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Boy George explains why a lot of people hate his top hit, 'Karma Chameleon', what it's like going back on tour with Culture Club and the reason behind his fued with Duran Duran. #boygeorge #duranduran #cultureclub #80s #80smusic Subscribe for regular entertainment! http://bit.ly/1qyfc2T Watch videos in full + exclusives here: https://thisisheart.co/heartglobalplayer Honest Celebrity Interviews: https://thisisheart.co/honestinterviews Music Artists: https://thisisheart.co/3YVm8wN Film and TV Stars: https://thisisheart.co/filmandtv _ We're the UK's biggest commercial radio brand creating memorable moments with the most recognised names in entertainment!
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0:00
Do you know what? In the 80s, I think all of those bands, there was a lot of sort of rivalry
0:04
You know, actually, I love Simon. He's probably my favourite journey after Roger the Drummer
0:09
Yeah, we definitely had a few scuffles. Heart 80s Breakfast with Simon Beal. It is such a pleasure to welcome a true music icon
0:17
You might know him as part of the 80s band Bow Wow Wow for about three weeks
0:22
He's probably better known as lead singer of Culture Club and still doing it 43 years later. Amazing
0:28
Boy George, good morning. Good morning. How are you? I'm gorgeous. Was it just three weeks that you were in Bow Wow Wow
0:34
Maybe three months, but there's some gaps. So was you starting Culture Club like revenge for being thrown out of Bow Wow Wow
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Or was it just you were determined to do your own thing? It was a little bit of revenge
0:46
But also, I decided before I joined Bow Wow Wow that I was going to do music
0:51
You know, I'd kind of, you know, sort of the end of punk. And all my friends were in bands, Spaniel Ballet
0:57
Sade was starting out. There were a lot of people doing music. And I thought, I'm going to do that
1:02
Listen, so much to talk to you about. First up, new solo album. It's called SE18
1:06
It is out now. What I've heard of this, by the way, I love. Your vocals are sounding so good at the moment
1:11
Thank you. What can you tell us about this album? I went off albums for a while
1:15
And then I suddenly thought, you know, albums are great. They're like books. You can tell a story
1:19
You can, you know, so what I do is I just keep writing. And then every so often I go, oh, that feels like an album
1:24
so I will be and also because it's my first vinyl only release
1:28
it's vinyl and CD only no streaming so why have you done that
1:33
because streaming is a waste of my time you know the most streamed song last year
1:37
was The Crying Game I didn't even write it I mean it's great but it's so interesting
1:41
I think my fans want product yeah I feel like it's it's just a bit more
1:47
personal than a stream so if people want to get hold of the album and the CD
1:51
is this where they go to is it Elastic Stage? Elastic Stage which, and funnily enough, when I first put an EP up on there about six months ago
1:59
and they took it down, because I was like, they didn't believe it was me. Boy George's new solo album called SE18, it is out now, you can get it via Elastic Stage
2:08
And actually staying in the South East London thing, Culture Club headlining the Uptown Festival on Blackheath, Sunday the 27th of July
2:16
This is very much on the sort of doorstep of your old stomping ground. Doing a gig there, is that quite special for you, being in that part of London
2:22
Yeah, I mean, listen, when I was 17, I ran screaming from South East London
2:27
vowing never to go back, you know. But then over the years, when I started DJing
2:31
I started doing a lot of clubs like, you know, Bexley Heath and Dartford. And suddenly, from sort of being chased out of Woolwich
2:38
they were like, you're one of us! You know, it was like I kind of got embraced again through the rave scene
2:44
And, you know, obviously, I'm older now, and, you know, I look at, you know
2:48
my sort of teenage years with a bit more sensitivity and nostalgia so I feel like you know i comfortable with being from the southeast so what can we expect from a culture club gig because
2:58
i know you did this tour at the end of last year with tony hadley and heaven 17 where you did your
3:02
first two albums in their entirety yeah so you said the set list was sorted already easy no
3:09
arguments yeah how do you decide what you're gonna now we now that we've played those songs we're now
3:14
adding them into the set which the fans love so we're not sticking to the format of the records
3:20
but we're like we're doing white boy and we're just i feel like sometimes with culture club i
