Iconic British band Culture Club have been back on stage at London’s legendary Heaven club, 32 years after their first gig there.
Boy George and his band were one of the major players on the English New Romantic scene that emerged in London the late 1970s and early 1980s. Selling more than 50 million records worldwide, they picked up several awards along the way, including a Grammy and two Brits.
Fifty-three-year-old Boy George is one of the most celebrated figures of the 1980s music scene, with his soulful voice and androgynous style.
Although more than three decades have passed, he believes deep down things haven’t changed that much.
“When we first started the band we couldn’t get a deal because of the way I looked, and in a way I’m still the biggest queer in the room, nothing’s changed. It’s not like you can look around and go ‘There’s so many of me’, you know. Most gay pop stars are quite conservative. So, you know, I’m kind of more of a drag king than a drag queen any more, but in a way, I still feel like I’m doing my own thing and I’ve always done that, and I suppose in a way the music business is a fantasy realm where you can be whatever you want to be and God bless it for that. But I think people are still quite conservative, you know,” he said after the gig.
Culture Club is off on a North America tour this autumn – their first in 14 years – before returning to the UK for a nationwide tour in December. A new album is in the works and scheduled for release early next year.
On the other side of the planet, the Rolling Stones hit the stage in Adelaide kicking off the Australian and New Zealand leg of their 14 ON FIRE tour.
The concerts had been postponed back in March following the suicide of Mick Jagger’s longtime girlfriend, fashion designer L’Wren Scott, in her Manhattan apartment.
With concerts throughout Australia including Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, the Rolling Stones tour will end in Auckland on November 22.
