Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity

This programme contains strong language.

With so many pop stars here, it's just like... It's like a sheep dip.

All right.

It's pretty weird, seeing as I don't know anybody and they don't know me.

This is nice, you know.

Haven't done this for a long while.

It's all right. A lot of memories come flooding back.

Being pushed out the way while people try and get to George.

And what is it that you've been nominated for today?

The Idle Award for doing nothing for the last 20 years.

HE LAUGHS

I-D-L-E.

In the 1980s, Culture Club's meteoric rise

made them one of the biggest bands in the world,

selling over 150 million records.

The songs and the band have stood the test of time

and are as relevant as they ever were.

Let's take a look at the guys in action.

CHEERING # Do you really want to hurt me?

-# Do you really... #

-But during this time,

George and drummer Jon Moss were hiding something from the public.

I fell in love with him.

I fell in love with George. He happened to be a man.

And when their volatile relationship ended in 1986,

the band fell apart and George unravelled.

He literally went from nothing to heroin in about three weeks.

All previous attempts to reform the band have broken down,

but now, for the first time in 15 years,

they're planning to record an album and go on tour.

We've attempted to do it a few times

and I felt like it was our last chance if we were going to do it.

The thing with Culture that's interesting is that,

you know, us without George - nothing.

And I'm afraid, George, not as great without the band.

There's no Lady Gaga without Culture Club.

There wasn't even a Madonna without Culture Club.

We want to come back and reclaim our legacy.

It's our first big tour for about 15 years.

There's certain anxieties that come with that.

I followed the band over ten months

as they endeavoured to put old rivalries aside.

But for a band with such a volatile history,

how will they cope coming back together?

I know what I'm doing. I think there's the problem.

You know, what I want and what Roy, Jon and Mikey want

are entirely different things.

If that means that the rest of the band

think I'm being selfish and difficult,

that's just how it's going to be.

Well, it's really weird, you know.

We weren't mates before we started Culture Club.

We are a band in the very traditional sense of being a band.

You know, we came together to be a band.

Erm, you know, pushing aside the kind of...

sort of relationship things that happened,

we were a band. That's why we started.

So...our history with each other is about being a band.

I don't live here, so for me to come over is quite a big deal.

But to George it's like, "What are you doing that you can't come over?"

I'm like, "Well, I have a life." "Well, what is it?"

-I'm like, "It's my life!"

-HE LAUGHS

So...

BUZZER RINGS

Hi, Royston.

Push.

-I didn't see you. You're wearing camouflage.

-Yeah.

I'm ready for battle,

as I said earlier. THEY LAUGH

BUZZER

Oh, my God. If it isn't Mikey Craig!

Come in, push the gate.

-I was about to start...

-How are you?

-Yeah, good. How are you?

-Good.

-Nice to see you.

Wrapping his own parcels these days.

Yeah, no. This is my Vitamix. You know what it is, Vitamix?

-I love my Vitamix. I live by my Vitamix.

-This broke.

It spins so fast.

Soup setting, it actually sort of half cooks and makes a soup

when you put the things in there.

-Put Jon Moss in there, no problem.

-Put Jon Moss in there. Yeah.

A Jon Moss smoothie.

Could he be any more smooth?

BUZZER

-How nice.

-Oh, hello!

-God.

Shut up! Hello, everyone.

Erm... Do you want to play it, Roy?

Getting Old.

HE PLAYS

# Getting old

# Getting old... #

'Myself and Roy are probably the main songwriters.'

So no, I mean, I think...

Roy might think he's in charge! HE LAUGHS

I might think I'm in charge too, but I don't think any of us are really.

Let's just move on and do something else anyway.

Remember that?

Just take the vibe of those early Destiny's Child records.

HE HUMS A RHYTHM

"Question - do-dee-doo-dee-doo about..."

But just the groove on that, I thought was really kind of cool.

-You know, that swinging thing.

-Are you saying we're in RnB?

-You deny your soul voice?

-Absolutely not.

-OK.

-OK.

-JON PLAYS GUITAR

That sounds like Neil Young to me now.

Don't start writing melodies. Please.

That's another drama! BOY GEORGE LAUGHS

-You could do like an artist thing about...

-ROY SCATS

Yes.

-You know?

-Don't, don't fucking do that!

So aggravating, man. No, no, no. I mean...

-No, we don't start writing things...

-Well, why not? I'm a writer!

-Well, then write for someone else!

-I'm writing with you!

You don't have a monopoly on melodies here.

We need to sort that out,

because I'm not singing other people's melodies,

-so either get over it, or...

-George, we'll write together.

Yeah, I write melodies, you write the music. That's how it works.

Shout as loud as you like, it's not going to make a difference.

You do shout, actually, you raised your voice.

You raised your voice, no-one took suggestions, ever.

-Don't raise your voice to me like that.

-I wasn't...

-Well, you were...

I got excited about the music.

No, you got excited about trying to tell me what to do.

Not a good idea.

ROY PLAYS GUITAR

Doing a band,

it's so much more complicated than just being a solo artist.

'We were sent a poster yesterday for the tour and I was like,

' "I'll approve it" and you think,'

"Oh, I should show everyone else." But...

it gets really complicated. Democracy, it's a hard one.

Can we do this?

At the end, I have to do this thing where I say,

-"See you in December," so don't speak at the end, OK?

-All right.

You need to go out for a minute so you're not in it.

Can you take that camera?

-No, no, don't go outside, you've got to be in it.

-I'm back!

-OK.

-Fucking hell.

-Ah...

# Karma karma karma Karma karma chameleon

# You come and go...#

You... You have to say when you want us to come in, you see.

Right away, once he does his thing, then I'll come in and you...

ROY CLEARS HIS THROAT

One, two, three, four!