3:25
was always the one saying why are we not doing stuff from this album why did we only ever do that
3:29
you know and it's like you've got so much stuff that the fans you know they want to hear calmer
3:36
chameleon but they also want to hear like the dive or they want to hear something random like a b-side
3:40
like something like Love Is Love they're so mistake number three it's interesting when you ask the fans
3:46
they always come up with like the weirdest B-side stuff you've forgotten about
3:50
yeah like don't even remember so when you come to decide where you place
3:54
the big songs like Come A Chameleon do you always do it at the end
3:58
is it always the big finale? on my tour last year I opened with it in a few places
4:02
you've never seen people running so quickly into it can we talk about Come A Chameleon
4:05
because I think just the size of success for this, this is one of the biggest
4:10
selling songs in the UK ever. It just takes people back to a time in their lives
4:15
where perhaps they were more innocent, but it's also one of those songs that everyone hates
4:20
Like I did my friend's wedding a few weeks ago, Fat Tony, I did his wedding
4:24
and he said, will you sing? I said, yeah. He goes, whatever you do, don't sing, I'm a comedian
4:28
I said, I'm absolutely singing it, because your mum is going to be there, and this is not for you
4:33
And it was so funny, because he was like, you were right to sing it. Well, didn't you say even the band didn't like it
4:38
When you first performed it to them, and said, here's the tune. They weren't so keen. No, they weren't keen at all
4:42
because it was sort of country and, you know, they were into Shalamar and they were into, like..
4:47
Basically, Culture Club always wanted to be in Joran Joran. Right, OK. Fact of life
4:51
They always wished they were in Joran Joran, but tough they weren't, you know? Yeah. Is this where your riff with kind of Simon Le Bon came from
4:58
Because I know when you met to do Band-Aid and you put your arm around him
5:02
which was a really significant move to sort of show the press, listen, we're laying our egos at the door here
5:07
Is that where that stemmed from? Do you know what? in the 80s, I think all of those bands
5:11
particularly, we all thought we were like the best. We all thought everyone else was rubbish and how dare they have hits
5:16
And it was a lot of rivalry. But, you know, actually, I love Simon
5:21
He's probably my favourite journey after Roger the Drummer. I feel they're my two favourite journeys
5:26
But, yeah, we definitely had a few scuffles. There was this one time I was in Paris
5:32
I made some comment about one of his girlfriends and he stood up and told me to apologise
5:37
And I was like, no. and my heart was pounding, it was going to beat me up
5:41
You were playing your stubborn card And then later on obviously when we did Band I saw him and we were like oh whatever you know I mean I been to see them a lot Actually that Band day it did feel like everyone just put everything aside
5:54
It was quite unique. It must have been quite a whirlwind for you because you obviously turned up quite late in the day
5:59
flying in on Concorde, having been in New York. I mean, it's amazing when you think about it
6:04
And yet, what did you soak up from those few hours that you were there? Well, first of all, I didn't know what I was going to do
6:10
It was a bit like Bob had called me, he was Irish
6:14
I was like, he's a good Irishman. My mum would like him. Okay, he wants me to come and do this
6:19
So I was like, okay, you know, I went. And like everyone, I really didn't know
6:24
what I was walking into. It was only when you got there and you go
6:27
oh, okay, everyone's here, like everyone. Let's just talk about some of your other early hits
6:32
because something I hadn't realised until the other day was every song you put out at that point
6:38
was top three, top four. So Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? Obviously, number one, Time Clock at Heart
6:42
which I love, number three. Church of the Boys and Mine, number two. Come and Chameleon, number one, everywhere
6:47
Victims was number three. It's a Miracle was number two. Warsong was number two. When you hit that level of success
6:53
do you feel a bit like, well, we'll do everything right here now
6:57
We've got the path set straight. There must be a level that draws you into a
7:01
we're untouchable. I don't think so. I think it's the opposite. I think that, you know
7:07
when you write songs and you get caught up in that chart thing
7:12
you get pressure and suddenly it's like nothing's good enough you know the last album sold this and
