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Flamboyant British new wave singer Boy George was
born George O'Dowd in Kent, England in 1961. During
the '70s George became a big fan of glam rock, especially
David Bowie, and began attending hip London clubs
in flashy women's clothing. His outrageous style encouraged
Sex Pistols manager Malcolm Maclaren to recruit George
for Bow Wow Wow, a new wave band he was producing.
George performed with the band for only a short time
before forming his own group, Culture Club, with guitarist
Roy Hay, bassist Mikey Craig and ex-Adam Antdrummer
Jon Moss.
In
1982 Culture Club signed to Virgin, but its first
two singles failed to chart, despite growing fashion
interest in Boy George. Finally, the band reached
No. 1 in the U.K. with their third single, "Do
You Really Want to Hurt Me." A 1983 debut album,
Kissing to Be Clever, followed, and several singles
reached the Top 10 in the U.S. and Britain. Culture
Club's fall 1983 follow-up, Coulour by Numbers, made
them worldwide pop stars with the No. 1 hit "Karma
Chameleon." The band became MTV favorites, largely
due to George's androgynous dress, and Boy George
soon found himself a cultural icon, known for his
witty interviews.
Unfortunately
the next few Culture Club albums did not sell as well
as expected,and the group began experiencing problems.
George and Jon Moss, who were lovers, began having
relationship problems and George became addicted to
heroin. During the summer of 1986 George was arrested
in Britain for marijuana possession; several days
later Culture Club's session keyboardist, Michael
Rudetski, was found dead of a heroin overdose in George's
home. As George underwent treatment for his addiction,
Rudetski's parents filed a wrongful death suit against
him, and Culture Club broke up.
Boy
George returned to music in 1987 with his first solo
album, Sold.Seven singles charted in Britain over
the next year, but George was virtually ignored in
the U.S. His 1988 follow-up, Tense Nervous Headache,
and the 1989 dance album Boyfriend were not even released
in America. Instead, Virgin released a U.S. album
called High Hat, composed of songs selected from his
second and third U.K. albums. In 1991 George released
a dance remix album called The Martyr Mantras, originally
credited to the group Jesus Loves You, but the record
was largely ignored, even in Britain.
George made a minor comeback in late 1992 with the
title song from the movieThe Crying Game, his first
U.S. hit since the days of Culture Club. Capitalizing
on renewed attention to his career, George released
a frank autobiography, Take It Like a Man, in 1995,
along with a new, more rock-oriented album called
Cheapness and Beauty.
In 1998, putting their differences behind them, George
reunited with Moss, Hay and Craig for a Culture Club
reunion tour that kicked off with an appearance on
VH1's Storytellers series. In
2001 Boy George plays DJ on the remix album Essential
Mix.
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