# Karma karma karma Karma karma chameleon

-ALL:

-# You come and go

# You come and go

# Loving would be easy if your Colours were like my dream

# Red gold and green

# Red gold and green... #

See you in December.

-Hey, they won't notice.

-Work here is done.

-Be quiet. Shut up, Jon.

-No, I will not shut up.

-Shut the fuck up, Jon.

-No.

-Fucking hell.

ROY PLAYS GUITAR

Yes, it was OK, it was as I expected today, really.

George was intolerant, as usual. So am I, probably, so that's fine.

You know, nothing's changed really, so...

Well, I'm sorry, but he doesn't shut up, it's like fucking...

It's like an insane person.

ROY LAUGHS I'm finding it very difficult and that's just one day in.

I'm really, I've just had to spray chakra spray on myself...

I was like, "God, can you leave?"

BAND MEMBER LAUGHS

So, when you are you next meeting up?

It will be in Spain on Monday, or later.

-NEWSREADER:

-Boy George doesn't like flying

and finds ways to amuse himself.

Hello there.

Melbourne Airport erupted in a frenzy as the pop idol arrived.

Hundreds of his teenage fans screamed, wept,

waved and yelled in an uncontrollable burst of emotion.

But for airport officials it meant security problems.

For the press and media,

some of those colourful comments that always make the headlines.

Do you ever feel trapped by your image?

No! REPORTER LAUGHS

The waiting Mercedes didn't whisk away the superstar.

Boy George had made a special request

to travel in a minibus as one of the band.

About 10,000 were jam-packed between the store's glass walls...

CROWD CHANTING DROWNS SPEECH

And their thrilled greeting showed

how much the club stopover was appreciated.

How embarrassing.

And you met Boy George too and said he was a really nice guy.

Very intelligent, very considerate fellow, actually.

-That's good.

-Appearances aren't everything, are they?

Hi, we're in Grenada.

Granada. I can't believe you brought me to here.

Come in to mi casa.

Hello.

Do you want Reggie in here or do you want Jonny?

No! Are you crazy? I don't want Jonny anywhere near me.

-Because this is your room, OK?

-Lots of people sleep in here?

It can be a spare bedroom but it's empty at the moment.

-Keep it away from Mickey.

-So it's like you've got a suite.

-Don't put Jon, put Ritchie there, it's fine.

-Put Ritchie there.

-I think Ritchie likes solitude. Jon just likes talking.

-Yes.

Fucking ha-ha.

-Do you guys want to get out?

-Fucking hell.

-You guys have got to get out.

-Thank you.

-Oh, my God. Crazy. Loco.

-Ritchie, move back.

This is insane!

Oh, my God!

Your entrance was very LA, I have to say.

EXAGGERATED ACCENT: Oh, my gawd! Oh, my gawd!

Good cherry as well. Mm.

I've already got my own room.

-Oh, you've got the big, golden suite.

-No, it's fine.

Nothing special.

You know.

Oh, that's good.

So where are the bedrooms then?

You ain't got one, you've got to sleep up here. GENTLE LAUGHTER

Can I have the hobbit room?

Or has somebody already taken it?

That's what George wanted.

That's cute, isn't it? I like that.

-This is the big round hobbit room.

-Yeah.

-It's a really good acoustic.

-Mm.

-Why was people in my room?

-Yes.

-Why was people in my grill?

-Very nice.

-OK, and...

-Right, come on and I'll show you the studio and the other rooms.

-Ah.

I was going to put you and Jon in the guesthouse.

A bit spooky out here.

Hope you've got your flashlight out.

-Mm.

-Did anyone show you how to get here?

-I will stay here, yes?

-Sure.

'Yes, well...'

it's not bad. Fine, it's lovely. It will do.

# Nam-myoho-renge-kyo

# Nam-myoho-renge-kyo

# Nam-myoho-renge-kyo

# Nam-myoho-renge-kyo

# Nam-myoho-renge-kyo... #

BELL RINGS

Just to warn you, I haven't quite woke up yet.

I've been up for a while, but...

Also, it's quite a lot of reverb with my voice, so...

Not a floppy ring, dear.

-GENTLE LAUGHTER

-Floppy.

# It can't be easy Hell you said can't

# If you'd be a different man...

# Yeah. # BOY GEORGE CLEARS HIS THROAT

Yes, that's the lyric.

So I'm not needed for a minute, right?

Come back tomorrow.

ROY LAUGHS

# If you'd be a different man...

# Yeah. #

GUITAR SOLO

We've just been picking cherries.

Very glamorous, it's very, what's it called? The Good Life.

You actually picked those?

Sort of. BOY GEORGE LAUGHS

She wanted to, basically, we went to this place

where you CAN pick cherries, let's rephrase,

and she wanted to pick cherries

and I was like, "Love, I've got an album to make,

"they've picked them already, how nice of them.

I'll just go to the studio and see what's going on.

Do you want to be the bearer of cherries?

-Shall I bring them? Make me look organic and loving.

-Yes.

-Like I care.

-Yes.

I do, obviously.

# If you'll be a different man! #

The 1A sounded good.

It's a bit low, Michael, what are you trying to do?

-We want to generate a kick.

-I know we're old, but...

-Is this what you were doing last night?

-Yes.

MUSIC STARTS

Very dancey.

# Ooh...

# Ooh...

# Ooh...

# Ooh...

# I'm never gonna catch out The one you love

# Like a black cat Buddha

# Like a slide show

# It can't be easy Hell you said it can't

# If you'd be a different man...

Different man!

# It can't be easy Hell you said it can't

# If you'd be a better man

Different man!

-No!

-Better.

-It's not better!

Stop. MUSIC STOPS

No, if you'd be a different man, it's not better man.

-Did you once say?

-No, never.

-Yes, he's right.

-All right.

-If you'd be a different man - don't change my lyrics.

-Did I do that?

-Hello.

-If you'd be a different man,

-not better man.

