The News Boy George Fabulous

Boy George singing 'This little light of mine' on this morning uk tv show 21/01/08 :

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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

 

CULTURE CLUB, BOY GEORGE était terrifiée de la réaction de sa mère à son arrestation pour possession de cocaïne aux États-Unis - plus que la perspective d'aller en prison. Le chanteur - vrai nom George Alan O'Dowd - a été condamné à cinq jours de service communautaire en 2005 après avoir été pris en possession de drogues dans son appartement new-yorkais. O'Dowd aurait téléphoné à la police à son domicile pour signaler un cambriolage soupçonnée lorsque les agents sont arrivés, mais ils ont trouvé une cachette de la cocaïne sous l'étoile du lit. Et les 46 ans admet au moment de l'arrestation, ce n'est pas la menace d'une peine de prison qui le préoccupe le plus. Il a dit: «Quand cette histoire est sorti je voulais cacher sous un rocher. J'étais mortified. J'étais tellement déçu de moi-même." Mais ma première pensée a été: «Mon pauvre mère! Elle va devenir fous ". En l'occurrence, elle a été grande à ce sujet. "La star gay est due à subir son procès en Grande-Bretagne, plus tard cette année (08) faussement accusés d'emprisonner une escorte masculine, après un incident survenu à son domicile de Londres en avril l'année dernière (07).

"Je ne veux jamais voir un policier à nouveau!" Ancien chanteur CULTURE CLUB BOY GEORGE va essayer d'éviter des problèmes avec la loi en 2008.

 

CULTURE CLUB frontman BOY GEORGE was terrified of his mother's reaction to his arrest for cocaine possession in the U.S. - more than the prospect of going to jail. The singer - real name George Alan O'Dowd - was sentenced to five days community service in 2005 after he was caught with drugs in his New York apartment. O'Dowd was reported to have called police to his home to report a suspected burglary but when officers arrived they found a stash of cocaine under the star's bed. And the 46-year-old admits at the time of the arrest it wasn't the threat of a prison sentence which worried him most. He says, "When that story came out I wanted to hide under a rock. I was mortified. I was so disappointed in myself. "But my first thought was, 'My poor mother! She's going to go crazy'. As it happens she was great about it." The gay star is due to stand trial in Britain later this year (08) on charges of falsely imprisoning a male escort after an incident at his London home in April last year (07).

"I don't ever want to see a policeman again!" Former CULTURE CLUB singer BOY GEORGE is going to try avoiding trouble with the law in 2008.

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/boy%20george%20dreaded%20mothers%20reaction%20to%20arrest_1056703

 

http://www.hiphop-elements.com/article/read/4/14222/1/

 Le réglage ne peut guère être plus incongru. Boy George, une fois le paon incontestée de la pop cour est tenue de façon anonyme chambre d'hôtel, où le seul éclat de couleur vient du bols de bouillie bonbons fourni par l'obligeant les membres du personnel.


Une fois, son entourage n'aurait pas eu d'importance. Il aurait été le centre d'attention, enveloppés dans les soies et satins de couleurs qui outdazzle un bijou boîte, le visage peint avec des industriels résistance des couches de maquillage.

Mais, outre le concepteur rouge T-shirt, il est tristement habillés en noir - bien que paillettes sont à peine visible, cousue sur le devant de son pantalon. Derrière les lunettes de soleil Prada il ya une touche de mascara sur les cils au crayon noir et à de lourdes cueillir les sourcils arqués, mais c'est tout - "même si elles sont toujours heureux de me voir à la franchise de droits de maquillage boutiques dans les aéroports", at-il sourit .

Une étoile bleue de David est tatoué sur sa tête rasée, avec une fleur de lotus rose à la base de son crâne.

Ce n'est pas votre moyenne se lever maintenant pour un homme dans sa 47e année, mais pour George, il est un modèle de sous-estimation. Car il a subi un changement spectaculaire.

Ce n'est pas seulement le pansement. Il a maintenant consciemment essaye de garder sans problèmes et a décidé de mordre sa lèvre notoirement bitchy. Il est, en bref, une ombre de son ancien auto. "That's how I like it, et de la façon dont je veux être vu", me dit-il avec un éclat de l'ancien mépris.

Boy George première irruption sur la scène musicale au début des années quatre-vingts avec son reggae-rock teinté, Culture Club - Karma Chameleon et Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? En tête des charts du monde entier. Il a été un synonyme de scandale soigneusement calculée, à la fois pour la façon dont il attend et pour ce qu'il a dit.

