0:00:04 > 0:00:09*
0:00:09 > 0:00:12This programme contains strong language
0:00:14 > 0:00:17# Young guns having some fun
0:00:17 > 0:00:22- # Young guns!- Heads up!- Go for it! Young guns!- Heads up!
0:00:22 > 0:00:27- # Young guns!- Heads up!- Go for it! Young guns!- Heads up!- #
0:00:34 > 0:00:41Culture Club were one of the biggest-selling pop bands of the '80s,
0:00:41 > 0:00:48with a seemingly endless supply of catchy hit singles on both sides of the Atlantic.
0:00:48 > 0:00:53# Desolate loving in your eyes You made my life so sweet... #
0:00:53 > 0:01:01Their singer, Boy George, may have emerged from clubland as a freaky gender-bender,
0:01:01 > 0:01:06but he was quickly adopted by everyone as the Queen Mum of pop.
0:01:06 > 0:01:14The creative drive of Culture Club lay in the love affair between Boy George and drummer Jon Moss.
0:01:14 > 0:01:19That was the very life of the band, the very heart of the band.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22Much as I hated it at the time,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26it was actually...the band.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30NEW SPEAKER: I fell in love with George.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34I was a bit cautious - "Oh, God, I'm queer!"
0:01:34 > 0:01:37# ..I had to fight to make it mine
0:01:37 > 0:01:42# That religion You could sink it neat
0:01:42 > 0:01:45# Just move your feet And you'll feel fine... #
0:01:45 > 0:01:50We were living the great lie. Every time we did a press conference,
0:01:50 > 0:01:54someone could ask, "Are you sleeping with Jon?"
0:01:54 > 0:01:58If they had, George would've said yes.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01# In the church of the poison mind... #
0:02:01 > 0:02:08I wanted people to know we were going out, but it was obvious that Jon didn't.
0:02:08 > 0:02:13Jon didn't know what he wanted to be, where he was.
0:02:14 > 0:02:20It's a side of my life and a part of my life that I'd like to resolve.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23# In the church of the poison mind
0:02:23 > 0:02:27# In the church of the poison mind
0:02:27 > 0:02:31# In the church of the poison mind... #
0:02:39 > 0:02:46George O'Dowd was born into a working-class Irish family in Eltham, Southeast London.
0:02:46 > 0:02:53From an early age, he sought to escape its narrow, suburban horizons.
0:02:55 > 0:03:02I used to get on the bus from about the age of 13, maybe younger, and take the bus to the West End.
0:03:02 > 0:03:08And you'd be in this kind of, you know, other world,
0:03:08 > 0:03:13where you could do what you wanted, without any parental control.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17We're just coming up to Charing Cross station.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20It was, you know, the link.
0:03:20 > 0:03:25When you got to Charing Cross, you knew you were out of reach.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30There was this tribe of people that didn't fit in.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33Most of us had similar upbringings.
0:03:33 > 0:03:38We had subservient mothers, volatile fathers.
0:03:38 > 0:03:45The London club scene is like a surrogate mother to me. It's where I spent most of my teenage years,
0:03:45 > 0:03:49flitting from one club to another.
0:03:49 > 0:03:57I decided that I wanted to be one of those people that people pointed at when you went into a club.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00You could become famous just for looking good.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04You didn't necessarily have to do anything.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10In the early '80s,
0:04:10 > 0:04:12you merely had to BE.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15If you could be, it was sufficient.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19So here was this New Romantic tribe that...
0:04:20 > 0:04:26..was born out of a desire to dress up in a kind of dandy fashion.
0:04:26 > 0:04:32It became a sort of way of just experimenting with your sexuality.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37A boy who could look like a girl who looked like a boy,
0:04:37 > 0:04:43or a girl who looked like a boy who was looking like a girl.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48NEW SPEAKER: It must've been five in the morning.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53I looked out the window and there's the weirdest collection you've seen.
0:04:53 > 0:05:00Green hair, pink hair, yellow hair, standing up, like that. I thought, "What the hell is that?!"
0:05:00 > 0:05:05- She made us toast, though.- He went, "These are my friends, Mum."