-OK, we'll do it again.

Well, listen, you know what it is.

-See how calm I've remained?

-What about..?

-We could do it again, or leave it as an idea.

-No, no. It's different man.

Different man - don't change my lyrics.

This is what's going to happen when I go out to the shops,

-you'll change my lyrics. Not going to work.

-It's only little ideas.

-Yes, but, different, don't change the lyrics, OK?

-Yes, I missed that.

Maybe we just thought...

You know what thought did? Wet the bed and thought it was sweating.

My mum used to say.

OK.

In an Irish accent.

IRISH ACCENT: Wet the bed and thought it was sweating.

Don't make faces about my mum! Go on. Nice try.

BOY GEORGE LAUGHS

Listen, you know, there's going to be rows, cos, you know,

the nature of trying to have a democracy is so hard.

# Daddy-o...

# Daddy-o... #

You see, there's a key change. Do you like it or not? Like that?

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

-Should he do the key change there?

-Yes.

If it turns out when we listen to the whole song back

that it sounds too soon - it might do - we'll change it, you know.

That's it, Roy, that kind of attitude, not, like, no.

-BAND MEMBERS:

-One, two, three, four...

'The kind of rule is that the writer of the lyrics

'and the manager gets 50%, which is what I'm entitled to,

'but we'll have a debate about that, I'm sure.'

But I'm not sure how flexible I'm going to be.

'We just have to be fair.

'And if somebody's written most of a song,

'why should they give it away? You know,

'I am a generous person, but, you know, there's a limit.'

Back in the day, we did everything 25%.

That ain't going to happen now.

-Shall we record it?

-Hold-up, one then? Oh, nice.

-Make a note to yourself, get rid of this later.

-We did it in D before.

PLAYS PIANO

Can we have a shot of Roy crying at the end on a wheelchair?

-GENTLE LAUGHTER

-That's nice.

With a keyboard on his lap?

Naked?

George, he still has the authority, he's still the queen,

he's still the queen bee, although he's not taken so seriously now.

Don't know about you, I'm about to slip into something more comfortable, like a coma. Fucking hell.

-Shove that on.

-Yeah...

-Oh, yeah...

-Nice with some strings...

-Yeah, exactly.

You're right up his arse.

Think Beatles, man. Think Beatles. It's three Beatles.

OK. All right, then. You've won me over!

Shall we record it?

They made the announcement today about the tour, 15 dates in the UK.

Big venues.

BOY GEORGE CHUCKLES

-Yes, like the O2, you know.

-Yeah, but, you know...

we're a big band. BOY GEORGE LAUGHS

There we go.

Somebody's saying they've booked their tickets for Leeds.

Wow, really cool.

That's 12 we've sold.

LAUGHTER

My bags are packed.

Away we go.

Well, I'm busy that night, I can't do that one.

THEY LAUGH

When it all kicked off, I was about 22, yeah.

That's quite a lot to take on board.

It is, but it doesn't mean anything now. Like,

you know when you go on TV shows, they introduce you,

they say, "You sold 150 million records," and I think,

"What does it matter?" Now is all that matters.

You know. Oh, forget it.

BOY GEORGE LAUGHS

The first single we put out did nothing.

The second one did nothing,

the third one we started to pay for the promotion ourselves, didn't we?

-Which is Do You Really and then it kicked off.

-Jonny had a plan.

Yeah, Jonny did have a plan.

Do a few gigs, Top Of The Pops, big hit record, lovely,

we'll go on tour. Sounds good to me, yes!

Bad drug habits, get divorced.

End up making a record.

You left that bit out. You left that bit out.

I left it out, I wasn't so sure about that.

Jon and George, they were the powerhouse within the band.

They kind of led the band.

And they were very strong.

The two of them. Together.

And because they were together it made it difficult for us

to input things at times.

But, um...

I'm not sure, I don't know

if I want to talk about their relationship so much,

because, cos Jon's got...

..kids now.

I fell in love with him.

Just fell in love with him.

I fell in love with George, he happened to be a man.

We were instantly attracted to each other.

Not sexually, it was like a childish crush, it was very exciting.

You know, very exciting, you know.

It was a little weird being in the band with that secret,

I've got to be honest.

I mean, it was no secret,

our relationship, between my friends or anything like that,

but I was thinking the other day how things have changed so much.

When Culture Club started there wasn't the liberalism there is now,

there was a lot of queer-bashing, you know,

and it was not cool.

People didn't want to know.

I grew up just wanting to be in a band and...

have fun.

All the girls backstage and all the things that go with it,

I ended up in a fucking homosexual drama.

ROY LAUGHS

Jon and I did not have a normal relationship.

We weren't nice to each other.

We didn't go out for meals.

I mean their relationship wasn't a problem, the fighting was a problem.

You know?

Stuff all over the place,

literally hitting each other and screaming and shouting.

The others were going, "Oh, I can't take this any more."

One couldn't help feeling that George's mood

was determined by how he was getting on with Jon.

It was a soap opera, you know.

A really bad one that doesn't get aired after three series.

That's what it was like.

I'm just doing it as a little experiment.

I used to do this every day - what you talking about?

I quite liked it when it was a bit more dense.

-Maybe needs something here.

-Let Christine...

-Like a crystal, or something there.

She's eccentric.

SHE CHUCKLES

And, also, when you've worn as much make-up as we have,

you have to find new ways of putting it on.

No, I don't like that. It's ridiculous!

No, the reason you don't like it is cos it hasn't got the gold leaf that side.

No, I don't like it, because I jus... No. I just don't like it.

-Think it's too much.

-No, it's good!

No, Christine, it's not good.

SHE LAUGHS

Wonder if the band'll like it. Probably not.

-We could go and ask their opinion.

-Yeah, shall I?

-Yeah.

-Shall I?

-Yeah, go on.

