Boy George releasing new album

Boy George is trying to put his Culture Club days well behind him as he prepares to release his first album in more than three years.

The 1980s pop sensation turned disc jockey is in Australia to perform a series of DJ sets in Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne.

He will also play at an exclusive VIP after-party following Sydney's annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade on Saturday.

The English artist born George O'Dowd hopes to launch a new album in Britain in August, but admits some still can't see past the Culture Club period which cemented his celebrity status.


"All artists are always struggling to get past that pivotal period in your career, where no-one else can seem to get past it but you," O'Dowd says.

"I am past it ... it's over. For other people it looked like my magic moment, but for me it's just primitive. It's kind of like cave men drawings and just has no relevance to what I do now."

O'Dowd, who left Culture Club in 1986, doesn't miss his days with the band.

"You are spending time with each other when you don't really want to, know everyone's habits and boring personalities. It really was like being at home at Christmas, but all the time."

O'Dowd, 45, is also keen to shed the controversy over his sexuality and drug-taking that has dogged him since his rise to fame as Culture Club's lead singer in the 1980s.

O'Dowd was last year fined and forced on garbage duty in New York as part of community service ordered for falsely claiming a break-in at his Manhattan apartment. The charge followed his arrest in 2005 on suspicion of possessing cocaine.

O'Dowd, famous for the Culture Club hits Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? and Karma Chameleon, says the attention can be annoying.

"What I do is pretty private ... as far as the press is concerned they only write about me when something awful happens, like if I lose my records or my hair falls out," he said.

"When you are having hits everyone loves you, when you aren't ... well it's never George is great."

O'Dowd hopes to show he hasn't lost his musical flair with a new album.

"I am going to be working with an old reggae producer called Dennis Bovell, if he can find the time for me," he said.

O'Dowd is back in Australia for the first time in eight years and is looking forward to Sydney's Mardi Gras.

"I will be looking for heterosexual men, but only if you are looking good ... but I won't be in the parade, I have nothing to show off," he said, laughing.

"I am enjoying playing over here, Australians enjoy clubbing. In America lots of people just stare and they aren't into the music. I am having a great time."

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