Boy George

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Boy George (2013)

Boy George (actually George Alan O'Dowd * 14. June 1961 in Bexleyheath, community Bexley , today London ) is a British singer, songwriter and House - DJ . Boy George achieved worldwide fame in the early 1980s as the singer of the band Culture Club . Due to his extravagant appearance and androgynous clothing style, he became one of the best-known pop idols of the New Romantic .

Life

George grew up as the third son of an Irish Catholic family. His interest in music and fashion developed early; as an admirer of Marc Bolan , David Essex and his idol David Bowie , he not only loved their music, but also copied their style of clothing. Initially, his parents tolerated George's fashionable antics; It became problematic in 1976 when George was expelled from school, among other things because he did not want to bow to the dress code for students in England. George moved to London, where he kept himself afloat doing odd jobs. At night he took part in the life of the London scene, sought contact with “Bowie kids”, punks and drag queens in relevant clubs . Here he met Marilyn , Jeremy Healy and Steve Strange . Strange, who together with Rusty Egan ( Rich Kids , Visage ) first ran Billy’s and later, around 1980, the Blitz disco , finally found George a cloakroom job.

At that time, music manager Malcolm McLaren was looking for a new singer for his band Bow Wow Wow . He met George through the guitarist Matthew Ashman and cast him as Lieutenant Lush on the side of the singer Annabella Lwin as the front person. After only a few appearances, for example at the Rainbow Theater in London , McLaren dismissed George.

“To this day I don't know exactly why he wanted me in the group at all. I think he was dissatisfied with Annabella and wanted to give her a shot in the bow . It seems to have worked out for him - because as suddenly as he hired me, he fired me again. "

- Boy George

George continued to strive for a musical career. He met Mikey Craig , later Roy Hay and Jon Moss . Together with them he founded the British new wave band Culture Club in 1981, initially as "Sex Gang Children" .

Worldwide pop idol

From then on he operated under the stage name Boy George. In a Playboy interview, George said, “A lot of Rasta guys call themselves King Freddie or Poppa George. 'Boy' was, so to speak, the tame version of it. ”He became the visual figurehead of the band, his“ look ”, initially shaped by the British fashion designer Sue Clowes , the trademark of Culture Club. In November 1982 the band first appeared on Top Of The Pops with their hit Do You Really Want to Hurt Me . After that there was no stopping the British and soon afterwards worldwide media. Boy George became “England's mascot” ( Der Spiegel ). Tip described George as "a geisha who disguised herself as a Hasidic Rastafarian," and the rock lexicon found he looked "like a cute pop wind-up doll, like a fantasy figure that could have sprung from a psychedelic cartoon". Numerous international magazines, such as Bravo , Rolling Stone , Harper's Bazaar and Cosmopolitan , granted Boy George a cover. In 1982 and 1983 the readers of the Daily Mirror voted him “Pop Personality of the Year”. In the successful US series The A-Team Boy George took on a guest role in the 16th episode of the 4th season (1986) and appeared as himself in front of an audience and in other scenes. At the height of his stardom, Boy George dress-up dolls appeared and many magazines provided instructions on how to remodel his wardrobe and copy his make-up . Madame Tussauds finally immortalized it in wax and added it to her cabinet.

“George O'Dowd, best known as Boy George, causes more controversy worldwide than any other pop star. And not only in the music scene [...]. The opinions about the singer and lyricist with the flashy make-up and the soft cuddly songs range from indignation to euphoria. "

- Playboy , May 1985

Solo career

Boy George at a Formula One party in 1988

After the dissolution of Culture Club in the spring of 1987, he started a short solo career with the single Everything I Own and the album Sold, which was mainly successful in Europe. In the same year he took part in the charity project Ferry Aid together with British artists such as Paul McCartney and Kim Wilde . In 1984 he was one of the prominent lead voices for Band Aid . To Be Reborn reached number 13 on the UK charts in late 1987 and was his last UK Top 20 success.

