Some 1980s Highs... Shoulder Pads In The Broom Cupboard...

Yuppies, new technology, shell suits, power dressing, riots, hamster scoffing... it was all happening in the 1980s...

Great response to our recent post regarding your "1980s bests". Got a few "worsts" as well, but up here at '80s Actual Towers, in our turquoise and pink Great Hall, we're well chuffed, mateyboots!

So, we start with Cliff on those monstrous Power Dressing shoulder pads, complete with Velcro so you didn't "over-pad" - as if that was possible back then...

I hated shoulder pads and used to take them out of any jackets I bought that had them in. The 1950s teddy boy look that became so popular again in the 1970s was more my thing. I thought Joan Collins looked ridiculous and I never chose a girlfriend with a 1980s “power dressing” fetish. You have to admit that the shoulder pads became too big and looked hideous in the 80’s. And the idea of blokes wearing them to hide their beer guts was pathetic. The best thing was the Credit Boom. Enough said.

We quite liked 'em, Cliff - we favoured Miami Vice chic, with a few twists, but each to their own... and as for the Credit Boom... well, after spending the '70s and early '80s living so frugally it hurt, it was like Wonderland...

Gorgeous 1980s colour scheme, but are those shoulders lovely or loathsome?

And here's Karen on Miss Ethel Davis and her lodgers, and Edd the Duck...

I used to like “Number 73” on Saturdays and I thought Ethel, Dawn, Harry and Kim really lived in that house! And I loved Children’s BBC with the puppets and the presenters. It was very lively and I really believed Edd the Duck went to Cubs on Tuesdays. I preferred Edd to Gordon The Gopher actually.

Edd was quite simply a mallard god. And he DID go to Cubs on Tuesdays.

Edd with Andy Crane and Wilson the butler. Children's BBC, which began in 1985, was a must-watch for all kids aged five to fifty.

Phillip Schofield brought shoulder pads out of the board room and into the Broom Cupboard.

Sandi Toksvig? Rubbish! That's Ethel!

And here's the Naughty One:

I remember things like Pot Noodles becoming a big thing. There was a cheesy flavour that smelled revolting but tasted like heaven with a satchet of tomato sauce. And Howard Jones. What Is Love? Does Anybody Love Anybody Anyway? And bulldog clips in my hair – bright yellow ones. And break dancing outside Boots on a Saturday morning with a big red ghetto blaster. I body-popped and my boyfriend thrashed about and he and his mates tried to stand on their heads. People sometimes threw money into our pot but mostly seemed kind of bemused and this woman told my boyfriend, “stop it, you’ll hurt yourself!”

Lurved a Pot Noodle and I remember the flavour you mention. Bliss if you could stand the stink. Howard Jones was excellent, but I never got into breakdancing. Mainly because I couldn't do it.

Gis a Noodle.

And Maria remembers that a saucy title didn't always add up to a saucy film...

When I turned 18 in 1989 I went to see a movie called SEX, LIES AND VIDEO TAPE with my best friend. We both thought it would be very rude with lots of bums and panting and groaning, but it wasn’t really. We thought of asking for our money back, but didn’t dare!

Steven Soderbergh... great, great film. I went to see it too, hoping for a bit of vacuous titillation, but it was so much better than that. Although I was grossly disappointed and swore a lot at the time.

Sonia thought Boy George was so cuddly - and then along came Ecstasy...

I had a Boy George Doll in the mid-80s and I loved him very much. I was surprised to read later that he was one of the people behind ‘Everything Starts With An E’ in 1989. Totally different image!

The 1984 Boy George doll! The Boy went from Karma Chameleon to Planet Ecstasy all in one decade!

And finally for this round-up, Claire says:

My low of the 80’s pop culture was Cabbage Patch Dolls because I found them really creepy and thought they were trying to take over the world. My high was Live Aid. Truly inspiring. I was glued to the TV.

Yes, Live Aid was a WOW! and the Cabbage Patch Kids were hugely popular, but not to everybody's taste. I was afraid I might catch mumps off one.

Sunday People, December 1983: Eek!!! Invasion of the Cabbage Patch People...