Et les citer sans fin de prix publiée, il semble, à partir de sa pourpre - ou le sang rouge - lèvres. "Etes-vous favorable à des rapports sexuels?" Posé une prurient Russell Harty sur sa TV chat show en 1982. Non, dit George, il avait plus tôt boire une tasse de thé. À une autre occasion, il a avoué être bisexuels, avant d'ajouter: «Quand j'ai envie de sexe, je l'acheter."

Mais, l'effet cumulé au fil des ans, des bustes de drogues, le public de bec, et les brosses à louer les garçons ont pris leur péage, à la fois sur sa vision de la vie et le visage un peu châtié, il présente maintenant au public.

Au cours des dernières années, il a été chargé de la police de gaspiller du temps et condamné à une peine de service communautaire, dans lequel il a été condamné à nettoyer les rues de Manhattan et en 2007, avec faussement emprisonner une escorte masculine lui par chaînage au mur de son appartement .

Nous nous trouvons dans cette salle sans âme comme il le répète avec son groupe, à côté du Shaw Theatre, où il commencera une période de cinq nuit de résidence depuis le 23 janvier avant de se lancer sur un 15-Date de tournée nationale, et ce, depuis le 30 janvier Llandudno et de finition À Buxton, le 24 février, sa première en dix ans.

Il explique comment il n'a aucun scrupule à la perspective de prendre à nouveau de la scène mais il est nerveux au sujet de la publicité machine avec laquelle il doit s'engager de nouveau à tambour jusqu'à la vente de billets.

"Je déteste parler de moi", dit-il. "Je pense que les gens ont une idée fixe de moi maintenant. Ils pensent que ma vie est misérable. Mais ce n'est pas le cas."

Non, je venture, tandis que la plupart des gens conservent une profonde affection pour lui, certains considèrent que le mode de vie George's, et bien, un peu sur le côté seedy.

Boy George n'a pas pu examiner de plus de blessés. Il roches retour dans son fauteuil et atteint pour une cigarette, un petit mais perceptible tremblements de sa main alors qu'il tente de feu le briquet à l'action.

«C'est vraiment triste si les gens me voient comme ça", dit-il. «Juste parce que quelqu'un a des goûts de cul ne veut pas dire qu'ils sont minables. Les gens qui me connaissent et m'aiment ne m'appellent jamais cela."

Il est visiblement bouleversée. "Je ne peux pas croire que les gens pensent que, dit-il.

Mais ce n'est pas tout à fait surprenant. La scène provocatrice persona côté, il y avait le £ 500 par jour héroïne habitude dans le milieu des années quatre-vingts qui l'a amené à tout le bord de la mort.

Et, en 1986, Michael Rudetski, qui avait joué du clavier pour le groupe, est décédé d'une overdose d'héroïne, tout en restant avec lui. La même année, George a été arrêté pour possession de cannabis.

Finalement, la mort, la drogue, et les luttes intestines ont conduit à la disparition de la bande.

Juste à temps, l'instinct de survie doit avoir donné des coups de pied en lui-même parce que George mis volontairement par le biais d'un programme intensif de réadaptation, qui ont pu lui sevrés large de la drogue mortelle. Mais pas toutes les drogues, apparemment.

En 2005, par exemple, quand George vivait à New York et à la poursuite de sa nouvelle carrière en tant que Dj, il y avait l'étrange histoire d'une apparente cambriolage à son appartement où il a signalé à la police. Ils ont tourné régulièrement dans le milieu de la nuit, seulement de découvrir une cachette de la cocaïne sous son lit.

Sa condamnation résultant atterri lui cinq jours de service communautaire balaie les rues de la ville.

Et puis, il ya la prochaine affaire judiciaire impliquant Auden Carlsen, a 28-year-old norvégien hommes d'escorte, dont George est faussement accusé d'avoir emprisonné par chaînage à un radiateur dans son ancien appartement.

Carlsen échappé, en seulement ses sous-vêtements, comme l'aube a éclaté et a appelé la police. L'affaire étant actif, George doit mordre sa lèvre pour l'instant, se limiter simplement à dire: «Il faut espérer que la vérité sera out".

«Je voulais à la fin 2007, avec une ligne tracée fermement sous elle, et aller de l'avant. Les deux dernières années ont été s ** t. Je veux dire, je me suis arrêté à deux reprises. I'll be 47 en juin. J'ai eu Suffisant. Il affecte tout dans votre vie. Je ne veux jamais voir un policier à nouveau.

