Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Culture Club. But coming to town.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It is going to be awesome because they're going to
be playing their hits, all the greatest hits. They'll be
at rac Arena September five. Tickets around general sell through
Ticke Tech tomorrow and joining us Now boy George, Hello,
George Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Promise you not to do any of their folk songs
or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Any of you want songs.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Any of our folk period.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Reggae, but we won't do y Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Now the greatest Rea's very reggae, loves Reggae.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Beautiful, the greatest hits. That's you know that. That's a lot.
What How do you decide what makes the cut?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Well? I think you have practice. You know what songs
people love. Although recently we've been trying. I've been trying
to get to do stuff from the first album because
people love that. Like we started doing Love is Love,
which is really good. People love that. Yeah. I want
to do like some things from the early album, like
some kissing to be clever.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, yes, no, no, that is a plan.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
And maybe like maybe like things like the Crying Game,
you know, things like that. Just do you want songs
that are gonna get people off their seat, make people emotional,
make them want to dance, make them have a really
unforgettable evening. You know, they just want to go home
with the biggest smile in their heart.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
Don't worry, the crying game gets me emotional.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, I wrote it about you, George.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
Could you just recreate the vibe for us? Man, don't
let us know what it was like in you know,
eighty two. Moving from you. I know you've got attention
to the clubs and you everyone knew you loved your
fashion and you love your music. But eighty two, when
all of a sudden you're all over the front of
the music magazines and then the band were in the charts.
What was that like? Was it exciting and a bit
daunting as well?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
It was very exciting and it was quick. You know,
one minute people used to see me on the street
across the road like your famous on TV. And it
is so amazing how being on the radio is one thing, obviously,
but being on the telly, Yeah, that's at that point.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Look, you know people that like riterally saw me in
the day time and run into the shop to alloyed me.
You're like, oh you so it was It was insane,
you know, just that sort of. And you know, obviously
people were so fascinated with what we wore, but for me,
it was just something I did. I never really thought
about the reaction, and then I started to really enjoy
(02:19):
the reaction.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, I love it. Well, that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I mean, that is such a stretch from you know,
ducking across the road to avoid making eye contact to
chasing you into a shop you're going into a lot
of people say they can't deal with that sudden kind
of attention, and you know, it drives.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
A lot of stuff.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I was one of them. You were you were You
enjoyed what I mean, I enjoyed it, But you know,
now I wish I'd enjoyed it more. I definitely enjoy
it more. I definitely now really enjoyed being me more
than I did in nineteen eighty four. Right, I sjoke
about it because, like boy, George has become a a
(03:00):
fictitional character.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
I carry fast and sometimes I can really ham it
up and have such fun with it.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Because my reputation terrifies people. They think I'm going to
be so difficult Joan Collins, and I can be. You've
got a lot of fun with it, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
You're just a problem, George, I not like Joan Rivers.
Speaker 5 (03:20):
Yeah, hey, George, you're speaking the fame thing. I've got
a friend who was in a shop, a clothing shop
in Fremantle when you were in town doing DJ sets
at one stage you're doing on tour, and she said
that the person who was she was too shy to
come and say hello. But she said that the person
at the shop did not know who you were, and
they were asking you about what you did for a living,
(03:42):
and it was she said, it was so cute. But
is it sometimes with that level of fame refreshing when
people don't recognize you or don't know who you are.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
What I do now is getting a tactic because obviously
getting a taxi people always say to me, you look
really familiar, or people recognize my boys. Yeah, I always
immediately only one asks you what I do our sound boy? George? Yeah,
all the small talk, you know, because they said, they go,
what are you doing? You say? You know, say do
you ask I'm a musician? What kind of musicians say?
(04:08):
I'm boyd George, I'm an icon.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Exactly, don't you know why?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
And then you and then you get twenty minutes is
it really you? And I go, yeah, it's really mean.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
This is one of the reasons the small talk.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
You know, I bought.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
An eighties icon. Indeed, because Karma Chameleon has been listed
as one of the top twenty best selling singles worldwide
of the eighties. Considering how good the eighties was for music,
that is a pretty huge feat. Did you sort of
think at the time, this is really going to change things,
this is going to mix it up when you when
you came out with Karma Chameleon.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Let me tell you, right, when I sang that idea
to the boys, they laughed at me and they said
it was rubbish and they didn't want to put on
the records. And I went to Egypt with my friend
Marilyn Love playing it in Egypt, I was like, this
is an number. I mean, I didn't know anything about
whether something was the number one here. I wasn't young,
I know anything. Yeah, but of course I quickly, I
quickly became an expert. I was it's gonna be number one,
(05:10):
It's going to number one. And I had to fight
with the guys to get that song on the album.
I wish i'd kept all the publisher.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Oh yes, exactly take all of it. George, Last time
I saw you.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
You hated so much. Let me have the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
That song is kind of it's kind of a cute,
mad insane song. I've heard so many different versions of him.