0:05:05 > 0:05:08I thought, "Oh, my God!"
0:05:08 > 0:05:15But, you know, once you talked to them and got to know them, they were a great bunch of kids.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20MALCOLM McCLAREN: How could they turn the look into a product?
0:05:20 > 0:05:25So, the notion of making music was a notion of creating product.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28# Go wild! Go wild in the country
0:05:28 > 0:05:33# Where snakes in the grass are absolutely free... #
0:05:33 > 0:05:40George made his singing debut when Malcolm McLaren drafted him into his latest project, Bow Wow Wow,
0:05:40 > 0:05:45to share vocals with the 15-year-old Annabella.
0:05:45 > 0:05:52George went on stage and sang this song to a rather partisan crowd who all booed him.
0:05:52 > 0:06:00After he came off, Vivienne said, "He looks like some queer version of Archbishop Makarios."
0:06:01 > 0:06:06I, er, felt that was a somewhat, er, cruel criticism.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09However, I had to get rid of him.
0:06:09 > 0:06:15Malcolm put a picture of me in the NME saying I'd been fired.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19That was my first notice of the fact that I'd been fired.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23Which was good. Then I met Mikey.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25DUB REGGAE MUSIC PLAYS
0:06:28 > 0:06:33I was born in this house. We were a basic, working-class family.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38Mum and Dad did everything they could to provide for us.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41There were seven children.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44It wasn't easy.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47I remember, as a ten-year-old,
0:06:47 > 0:06:54Mum and Dad would throw these kind of blues parties here, right here in this house,
0:06:54 > 0:06:56in order to get some extra money.
0:06:56 > 0:07:02And, er, my dad's cousin would bring in this enormous sound system
0:07:02 > 0:07:08that could fill a hall, much less a tiny living room downstairs.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12I'd be sitting on top of a giant speaker box,
0:07:12 > 0:07:17thundering out bass until the early hours of the morning.
0:07:17 > 0:07:23I just brought the whole Jamaican musical vibe, introduced that to George.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28George was delighted with all that. He loved it,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31embraced it immediately.
0:07:31 > 0:07:37I said, "Look, can we get a band together?" And he said, "Yeah. Why not?"
0:07:37 > 0:07:40Mikey said, "We need a drummer."
0:07:40 > 0:07:47I said I'd met a drummer, as if Jon was the only drummer in the world, but he was quite cute.
0:07:47 > 0:07:52When I was 15, I went out with the editor of My Guy.
0:07:52 > 0:07:57I went to his office and there was a pin-up of Jon Moss.
0:07:57 > 0:08:03Jon Moss was pin-up of the week in My Guy. That's when I first saw Jon.
0:08:03 > 0:08:09I saw Jon on the King's Road and Kirk said, "He was in The Damned."
0:08:09 > 0:08:12I found his number and rang him up.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22I was brought up in Hampstead by a fairly wealthy, middle-class family.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25Thanks, Mum and Dad.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27I went to Highgate School.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32My parents didn't want me to go to university or to do A levels.
0:08:32 > 0:08:38When I was 14, I had to go and work at one of his shops in the West End,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41clean the windows, whatever.
0:08:41 > 0:08:48There was always that work ethic which bore me in good stead. I've got a lot to thank him for, for that.
0:08:48 > 0:08:56After leaving school at 16, Jon spent brief but unsuccessful stints in a succession of punk bands,
0:08:56 > 0:09:01including The Clash, The Damned and Adam And The Ants.
0:09:01 > 0:09:08He then checked onto a course of exegesis, a cultish American form of motivational therapy.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13Exegesis was originally done as a training seminar for salesmen.
0:09:13 > 0:09:19He said, "Why are you here?" I said, "I want to be a famous musician."
0:09:19 > 0:09:23I thought, "Blimey! Where'd that come from?"
0:09:23 > 0:09:28That was really what I wanted. I wanted to move on.
0:09:28 > 0:09:36He said, "How are you gonna achieve that?" I said, "I wanna concentrate more, be less self-indulgent."
0:09:36 > 0:09:41And it worked. I came out going, "Yes! I'm gonna do it!"
