Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A singer who first gained attention for his makeup and unusual clothes, later established as a popular entertainer and survivor of addiction.
On the island
Eight records
This is the first one … which is Marlene Dietrich Blowin' in the Wind. It's a Bob Dylan song, but I think this is a far superior version. I mean a lot of people are gonna gag when they hear me say that, but I this just makes me feel really happy. This the music is so quirky, I love this one.
It Must Be LoveFavourite
This is It Must Be Love by Madness, who I think are one of the best groups this decade.
There's no particular reason for this choice, I just wanted to choose a Gladys Knight record because she's one of my I think she is my favourite female singer since I was a teenager.
This was one of my heroes when I was a teenager, this is Mark Bolin. I think this is a brilliant song. It's really simple and to the point, Life's a Guess.
This is by Elizabeth Welsh and it's Stormy Weather. This is an old classic song. It's from Derek Jarman's film The Tempest. I wanted to play this for Derek and it's a brilliant song and a really good choice that he put in the film and I just love this version.
Bernard Hanighen, Gordon Jenkins, Johnny Mercer
This is Ella Fitzgerald, obviously one of the greatest singers in the world. This is when a woman loves a man.
This is Woman to Woman, and this is one of those seventies records, it's very, very funny. You have to listen to it really. It always makes me laugh this record.
This one is Tom Robinson and this is called War Baby. This is just a really nice song.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:50When you first appeared, people laughed at you in that mask-like make-up and effeminate clothes. You must have known it would appeal, or you must have been deeply ambitious.
Actually, you know, I didn't know it would appeal at all. For a long time before the band ever took off, before I entered music I was dressing up walking around London, you know. England is one of those countries where you can actually be a star without doing very much, which is great, I think, in a lot of ways.
Presenter asks
11:45So when did you hit it big? How did it happen?
I think the biggest year was nineteen eighty three with … Karma Chameleon. I think … [I took to it] like a duck to water. No, really. I just … It was all a bit bewildering really. It was a bit kind of like there was a little bit of arrogance and a little bit of confusion. … But you know, you don't question success. You just go with it, you know, you just like, okay.
Presenter asks
15:20Nineteen eighty three, nineteen eighty four, success and more success. And then suddenly it all began to go wrong. Why did it go wrong?
I don't know, who knows? We put an album out that the critics didn't like. And I don't think we liked it either, to be quite honest with you. … So, you know, you have to kinda like wait for the grenade to go off. … Once we started getting bad write-ups about our music and we didn't get played on the radio, we had our first single that bombed, Radio One didn't play it, so it was like, what's a boy to do? … So things just started to go wrong. … It's a lot of leisure time, I think. Had lots of money. Didn't really have to do anything.
The keepsakes
The book
Just because I always like to feel that I'm in contact with people, whether it be physically or spiritually or whatever or mentally, or just in my thoughts.
Presenter asks
17:51Where did you find the strength from to fight the drugs?
I don't know really. I think so many bad things happened and … one of the really the strongest images I have to this day is … I were watching the news and my mum being on the news and her face was so sad and I thought … okay, this is enough. And I think when I saw that, it was affecting my family. … It's however, you know, I think there's a time in everyone's life when they're … doing [something], you know, whether it be alcohol, overworking, anything that's an addiction, 'cause they're all addictions. But I think … now I tend to do a lot of things, like I do relaxation classes now. And I … have singing lessons now which I never did before.
Presenter asks
20:48You and your sexuality — the question you always get asked. Your sexuality is not a problem to you, is it?
No. And I don't see why it should be a problem to anybody else, really. … I could define myself. I could say I was a normal heterosexual female. What can you say? I'd say I'm a normal … [person]. I don't know if I enjoy confusing people, but I just think I don't know what I want from one year to the next. It changes all the time, you know. And that's not a cop-out or a sitting on the fence.
Presenter asks
25:59Has the novelty of being Boy George worn off a bit now?
No, not at all. But it is really nice. I mean, like, for the last two years, particularly last year, towards the end of last year … I felt like everybody else, it was just a really nice feeling, you know, just kind of going out to clubs. And I think you kind of desensitize people if you go out all the time, 'cause then they're like, Oh yeah, there's George, and they leave you alone. Whereas if you turn up in a big hat and, you know, swagger in, everybody's like, mm, like he's trying to get attention.
“Whatever happens to you in your life, if you go through sort of tragedies, I think that they do in a lot of ways make you a better person.”
“I've always just wanted to be liked by everybody. I know that sounds really pathetic, but it's true.”
“I think school is a very unnatural thing to do. You know, when in your life are you forced to sit in a room with forty people that you've got nothing in common with? It's a totally alien situation to be in.”
“I came into school really late and when you came to school late in high school you had to stand on we had this big concourse which had black and white squares and you had to stand on a black square. … The headmaster would come up the staircase from the assembly room. He used to wear this big, long Batman cape with a thousand pleats on it and a tassel. Very stylish man.”
“There was a contract out on you that anybody could have made from Fleet Street thousands of pounds to tell a story about you … Let you know who your friends are, so in a lot of ways it really cleans out my phone book.”
“I think it's important … because I think a lot of people take a very selfish view about it, you know, and it's like, you know, it only happens to gay people, it only happens to people that take drugs, it can happen to anybody.”