"Hey, look, I'm thinking this is..." Actually, yeah, let's do it.

I'm sure it's going to go down really well.

Guys!

LAUGHTER

-Thought we could use a new look for the band.

-Wow!

-Nose-guards.

-Lovely.

Can you do the original melody on the B sessions for us in a minute?

I'm not going to do it now.

I've got, like, things on my face.

LAUGHTER Can we just play Planningtorock?

So, great - the make-up girl arrives and we get no more vocals,

-cos George now has things on his face!

-Priorities have changed.

Priorities have changed.

-Jon.

-Yes.

Shall we pull the screens back and show them we're really in Shepperton?

Yes. Blue screens. Blue screens.

-One more for safety.

-All right, good. E-mail that to me.

Where's George?

Where's his communal dining stuff? Where is he?

L'chaim, everyone. L'chaim.

LIVELY CHATTER

Go and eat your dinner elsewhere,

you're ruining this perfect shot of Boy George.

There's nothing perfect about this scene.

It's like something from a Fellini movie gone wrong.

Like Fellini with ketchup.

You say tomay-to...

Do you say migraine or mee-graine?

That lovely moment when people aren't speaking because their mouths are full.

-Do you say aluminium or alumin-um?

-Then they start again.

Aluminium! It's got an "i" in it.

Did we have nicknames?

Joan Moist.

-Rowenna Hay.

-Rowenna Hay?!

Joan Moist, Rowenna Hay and Michaela Craig.

Not very imaginative! Got to come up with a better one than that.

-Oh, she's getting all bitchy.

-Oh, fuck off!

She's getting all bitchy.

What was your nickname, George?

-Gina.

-Georgina.

-Gina.

George is a nice bunch of guys.

Excuse me, Jon Moss.

I'm a nice bunch of guys?

A nice bunch of guys!

We were the only band with two singers - George and Georgina.

And we've got a musical director person

who's like Stalin and Pol Pot rolled into one.

-INDISTINCT RESPONSE No, you.

-Oh!

Me and Roy get on very well, actually. Considering.

-Don't we?

-Yeah. Absolutely.

-I've been to his house.

-Blimey.

-You hadn't been to Jon's house, though.

-No, or Mikey's.

Last time I went into your house I had to go through the garage.

-In a Cortina.

-Yeah, you did. That's right.

He drove his car into your house?

Yes, a lime green Cortina. I remember.

He then got attacked by a very small hammer.

It sounds like a country song -

# I drove my car into your garage... #

It was a sort of gay mugging.

A tiny little hammer - "Fuck off!"

When you want to have a sensible conversation, I'll come back.

Are you going, George?

Hang on, wasn't he the one who just pulled that conversation up?

He brought up going to Jon's house,

and he brought up feelings, and he left.

What? Mikey?

-No, George brought up the conv...

-No, I was actually talking.

No, George brought it up about going to your house.

-Coming to your house.

-Yes.

And then he didn't like it, and he left.

Do you like to keep a bit of distance?

Yeah, I like being separate. I'm an outsider.

When I'm dressed up, it seems to bother them.

-I don't know.

-Do they react differently to you?

-Yeah.

Well, people do act different to you when you're dressed up, anyway.

People do. But you don't expect people that you know to, but they do.

It's kind of, "Who's she think she is?!"

Jon did say to me tonight, "Why are you dressed up?"

Like there has to be a reason!

It was all right. It wasn't about me, that, anyway.

Everyone's having such a drama about it. "Oh, George's...

"You really pissed George off." Didn't fucking piss...

-George just pissed off. Nothing to do with me.

-Yeah.

Basically, I'm here to work.

I'm not here to make friends or have dinner or play card games or any of that shit.

MUSIC PLAYS BACK HE MOUTHS

I don't know... It's so weird, this band.

By the time the documentary'll come,

we'll probably have fallen out again.

They might not even air it!

Better come out quickly, I'm telling you.

There's only a small window with us,

they you have to wait another 12 years.

In a situation like this,

where you're in a beautiful place but you're also quite trapped...

I like to go out and have a coffee and walk around...

I like to be...a bit freer.

So it's slightly difficult for me to be here.

But, you know, we'll get round it.

THEY CHEER

-Roy's acting...

-Tonight we are men! Real Madrid!

-Roy's acting - he's gay and doesn't like football.

-Athletico!

Bueno, bueno!

FOOTBALL ON TV

Oh, fuck it, I'm so pissed! What? Hello.

-Hello.

-So, you've got an e-mail today.

Yeah, I just got an e-mail from Peter Katsis, our manager.

And the e-mail says, "Hi, guys. These figures look fantastic.

"Apparently, we've sold 18,000 tickets..."

-In the first day.

-In the first day. Which is amazing.

Excellent. Yeah.

Absolutely amazing.

'It's good fun doing this.'

'I thought it was just me. I could not sleep the night before we came.'

I was really anxious about who was going to feed the goldfish,

and my dog and my kids and... You know. All that crap.

But really it was anxiety about "Where am I going?

"What's it going to be like?

"Is it going to be comfortable," you know?

Did I remember my hand cream. Sort of. You know.

LIVELY HUBBUB

If you're somewhere like this

and someone's really getting on your nerves, and it's really bad.

And when you're older you're... "I don't need to do this.

"I don't need to put up with this."

HE HOOTS

-It's a wedding.

-What is it?

-I think it's a wedding.

But, I mean, is there something else

you need to get out of the trunk, darling?

Look at the other one's legs, man!

Pretty girls, Jesus! That's all I need.

-Look at this little Renault.

-Which little Renault?

-This one right here.

Fucking crap, mate. I had one of those in Spain, awful.

It's not. It's a cool little car.

-Yes, but it doesn't drive very well.

-You're joking.

-Football and cars.

-How pathetic is that?

-No, and women!