Please keep the comments coming. We're having a WICKED time here. Till the next time, xxxx

New Romantics

 August 1980 - the release of Ashes To Ashes, with its groundbreaking video, was a great moment for David Bowie - and propelled the Blitz Kids and others towards the pop scene to form the New Romantics, the first big 1980s music and fashion scene.

20th Century Words by John Ayto traces the term "New Romantic" to 1980. So, what was a New Romantic? Late 1980 saw the emergence of two acts - Adam And The Ants and Spandau Ballet - into the upper echelons of the pop charts. They gave us Ant Music and To Cut A Long Story Short, respectively, and although both songs were very different, the Ants and the Ballet blokes were both heavy on the face make-up and the dashing outfits of years long, long past.

And, suddenly, we were all talking of New Romantics.

1981 brought a flurry of them into our lives - including, of course, Duran Duran and Ultravox. Planet Earth, complete with video, was very typical of the scene - synths, futuristic setting, OTT dandy flounces, lashings of lippy, and bizarre hairdos. The movement crossed over to America and Kim Carnes sent us the divine Bette Davis Eyes. 

TV Times, June 1981. How would you feel if your son looked like Adam Ant? If he'd lived where I lived, he'd probably have got seriously punched. But although nobody I knew was brave enough to adopt the image, Adam And The Ants were immensely popular with us lads.

So, the first big new pop sensation of the fledgling 1980s. How did it all begin?

Well, that's not quite what it seems! Read up on it elsewhere and you'll find that it all seems to have originated from a club called The Blitz Club in London, whose patrons paid homage to David Bowie - apparently dubbing themselves "Blitz Kids". Or was it somewhere called Billy's? Or both? Or...

Anyway, it was a dressy night club scene - or a couple of dressy night club scenes - where men wore make up and/or flamboyant outfits

The UK press created the "New Romantics" tag when Adam and the Ants and Spandau Ballet first hit the pop charts in late 1980.

David Bowie, of course, had been exciting the pop scene since 1969, and was very heavy on image. Was he Ziggy Stardust? A Thin White Duke (goodness, I thought that particular image was bloody boring and so retro!), but whatever he was he attracted dedicated followers in droves and his music brought flashes of sheer brilliance. 

In 1980, David had another one of those flashes - with his Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) album, and a single which would be included on this album, released in August 1980, although not officially classed as a New Romantic song, was what kick-started the scene. That song was, of course, Ashes To Ashes.

The video (or "promo" as we referred to them back then) was striking and hugely expensive, and featured Steve Strange, who wowed the pop charts in 1981 and 1982 with Visage hits like Fade To Grey and Mind Of A Toy.

But not all of those considered New Romantics in the early 1980s were part of The Blitz Club scene - Adam And The Ants for instance. 

And I can certainly state that I'd never heard of the Blitz and what attracted me to the New Romantic style was that I had simply had enough of the gobbiness and run-down seediness that had dominated the previous decade.

Several years before the New Romantics, as I lurched into my teens, I was yearning for something a bit more flash, a bit more stylish. I was depressed with the thick layer of mould up my bedroom wall, my threadbare "make do and mend", often hand-me-down clothes. 

I craved for glamour and excitement. I'm sure I was not alone! There was simply something in the air - many of us wanted a change. 

After the likes of Slade shouting their mouths off - as tacky as you please, the sleaziness of the Disco scene and the hopelessness (and, of course big gobbedness) of Punk, plus the oh-so-unoriginal 1970s revivals of 1950s style, 1960s mods and rockers (no thank you, Paul Weller!), plus the '60s ska scene and rockabilly, I was hungry to dress up, desperately hoping that the 1980s would be different.

And they were.

And probably the first manifestation of that was the emergence of the New Romantics in late 1980.

The wonderful Roxy Music, still going strong in the early 1980s, are considered to be an influence on the New Romantics, and I'm sure the group was, but the New Romantics, despite their precursors, were still startling and fresh at the time.

Boy George, of course, was part of the Blitz Club scene, he worked as a cloakroom attendant there, and he was an early New Romantic for sure -  but by the time he made his chart debut in 1982, the New Romantic thing, which had burned fiercely from late 1980 and throughout 1981, had fizzled as far as we the public were concerned. So, The Boy was, at the time, greeted as a stand alone newcomer, a unique individual, loved or loathed. Similarly, A Flock Of Seagulls, who had chart success in late 1982 with Wishing, whilst looking very New Romantic indeed, were not, at the time (as far as I remember!) labelled as such.