0:09:41 > 0:09:44It worked, really. I promise you.
0:09:48 > 0:09:55I saw this guy wearing Vivienne Westwood boots, purple pantaloons and a Vivienne Westwood top,
0:09:55 > 0:10:02dyed red hair and the make-up. I just thought, "Bloody hell! What is that?!
0:10:02 > 0:10:05"Fuck, I've got a crush on this guy."
0:10:05 > 0:10:13The minute Jon met me, he knew he was onto something. I don't think he ever thought about NOT joining.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15He was in!
0:10:17 > 0:10:20Like a rabbit on a greyhound track.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23'Jon just wanted success, really.'
0:10:23 > 0:10:29George and I had tons of ideas but didn't know how to put them together,
0:10:29 > 0:10:33how to fit the pieces together, but Jon did.
0:10:33 > 0:10:39He had that kind of energy that was needed to make the whole thing work.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44Jon wanted to go in an out-and-out pop direction and that's what we did.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48And, er...I'm glad for it.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53JON MOSS: Roy turned up. He had aubergine hair.
0:10:53 > 0:10:59He'd been in a band called Russian Bouquet. I thought, "Fuckin' hell, man, no!"
0:10:59 > 0:11:02But he was great.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06He had a good haircut. That was the important thing.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11The cultural differences were amazing. He made the square.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17MUSIC: "White Boy" by Culture Club
0:11:21 > 0:11:28This is Canvey Island, the place for sun, sea and piracy for the Essex youth.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31There was a club called the Goldmine
0:11:31 > 0:11:38and it was the centre of jazz-funk, baggy jeans, coloured sweaters and, er...
0:11:39 > 0:11:42..Mark II Cortinas and Essex girls!
0:11:42 > 0:11:48And about 100 yards down the road is where Roy lost his virginity
0:11:48 > 0:11:51in the back of a Ford Anglia.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55I don't even remember her name. Isn't that sad?
0:11:58 > 0:12:04Music was damn good. I got into jazz-funk music and that whole thing,
0:12:04 > 0:12:09so our first single, White Boy, is very much a jazz-funk record.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11It's white-boy soul.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15In terms of musical contribution to Culture Club,
0:12:15 > 0:12:20I think myself and Mikey had quite a deep knowledge of that stuff,
0:12:20 > 0:12:26along with Mikey's, obviously, reggae and sort of Motown influences.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28We brought a lot of that to it.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31George was the pop guy. Jon had...
0:12:31 > 0:12:35Jon basically knew how a band should work.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40There's no point going into business without a commercial eye.
0:12:40 > 0:12:47The difference was that I met three other people who really wanted to get on with it and do something.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50They had a pop sensibility.
0:12:50 > 0:12:56The name Culture Club trumpeted the band's varied cultural and musical backgrounds.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01But for George and Jon, it was more than the music.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05I fancied Jon, but didn't realise that he fancied me.
0:13:05 > 0:13:12He went to America to visit relatives and he sent me a couple of postcards.
0:13:12 > 0:13:19I went into his girlfriend's shop in Covent Garden and said, "I got a postcard from Jon."
0:13:19 > 0:13:24She was like, "Well, he hasn't written to me." She was fuming!
0:13:24 > 0:13:29When he arrived back, they had a fight. 10 o'clock that evening,
0:13:29 > 0:13:34he arrived at my flat with scratch marks on his face.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39Caroline said, "You're in love with George. Go and fucking see him!"
0:13:39 > 0:13:44I said, "What did you say?" He said, "I told her I love you."
0:13:44 > 0:13:47That's where it started - a downward spiral!
0:13:47 > 0:13:54Without that, George wouldn't have written the lyrics he did, cos they were really in love.
0:13:54 > 0:14:02It was exciting. I'd go out with him, kiss him in clubs. I wasn't bothered, because to me it wasn't a problem,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05because George was so different.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08We were like a show-biz couple!