HE LAUGHS

I'm not sure about this wind.

Have you arranged for this wind just to annoy me?

What about your face? You been in a punch-up?

I've had a bit of a punch-up, yeah. With a clown.

The word styling, when you're over 50,

can wreak fear in your soul.

But it's kind of a pre-requisite, isn't it? Being a pop star.

Yeah, but you're not a pop star, at our age, are you?

Well, I don't know...

No, it's a prerequisite, but...

I think the idea at our age

is not to LOOK like you've been styled, isn't it?

-Hm.

-You know?

-I guess.

-Do you know what I mean?

-Mm.

Not an ageing Burton dummy, you know what I mean?

Glasses on or off?

-Off.

-Off.

People want to see your face.

Do you want to go right back to the wall?

I'd like to go back to London.

Get on with it, Dean. You're dragging this out.

-Lovely.

-If you're kind of quite using this space...

-That's quite nice.

-That feels good.

-That's it.

-Turn that way, Jon.

Don't fart on me.

That's my glasses, man.

Go on, Jon, turn around.

I'm standing like this, stop it.

This is going well, then!

THEY LAUGH

If it doesn't stop in a minute, I'll just go.

Hello, mate. Can I be in the photo?

Jon, concentrate on the picture, mate.

-I am concentrating on the photo, George.

-Lovely. One, two, three...

-And shall we do a kind of...?

-No, no, no.

Fuck all that.

Flies are undone, Mikey.

Flies undone, Mikey.

If you're talking, the picture will look shit.

Been amazing. Thanks.

THEY LAUGH

-No, George...!

-He's not finished. Not finished.

I need a break from them.

Some of Jon's behaviour... I just thought, "Come on, man!"

You know, "You're nearly 60.

"Stop being an idiot. Let's just do this.

"We're taking this to the world stage. Be classy."

'It's just who he is. And I can only take so much of it.'

I feel that we hit the wall two days ago.

And it has been very odd.

Like, you said it was a Noel Coward day the other day.

Which it was, really.

People were sitting on the balcony, smoking cigarettes and...

-It was arch, I think is the word.

-Yeah, arch.

People just sort of not really

knowing what to do when we're all together.

See you in London.

-Safe journey. Take care.

-Bye-bye.

Eats!

The glorious city of London.

-I like this side.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah...

-Did we go to a party here in a penthouse, once?

-Probably.

Did you have a friend who lived in there?

There were many parties in many penthouses in the '80s.

The whole of the '80s was a party in a penthouse.

Concentration!

That's super.

Lovely!

My worst memories of Culture Club were photo sessions

and video shoots.

So this, for me, was quite a little...

And they were all his fucking fault!

It was all my fucking fault.

-Are you uncomfortable, generally, in these situations?

-I have been.

-Not your natural environment, is it?

-No, it's not.

George thrives here. His mother hen comes out.

-Mother hen?! No...

-But you do, though.

No, no, my Ziggy Stardust comes out, not my fucking Mother Goose.

Get it right!

Whatever it is that makes him get up front, makes him dress up -

it's the thing that shines here.

Meanwhile, we make-a the music, yeah?

We make the music.

On your own, of course, yeah. SO deluded!

He comes up with a few words, so he's a bit of a genius...

See you in fucking court! THEY LAUGH

Great.

Sunny's here!

-Oh, Sunny!

-Hi, Sunny!

You're hot. You must be really hot.

How's it been today seeing your dad all dressed up?

Yeah, he looks great! It's really exciting.

He looks really amazing.

It makes me really happy.

It was crazy growing up, like, you know,

in the rock and roll lifestyle that I grew up in.

Kind of, like, no supervision

and pretty much madness from age 14 onwards.

It was just growing up in, like, pretty much chaos.

We used to party together and...

Yeah, it is kind of like we were just buddies for a long time.

But he's doing great now.

And I'm doing all right, now, so now it's really good.

He's a grandpa now.

Makes me really happy when I see them play music

and making music and he's in his element.

I love it. It's great.

Fame does weird things.

Makes people very weird.

I challenge anyone for it not to.

REPORTER: 'As expected, Culture Club were besieged by their fans

'outside the hotel and besieged by the press photographers inside.'

It was crazy.

We couldn't get out of theatres sometimes.

Very scary stuff.

And you become isolated,

and when you become isolated you lose touch with reality and

when you lose touch with reality,

then of course it changed you.

It took me a long while to come to terms with that,

and move on from that in my life, to be honest.

-MC:

-The winner for the Best British Group... Culture Club!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It had mixed blessings being successful, so, yeah...

The highs are high and the lows were really low.

It was right about the time that we were asked to do Live Aid

we noticed that George was not making proper decisions.

Which led to us not doing Live Aid in the end.

And it was one of the things that hurt the most about the band.

We hadn't...not worked for many years,

and I think everyone had just had enough.

That's when we noticed that George was beginning to fall apart.

Beginning to...

Well, experiment with drugs, I guess.

Well, it was funny,

he literally went from nothing to heroin in about three weeks.

Seeing George descend into heroin addiction was probably...

I mean, it was horrible.

It was absolutely horrible.

Horrible.

George O'Dowd was greeted by scores of squealing fans

as he arrived to face the magistrate -

and the music, as well.

He was found guilty of possession of heroin,

and was fined £250, about 375 in US money.

When he came out of the courtroom,

he told his fans he was sorry,

and he urged them to learn from what happened to him.

That made me... I was off.

I just, you know, I couldn't...care about the band.

"You can't do it," you know. "The band'll break up!"

Fuck it, I don't care. I don't want to be around this.

I just did not want to be around that.

Those couple of years after the band,

and watching all that shit in the papers about George.

Kind of watching our legacy be destroyed in public, really...

It was kind of a low point for me.

After you'd stopped working for Culture Club,

-what have you done in the interim?

-Oh, God.

