BOY GEORGE & CULTURE CLUB // OPEN AIR THEATRE, SCARBOROUGH
Boy George and Culture Club return to live performance with charm, grace and a smile
★★★★☆ (4/5)
BOY GEORGE & CULTURE CLUB PERFORMING AT SCARBOROUGH’S OPEN AIR THEATRE - 14.08.2021
PICTURE BY: | JOHN HAYHURST AT SNAPAGIG.COM
A colder grey sky greets the bowler hat and fake dreadlocked crowd tonight, there could be rain later, so an added poncho is required. There are 3 generations here in Scarborough, Grannies, Mums and their daughters all here to see if Boy George still has the smooth tone and moves from their memories of the 80’s. Many still remember the shock when he appeared on Top of the Pops one Thursday night as he skipped in to our front rooms singing ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me’, it started the “is it a girl or a boy” debate that went on for years, and probably played a part in ensuring Culture Club were a huge success all over the world during that 80’s decade.
Surprisingly, tonight isn’t sold out, there are some blocks of higher tiered seats that are distinctly unoccupied and even some standing tickets still available. Whilst a surprise, it does mean that we can spread out a bit and the kids are able to get a good view of the main man.
George appears at the top of a staircase in the centre of the stage - all smiles, and then slowly and surely walks down, only when at the bottom does he take a moment to look out on to his audience. Safety first! We don’t want an early exit, we’ve waited years for the band to play live again.
Culture Club are almost fully back together – joining George again are bassist Mikey Craig and guitarist/keys Roy Hay. There is also a full brass section and 4 incredible backing singers providing some much needed harmonies.
Having recently celebrated his 60th birthday Boy George’s vocals have mellowed, probably dropped an octave but there is still that honeyed tone, a slight husk and edge to it that we all know and love – and the backing singers can take care of the rest. Particularly ‘Church of the Poison Mind’ when one of the four took the Helen Terry part to new levels.
BOY GEORGE & CULTURE CLUB PERFORMING AT SCARBOROUGH’S OPEN AIR THEATRE - 14.08.2021
PICTURE BY: | JOHN HAYHURST AT SNAPAGIG.COM
George is colourfully dressed -as you would expect, in a dark long jacket with roughly sewn images on, and this compliments his now traditional oversized hat. He is also wearing a massive smile – all night, it feels genuine and warm, he is very welcoming and happy to chat in-between classics from the 80’s like ‘Time (Clock of the heart)’ and ‘Its a Miracle’. He laments the last 18 months, saying “I can’t walk into a virtual room and do this”, the crowd lap it up.
We stray slightly from the Culture Club hits for a solo single and cover of Bread’s ‘Everything I own’. The audience probably don’t realise and enjoy a sing-along anyway, this is a party and as luck would have it – No major rainstorm.
The highlight is ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me’ and as the years roll back for everyone, the slight skip in his step returns to the stage.
Culture Club are doing the heritage tour with Bananarama and Lulu, and during the show they do a cover of Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ with Lulu (who had a top 3 hit with it in 1974). George is a massive Bowie fan, so we still get the song tonight - but minus a Lulu special guest moment which is a shame.
That leads us to the encore and there is really only 1 song left to play, and as expected, everyone is on their feet arms swaying to ‘Karma Chameleon’. Straight after we get a burst of T.Rex’s ‘Get it On’ as the clock is ticking very close to curfew time. So much so that George tries to get another final track going but the plugs are pulled leaving him to start an acapella version of ‘This Little Heart of Mine’ with the rest of the band.
This is a great entertaining show, and a shame it wasn’t a sell out because it deserved to be seen by many more. George has mellowed a lot - but the voice is still there and he comes across incredibly charming, sincere and honest, with any ‘Diva’ tendencies left firmly in the past.