Let's hear it for the boy - Boy George, of course - before fame, pictured in the Daily Mirror in April 1981. Although an original New Romantic mover, shaker and trendsetter, by the time he arrived in the pop charts in 1982, the New Romantic scene was just about dead and buried. So, he was regarded simply as Boy George. And his own very personal sense of style inspired admiration, clones, and some homophobia. Soon-to-find-fame George (as seen in the newspaper picture), then simply referred to as George O'Dowd, 19, was wearing Chinese slippers (£3.99), old school trousers he'd tapered himself, and leg warmers. A 1920s dress (20p, Oxfam) was draped around his waist. The tassle belts, the long scarf, and Oxfam beads around his neck, cost him a few pence, the crimplene blouse came from his mum and the wooden cross from a friend. A black felt hat and assorted earrings completed his outfit.

Adam and the Ants.. well, Adam - AKA Stuart Goddard - has stated that his early '80s pop venture was not part of the New Romantic movement. I never knew at the time. Loved the band and saw it as very much part of the New Romantic thing way back then. Sorry, Adam! I still love you and the Ants - whatever you were!

Two groups which I was labelling "New Romantic" long after 1981 were Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. They were always and forever "New Romantics" to me. I loved the way the Duranies dropped the frillies for those gorgeous brightly-coloured suits - and the 1982 Rio video marked a turning point in my own personal fashion statements. 

 A change of image for Duran Duran, seen here in 1981 and 1982. Loved the colourful suits with pushed up sleeves and large shoulders!

Even now, knocking on towards fifty, I still feel a stirring of youthful (if that's possible at my age!) excitement at the thought of the New Romantics and the blossoming synth pop scene of the early 1980s in general. Combined, these two factors were the first indication that 1980s music and fashion were going to be OK for me. And, as it turned out, brilliant!

1984 - Some Things They Said... And An Act Of God At York Minster?

Ah, 1984... Ronald Reagan won his second term in office as President of the USA; Margaret Thatcher had won her second General Election with a landslide in 1983 and in 1984 she and Arthur Scargill went to war against each other as the miners' strike bit hard; the Grand Hotel bombing nearly ended Mrs T's career. And her life; Boy George was insulted by Princess Margaret; Torvill and Dean thrilled us on the ice skating rink; the Apple Mac arrived - "Hello" - as did Trivial Pursuit; bulldog clips were the latest hair craze; break dancing was the main dance craze; Band Aid had a very worthwhile chart hit; and Prince William gained a baby brother - Henry, or Harry, as he was known.

Here's a few quotes from 1984 listed in the Sunday Express 1984 - The Pictures Of The Year magazine...

"The world is swimming in coal." - Ian MacGregor, chairman of the National Coal Board.

"I've even tried to start a rumour that I'm really not that old, that they mixed up the babies in the hospital." - President Ronald Reagan.

"I have a very high success criterion. Monetary values come into it, because I like to live well and I have to earn a lot." - Mark Thatcher accused of exploiting his mother's position.

"Most psychiatrists or analysts are a waste of time." - Boy George.

"Very few overseas visitors are quite sure where Birmingham is." - Michael Montague, chairman of the English Tourist Board.

"It seems silly that more people should see me in 'Jewel In The Crown' than in all my years in theatre." - Dame Peggy Ashcroft.

"If there are to be any explosions in our country, they should take place on the floor of the House of Commons and nowhere else." - Bernard Weatherill, Speaker of the House of Commons.

"If you put things firmly they say you are headmistressy, but they never call a man headmastery." - Margaret Thatcher.

"I know I am going to be President" - Senator Gary Hart.

"No redundancy payment in the world can match the value of a job passed on to the next generation." - Arthur Scargill.

"What is proposed is a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend." - Prince Charles on the National Gallery extension

"When they address themselves to aesthetic judgements, people fall back on what I regard as very offensive language." - Peter Ahrends, architect of the proposed (and then cancelled) National Gallery extension.

"I won't be photographed with that over-made-up tart." - Princess Margaret on meeting Boy George.

"If men could have babies, they would only ever have one." - Diana, Princess of Wales.

"I just signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." - President Reagan during rehearsals for a radio broadcast.