Writing songs for a while,

producing for a while,

then I got into doing music for commercials

then into doing TV stuff...

then I got into becoming

an international playboy.

That didn't go very well.

And then, erm... Just madness.

Most of the time, really, I've been, erm...being Mr Dad.

WOMAN: Ciao! Morning!

Ciao, Paco! How was the game yesterday?

It was good. It was...

-We got worked.

-What was the score?

We lost by 4-1 but two of their goals were pure jam.

What about your dad going on tour?

Are you looking forward to seeing him on stage?

Um, obviously it's nice that he's going back on tour,

but I'm not really that excited

about him on stage and things like that.

He's just my dad, he takes me to and from matches, so...

It's more my teachers and my mates and their parents, kind of thing,

that are quite excited and come up to me, but,

I don't... I kind of missed that excitement, really, yeah.

All right, and make sure this documentary

is the start of something, instead of...you know.

You know what I'm saying, Dad?

Cos you guys do this stuff every now and then

-and I want to make sure you follow this through.

-Right.

-Well put!

-Thank you.

All right, my darling.

Come on. We're going to go now.

-Love you.

-See you later, Paco.

-Ciao amore.

-Ciao, amore.

I'll take it, I'll take it, I'll take it.

The first time I ever heard house music was in the Paradise Garage,

and I was actually making

an album with Culture Club and it was really overproduced,

and I went to this club on the weekend and heard this amazing music

and was like, "Oh, my God, what we're doing's so wrong."

But it was too late, we were in the middle of it.

And that record was a record called...

This weekend I've got a gig in London on Friday

and then I've got a gig in Rimini on Saturday.

Then I go to Toronto, Provence, Ibiza...

But all that travelling, does that in some way...

Is that at the expense of other things in your life?

You mean like sex?

HE LAUGHS

Dental appointments.

But you're not at home a lot, so in terms of forging relationships

and things like this, do you think it gets in the way?

I was talking about this the other day,

that I used to have such a kind of...

So much energy for the chase,

you know, like, "Oh, you know, what's your star sign?"

"Oh, I feel like we've met before." Yawn.

You know, all that palaver - now I just can't be bothered.

You know, I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

OK, let's go.

Can we go somewhere other than this lobby? Cos it's, like, non-stop.

For some reason, I don't know, I think people engage

very differently with famous people now.

It's weird now. If people know who you are

they'll come up and ask for a selfie or an autograph.

If you're a reality star or a pop star or a footballer,

it's like, "Oh, you know, you're famous, can I take a picture?"

It's not about you, it's about them.

-Don't be frightened.

-Are we ready?

It's a joyous song.

It's a song about a chameleon.

One, two, one, two, three, four.

# There's a love in your eyes... #

Have you seen your dad play before?

Yeah, when I was about five, Albert Hall.

He spent his whole life saying, "What does my dad do?", poor thing.

Playing with little bands and... All my kids are the same,

that's what's going to be so good about this.

By the time I got married and had my kids we'd stopped,

we'd stopped stopping.

So this is really good, because when you actually see it,

like the O2 or something, then it all makes sense.

And I put him off the business forever, which is a good thing.

He'll be a lawyer or a doctor or something.

# Loving would be easy if your colours were like my dream

# Red, gold and green Red, gold and green. #

Thank God Roy's not here or we'd be getting all sorts of orders

about how it should be done and shouldn't be done,

how we're not doing this right.

But Peg Leg's not here, so...

Peggy Mount's not here.

"Peg Leg's not here," oh, dear.

You know what I did was

I kind of registered my disappointment, then I moved on.

I just sent him an e-mail saying "I'm disappointed you're not coming,"

because - I don't know if you remember, maybe you filmed this -

but he didn't really want to come anyway.

So it seems a bit con...

I mean, I know he has to have knee surgery and all of that,

but it did seem a bit like he planned it so he didn't have to come.

"Oh, my knee! Oh, my knee! I couldn't possibly be there!"

-Do you think that he didn't actually want to come?

-Not at all.

No, that's ridiculous. No, he's really...

When we were in Spain his leg was really bad.

I sympathise with him.

I learned quite a lot in Spain.

You think you know it all, but you don't, really, don't you?

We're all different because we're older,

but underneath it all we're still the same,

so when those same things surface...

you know, it gets you a little bit, "Argh!"

Och aye. What a dump.

By the way, Roy sends his love.

Oh, don't overdo it. Poor Roy!

-Roy sends his love to you, you, you, you...

-It's the Roy appreciation.

-"Oh, poor Roy."

-To everyone. He sends his love.

Didn't want to come!

-She wouldn't...

-No, he had to have the work done.

-Hold on.

-He had to have the work done.

She's had a gammy knee for years.

-Yeah, I've got a gammy knee as well.

-Well, you're here.

Yeah. But anyway, Roy did need to do it.

-Has he paid you a fiver to keep going, "Oh, poor Roy?"

-No, no, no.

Basically, Roy's not here bossing everyone around

and trying to call the shots.

-Michael, quick, it's a coup!

-No, no, no, no.

-Anyway.

-Never mind, it's fine.

And the end of the day I was sitting there going...

Do you know what? I've learned not to hate you any more...

Why would you hate me? I'm lovely!

..even when you, you piss me off, I've learned not to hate you.

-It's got my name wrong, as well.

-Joan.

-Joan Moist.

That's, like, a bit filthy.

Your kids are going to see this. Behave.

-They're my children.

-I know your children very well.

Babs used to go on about this.

"The kids are going to find out what happens, they'll watch that programme."

Watched it. "You all right about it?"

-"Yeah." And she was like, "And?"

-Good.

She was quite excited about it, in fact, something to talk about.

Good. Well, I can fill her in the details if she wants.

No, that's probably not a good idea.

You're sailing a bit close to the wind here, George.