7:18
this one didn't sell as much it is a pressure that you know kind of can get in the way of
7:24
creativity there's too much competition now i think you compete with everyone but there's a
7:30
freedom now that you didn't have then which i really enjoy like you know because you can write
7:36
about anything there's nothing stopping you writing about whatever you want so do you feel
7:40
more creative as a result now yeah because i've i think i've learned to get out of my own way i
7:45
you know everything i hear i write down if someone says something funny i go that's a good line you
7:51
know and i've got great people around me so just any the iphone just write stuff down you know
7:57
don't think you're going to remember it if you hear a great line write it down yeah see this is
8:01
where i'll be a terrible songwriter because i think if i started writing something that this is quite good i would quickly realize it's something i've heard before or it's been written if you look
8:09
I think song titles, one of the things about being a Bowie fan and a Mark Boland fan is that growing up
8:15
they had the most insane song titles. You've got the other one who'd be like, she was born to be my unicorn
8:20
You know Gary Barlow's not going to write that. So look for things that other people won't write
8:25
That's why Bowie was great, because he had a wide palette of what he wrote about
8:29
He wrote about really interesting things. I found out so much about other artists
8:34
Bob Dylan Lou Reed Iggy Pop poets like Kehil Gabran And there so many things I discovered through listening to Bury Records because he would write mad lyrics Yeah And that what I try to do I write about things that mean something to me
8:49
Can we just do some quick fire questions to add on? Okay. How many hats do you have
8:55
Probably about 600. Do you really? Yeah. They're everywhere in cupboards. I was just saying
9:01
Open the stock drawer and there's a hat, you know, under the bed, they're everywhere. How many do you take on tour with you
9:05
Do they stack inside each other? Does that help? I've got like these big massive drum boxes
9:10
and it's hilarious because you travel and obviously they always open them
9:14
and they always say, what are they? And you're like, hello. You've never seen a happy one
9:19
You have worked with so many famous people. Do you ever get starstruck
9:23
Oh yeah, I mean, you know, I sang with Stevie Wonder and I was like, oh my God, what am I doing
9:28
I was so terrified. I was like literally just like shaking in my boots. Lufa Vandross
9:33
Wow. Dion Warwick. I've sung with some amazing people and I wish I could do it now Yeah
9:39
Because when I was like 21 I was like so scared and I'd be like come on let's do it
9:44
Bring it on What about the first time you met Bowie? That must have been overwhelming
9:47
It was so beautiful and so exactly what I wanted I just you know like
9:54
sometimes you meet people and you think oh I wish I hadn't met them but in the case of David Bowie
9:59
he was so charming I mean I was sitting there going oh my god
10:02
trying to be really cool talking about we had this mad conversation about Russian art movies
10:09
and ended up talking about EastEnders because he used to ask me what was going on in London
10:13
and what was going on in EastEnders he was very funny I love the normality of him
10:17
very funny and I remember I said to him he asked me about Steve Strange
10:23
he goes where's Steve Strange he's living in Wales with his mother who's got a massive beehive
10:28
and he goes well you'd need one wouldn't you if you're living in Wales he was a very funny man
10:33
what a beautiful thing for that to be like your dream come true and then it's as great as you
10:37
to not be disappointed absolutely you know yeah no great it was amazing and one final question
10:41
what advice would you give to your 1980s self enjoy what's happening you know don't be indifferent
10:49
you know don't bring anxiety to it you know because actually you're lucky you know you're
10:55
in a room with frank sinatra it's like be there yeah don't zone out and worry about your hat or
11:02
whatever so a lot of the things that i used to really worry about when i was younger i just
11:06
doesn't even come into my mind now i'm a happy person so good to hear and so good to see uh the
11:11
new boy george album se18 is out on cd and vinyl via elastic stage and you can see boy george with
11:18
culture club headlining at the uptown festival in blackheath on sunday july the 27th good luck
11:23
with the album and it's great to see you thank you so much it was a lovely interview thanks
11:27
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