"By all means have a bath or shower as long as you don't forget the object of the exercise is to use less water." - Water Authorities Association.

"The Labour delegates drink gin and tonic. The Conservatives drink beer. Actually the National Union of Students is best for us - they drink lots of Pernod." - Blackpool hotel manager.

"If industrial workers are taking industrial action when they are not working, one wonders what they are doing when they are working" - The Duke of Edinburgh.

"I ended up like some old fag-ash Lil being carted off to the nick." - Angela Wilson, first person to be prosecuted for smoking on the tube.

"This is our last chance for change - because if this doesn't happen we are for the birds." - Bishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize.

Some of the above statements seem sane and good, others amusing, others more than slightly bonkers. But that was the '80s!

One of the most memorable quotes listed in the magazine came from Professor David Jenkins, Bishop-elect of Durham, in May:

"I wouldn't put it past God to arrange a Virgin Birth if he wanted. But I don't think he did."

Say what?!! But surely a Bishop-elect of the Church of England must believe?!

But an event some found much odder was soon to come...

The Daily Telegraph 1984 magazine reported:

The previous week had seen the installation at York Minster of the controversial new Bishop of Durham, Professor David Jenkins, who had seemed to many to question fundamental Christian beliefs in his televised remarks about the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection.

Suddenly, out of a clear and calm Sunday sky in July, a bolt of lightning struck the 700-year-old cathedral, starting a spectacular fire that destroyed its 15th-century south transept. Was it an act of God? "I am not," said the Archbishop of Canterbury, "going to put myself in the position of stating where and when there has been divine intervention."

York Minster ablaze in 1984.

Break Dancing, Off-The-Shoulder, and The Boy...

The soundtrack album to Breakdance, the motion picture. Could I break dance? Um...

1984 magazine ad for the "Panasonic RXC39 portable hi-fi. Part of the new RX range, it comes complete with separate automatic turntable, detachable speakers and rack. Also available without turntable."

Colourful mid-1980s Toshiba ghetto blaster/boombox. Cover it with stickers and take it to the streets!

These pictures are from the Sunday Express Magazine - 1984 - The Pictures of the Year. The blurb for the top picture reads: 

Take A Break: Take A Dance. Girls wore bulldog clips in their hair, preferably fluorescent. T-shirts bore instructions from Frankie. Leisuretime pursuits were essentially trivial. But the biggest fad of 1984 was break dancing - the latest, most violent offspring of the cha-cha-cha, the twist and rock 'n' roll. In its home, California, there were serious injuries and even one death. This expert practitioner seems simply to let it all go to his head...

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Trendy girls watch the break dancer. Note the off-the-shoulder-showing-strap-under-dress-look of the girl on the right, which has reappeared in recent years.

Boy George was a 1984 hair-o.

1983: Gender Bender Boy George Bends The Dress Code Rules...

From the Sun, November 23, 1983:

Top London hotel, Claridges, have broken their century-old "tie and jacket" tradition so that Boy George could take tea in his customary dress.

Officials bent the rules when flamboyant George arrived for tea with brilliant American comedienne Joan Rivers. Glamour boy George was dressed in a smock and headband. Told he was not wearing the correct tie and jacket, George replied cheekily: "I've got a very nice button-up smock jacket and my tie happens to be round my head."

The doorman was left speechless while George joined Joan for cream tea and cucumber sandwiches in her £155-a-night suite.

Joan's aide told me: "They got on like a house on fire. They bitched about everything from Marilyn to Barry Manilow."

Fun-loving George later took Joan to see a Wham! concert, and she invited him to appear with Joan Collins on her top-rated US chat show, "Tonight".

A spokesman for Claridges said later: "Guests are always required to wear a tie and jacket in the public rooms.

"But as he was in a private suite, we relaxed the rules."

1984: Boy George Is A Dummy (At Madame Tussaud's)

Does that nose look quite right to you (the one on the dummy, I mean)?

The Sun June 14 1984:

Pop star Boy George was sitting pretty yesterday with his dummy double at Madame Tussaud’s. Delighted George - 23 today - waxed lyrical as he said: “I love it, but it’s not as pretty as the real me.”

George’s spitting image will rub shoulders with pop “greats” like Elvis and David Bowie.

