The News Boy George Fabulous

IF there is a person least likely to wallow in pop nostalgia, it is Boy George. "I sometimes think I'm the only person who realises that the eighties are over," he says, as we discuss the amazing success of the Here And Now tours, which have kept many a 1980s hitmaker in business.

"I'm not the sort of person who sits at home thinking about the old days. It was an amazing time, but it's gone."

As for the idea of reconvening Culture Club, he spits: "We've done it. It didn't work."

A Culture Club reunion, minus George, was attempted last year, with new boy Sam Butcher being recruited to fill those giant, gender-blurring shoes.

"If I'd done that, they'd have taken me to court," says George. "It didn't work and it was never going to work."

All of which leaves George O'Dowd - decidedly un-boyish at 46 - making a fresh start.

"I'm always writing and I want to look for a good producer, and get myself a record deal," he says. "I'm starting from the beginning. I'm a new artist with a lot of reputation."

Before then, though, George takes to the road for a short UK tour, the theme being Songs That Make You Dance And Cry. Those big Culture Club hits from the 1980s will be sung, as will highlights of his later solo career. But don't mention that N word.

"I'm not coming out to do a nostalgia show," he stresses again. "Nostalgia is a word which stinks of desperation. There are a lot of people who think I am desperate and they are very wrong.

"I feel this is a good time to do this. It's not motivated by money. They're small shows. We'll barely cover costs. I haven't made any money out of being a musician in - God knows - 20 years." Since Culture Club disbanded in 1986, George has been exploring electronic music, DJ'ing, writing autobiographies, overseeing a fashion label B-Rude and turning his life into a stage musical, Taboo. Culture Club reunited briefly to tour in 1998.

"When I started DJ'ing, I was a northern DJ," he says. "I never played in London. I spent literally every weekend for 10 to 15 years driving from London to Manchester, Newcastle, everywhere."

Familiar territory

So Manchester is very familiar territory.

"The last time I was there, I was sued," he says, letting out a fatalistic chortle. And he was. Nightclub promoter Kasia Saleh was awarded £31,000 three months ago when she sued the singer in Manchester High Court for pulling out of a concert in October, 2005, at short notice.

At the time of the no-show, the court heard, George was in the grip of drug addiction, having just been arrested for possession of cocaine in New York.

That drugs charge was dropped, George pleaded guilty to wasting police time and a spell of community service followed in August, 2006, the world's press converging on Manhattan to witness a stocky pop star in high-visibility vest picking up litter.

"I have to accept that in the past couple of years, all people have heard of me are bad things," says George. "So I've got to show them I'm not some seedy road-sweeper, that actually I am a proper artist and songwriter and I've got a great voice. And I think I forgot that as well. I got pre-occupied with other things and lost confidence in myself."

Though clearly keen to start this new chapter of his life, George has not felt obliged to explain or excuse those torrid times.

Happened

"One thing I've learned to do is keep my mouth shut," he says. "Have you noticed any interviews with me about anything that's happened? I've not spoken to anybody and that's very unusual for me. I think at this stage I don't really have a career I need to save."

Being at the centre of a media throng has been familiar territory for George since his much-publicised heroin addiction in the mid-1980s.

There are uncomfortable resonances of that tabloid saga in coverage of present-day stars Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse. "I relate 100 per cent to what she's going through," George says of Winehouse, whom he regards as the most exciting talent in pop today.

"And I wish I could just say to her `Enjoy it while you have it'. A pop career is like a relationship. When you're in love with someone, you spend so much time worrying where it's going, what the future of it is, and you miss out on enjoying it."

One pop career which has managed without George's wise words is that of Kylie Minogue. He wrote a song for the pop princess's X album - her first album after recovering from breast cancer - and was miffed when it didn't make it on to the final tracklisting.

"I wrote this song called Survival for her, and her A&R (artist and repertoire) man rejected it," says George. "It was a song she asked me to write specifically about what she'd been going through. When I read the reviews, they said this album was the chance for her to talk about what she'd been through, and she hadn't.

"I was quite shocked that the A&R man didn't have the taste to use it because it was fantastic, and everyone who heard it said it was such a Kylie song. But it has real lyrics, as opposed to la-la-la."

Boy George appears at The Lowry, Salford on February 3. £25. Click here to buy tickets. Then at Buxton Opera House on February 4.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/entertainment/music/rock_and_pop/s/1033046_boy_georges_point_to_prove

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