In 1988 he founded the record label More Protein with Jeremy Healy , which mainly publishes young artists. Boy George appears under the pseudonym Angela Dust in various publications as a singer, writer and producer in this label, which especially successful in the club scene with titles such as Sun Machine and Everything starts with at E is. Another project is his band project Jesus Loves You , founded in 1989 , with which he also had a top ten hit, Bow Down Mister , in 1991 . This was followed by a few hits in Europe and again in the USA in the 1990s, where he reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 with The Crying Game . In 1994 he sang the title song for the German horror cat animation film Felidae . It wasn't until 1995 that his next album was released, Cheapness And Beauty . With its eclectic mix of glam rock , new wave, punk and shallow soul, it differed significantly from its previous recordings. Der Spiegel finally confirmed that he was "one of the last pop grandmasters and not just an unimaginative forger".

“No, I never want to be like I was then! I still want to be famous today, but to be able to live as a normal person, that was not the case back then, I ran around as a bird of paradise and liked the fact that everyone was gazing at me. "

- Boy George

His various DJ mixes were commercially far more successful, especially for Ministry of Sound from 1995. The compilation series The Annual , in collaboration with Pete Tong ( The Annual I-III) and later with Judge Jules ( The Annual IV), reached Gold and platinum awards. The Annual II was sold over 600,000 times in England alone and reached double platinum and number 1 on the UK compilation charts . Boy George has been appearing more and more as a DJ since the 1990s and plays in clubs around the world.

In 2002 his musical Taboo , based on his colorful days as a Blitz-Kid, started in London's West End and became a long-running hit there. The success could not be repeated on Broadway in 2003. The musical has won the Laurence Olivier Award , Drama Desk Award , Theater World Award and the Whatsonstage.com Award. With the single Run ( SASH! Feat. Boy George, 2002) he was able to place in the German top 50 for the first time since 1991. Boy George has also been selling his own fashion label under the name B-Rude since 2004.

In 2013, This Is What I Do was his first studio album in 18 years. Well received by both audiences and critics, it was Boy George's first solo album to hit the top 100 in the German charts and in England its second top 40 success after Sold in 1987. The Guardian titled This Is What I Do as “ Comeback of the year ”. The album release was accompanied by a successful European tour. In October 2014 Boy George received the Attitude Icon Award for Outstanding Achievement. In 2016 Boy George was a coach on season 5 of the TV talent show The Voice UK and a participant in the reality TV show The New Celebrity Apprentice .

Private life

Boy George (2001)

Boy George was a major icon in the 1980s gay scene. He never made a secret of his homosexuality from the start of his career . From 1981 to early 1986 Boy George had an initially secret relationship with Jon Moss , Culture Club's drummer . The end of this relationship meant a deep spiritual and personal crash for Boy George and, according to the autobiography, was one of the reasons for the beginning of his drug addiction. Arrested and convicted of heroin possession , Boy George participated in a court-ordered drug rehab in 1986. Boy George processed this experience in songs like To Be Reborn .

In 1995 Boy George's autobiography Take It Like a Man appeared , in which he self-ironically and self-critically and without any pathos  - sometimes going down to the smallest detail - tells of his difficult childhood and youth, the rise and fall of Culture Club and his drug addiction.

Boy George was arrested again for drug possession on November 5, 2005, in his New York apartment in Little Italy, after police found cocaine on him . After paying a bail, he had to leave the USA until further notice. The drug possession trial began on March 8, 2006. In addition to a $ 1,000 fine, Boy George was sentenced to five days of social service from August 14, 2006 at the New York street cleaner.

In early December 2008 Boy George was convicted of deprivation of liberty for chaining a callboy to a wall in his London apartment in 2007 and then, when he was able to escape and escape, hit him with the chain while trying to escape. The sentence for the act, which occurred under the influence of drugs, was set on January 16, 2009 at 15 months imprisonment. Boy George spent four months in prison and was early released in May 2009.