A soundtrack with the model tells visitors: “I prefer a nice cup of tea to sex - and if you believe that you’ll believe anything.”

Culture Club - Waking Up With The House On Fire - And What Princess Margaret Said...

Here's a great ad for the 1984 Culture Club album Waking Up With The House On Fire. And Boy George has a stunning new hairdo. Can't be bad, mateyboots. Mind you, it wasn't all goodies for George that year. On meeting him, Princess Margaret declared: "I won't be photographed with that over-made-up tart." Absolutely charming!

The trouble with Boy George though is that he was all image and not a lot of substance. His music was far from original and his look... well, what the hell did it all mean? Other male performers had worn make-up and 'gender bending' clothes aeons before the Boy and so, although it all seemed mildly surprising to the early 1980s pop scene, the Boy became a pretty dolly for little girls to buy and a purveyor of cutesy songs.

Still a helpful presence for the gay community in the era that AIDS was freshly discovered, but more than a teensy bit overrated in all other respects.

The 1980s: Fashion Freedom For The Working Class Male (And Men In General!)

'80s fashion revolution for men...

Sunday Mirror, January 15 1984:

Boy George may be the High Priest of High Camp, but the 1984 fashion revolution extends far beyond Gorgeous George and the pop world.

You'd be amazed at the extraordinary extravagances very masculine young men are indulging in all over Britain.

And what the girls in their lives think about it...

I have few fond memories of my childhood in the 1970s. I hated that decade and I hated the way that I, as a male, was expected to dress, speak and even move in certain ways.

The dress was boring - flares, which had been around since the late 1960s - and some gawd awful acrylic tank top or jumper - if you didn't dress like everybody else, you got picked on; you had to speak macho round my way, and boys didn't cry; you even had to move in a rigidly masculine way.

I remember a New Year's party my parents threw in the late '70s. Then in my early teens, I was allowed downstairs to take part a bit - even have a "proper drink". There I sat, bemused by it all as my family bellowed at each other and shrieked with laughter over the din of 1950s music. I had my drink in one hand, one hand on my knee, when my step-father approached:

"Don't sit like that, son," he said. "It looks queer!"

WHAT?!!

And my mother was just as bad. She liked "boys to be boys" - they didn't cry, and they played with toy guns and got into fights.

Now, looking back from the vantage point of my current situation, happily married and unhappily mortgaged for the last fifteen years, with a large circle of friends from many different backgrounds, I find it hard to believe that things were so rigid in the 1970s.

But they were.

The 1980s were like a huge gale of fresh air.

Firstly, there was the New Man or Eighties Man - I've written more about that here but, briefly, this was a move towards a new breed of men - sensitive, not afraid of emotions, housework or childcare. They were hot news from around 1982 onwards.

And the 1980s also saw great strides forward in male fashion. Before the 1980s, it was OK for drag artists like Danny La Rue or male pop stars to wear make-up and/or take trouble with their grooming.

In the 1980s, it became OK for even working class ordinary geezers like me to do so. Early in the decade, nothing changed. If you'd dressed like Adam Ant on our council estate in 1981 you'd probably have got your head kicked in.

But when my tough, macho mate Pete started wearing white leg warmers and pixie boots, had his hair streaked and developed a very becoming Princess Diana fringe around 1983, I wondered what on earth was going on.

Particularly as in 1980 and 1981 his favourite fashion accessory was a Punk-style dog collar.

As the decade moved beyond its first few years, I was thrilled by the range of male fashions to buy - and the colours - glaring neons or "feminine" pastels.

And it was all so dressy!

Those linen jackets, with massive shoulder pads, looked tremendous with a cerise mesh vest and skin-tight yellow trousers.

Push up those jacket sleeves, or turn them back to reveal colourful contrasting material...

And then there was hair styling.

In the 1980s, I had my hair streaked blonde, bought gel and mousse, and had a variety of styles, ranging from bouffant mullet to glorious blonde tinged flat-top.

In 1984, I became the first man in my family ever to own a hairdryer.

Whilst I was happy simply being colourful and dressy, the influence of pop stars like Boy George and Marilyn prompted some men to go further...

The Sun, October 26, 1983:

Disco bosses have barred dance floor show-offs who wear too much make-up and revealing dresses... and that's just the lads!