«J'ai une résolution du Nouvel An», at-il termine, en beauté. «Je vais essayer de devenir un rétrécissement violet." Même, il a la bonne grâce d'amusement sont improbables à une ambition.

Il faut dire à ce stade que George blâme nul autre que lui-même pour le catalogue des malheurs qui ont frappé sa vie très colorée. L'abus de drogues, par exemple. «Est-ce que je regrette l'héroïne habitude? Bien sûr je fais. Ce n'est pas quelque chose que je suis fier.

«J'avais l'habitude d'être aussi arrogants à ce sujet jusqu'à ce que je me suis rendu compte que j'étais aussi détruire le peuple qui m'a aimé le plus."

Tout au long de tout et chef parmi les passants innocents ont été doughty sa mère, Dinah O'Dowd.

Une mère adolescente et d'un bébé garçon en remorque, elle est arrivée à Londres à la fin des années cinquante d'une vie de misère, à Dublin, puis mariés Tipperary-né constructeur Jérémie O'Dowd qui engendré cinq autres enfants de son - George, son Trois frères et une soeur - tout en les soumettant à un mariage de la violence induite par l'alcool avant de quitter sa femme pour une autre.

"Est-ce que je semble en colère?" George demande à un moment donné. «Eh bien, je peux me mettre en colère, mais je viens d'une famille très en colère."

Sa fracture de la relation avec son père n'a été que partiellement corrigé par le moment de sa mort en 2004. Mais à sa grande surprise éternelle, son père a simplement haussé les épaules ses épaules quand George sortit comme gai.

"Je pensais qu'il allait me tuer", dit-il. "Mais il suffit de trier allés:" Ne faites pas attention. Tu es mon fils. Je t'aime "."

Le O'Dowds, cependant, sont maintenant une famille très uni, selon George, et sa propre gloire avoir quelque peu ( «car ils ne manquent pas de souligner», at-il blagues), la vie est beaucoup plus calme. "Je les vois tout le temps, dit-il.

Il n'a rien que des éloges pour sa maman. "Elle est géniale", dit-il, «mais elle désespère de moi constamment. Elle est la personne la plus importante dans ma vie."

Dinah enregistré l'histoire de sa vie mouvementée dans son best-seller autobiographique, Cry Salty Tears, un livre de son fils qui est immensément fière.

Il aime aussi sa première autobiographie, Take It Like A Man, mais regrette son second, Straight. «Ce n'était pas un patch sur le premier. J'aimerais avoir dérangé pas le faire."

Sa mère réaction de la drogue de New York testé son buste certainement résoudre. "Quand cette histoire est sorti, j'ai eu envie de se cacher sous un rocher», explique George. "J'étais mortified. J'étais tellement déçu de moi-même. Mais ma première pensée a été:« Ma pauvre mère! Elle va devenir fous. "En l'occurrence, elle a été grande à ce sujet."

George était redoutez balayer les rues de Manhattan. Mais il n'avaient pas à s'inquiéter.

"L'arrestation a été si effrayant et je pensais que les gens allaient me haïssent. Lorsque j'étais balayer les rues, mais, tout le monde a été incroyable - et même la police."

La seule exception à la réaction du public est venue de Chris Evans, l'hébergement de 2006 Brit Awards. "Avez-vous vraiment le NYPD appel au sujet d'un cambriolage», Evans a demandé, devant des millions de téléspectateurs, "quand on avait dix sacs de la drogue sous le lit?"

Deux ans plus tard, George soies encore à la pensée de cette question. »Il venait d'être méchant", dit-il maintenant. "C'était malveillantes ..." Et sa voix hors des sentiers avant de pouvoir insérer les deux pieds dans sa bouche.

Grande bouche qui a souvent atterri son propriétaire en difficulté. Il le dit lui-même. «J'ai ouvert ma bouche et bitchy choses sortent. Je suis vraiment essayer de freiner cela. Il ne m'a pas fait bonne impression. J'étais en train de lire certaines choses que j'avais dit et j'ai sonné horrible."

