A new documentary on Culture Club, one of the most iconic London bands of the 1980s, has premiered at the Tribeca Festival in New York.
While the group’s lead singer Boy George, who has just appeared in Broadway in Moulin Rouge was not in attendance at the premiere of Boy George & Culture Club late last week, bassist Mikey Craig and guitarist Roy Hay were present to relive the glories of the group who had two UK number ones in the early 1980s with Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and Karma Chameleon.
Hay told the Standard he was relieved the documentary, directed by Alison Ellwood who has previously made films about The Go-Go’s and Cyndi Lauper, had done the group justice.
He said: “It took a bit of persuading because we've had horrendous experiences with documentaries but this one gets it right- we were being ourselves, telling our stories and it was actually very moving.”
After the screening at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center in Lower Manhattan, Hay told the premiere audience the new film had “captured us in a way no-one has ever captured us before. We had a friend of George's do a documentary with us and we let him into our inner sanctum and he came down to Spain...and it just turned out like a f--king episode of the Kardashians!” (Hay is understood to be referring to the 2015 BBC4 documentary From Karma to Calamity.)
Craig said Boy George’s larger-than-life personality was a key component of the band’s success which saw them sell over 50 million copies worldwide: “George in those days was full of funny one-liners like ‘I prefer a cup of tea to sex’ or when he said at the Grammy Awards ‘Thank you, America…. You know a good drag queen when you see one.’ That's what made him who he was and who he is.
Culture Club comprised a gay frontman, a Jewish drummer with a punk background [Jon Moss], a black bassist with Jamaican roots and a blond Essex guitarist. Culture Club’s diversity and eclecticism contributed to their success, Craig added: “We were the band that for many kids who couldn't find a home or couldn't find their way, they found Culture Club. We reached out to many people who society would otherwise have cast off.”
As well as interviews with the band, Boy George & Culture Club features unseen footage of Moss recording with The Clash. Culture Club initially split up in 1986 after the release of their fourth album From Luxury to Heartache. “George, who didn't do drugs for the longest time, suddenly had a massive drug problem and they just couldn't continue,” Ellwood told the Standard. “But they are extraordinary musicians and the film hopefully captures that.”
Culture Club, who sold 50 million copies in their heyday, have reformed and regularly tour, except without drummer Jon Moss who took the band to court in 2023. Moss had an affair with Boy George at the height of the band’s fame in the 1980s and is also interviewed in the new documentary. “I was really attracted to him, like a crush, although I never had a relationship with a man before,” Moss says in the film. “And I was absolutely smitten.”
Hay told guests at the premiere he was still hopeful of a reconciliation with Moss, despite the previous acrimony: “It is a soap opera but Culture Club is such a special thing. These guys, they're like brothers to me. I love them dearly. I hate that we've had this thing going on with Jon, I'd love nothing more than to see him playing the drums to be quite honest. George is the most talented artist and creative force I've ever met in my life.”
Boy George & Culture Club hopes to get a cinema release in the UK later in the year. While Boy George did not make it to the premiere in New York, he said on Instagram in a message about the film: “Culture Club are like Karma Chameleon. We come and go, we come and go, but somehow we always work it out.”