Fashion-conscious fellas - who mimic chart-topping Boy George - have been blamed for falling attendances at the trendy over 18s club.

Now the "in-crowd" - who have been turning up in off-the-shoulder gowns, high heels and ostrich feathers - have been told: "Butch up or stay out."

Adam ____, manager of the Summerhill Club at Kingswinford, West Midlands, says their antics were putting the girls in the shade - and frightening away the regular guys.

One of the banned lads is Gary ____, 21, of Dudley, West Midlands.

"I was wearing my full make-up and all my best gear," said platinum blonde Gary.

Magazine advertisement from September 1985. "Looks even better on a girl"? I think he looks pretty darned striking myself!

So, what caused this sudden softening and colouring up of male dress sense in the 1980s?

The influence of Boy George cannot be underestimated. He was a real person, he didn't just dress for the stage. He sought to express himself through his varying looks.

It can be argued that there had been heavily individualistic people like the Boy around for a very long time, but his success on the pop scene and the tremendous interest he aroused says a lot about the 1980s.

Then there was the New/Eighties Man thing, a reply to the revival of the feminist movement which had come bursting out of the 1960s.

There was also the growing "swankiness" of the mid-1980s as money began to swirl around and style became oh so important. It was such a contrast to the early '80s, when donkey jackets had been one of the main fashion must-haves for both boys and girls.

Why the '80s male fashion revolution happened I'm not sure. I've expressed my ideas on the subject, but I'm really not sure.

But I'm very glad it did!

Two '80s popstrels, Nik Kershaw and Paul Young, on the cover of the very wonderful Smash Hits in September 1985. Nice hair! Read our hymn of praise to Black Type here.

Fashion trend leader Boy George - a sticker from the mid-1980s. Princess Margaret refused to be photographed with him at an awards ceremony in 1984, saying: "I don't know who he is, but he looks like an over made-up tart."

Marilyn had his handbag stolen in 1984.

Paul McCartney And The Pipes Of Peace, The Smiths, Tears For Fears, Wham!, Boy George And Other Pop Gossip Of 1983...

From the Daily Mirror, Saturday, December 17, 1983:

Paul McCartney has gone to war - with a message of peace.

The rock star appears on both sides - as a British soldier and a German adversary in World War 1.

And, thanks to the magic of videotape, he ends up shaking hands with himself.

Paul acted the parts for a movie made to promote his record Pipes of Peace.

The song is based on a legendary Christmas incident in which the two sides downed arms and played football together.

Elsewhere in the Mirror, David Jenson brought us all the latest pop gossip...

HAPPY RETURNS FOR STEVIE...

Just in case you were wondering why Tamla Motown have re-released Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday", it is to celebrate Martin Luther King Day on January 15.

Stevie, who wrote the song about the assassinated civil rights leader, refused to allow its release in the States until King's birthday was declared a national holiday.

Included on the B side are four of Dr King's speeches, including the famous "I have a dream..."

The Cure are looking for two young musicians to join them for live work starting in January. The "live work", incidentally, includes a world tour!

WHAM! WATCH IT

Sell-out pair who are stage-struck

What do top stars Wham! worry about on a sell-out tour? "We're always bumping into each other on stage," says George Michael.

"One night we ran so hard into each other we both went flying. Another time I slipped on a bra that had been thrown on stage! We always have to look out of the corner of our eyes."

Now the tour is over, George and his buddy Andrew Ridgeley are looking forward to recording some new material - although a dispute with their record company which ended up in court recently may prevent its release for some time.

"We're a bit in limbo really. Because of our case we really can't afford to bring out a new album. But when we do get into the studio it will be good.

"We're writing in bits and pieces like we always do. For the next album we're going to try to diversify - combining all our influences."

TEARS BANISH TOUR FEARS

The boys in Tears For Fears have been having a tough time on their British tour, which winds up in Poole on Thursday.

Both have been struck down by flu, but being the troupers they are, they have soldiered on.

Curt Smith has been having vocal training lately and he's been able to cope with the strain much better.

Fellow singer Roland Orzabal has a trained voice. It is so powerful that he blew up a £400 microphone the other night.

What a funny bunny Boy...

Boy George tells me he plans to spend Christmas "Lying on my back, covered in tin foil and hibernating for a week."