0:14:08 > 0:14:14We helped each other. George showed me something I'd never seen in my life -
0:14:14 > 0:14:22a way of being, his brazenness and how confident he was. It was the happiest time of my life.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26# ..I need the distractions Fire desire
0:14:26 > 0:14:30# Love and reaction He must be someone... #
0:14:30 > 0:14:32Jon was always going on about,
0:14:32 > 0:14:38"Don't worry, boys. We'll get on Top Of The Pops and have a number one."
0:14:38 > 0:14:43It seemed like he was fucking with destiny and knew it would happen.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48For the first time on Top Of The Pops, it's Culture Club.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51# Give me ti-ime
0:14:51 > 0:14:58# To realise my crime
0:14:59 > 0:15:03# Let me love and steal... #
0:15:03 > 0:15:07'I didn't think everyone was gonna go mad over me.'
0:15:07 > 0:15:11I thought we'd have a full-on freak following -
0:15:11 > 0:15:15boys in make-up, girls, ex-punks.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17You know, freaky girls and boys.
0:15:17 > 0:15:24That was our audience, and overnight, after being on TV, we became pop pin-ups.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27That's certainly not what I planned.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33# Do you really want to hurt me?
0:15:33 > 0:15:37# Do you really want to make me cry...? #
0:15:37 > 0:15:43I knew that they just had to see the band...George in particular.
0:15:43 > 0:15:49I told Mum I was in a band with him. She said, "Don't tell your father."
0:15:49 > 0:15:56George brought himself down from being an out-and-out THING, queen of the night,
0:15:56 > 0:16:01into some sort of image, really quite beautiful.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04He even had that sort of shape.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07He was like a sort of living logo.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11# Do you really want to hurt me?
0:16:11 > 0:16:16# Do you really want to make me cry...? #
0:16:16 > 0:16:20But in America, we did exactly the opposite,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24marketing the single in a plain bag.
0:16:24 > 0:16:30The idea was, we don't know about America, we don't know if they'll go for it.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34The black radio stations thought it was a reggae band
0:16:34 > 0:16:39and all the white stations thought it was a girl,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42sort of flirting with black music.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44So this huge audience bought it
0:16:44 > 0:16:49and just before it hit number one, we released it with the sleeve.
0:16:49 > 0:16:55They found out it was a guy, but it was too late, cos the kids are going, "Oh, great!"
0:16:55 > 0:16:59With the money beginning to roll in,
0:16:59 > 0:17:06Jon was entrusted to set up the finances of Culture Club along sound business practices.
0:17:06 > 0:17:12I've seen so many bands, they're all friends and everything's great,
0:17:12 > 0:17:19they get a deal and they start arguing, especially about the publishing. Who gets what?
0:17:19 > 0:17:25I said, "Right. We split everything equally." I set up a holding company.
0:17:25 > 0:17:30Money would come in, a certain amount would be held for expenses,
0:17:30 > 0:17:35and the rest would be distributed four times a year equally.
0:17:35 > 0:17:42You'd get £25,000, £1 million... My suggestion was you put half in a tax account and keep half.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45MUSIC: "It's A Miracle" by Culture Club
0:17:45 > 0:17:52MALCOLM McLAREN: In the '80s, it was SUCCESS, and it ruled out failure.
0:17:52 > 0:17:57That whole notion of pragmatism over romanticism really kicked in.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02Having a career was something they had to think about
0:18:02 > 0:18:08and Boy George became this mammoth phenomenon around the world
0:18:08 > 0:18:14because he...he built an image that sold to all generations.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17The notion of cross-dressing
0:18:17 > 0:18:20actually didn't create a threat.
0:18:20 > 0:18:26It did the exact opposite. It turned him into a teddy bear of soul music,
0:18:26 > 0:18:31something that the mums and dads, who NEVER go out,
0:18:31 > 0:18:37joined with the younger generation, who COULDN'T go out,
0:18:37 > 0:18:42and together they formed, probably, a pop phenomenon.
0:18:42 > 0:18:48NEW SPEAKER: It was a big landmark when they got to number one.
0:18:48 > 0:18:55The tabloids were pretty homophobic at that time. I remember them doing, "Is it a boy? Is it a girl?"
0:18:55 > 0:19:02They wanted to attack him for what he was doing to the nation's youth, but, at the same time...