Par exemple? «Eh bien, j'ai eu une grosse ligne avec Elton John et de David Furnish sur certains queeny remarque que j'avais faite. [Il a dit que Elton était« une humourless vieille dame ".] Mais je regrette qu'elle s'est excusée et à David. Il était tellement Doux à ce sujet. "

À la maison quelques jours plus tard, George le téléphone a sonné. "C'était Elton. Je me suis dit: 'Oh mon Dieu!" Il m'a remercié pour avoir dit désolé de David. Par conséquent, je compose mon esprit alors que je ne voulais pas être considéré comme une chienne plus. Alors, j'ai arrêté. Fin de l'. " Pause, deux, trois. «Maintenant, je limiterai mes commentaires à bitchy ma vie privée!"

Que la vie est un monde à part, dit George, à partir de ce que les gens pourraient l'imaginer. "Je viens de passer du bon temps avec des amis, dont la plupart n'ont rien à voir avec l'industrie de la musique. Nous mangeons, regarder des DVD, de parler, comme les autres font."

Alors, quel est son mode de prédilection de détente? «Être cuddled, dit-il. "That's my favourite chose dans le monde entier."

Cela semble être en contradiction avec sa fameuse remarque sur préférant une tasse de thé au sexe.

«C'était une façon, dit-il aujourd'hui," d'éviter d'avoir à parler de ma sexualité. C'était 1982. C'est une chose de dire à votre famille. Mais j'aurais juste devenir célèbre. Je n'étais pas prêt à dire au Monde. Russell Harty essayait de me faire admettre j'étais gay. "

Le climat a changé depuis lors, les partenariats civils maintenant dans le recueil des lois. "Je suppose que c'est une bonne chose", dit George, «bien que ce n'est pas quelque chose que j'avais envie de faire. Dans un sens, il se sentirait un peu comme essayer d'être le même que hétéros. Mais j'aime être gay . Je suis un très bon queer.

"Vous grandir Pouf étant appelé à l'école - et par les professeurs, je pourrais ajouter - et puis, tout à coup, vous êtes censé se sentent acceptés. Eh bien, je ne peux pas. C'est impossible."

Pourrait-il, comme un partenaire à plein temps? «Comment savez-vous que je n'ai pas?" Demande-t-il. "En fait, je ne suis pas dans une amoureuse, la relation à l'heure actuelle."

Il a été dans l'amour, il estime, quatre ou cinq fois dans sa vie. Le premier était avec Jon Moss, le batteur de Culture Club. "Jon est mariée maintenant avec les enfants. Mais il a été le grand amour de ma vie. Il a brisé mon courage, mais alors vous devez avoir votre coeur risque d'être cassée dans l'amour." Ils restent amis, soutient-il.

A propos, il ya quatre ans, George est tombé amoureux de nouveau.

"C'était assez traumatisant. Elle a duré environ un an, assez longtemps pour être destructeur. Si je l'ai revu, même maintenant, je pense que je le considère encore comme très difficile."

Maintenant George est prêt à le pied à l'étrier à nouveau et de faire ce qu'il aime faire le mieux: chanter.

Il a appelé la tournée, Songs That Make You Cry And Dance. Il y aura le vieux hits et quelques nouveaux matériels, aussi, dont l'un, d'autres garçons, il pense ferait un bon single.

Il a été inspiré de sortir de professionnels purdah, dit-il, par ses fans et par l'exemple de ce qu'il considère comme étant Amy Winehouse's dominant talent. "La première fois que j'ai entendu sa chanter Losing Love Is A Game, je pensais que mon coeur aurait éclaté."

Refusant de s'appesantir sur le passé, il dit: «Je suis déterminé à être plus en contrôle de choses, à prendre davantage de responsabilités dans ma vie et des actions. J'ai eu une période de six ans, depuis trop longtemps."

 The setting could scarcely be more incongruous. Boy George, once the undisputed peacock of pop is holding court in an anonymous hotel room, where the only splash of colour comes from the bowls of boiled sweets provided by the obliging staff.

Once, his surroundings wouldn't have mattered. He would have been the centre of attention, swathed in silks and satins in colours that would outdazzle a jewel box, his face painted with industrial-strength layers of make-up.

But, apart from the red designer T-shirt, he is dressed sombrely in black - although sequins are just visible, stitched to the front of his trousers. Behind the Prada sunglasses there is a touch of mascara on the lashes and heavy black pencil picking out the arched brows, but that's all - "although they are still pleased to see me at the duty free make-up shops at airports," he smiles.

A blue Star of David is tattooed on his shaved head, with a pink lotus blossom on the base of his skull.

Not your average get up for a man now in his 47th year, but for George, it is a model of understatement. For he has undergone a dramatic change.

