Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity (2015) - full transcript

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.

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.

# 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!"

So...

Hi, Royston.

Push.

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

I'm ready for battle,

as I said earlier.

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?

How nice. Oh, hello! God.

Shut up! Hello, everyone.

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

Getting Old.

# 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!

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.

"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.

That sounds like Neil Young to me now.

Don't start writing melodies. Please.

That's another drama!

You could do like

an artist thing about...

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.

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...

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.

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.

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?"

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!

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...

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.

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... #

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.

Floppy.

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

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

# Yeah. #

Yes, that's the lyric.

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

Come back tomorrow.

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

# Yeah. #

We've just been picking cherries.

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

You actually picked those?

Sort of.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

Yes, like the O2, you know.
Yeah, but, you know...

we're a big band.

There we go.

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

Wow, really cool.

That's 12 we've sold.

My bags are packed.

Away we go.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Roy's acting... Tonight we are men!
Real Madrid!

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

Bueno, bueno!

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.

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."

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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?

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...

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.

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.

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!

# 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.

Thank you very much.

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.

# 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... #

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?

Hello, Heaven!

# 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. #

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!

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!

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!

# 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. #

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.

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.

Hello, Mikey.

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

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

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!