Worried About the Boy and other film projects

Boy George's early life in the 1980s was filmed in 2010 under the title Worried About the Boy . The dramatic television film tells of Boy George's first career steps up to his success with Culture Club and his relationship with Jon Moss. BBC2 first aired the film as part of their eighties season in May 2010. The film took Douglas Booth as Boy George and Mathew Horne Jon Moss. Directed by Julian Jarrold .

“The well-played BBC portrait, which is very lovingly designed for a meager budget, alternates between George's pre-pop star phase and his crash in 86. The film focuses on George's identity (creation) instead of the music world. The real Boy George advised the team. "

- TV movie

In 2019 it became known that a broad-based feature film about the life of Boy George is planned. The screenplay is by Sacha Gervasi wrote.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US R&B R&B
1987 Pay - - CH15 (2 weeks)
CH 		UK29
silver
silver

(6 weeks)UK 		US145 (5 weeks)
US 		-
First published: June 15, 1987
Producers: Stewart Levine, Glen Skinner
1990 The Martyr mantras DE44 (10 weeks)
DE 		AT13 (12 weeks)
AT 		- UK60 (1 week)
UK 		- -
First published: April 1, 1991
in some countries under Jesus Loves You
1995 Cheapness and Beauty - - - UK44 (1 week)
UK 		- -
First published: May 22, 1995
Producers: Jessica Corcoran, John Themis
2013 This Is What I Do DE56 (1 week)
DE 		AT61 (1 week)
AT 		- UK33 (2 weeks)
UK 		- -
First published: October 28, 2013
Producers: Richie Stevens, John Themis

Filmography (selection)

Awards (selection)

  • Daily Mirror Readers' Award
    • 1983: "Outstanding Music Personality 1982"
  • Ivor Novello Award
    • 2015: "Outstanding Contribution to British Music"
  • Irish Post Awards
    • 2019: "Outstanding Contribution to Music"

Publications

  • Boy George, with Spencer Bright: Take It Like a Man . Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1995, ISBN 0-283-99217-4 .
  • Boy George, with Paul Gorman: Straight . Century, London 2005, ISBN 1-84413-390-7 .
  • Boy George, with Dragana G. Brown: Karma Cookbook . Carroll & Brown Publishers, London 2001, ISBN 1-903258-16-2 .

literature

  • Maria David: Boy George and Culture Club . Color Library Books, London 1984, ISBN 0-86283-189-X .
  • Anton Gill: Mad about the boy. The life and times of Boy George and Culture Club . Century, London 1984, ISBN 0-7126-0983-0 .
  • Kasper de Graaf, Malcolm Garret: When Cameras go crazy: Culture Club . Virgin, London 1983, ISBN 0-907080-85-5 .
  • The new rock lexicon . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek 1999, ISBN 3-499-16352-7 .
  • Playboy Germany . Edition May 1985

swell

  1. ↑ Musikexpress / Sounds , December 1983
  2. ^ Bravo , 1993
  3. ↑ independent.co.uk, accessed September 27, 2017
  4. ^ Theguardian.com, accessed September 27, 2017
  5. ↑ attitude.co.uk ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / attitude.co.uk
  6. ↑ Boy George is cleaning up Chinatown . Spiegel Online , August 1, 2006
  7. ↑ Boy George has to be behind bars , Süddeutsche Zeitung, dated May 17, 2010 (according to information from the SZ, due to database problems, almost all articles from the time before were incorrectly set to this date.)
  8. ↑ TV feature film archive
  9. ↑ AFTER "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY" AND "ROCKETMAN" COMES BOY GEORGE. Accessed May 31, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
  11. ↑ independent.co.uk
  12. ↑ irishpost.com

Web links

Wikiquote: Boy George  Quotes
Commons : Boy George  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Boy George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES O'Dowd, George Alan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British singer
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH London