Boy George: Songs That Make You Cry and Dance

The Sage Gateshead played host to two '80s icons at the weekend – Boy George and Alison Moyet. We were at both shows

Boy George: Songs That Make You Cry and Dance

AFTER 25 years of hit singles, headlines and media notoriety, Boy George has returned to music with a UK Tour entitled Songs That Make You Cry and Dance.

Stepping on to the stage at The Sage Gateshead on Saturday night, George won the hearts and minds of an already adoring crowd all over again.

The night's concert was about putting the tabloid frenzy and controversy to one side and letting the music speak loud, clear and true.

Adorned in his now trademark sequined hat and two-piece suit, George's first set was a varied, well-paced 45 minutes; up-tempo numbers Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, Everything I Own and Cheapness & Beauty sat alongside tender contemplative ballads, Losing Control and Stranger in this World.

The set closed with George handing over the microphone to backing vocalist Lizzie Dean. With a rich, deep voice that betrayed her slight frame and punkish outfit, she took on Talk Amongst Yourselves (from George's penned musical Taboo), with passionate fervour and brought the house down.

Set two kicked off with an energetic Church Of The Poison Mind, followed by a blazing cover of Suffragette City, originally by Bowie, well known to be George's idol.

More Culture Club classics got an outing, with a torch ‘n' twang version of Karma Chameleon, (as George stressed: “You can't ignore that really, it's a country song”) and an acoustic, emotive rendition of Victims.

George stepped aside twice more in the show – once as the vocally gifted John Gibbons sang If I Could Fly, and later when Linda Duggan (a different guest vocalist appears each night of the tour for one song) performed Generations of Love.

Self-deprecating quips about cleaning the streets of New York were thrown in, adding to the honesty of the evening.

A highlight of the whole gig was This Little Light of Mine – a song that became a civil rights anthem in the 1950s/60s – showing the strength in George's voice.

The jubilant, euphoric Bow Down Mister closed the gig as everyone left their seats to dance. A thoroughly entertaining concert that embodied all that should continue to be treasured about Boy George.

CRAIG ASTLEY