0:19:02 > 0:19:07Yes, he was a gender-bender, but he was like a pantomime dame.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10That was the beauty of George.
0:19:10 > 0:19:16I think a lot of people went out to hate him, but he won them over,
0:19:16 > 0:19:20simply by his charm and by putting himself down.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23I think part of it was my ordinariness,
0:19:23 > 0:19:31the fact that I was from Southeast London. My background played a big part in it because,
0:19:31 > 0:19:38in the same way as the Spice Girls have a council-estate glamour, it makes it much more accessible.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41So on the one hand, I looked odd,
0:19:41 > 0:19:46but my personality was ordinary. I could just chat about anything.
0:19:46 > 0:19:53He loved seeing himself in the paper, even if it was shoving a hot dog down his throat.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57"Boy George ISN'T a vegetarian!" Whatever.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02He developed... It was like they gave him the drug for press
0:20:02 > 0:20:05and he just wanted more.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10And there were times when we had band decisions -
0:20:10 > 0:20:15we've gotta stop the press, it's crazy, it becomes too much.
0:20:15 > 0:20:22George would phone up Rick Sky and go, "I wanna do an interview cos the band said I can't."
0:20:22 > 0:20:26Yeah, I did love it. I enjoyed it. It was fun.
0:20:26 > 0:20:32I think that, looking back, I made people's jobs very easy.
0:20:33 > 0:20:40You know, I mean, most pop stars have nothing to say, they act like it's all a drag.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43It wasn't for me. I loved it.
0:20:43 > 0:20:48Boy George and Culture Club were a gift to the tabloids.
0:20:48 > 0:20:54It was when pop music became very important to those papers to capture a young market.
0:20:54 > 0:21:00Instead of royalty or politicians, they went big on pop stars.
0:21:00 > 0:21:05George was never drab. Headlines just poured out of him.
0:21:05 > 0:21:12And he knew what he was doing. It was almost as if he was seeing the headline himself in the Sun.
0:21:12 > 0:21:18MIKEY: He was in the papers every day.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23He went to everything. As he puts it, even the opening of a toilet seat.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26He, of course, he embraced it
0:21:26 > 0:21:31and he was there, you know, lapping it all up,
0:21:31 > 0:21:35but, eventually, it overwhelmed him.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44# Desert loving in your eyes all the way... #
0:21:44 > 0:21:48With the release of the second album, Colour By Numbers, in 1983,
0:21:48 > 0:21:55Culture Club established themselves as the biggest-selling band in the world.
0:21:55 > 0:22:01# I'm a man who doesn't know How to sell a contradiction... #
0:22:01 > 0:22:06The album spawned five massive, global hits
0:22:06 > 0:22:12and George had become one of the world's most recognisable stars.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16CHEERING AND SCREAMING
0:22:16 > 0:22:18# You come and go
0:22:18 > 0:22:22# You come and go... #
0:22:22 > 0:22:26Boy George became bigger than Culture Club.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29The hats took over from the music.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33It was the band, then the band plus the singer,
0:22:33 > 0:22:38then it was the singer and his hat, then it was just his hat(!)
0:22:41 > 0:22:48With someone like Boy George, what do you expect? It became just Boy George.
0:22:48 > 0:22:53You can't have everything. If it works a certain way, it does.
0:22:53 > 0:22:59If you fight the natural way things are going, things will go wrong.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04I've been talking to Elton John and George would walk in the room
0:23:04 > 0:23:07and he's gone. "Hi, George!"
0:23:07 > 0:23:14And when we're getting the award for best BAND, not best hat, not best pretty make-up,
0:23:14 > 0:23:20but the BPI award for best British band in 1983,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23we're walking into the place
0:23:23 > 0:23:29and me, Jon and Mikey get pushed out of the way by the photographers.
0:23:29 > 0:23:36I kicked a few, the fuckers. Bastards. You know, that got really frustrating,
0:23:36 > 0:23:44because I knew how many hours I put in in the studio when George was off doing photo shoots.
0:23:44 > 0:23:49Jon got 50% of the attention because he was my boyfriend.