Talking about the video for Culture Club's "Victims", George added: "I really think I look like a rabbit. I see it and expect a pair of big white ears to come out of my hat.

"My father said I look like an undertaker. I suppose it has got a certain Hammer horror element to it."

And the hottest new star in pop is still surprised at the huge success of "Karma Chameleon". He didn't want the biggest-selling single of the year released. He thought it would be a flop!

STICKING TOGETHER

Bananarama's Keren Woodward - she's the cutie with the dark hair - has been telling me how close the trio really are. For the past several months they've shared a flat together and now they've bought themselves houses next door to each other in North London.

1983 has been a tough year for the girls, with management hassles which led to them looking after themselves.

As a sign of their determination to stick together the girls, impressed by the film "The Day After", plan to build themselves an underground nuclear shelter.

THE SMITHS ARE A HIT WITH SANDIE

Chart newcomers The Smiths can now add the name of Sandie Shaw to their ever growing list of admirers. So struck by their music is the Sixties star that she has recorded a Smiths tune for her next single.

And I'm pleased to announce the Smiths follow up to "This Charming Man", "What Difference Does It Make", comes out in mid-January.

Boy George And Culture Club

3D Pop Stickers - "Join The Craze". If only I'd known! By 1984 Boy George was one of our best known pop stars - his image in great demand. But back in 1981 things had been very different indeed...

This young unknown was George O'Dowd, appearing in a Daily Mirror article on New Romantic fashion in April 1981. In Paris, New Romantic-style clobber by the likes of Gaultier was wowing people at the fashion shows, and fetching large sums of money once in production. In England, Vivienne Westwood was promoting the new look at World's End, her London shop, and youngsters were looking at cheap ways to achieve New Romantic style. Soon-to-find-fame George, then 19, was wearing Chinese slippers (£3.99), old school trousers he'd tapered himself, and leg warmers. A 1920s dress (20p, Oxfam) was draped around his waist. The tassle belts, the long scarf, and Oxfam beads around his neck, cost him a few pence, the crimplene blouse came from his mum and the wooden cross from a friend. A black felt hat and assorted earrings completed his outfit. 

Original? Well, when you think about it, the Boy was not, of course. He'd been a cloak room attendant at the Blitz Club in London and they all wore old fogey clothes, tried to look 'outrageous' and took more than a bit of their lead from David Bowie. And investing everything in image seems bizarre to me. It's simply... weird...

Of course, from 1982 onwards, George O'Dowd was better known to the world as Boy George. The Boy, with his band, Culture Club, first hit the singles chart on 25 September 1982 with Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? I mean YUCK! 

Awful old cobblers, and as somebody said in the early 1980s, the Boy was just a modern version of Danny La Ru. But he had a caustic wit and there was more to it all than that.

Mad about the Boy! George's fan base spanned school kids to elderly people.

Culture Club's drummer Jon Moss - he and George had a relationship.

Mikey Craig - bass guitarist.

Roy Hay - guitarist.

From the Daily Mirror, February 9, 1983.

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One is a girl called Alf. The other is Boy George, looking as much like a girl as ever.

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But there was no mistaking their winning smiles last night as they celebrated triumph in the British Rock and Pop Awards.

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Boy George, from Culture Club, walked off with the "Daily Mirror" Readers' Award for the Outstanding Music Personality at London's Lyceum Ballroom.

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Culture Club finished second in the Best Group section...

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Of course, 20th Century men had worn make-up and feminine outfits before Boy George - just look at the likes of Danny La Rue and David Bowie. But image wasn’t what made the Boy stand out for many of us.

Boy George light heartedly declared himself to be "bisexual" and "a poof with muscles" in an edition of Titbits in late 1983 and, although at first he seemed to dodge the question of his sexuality, it was soon clear to even the slowest amongst us that heterosexual he certainly was not.

Several gay friends of mine believe that Boy George is under appreciated. They say that he helped kick-start the whole openly gay pop star thing, at a time when the first rumblings of AIDS were being heard in the distance, and that George also helped to humanise gays to the heterosexual audience at a time when the risk of a backlash because of the supposed “gay plague” was growing.

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They also cite the work of other 1980s openly gay pop stars like Bronski Beat and the Pet Shop Boys as major forces for good during that turbulent era.