It's not just the dressing down. He now consciously tries to keep out of trouble and has resolved to bite his notoriously bitchy lip. He is, in short, a shadow of his former self. "That's how I like it, and how I want to be seen," he tells me with a flash of the old defiance.

Boy George first burst onto the music scene at the beginning of the Eighties with his reggae-tinged rock band, Culture Club - Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? topped the charts all around the world. He was a byword for carefully calculated outrage, both for how he looked and for what he said.

And the never-ending quotable quotes issued, it seemed, from his purple - or blood red - lips. "Are you keen on sex?" asked a prurient Russell Harty on his TV chat show in 1982. No, said George, he'd sooner have a cup of tea. On another occasion, he confessed to being bisexual, before adding: "When I want sex, I buy it."

But, the cumulative effect over the years, of the drug busts, the public spats, and the brushes with rent boys have taken their toll, both on his outlook on life and the somewhat chastened face he now presents to the public.

In the past few years he has been charged with wasting police time, and sentenced to community service, in which he was ordered to clean the streets of Manhattan and in 2007, with falsely imprisoning a male escort by chaining him to the wall of his flat.

We find ourselves in this soulless room as he is rehearsing with his band at next door's Shaw Theatre where he will begin a five-night residency from January 23, before embarking on a 15-date nationwide tour, starting in Llandudno on January 30 and finishing in Buxton on February 24, his first in a decade.

He is explaining how he has no qualms about the prospect of taking centre stage again but he is nervous about the attendant publicity machine with which he must re-engage to drum up ticket sales.

"I hate talking about me," he says. "I think people have a fixed idea of me now. They think my life is miserable. But that's not the case."

No, I venture, while most people retain a deep-seated affection for him, some regard George's lifestyle as, well, a bit on the seedy side.

Boy George could not look more wounded. He rocks back in his chair and reaches for a cigarette, a small but discernible tremor to his hand as he attempts to fire the lighter into action.

"It's really sad if people see me like that," he says. "Just because somebody has kinky tastes doesn't mean that they're seedy. People who know me and love me would never call me that."

He's visibly upset. "I can't believe people would think that," he says.

But it's not altogether surprising. The provocative stage persona aside, there was the £500-a-day heroin habit in the mid-Eighties which brought him to the very brink of death.

And, in 1986, Michael Rudetski, who had played the keyboard for the band, died of a heroin overdose while staying with him. The same year, George was arrested for possession of cannabis.

Eventually, the deaths, the drugs, and the in-fighting led to the demise of the band.

Just in time, the survival instinct must have kicked in because George put himself voluntarily through an intensive rehab programme that successfully weaned him off the deadly drug. But not all drugs, apparently.

In 2005, for instance, when George was living in New York and pursuing his new career as a club DJ, there was the odd story of an apparent burglary at his apartment which he reported to the police. They duly turned up in the middle of the night, only to discover a stash of cocaine beneath his bed.

His resulting conviction landed him five days' community service sweeping the streets of the city.

And then there is the upcoming court case involving Auden Carlsen, a 28-year-old Norwegian male escort, whom George is accused of falsely imprisoning by chaining him to a radiator in his former flat.

Carlsen escaped, in just his underpants, as dawn broke and called the police. The case being active, George must bite his lip for now, confining himself simply to saying, "Hopefully, the truth will out".

"I wanted 2007 to end, with a line drawn firmly under it, and move on. The last couple of years were s**t. I mean, I got arrested twice. I'll be 47 in June. I've had enough. It affects everything in your life. I don't ever want to see a policeman again.

"I have a New Year's resolution," he finishes, with a flourish. "I'm going to try hard to become a shrinking violet." Even he has the good grace to chuckle at so improbable an ambition.

It should be said at this point that George blames no one but himself for the catalogue of misfortunes that have plagued his highly coloured life. The drug abuse, for instance. "Do I regret the heroin habit? Of course I do. It's not something I'm proud of.

"I used to be so arrogant about it until I realised that I was also destroying the people who loved me the most."

Throughout it all and chief among the innocent bystanders has been his doughty mother, Dinah O'Dowd.

A teenage mother with a baby boy in tow, she arrived in London at the end of the Fifties from a poverty-stricken life in Dublin and then married Tipperary-born builder Jeremiah O'Dowd who fathered five more children by her - George, his three brothers and a sister - while subjecting her to a marriage of alcohol-induced violence before leaving her for another woman.

"Do I seem angry?" asks George at one stage. "Well, I can get angry but I come from a very angry family."

