Okay pop music fans! Put on your eyeliner, your giant hats, and your huge shirts and let's move right into the androgynous world of the band that gave parents something to hate besides heavy metal - Culture Club!


Poor George - when he goes to school everybody's ugly, and when he stays home his mom throws toasters at him! Only one thing can save him - pop music.


George quickly mastered the first vital step of pop music stardom -offending little old ladies.


Step number two for stardom in the British entertainment world is of course mastering the art of dressing up in ladies' clothes. Don't ask me why, but they all do it.


Drummer Jon Moss would later visit America and be astounded at the hundreds of thousands of people walking the streets who evidently played for the Oakland Raiders or the Pittsburgh Steelers. It's written on the back of their jackets, and jackets don't lie!


Clubgoers in Manchester think Boy George is Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow? Manchester needs to get its eyes checked!


Is it a good idea to choose potential musical and business partners on the basis of eyeliner?


Fun fact: Kirk Brandon here was in a band called Theatre Of Hate. Later when Boy George wrote in his autobiography that the two had had a romantic relationship, Kirk sued him - and lost. Ouch!


You don't HAVE to be a real professional who knows the music business to realize "Sex Gang Children" isn't a particularly commercial band name - but it helps!


Slowly the combination of fashion and music congealed into a band that might possibly have a shot at becoming a showy footnote to the first half of a decade. But at first, the Culture Club's image got more attention than their music. And also at the middle, and at the last.


Finally signed with a real record company, the first order of business is... publicity photos. It's almost as if their image is getting more attention than their music. But that would be crazy!


The usually calm and reserved British tabloids went out of their way to highlight the band's flamboyant singer, who was just horrified at all that attention and publicity. Oh no don't give me another cover feature Daily Mirror, I couldn't stand it.


Here with this one singular panel, the comic book biography of Culture Club strikes documentary gold. I can assure you beyond the shadow of a doubt scenes exactly like this played out in living rooms across America - wifebeater, trucker cap, barely comprehensible speech, everything.


And if you look closely on the shoreline, you can actually see the high-water mark of Culture Club's pop music career. From here on out it was disappointing follow-up LPs, breakups, reunions, breakups, VH-1 BEHIND THE MUSIC specials, and heroin. Lots and lots of heroin.

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