-Like when you said...

-Shut up! I'll kill you!

When you said to the journalist,

"I smashed a pot over George's head and he tried to set fire to me."

But that's true!

You threw a plant pot through the first floor

and it would have killed me, and then you wouldn't come out,

going, "I'm not coming out! Fuck off, Jon, fuck off, Jon!"

-But, Jon, babe, babe, babe...

-Look at your shoes!

..can I just say something?

I could spend the next 20 years telling you stories

about things you did.

-Cool, I don't mind.

-Don't tell journalists things like that.

Well, it's better than saying you sniffed my bum in Hampstead.

-My mum was like, "Why did he say that?"

-That's what you said.

She said, "Why did he say that?" I said, "That's Jon."

You said you sniffed my bum like a dog in Hampstead.

-That would have been a much worse headline!

-I never said that!

-Much worse headline.

-I never said that!

-You did!

-No, no, I did not.

-Oh, yes, you did.

OK, let me say what I said.

I said when you're around people you do the sniffy thing like dogs.

-You said, "He sniffed my bum!"

-No, I didn't.

-I never said that!

-I didn't say you sniffed my bum.

An animal, going... HE SNIFFS

No. Roy said, "That's good, George, isn't it?!

"Now they're going to write you sniffed his bum in Hampstead!"

That's what it was. "That's bloody clever, George, isn't it?!

"I'm leaving!"

Move on.

SAXOPHONE PLAYS

Sounds like Benny Hill.

It's like Benny Hill with the sax, though, don't you think?

I'm going round to everyone going,

"Don't mess this up, right? It's really important."

Psychological games.

Don't fuck this up.

Don't fuck this up.

-Jon?

-Yeah?

-Don't fuck this up.

-Don't what?

-Don't fuck this up.

I was going to say the same to you, actually.

He said it to everyone, the bastard.

Guys, are we ready?

He keeps asking if I'm nervous, he's trying to make me edgy.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The battlements of Edinburgh Castle have witnessed wars, sieges,

murders and revolutions,

but the tension and turmoil of changed are nothing

compared to what our next guests have been through.

Please welcome Mikey Craig, Jon Moss and Boy George -

it's happening - from Culture Club!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# Do you really want to hurt me?

# Do you really want to make me cry?

# Precious kisses, words that burn me

# Those lovers never ask you why

# Do you really want to hurt me?

# Do you really want to make me cry... #

Happy birthday to Jon's son, Clyde, who's 17 today.

# Do you really want to make me cry? #

Ho! Beautiful.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Thank you very much.

CHEERING

I hope you're going to come and see us when we play in December.

Absolutely phenomenal, so brilliant to have you back.

Wasn't it good?

-We've got to be out of here in ten minutes.

-All right.

Let's go, let's go. Let's vamoose.

That was good, it's good.

It's like one of those weird things, it was, like, so quick,

it's hard to even kind of think about what it was like.

I just couldn't tell you, I'll wait to see the tweets.

"Oh, she's awful, she's out of tune,

"they should give up."

You know that saying, critics go in after the battle is won

and shoot the survivors?

Move on.

BAND PLAYS

# He was living in his car on the side of the road

# Like a crack pipe Jesus... #

Interesting times, yes. George has...

George has changed management in midstream.

Yeah, which is, er...

Well, even by George's standards,

that's pretty impressive to create chaos.

It's the first person I've ever met who actually has a kind of plan.

'The kind of music business that we know doesn't exist any more.

'The sort of bog-standard ways of doing things just are over.

'I need someone who can see a bigger picture, and I've found someone.'

We've almost got three sets of managers now managing the band,

so you've got e-mails going round and round and round and round,

and we got to the point where we almost lost an American tour.

It's amazing that I'm actually here in this country.

So you nearly didn't come over, then?

No, because nothing was arranged.

All I really want is to be able to go out and play new songs.

I mean, thank God we've got the album in the bag.

I think that saved us, because we all believe in the record.

-JON:

-Really, it's not that difficult, you know what I mean?

We do it, we rehearse, we go out and play.

It's just a question of whether you want drama

or you don't want drama, you know. I personally go for the non-drama.

But this is Culture Club.

I know, but it's supposed to get better!

It's got fucking worse!

# You could be a different man... #

CROWD CHATTERING

It's a very historic day.

Culture Club back after 12 years, isn't it? So I love it.

# Do you really want to hurt me? #

Lovely. I love it. Fantastic.

This is like my idea of hell.

There's, like, so many people in the dressing room,

there's nowhere to get changed, there's nowhere just to be quiet.

That's really important before a show.

There were supposed to be some press interviews and things.

-Don't know about that.

-Cancelled?

-I don't know.

-OK.

I'm just a drummer now.

I'm not going to do interviews on the day of the show.

So get ready two hours before you need to, for what?

To be on the news?

It really wasn't my... I didn't cancel Vogue.

Shall we go? Shall we go, Georgie?

CHEERING

Hello, Heaven!

CHEERING

BAND PLAYS

CHEERING AND WHOOPING

# Desolate loving in your eyes

# You used to make my life so sweet

# In the church of the poison mind

# In the church of the poison mind

# In the church of the poison mind

# In the church of the poison mind

# In the church of the poison mind. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Someone backstage just asked me my name, so there's work to be done.

# I could use a little more than silence

# Silence is a moon

# In a lonely sky... #

Loved it, especially the new songs.

He looks amazing and sounded amazing. It's fantastic.

Very nice. It was a fantastic night, seriously.

Thank you very much!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Everybody, well done. Everybody, well done. Great, man.

-Thank you, girls. Magnificent.

-Thank you, Roy.

I'm happy, yeah, good.

Quite tired, actually, which is not good.

Now what do I do?

I used to drink myself into oblivion,

but I can't do that any more!

Great gig, mate, thanks very much. Guys, great job.

