Boy George looks back at his formative years
George Alan O’Dowd. It’s such an ordinary name – certainly not the type of moniker that suits somebody who has spent all his adult life standing out from the crowd. So, looking back in Boy George's 1970s: Save Me from Suburbia (bbc2, 9.30pm), it’s no surprise that he changed it to Boy George before becoming a global superstar. He was born in Eltham, south east London, in 1961, one of six children; their parents were Irish. During the 1970s, George endured his teenage years, a time which shaped the person he would become. For many, the decade is best left forgotten, a dark time of strikes, social discord, disenfranchisement and sexual repression, but he prefers to think of it in different terms. “I think of the ‘70s as being this glorious decade where I discovered who I was and discovered all these amazing things… punk rock, electro music, fashion, all of that,” he says. During this period, George lived in squats around the Warren Street area of central London, which was then a place of rundown Georgian terraces which are now worth a small fortune. He was a regular at Blitz, the nightclub run by Steve Strange and Rusty Egan, where he hung out with his friend Marilyn, another androgynous future singer; together they were part of the club’s New Romantic clientele. Around this time, George was known as Lieutenant Lush, and was asked to perform with Bow Wow Wow by music executive Malcolm McLaren, the former Sex Pistols manager. It was a short-lived experiment, after which he formed Culture Club with bass player Mikey Craig, guitarist Roy Hay and drummer Jon Moss. Their first appearance on Top of the Pops in 1982 saw them perform their single Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? It’s a great song, but most people were more interested in discussing George’s appearance than they were the music. Nevertheless, it hit the top of the charts in the UK, as well as in a further 23 countries. The years since then have been a rollercoaster. He’s won awards, sold more than 100 millions singles as well as 50 million albums. He’s the author of two best-selling autobiographies, a theatre producer, a fashion designer, DJ and has arguably done more than anyone else to usher in a new era of sexual tolerance at a time when being gay was not widely accepted.