Boy George hangs up on Queensland radio host who reduced his career
Boy George has hung up on a Queensland radio announcer who insulted the musician by reducing his decades long career to just a few hits his band Culture Club had in the early 1980s.
The Voice Australia coach was a guest on 4BC with host Neil Breen this morning. Breen introduced the iconic music star by playing his band’s song Karma Chameleon and saying he was pop star for a short period of time.
“If you grew up like I did as a teenager in the 1980s then Boy George was bigger than a big deal here in Australia. He was massive.” Breen began with his introduction of Boy George.
“His band Culture Club dominated the Australian singles chart from late ’82 into ’83 with two songs. Karma Chameleon was obviously their most notable one that we remember, but Do You Really Want To Hurt Me as well was their breakthrough song.”
Boy George didn’t waste a moment highlighting that his band had many other hit songs, saying there were about 10 other massive hits. The musician said it was insulting to have his career described as something that had happened in the past.
“No, no, please don’t talk about me like I’m in past context. It’s really insulting.” Boy George told the radio host.
Breen tried to recover by explaining he was “re-introducing” the star but Boy George was having none of it.
“Reintroduce them to someone who has been on national TV in Australia for the last four years? You don’t need to reintroduce me. I’m on TV. Everybody knows who I am.” he responded.
Breen continued on explaining it was the “just a bit of fun” on breakfast radio, before he realised that Boy George was no longer on the line.
The singer commented on the interview on his Twitter account, joking that he clearly needed to get a bigger hat,
“After four years on @TheVoiceAU apparently I still need to be reintroduced to the Australian public. I must get a bigger hat! Just did one of the ‘dark ages’ radio interviews that ended with me hanging up!” Boy George said.
While Breen was correct about Culture Club being massive in 1982 and 1983 the band had success in Australia and globally for a much longer period of time. After the success of their first two albums, the band’s third album Waking Up With The House On Fire released in 1984 went to number two in the Australian charts, and they scored more hits with their 1986 album From Luxury to Heartache. All up the band have released 21 singles, and 10 of them have charted in Australia.
Culture Club reformed in the 1990s and had further success with their album Don’t Mind If I Do, and their most recent release Life reached number 25 in the Australian album’s chart in 2018. Alongside that output Boy George has just released his tenth solo album, plus he’s found success with a multitude of dance music records under different aliases, been a top global DJ, and produced records for many other artists.
After appearing on The Voice in the UK, he moved to the Australia version of the show.
OIP Staff
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