Do you know what the dates are?

Yeah. We get there on the Monday, I think,

Friday's Atlantic City, we fly out on Saturday.

Who knows? Who knows what's going to happen? We don't know.

-Who knows what might happen?

-Anything's possible for January.

-Signing a deal for...

-Revlon.

I don't think he quite understands rock 'n' roll.

I've got him ten revenue, ten streams of revenue for George,

it's going to be this and that, this and that.

You boys, 300 million it's going to be worth, you boys will be in on it.

But, in a way, maybe that's a good thing.

Has it created divisions?

Yeah, having a new person in the mix when everything was...?

No, it's kind of brought the three of us very close together, actually.

When you say the three of us, I mean, the three of you...

-Divisions with George?

-Yeah?

-Well, George is George, you know.

But the three of us are now, you know,

very much...close together.

Glitzy!

VOCAL WARM-UPS

VOCAL WARM-UPS

OK, stand by.

MUSIC: Karma Chameleon

# There's a loving in your eyes all the way... #

'I'm the only one that's singing live.

'We don't do it like that any more, so it's a bit of a weird thing.'

And it's really weird... It's just...

You know what? We just made a great new album

that they could have easily done a dance to.

# Every day is about survival... #

'I just thought we could have done Runaway Train,

'it would have been just as good as Karma Chameleon.'

I love it, I do it live, I've always done it live.

It's kind of like a...

What you'd call a fait accompli.

Time for some brilliant music.

Here with Karma Chameleon, it's Culture Club!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# Karma karma karma karma Karma chameleon

# You come and go

# You come and go

# Loving would be easy if your colours were like my dream

# Red, gold and green Red, gold and green. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

HE HUMS

-Thank you very, very, very much.

-Thank you, honey, fabulous. Bless you.

I wouldn't describe it as my finest musical moment.

I couldn't really hear anything, La-la-la-la-la.

La-la-la!

No, I mean, you know, I'm...

I'm old, I'm very old. I'm very old.

I suppose, at the end of the day, the bottom line is that it's done,

so what's next?

Some more coconut soup. That's what I want.

MUSIC PLAYS

Let's go from the chorus. Very nice.

How are you, Mr Hay?

Recovering from the barrage of bad comments after last night.

I know, I know!

The reviews for Heaven - fantastic, you know, great show.

We were on such high, man. Everything was great, and then...

I think getting in front of 12 million

and a lacklustre performance.

I don't know if he was tired or sick or didn't want to do it,

he was pissed off we had to do Karma...

-But he was in a good mood all day.

-Yeah.

I'm just hoping he's OK, you know.

Maybe physically he wasn't feeling very well.

You know, everybody's been going wild about Heaven.

It was amazing.

And then to have that high and then come down to a low is...

It's a little bit worrying.

An iconic band cancels their North American tour.

# Do you really want to hurt me? #

'80s band Culture Club has cancelled their North American

and UK reunion tour after it was discovered

Boy George has a vocal polyp.

Doctors ordered the 53-year-old to stop singing

otherwise he'll need to undergo surgery.

Boy George took to Facebook to apologise to his fans, saying...

-What did he say?

-There's been a bit of an improvement.

But I'm going to have to actually have some periods

where I don't speak, so that's going to be really challenging!

And did they give you any indication of when you can sing again?

Well, he said it's one of those things.

I need, you know, therapy, I need to have some therapy,

which is what I'll do with this lady, and then we'll see.

It's not something you can kind of measure. Do you know what I mean?

He said there's been an improvement, so that's good news,

but, obviously, if I were to go out and start shouting and screaming

and, you know, running around town it probably wouldn't be a good idea,

so, you know, I've got to recuperate. I think that's the key, you know.

Really, the last thing I should be doing right now

is going to meet the fans, but I'll just try and keep quiet.

The band think that I'm just being...

difficult and selfish and blah blah blah blah.

They want to go out and just do it and I don't,

and I'm not going to.

I just want to do this properly.

Sometimes, in order to do that,

you have to be belligerent and fight people.

That's what's happening right now.

-Are there plans for you to go back out on the road?

-Not right now.

Not right now. No.

-Where have you come from?

-Singapore.

I'm from New York. We just arrived today.

-Where have you two come from?

-From Italy.

How did you feel when you heard that the dates were cancelled?

It was very disappointing.

We've had the flights and the hotel,

and so we couldn't believe that it was cancelled.

We just decided to come anyway

because we can't cancel the hotel and flights.

Cos you've been a fan of George's a long time, haven't you?

Oh, my God, since I was 13. Yeah, that's a long time, and I'm 46 now.

So, yeah, that's quite a bit, yeah.

I'm in a cafe in Hampstead with a load of people

that came to the shows.

There's like one, two... There's a lot.

I'm buying them chips.

It felt like a dream, it was, like, not real.

Didn't really feel like we were really there, but...

Everybody put their hands up!

I couldn't believe that I had a conversation like friends.

I never saw this article.

It's actually quite a good picture. Well, of me!

"The happy ending."

Love you. And I'm going. Au revoir.

-Bye-bye. Safe travels.

-Bye, George!

A bientot.

Right, so I'm going now. Where's the thing?

OK, well, thanks for that.

Really got on my nerves, just want you to know.

Please don't bother me again, don't come round me again with your stupid camera.

See you later.

-We'll see each other next week, yeah?

-Yeah, Monday, yeah?

-All right, love you, bye.

-Bye, bye, bye.

The common-sense thing is if you sit down and talk about things,

things sort of get resolved,

or at least people know roughly where they are.

PHONE DIALLING

Hello, Mikey.

Do you want to meet up for a coffee on Saturday morning?

All right, darling, I'll see you then.

PHONE DIALLING

Jon.

I just said to Mikey I'll have coffee with him

on Saturday morning if you want to join us.

That's two down. One to go!