0:23:49 > 0:23:54If we did an interview with the NME, it would always be me and Jon.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57Everything was me and Jon.
0:23:57 > 0:24:03What angered both myself and I'm not sure, but probably Roy as well,
0:24:03 > 0:24:11was that if you had something to broach with George, Jon would back him up and vice versa.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15So you were fighting the two of them, always.
0:24:15 > 0:24:21I felt excluded from decision making. It was done in the bedroom.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31But all was not well in George and Jon's bedroom.
0:24:31 > 0:24:38The blurred sexual identity which worked so well for Culture Club undermined their relationship.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41# Victims we know so well
0:24:41 > 0:24:45# They shine in your eyes When we kiss and tell
0:24:45 > 0:24:48# Strange places we never see
0:24:48 > 0:24:53# But you're always there Like a ghost in my dream... #
0:24:53 > 0:25:00I'd never been out with a guy before, but with George it wasn't a guy, it was like this thing,
0:25:00 > 0:25:06and it was his whole different area of life that I couldn't cope with.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09I wasn't prepared for his world.
0:25:09 > 0:25:14- George wasn't exactly a transvestite, but he was on the borders.- Sure.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16Not like these two(!)
0:25:16 > 0:25:22People that go out with trannies are more screwed up than the trannies.
0:25:22 > 0:25:31Blokes that go out with them kid themselves they're going out with a real woman and they're not queer.
0:25:31 > 0:25:36But they're normally more screwed up than the trannies themselves.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43Jon cheated on me with this girl called Sam,
0:25:43 > 0:25:48who used to work in Maxwell's in Hampstead. I hated her.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51I never trusted him after that.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54He wasn't mature enough at the time.
0:25:54 > 0:26:01He couldn't believe that when we argued, I'd walk off then phone him up saying I was sorry.
0:26:01 > 0:26:08He was so used to the hard knocks, I don't think he could understand that someone could feel that way.
0:26:08 > 0:26:16Maybe it's that weird thing where you wouldn't want anybody who was a friend of yours to be your friend.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20You know? I think there was a touch of that.
0:26:20 > 0:26:27One of the big problems was that I didn't think Jon really knew how to be intimate...at all.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30At the end, it was only sex.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35I couldn't just turn up at Jon's house. I had to make an appointment.
0:26:35 > 0:26:40There was always this sense that he was hiding things from me.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51George's asexual image was so central to the band's popularity
0:26:51 > 0:26:57that any disclosure of the reality of George and Jon's relationship
0:26:57 > 0:27:01ran counter to Jon's commercial instincts.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06In this business, people don't really care what you do in bed.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10It's show business, you're entertaining,
0:27:10 > 0:27:14and there's no reason why people should know that.
0:27:14 > 0:27:22You don't have to be totally open in that way, otherwise you'd be saying, "I fucked so-and-so in the toilet."
0:27:22 > 0:27:25My image was so far from the reality.
0:27:25 > 0:27:33I can remember playing at the Dominion Theatre and Jon and I having sex before I went on stage.
0:27:33 > 0:27:38Here I was bouncing out on stage to all these little girls with dolls.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42There was all these contradictions going on.
0:27:42 > 0:27:48He didn't claim to be out. When he was questioned about his sexuality,
0:27:48 > 0:27:53he said he preferred a cup of tea to sex,
0:27:53 > 0:28:01so he was treading this strange line, this almost ambiguous line, and maybe he did that for Jon.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05- This is a present. - It's a teapot for me!
0:28:05 > 0:28:08APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:28:09 > 0:28:16I read that you'd rather go to bed with a pot of tea than anything else.
0:28:16 > 0:28:21- Not WITH a pot of tea.- Have a pot of tea.- Instead of going to bed.
0:28:21 > 0:28:28RICK SKY: I was aware of the relationship George was having with Jon Moss.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32You've got a creation here, of both George's and the media,
0:28:32 > 0:28:37of a sexless, Widow Twankey, pantomime, eccentric star,
0:28:37 > 0:28:42and talking about a gay love affair would've destroyed that.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46You don't wanna take a shotgun to the golden goose.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49I was never big on secrets,
0:28:49 > 0:28:54which is why the whole experience of not really saying what I was
0:28:54 > 0:28:57was quite tortuous for me...
