Boy George struggled through Culture Club’s disappointing O2 show ...Middle East

At the O2 on Sunday night, he seemed every inch the singular pop star he’s been since 1982. Appearing during funky opener “White Boy” via a raised red telephone box (where he spent a lot of his teenage years for the privacy, he told us), he looked ever-stylish in sparkling fedora and grey jacket with post-it notes of punkish slogans stuck all over it.

It was all very Boy George (Photo by Lorne Thomson/Redferns)

But when the between-song chat is more entertaining than the concert itself, something has gone wrong. The finale to a UK tour playing their first two albums in full – 1982’s Kissing to be Clever and 1983’s Colour By Numbers – fell strangely flat for a band who were celebrating their heyday, and who once seemed so outrageous. It wasn’t just Boy George’s androgyny and open attitude to his sexuality that made Culture Club a radical proposition in Thatcher’s Britain – their poppy blend of reggae, funk, calypso and soul was purposely diverse. “We are the multicultural club,” Boy George said at the outset, before knowingly adding, “from a time when you didn’t have to think about it.”

Mikey Craig of Culture Club (Photo by Lorne Thomson/Redferns)

The show only really came to life seven songs in with “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya”, the night’s first golden pop moment, a brilliant bit of sun-kissed and colourful calypso-pop. The more reggae-heavy version of “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” was met with huge cheers and relief but Boy George’s coarser voice couldn’t match the moment, with the three backing singers doing much of the heavy lifting.

Paul McCartney brought the Beatles back to life in Manchester

The encore provided some salvation: sandwiching an animated (if endlessly dragged-out) soul-glam take on “Get it On” by T-Rex, Boy George’s enduring influence, were two gems: “Time (Clock of the Heart”), a standalone single from 1983, and a finale of “Karma Chameleon”, inevitably greeted like the British classic it is. But it wasn’t enough to save a disappointing night.

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Boy George struggled through Culture Club’s disappointing O2 show )

Also on site :

• Trump’s Gulf deals and political promises
• Israel Orders Evacuation of Much of Northern Gaza, Warning of Dangerous Combat
• The ruinous consequences for Israel and Gaza of Netanyahu’s endless war