My favorite version of the song is by This Bangled
the New Bombs. They do it totally right. You do
at me, You can do a lot of things that
common chameleon.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
Yeah, well it just became such a phenomenal's chameleon.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And the video with the Pedal Steamer and.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Kamelia him George, Last time I saw your life was
with a double bill with the Human League, and on
the night you and phil Oky, I just couldn't believe
your voices. Right, what do you what do you do
to look after that that instrument? Because you both sounded
wonderful that night.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I think just yeah, I think I think I take
more care of my voice than I used to when
I was like first starting out, I never really took
any care of my voice, you know. I remember like
sort of you know, well, I actually got a problem
with my voice about ten years ago, and that really
made me kind of you know, focus on you know,
looking after it. And but I think the most important
(06:29):
thing I have to tell you is you know your
sense of humor. That is the thing that's going to
make you sing better. If you're walking on stage in
a confident, happy mood, you're never going to sing off
key when your round up and miserable and having arguments
with everybody. Tell you what you shoul laugh at some
pub notes. I think a lot of it is attitude,
(06:49):
or you know, it's about your attitude that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
You know, We've we've talked a lot over many years
with great singers about how they look after their voice,
and they'll say things like it's.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
A lot of sleep and DoD smog, how do you
do this? And you gargle and you la la la, la,
la la la.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And that's the first time I've ever heard anyone say
it's got a lot to do with you, just your
attitude and frame of moment their words.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
To live on.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
You could be on stage and you know you're making
things a problem that sounds bad. This one's you know.
And actually, if you walk on stage with you knowing
what you're there for, you're determined to have a good time.
By stand by the side of the stage thing. It's
going to be amazing. It's I tell myself that over
and over.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Yeah, not that big time I made. The first song
I ever played on radio was when Vinyl was hot.
The first time. It was a seventeth single of Time, Time,
Clock of the Heart. That song was nineteen only three
when we were playing it as a new song, and
that just stays with me. It takes me back in
time to that first job. Anything from those first couple
of albums that and it could be an album track
that takes you back, and it's hard to pick your
(07:57):
favorite child of course.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Well, interestingly, a young girl called Nee Maxine has just
done a cover version of Changing every Day, which is
getting played on jazz FM in the UK. I went
to see a singer the other night and it was
amazing to hear someone reinterpreting that song, which was a
jazz song, like a jazzy song. And so I think
that would be the one because it was like one
of those album tracks that you just forgot about, and
(08:21):
that's getting played on the radio. Go with this young
singer and that I suppose I'll achieved that one awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Fantastic have you ever heard anyone do any of these
songs and you've thought, oh God.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Please let it alone, please put it down.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
No, you know, my favorite version, my favorite version of
any coach of the song is the violent sem through
dis version of do you really want to hurt?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Fantastic?
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Have you never heard it? Honestly, what's the color of
your favorite guitar? It's the funniest version. I had to
get our permission to use it.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
As soon as I heard it. I was like, yes, yes, yeah,
that's great.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
What about your your music because you've you never stop.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Have you been sort of working with anyone that might
surprise us recently on anything new?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Not anyone that you would know, actually, you know, sort
of more like kind of a band that I work
with called We a Branda. They're young, you know, they're
kind of more like electro sort of woman's playing homage
to that kind of a human league electronics sound. We
are Brando. So I do a lot of stuff with them,
and I've done a few kind of collaborations with them,
(09:28):
But you know, collaborations are always very difficult because sometimes
the ego you just can't quite get it to that.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, yeah, they're so the thing though, aren't they now?
Collaboration shows just about everything is that you know such
and such?
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Can I play something a little bit a little bit controversial?
Often I often hear these people say you heard this
song with this one and this one. I think, well,
it's going to be amazing because two of them. Can
you hear it? And you think, is that the best
you could do?
Speaker 5 (10:03):
And especially now Georgia in different land, land room, in
a different part of the world, they're not together exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I think that there is an emphasise there was a
lot of lazy songwriting out there.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, yeah, wow, Georgie, have you kept many of your hats?
Have you got more heads? And Elton's got glasses?
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Might? Huh? I think I probably don't have as many
hats as Elton has. Classes. I've seen Elton's classes collection
and it's a loveful, you know, and he keeps growing.
But I think we're definitely on the part with classes,
and he doesn't really wear the crazy glasses anymore.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So mad so much just ending farewell to Yeah have
you made to the farewell tour Elton?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I went with him two weeks ago, was fabulous, great night.
I was actually surprised there were songs that like Crocodile
Rock and Saturday Nothing for Fighting. I was up like
a crazy person. Yes, it was a rocket Man. Rocket
Man was phenomenal. Rock Man were it was beautiful. Yeah,
(11:01):
it was really good.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Yeah, it was almost like an emotional experience sing that
last album, Journey.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
He was so loving.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I think you also realized that it's a song. It's
always about the song. If you haven't got a good song,
some one's going to remember you.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Absolutely well.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
We will certainly remember him, and we can't wait to
remember Culture Club and all the hits from the eighties,
not that we've ever forgotten them. They still had plenty
of round here, don't they. R c Arena September five.
Tickets are on sale through ticket Tek tomorrow. You know
you have a standing invitation, George to pop in and
see us in the studio.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
When you'll have a cup of tea.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Help me back, George.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Thank you so much, George,