His fractured relationship with his father was only partially patched up by the time of his death in 2004. But to his everlasting surprise, his father had simply shrugged his shoulders when George came out as gay.

"I thought he was going to kill me," he says. "But he just sort of went: 'Don't care. You're my son. I love you.'"

The O'Dowds, though, are now a close-knit family, according to George, and his own fame having receded somewhat ("as they never fail to point out," he jokes), life is much calmer. "I see them all the time," he says.

He has nothing but praise for his mum. "She's brilliant," he says, "but she despairs of me constantly. She's the most important person in my life."

Dinah recorded the story of her turbulent life in her best-selling autobiography, Cry Salty Tears, a book of which her son is immensely proud.

He also likes his own first autobiography, Take It Like A Man, but regrets his second one, Straight. "It wasn't a patch on the first one. I wish I hadn't bothered doing it."

His mother's reaction to the New York drugs bust certainly tested her resolve. "When that story came out, I wanted to hide under a rock," says George. "I was mortified. I was so disappointed in myself. But my first thought was: 'My poor mother! She's going to go crazy'. As it happens, she was great about it."

George was dreading sweeping the streets of Manhattan. But he needn't have worried.

"The arrest had been so scary and I thought people were going to hate me. Once I was sweeping the streets, though, everyone was amazing - even the police."

The only exception to the public reaction came from Chris Evans, hosting the 2006 Brit Awards. "Did you really call the NYPD about a burglary," asked Evans, in front of millions of viewers, "when you had ten bags of drugs under the bed?"

Two years on, George still bristles at the thought of this question. "He was just being nasty," he says now. "It was spiteful..." and his voice trails away before he can insert both feet in his mouth.

That big mouth has often landed its owner in trouble. He says so himself. "I open my mouth and bitchy things come out. I'm really trying to curb that. It doesn't make me look good. I was reading some things I'd said and I sounded horrible."

For example? "Well, I had a big row with Elton John and David Furnish about some queeny remark I'd made. [He said that Elton was "a humourless grand old dame".] But I regretted it and apologised to David. He was so sweet about it."

At home a few days later, George's phone rang. "It was Elton. I thought: 'Oh my God!' He thanked me for saying sorry to David. As a result, I made up my mind then that I didn't want to be seen as a bitch anymore. So I've stopped. End of." Pause, two, three. "Now I confine my bitchy comments to my private life!"

That life is a world away, says George, from what people might imagine. "I just hang out with mates, most of whom have nothing to do with the music industry. We eat, watch DVDs, talk, just like other people do."

So what's his favourite way of relaxing? "Being cuddled," he says. "That's my favourite thing in the whole world."

This would appear to contradict his famous remark about preferring a cup of tea to sex.

"That was a way," he says now, "of avoiding having to talk about my sexuality. This was 1982. It was one thing to tell your family. But I'd just become famous. I wasn't ready to tell the world. Russell Harty was trying to get me to admit I was gay."

The climate has changed since then, civil partnerships now on the statute book. "I suppose they're a good thing," says George, "although that's not something I'd want to do. In a way, it would feel a bit like trying to be the same as straight people. But I like being gay. I'm a very good queer.

"You grow up being called a poof at school - and by the teachers, I might add - and then, suddenly, you're meant to feel accepted. Well, I can't. It's impossible."

Would he like a full-time partner? "How do you know I haven't got one?" he asks. "Actually, I'm not in a loving, relationship at the moment."

He's been in love, he reckons, four or five times in his life. The first was with Jon Moss, Culture Club's drummer. "Jon's married now with kids. But he was the great love of my life. He broke my heart but then you have to risk having your heart broken to be in love." They remain friends, he maintains.

About four years ago, George fell in love again.

"It was pretty traumatic. It lasted about a year, long enough to be destructive. If I saw him again, even now, I think I would still find it quite difficult."

Now George is ready to step up to the plate again and do what he likes doing best: singing.

He's called the tour, Songs That Make You Dance And Cry. There will be the old hits and some new material, too, one of which, Other Boys, he thinks would make a good single.

He was inspired to come out of professional purdah, he says, by his fans and by the example of what he regards as Amy Winehouse's towering talent. "When I first heard her sing Love Is A Losing Game, I thought my heart would burst."

Unwilling to dwell on the past, he says: "I'm determined to be more in control of things, to take more responsibility for my life and actions. I've been a six-year-old for too long."

Man George, anyone?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=508960&in_page_id=1773

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