can, is due for download-only release on October 12.
Support comes from Declan Bennett
Thursday 2 October at 8pm
Tickets priced at £23 and £25 from the box office on 01892 530613/532072 or book online at www.assemblyhalltheatre.co.uk
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