0:28:57 > 0:29:00because I'm not a secretive person, really.
0:29:00 > 0:29:05MUSIC: "The War Song" by Culture Club
0:29:05 > 0:29:12ROY: If they weren't getting on, it'd be like having a day in divorce court.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14It could be hideous.
0:29:14 > 0:29:21I remember George attacking Jon with a six-inch long hatpin, which could've been very nasty!
0:29:23 > 0:29:27# War, war is stupid And people are stupid... #
0:29:27 > 0:29:33I did hit George twice and broke my finger cos I didn't hit him properly.
0:29:33 > 0:29:38I hit him properly the third time and then he was all nice to me.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41We had some terrible fights.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46They were beginning to sort of, er,
0:29:46 > 0:29:51have more and more fights and more and more arguments
0:29:51 > 0:29:58and I could tell that, you know, they weren't going to be together that much longer.
0:29:58 > 0:30:03The pace at which things were happening was just frightening.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06I felt that we could've slowed down.
0:30:06 > 0:30:12We could've written a song with Stevie Wonder, we were so hot.
0:30:12 > 0:30:19They probably knew that the whole thing could end at any minute, so we've gotta do as much as we can.
0:30:19 > 0:30:25Unfortunately, the results were Waking Up With The House On Fire,
0:30:25 > 0:30:28which I didn't think was a good album.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33# Life will never be the same as it was again... #
0:30:33 > 0:30:39I think a lot of it was to do with getting into drugs, for George.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43I went round to Marilyn's place and he's smoking a joint.
0:30:43 > 0:30:48I stopped smoking when I met George cos he didn't take anything.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52I said, "What are you doing?" and he said, "So what."
0:30:52 > 0:30:56He went from that to heroin in six months.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59'I did my whole pop-star thing in reverse.'
0:30:59 > 0:31:05When I should've been doing it, I was writing letters to fans,
0:31:05 > 0:31:13but when the band fell apart, that's when I began to indulge in rock star excesses.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15- BEEP- off, darling!
0:31:15 > 0:31:20When I realised he was on smack, I could not believe it.
0:31:20 > 0:31:25I hated him for that, after all his anti-drug things.
0:31:25 > 0:31:30I mean, dope, fair enough, but how can he get into heroin?
0:31:30 > 0:31:36It was nothing to do with being unhappy... Well, that's up to him.
0:31:36 > 0:31:41But to get into that and to allow people around you to... I don't know.
0:31:41 > 0:31:46I was scared. I was dealing with a lunatic.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51'The pop singer Boy George has been fined £250 for possessing heroin...'
0:31:51 > 0:31:55Being an ordinary, working-class boy that became successful,
0:31:55 > 0:32:01I think a lot of people were disappointed
0:32:01 > 0:32:07that, you know, I'd thrown away this amazing opportunity.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10It was terrible. I wasn't myself.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15He drove his car into the back of my garage and I hit him with a hammer.
0:32:15 > 0:32:20It was only a tiny one, a little staple hammer.
0:32:20 > 0:32:26I was running down the street, 5am, with George with "Fuck me" written all over him,
0:32:26 > 0:32:31chasing him down the street with this hammer, naked.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35I got to the end of the street and went, "Hmm. Fuck."
0:32:35 > 0:32:41I could see people looking out the window, "It's that pop group again."
0:32:41 > 0:32:46It's funny now, but that period was just dreadful, a really bad vibe.
0:32:46 > 0:32:51'An inquest opened today into the death of the American musician
0:32:51 > 0:32:55'whose body was found at Boy George's London mansion...'
0:32:55 > 0:32:58Just so many things had happened.
0:32:58 > 0:33:03Three of my friends died, other people were getting sick,
0:33:03 > 0:33:07another friend was rushed to hospital from an overdose.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10It was like the end of the party.
0:33:10 > 0:33:17Although the band limped on for a further 18 months, Culture Club were finished.
0:33:17 > 0:33:23Boy George managed to kick his heroin habit and reinvented himself as a club DJ.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27For the next 12 years, the band barely spoke.
0:33:27 > 0:33:33The strange thing about those pop icons in the '80s was...
0:33:36 > 0:33:43..they were part of a legion of disaffected youth that left home at the end of the '70s
0:33:43 > 0:33:48and wanted to go back home by the middle of the '80s.
0:33:48 > 0:33:53They wanted to tell mum and dad how they'd become successful.
0:33:53 > 0:34:00Culture Club represents my ambition which I achieved, which was incredible, to be a pop star.
0:34:00 > 0:34:06It sounds stupid. A successful musician, a teenybop idol - not bad.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08Making money, buying my own house,
0:34:08 > 0:34:14making my parents proud when they thought it was a waste of time,
0:34:14 > 0:34:19being with someone like George, still being involved with him.
0:34:19 > 0:34:25He's a totally... Whether he's good or bad, there's no-one like George.
0:34:25 > 0:34:31I have met, worked with and loved a unique, original person.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34And, er, that's enough, isn't it?
0:34:35 > 0:34:38But strangely, that wasn't enough.
0:34:38 > 0:34:45After 12 acrimonious years, out of the blue, the band decided to reform.
0:34:46 > 0:34:51# Do you deal in black money?
0:34:51 > 0:34:56# Do you deal in black money?
0:34:56 > 0:35:03# Do you deal it? Do you deal in black money?
0:35:03 > 0:35:08# Do you deal in black money...? #
0:35:08 > 0:35:14MIKEY: I always thought that it would perhaps come back together again.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19The was no announcement of the end of the band,
0:35:19 > 0:35:25so it felt like it wasn't finished and there was unfinished business to attend to.
0:35:25 > 0:35:31My first reaction to the reunion was, "I'm not doing it with Jon,"
0:35:31 > 0:35:36cos the last time I saw Jon we had litigations and didn't speak.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40The next time I saw him was when we were "reunited".
0:35:42 > 0:35:46Sometimes it's hard, because things have been very spoiled.
0:35:46 > 0:35:53Times that I thought were brilliant, I've now found out that he thought were terrible,
0:35:53 > 0:35:58so how can I say that was a brilliant time? It doesn't work.
0:35:58 > 0:36:05It's a shock to think that a whole period was a nightmare for someone and you thought it was wonderful.
0:36:05 > 0:36:10So it's very hard to say what a wonderful time it was,
0:36:10 > 0:36:14because that takes two people... in a relationship.
0:36:14 > 0:36:21I think Jon really did love me and still loves me and I do love Jon.
0:36:21 > 0:36:26He's SO funny. At times, Jon is the funniest man in the world.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30Roy is... another complete psychopath,
0:36:30 > 0:36:34but there's something really sweet about Roy.
0:36:34 > 0:36:42I do really love Mikey as well. He's a bit of a rock, an important ingredient in Culture Club.
0:36:42 > 0:36:47I do like them and sometimes there's no reason to like them.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50I guess they feel the same about me.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54Why-ay-ay-ay-yeah.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03# Take a picture of tonight and keep it by your heart
0:37:05 > 0:37:10# Love has left us memories There's no better way to part... #
0:37:10 > 0:37:15JON: Culture Club are like a sort of English institution.
0:37:15 > 0:37:21You know, George is Barbara Windsor. He'll say I'm Kenneth Williams.
0:37:21 > 0:37:26Mikey... Who are you, Mikey? Dunno.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30Roy's Jim Dale. It's Carry On Culture Club.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33# ..I got me on my mind
0:37:33 > 0:37:37# Oh-h, I...just wanna be loved
0:37:38 > 0:37:41# Don't wanna fight you baby
0:37:41 > 0:37:45# But I'm much too proud to say it loud
0:37:45 > 0:37:49# I...just wanna be loved
0:37:49 > 0:37:53# Don't wanna beg you baby
0:37:53 > 0:37:57# But I'm much too proud to shout it out... #
0:37:57 > 0:38:01Subtitles by Neil Gemmill BBC Scotland - 1998