None of my gay friends believed that the cutesy “Do you really want to hurt me?” image projected by Boy George in his early days of pop stardom was real, but some believe that it was very helpful indeed as far as appealing to the finer instincts of heterosexual audiences was concerned.

I have always felt that the 1980s were a complicated time, much as some people would like to dismiss the decade as small “c” conservative, and I think that much progress was made by the gay community, despite - and perhaps partly because of - hugely adverse - but unifying - factors like Clause 28!

For heterosexuals, this was the time of the sensitive 80s man (or New Man as they were also known) and much more freedom in the way everyday men dressed, the colours they wore. Things were changing for men, regardless of sexuality.

The arrival of regular gay male characters in English soap operas and Channel Four’s gay magazine show Out complemented the high gay content of the pop charts.

In 1980, I recall reading in a Sunday tabloid that a well-known pop star was probably bisexual. My parents were absolutely shocked - my stepfather was particularly vehement in his disapproval. Yet, in the mid-1980s, my little sister had pictures of openly gay Boy George on her bedroom wall and slept with a Boy George doll - with the complete approval of my parents!

Nope, small “c” conservative does not describe the 1980s. The decade was confusing, endlessly multi-faceted.

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Personally, I loved a lot of the ’80s gay music, apart from George's, and was fascinated by the likes of Colin and Barry in EastEnders. I found my own inbuilt anti-gay prejudices thawing rapidly during the decade and, before its end, I was having a great time with newly acquired gay friends.

But only on the dance floor, of course. Know wot I mean, mate?!

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Let's take a look at Boy George as he appeared in the Press in the early to mid 1980s - a frequent, colourful and often controversial presence...

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Daily Mirror, 23/7/1983:

LARGER than life singer Helen Terry has just been elected a permanent member of Culture Club. Helen sang backing vocals on the band’s last hit, “Church of the Poison Mind”.

- Boy George, who has a soft spot for big women, says: “Once we used a number of session singers like Captain Crucial. This move to a fixed member is part of our musical direction to delegate ideas and make our music more diverse.”

Helen is very prominent on their next album, “Colour By Numbers”, which they finished recording yesterday. It should be in the shops by October.

Daily Mirror, 30/7/1983:

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Pretty pop star Boy George left Britain yesterday. And his parting words were pretty rude.

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He shouted at photographers at Heathrow Airport: "F- off. F-ing well leave me alone and stop f-ing well harassing me!"

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But his mood had softened by the time he arrived by Concorde in Washington.

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He explained sadly: "I'm sick of feeling like Princess Di."

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And he explained the reason for his earlier outburst.

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"Do you know, I was up half the night sewing sequins on my band's costume.

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"I was very tired when I arrived at Heathrow. I'd been up since six o'clock.

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"People think I just sit around on my backside all day eating grapes. But I've worked very hard for what I've got and I value my privacy."

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Naughty Boy George's amazing shouting match came as he left London for an American tour with his band Culture Club.

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His dress for the £1,226 flight consisted of black kaftan, green socks - and just a dab of make-up.

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He glared at a group of forty fans, some of whom had brought parting gifts, and said loudly:

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"Go away. You lot make me sick.

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"All you want is my fame. I rode to fame on my voice."

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Then he shook his handbag at waiting photographers and shouted: "There is no way you vultures are going to get my picture today!"

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In Washington it was a different story. He said plaintively:

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"My remarks were aimed at all the photographers who were bothering me. Being photographed all the time is boring, boring, boring.

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"How many times can you be photographed in a paper for just catching a plane? It's ridiculous.

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"The same thing applies to Princess Di... it gets you down to keep getting photographed for doing nothing that's newsworthy. I know how she must feel.

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"But any suggestion I insulted my fans is totally untrue. I think the world of those kids and they know I'd never insult them. It was the photographers I wanted to be rude to.

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"But, who knows, I'll probably be charming to them when I fly back. I have moods, you know."

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Karma Chameleon - this was number one in the pop charts on my 18th birthday! And on my 21st? Every Loser Wins by Nick Berry!! The main problem with George was his bloody awful cutesy music - so unoriginal. And Every Loser Wins? PURLEASE!!!

Daily Mirror, 22/2/84...

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BOY GEORGE won the “Daily Mirror” readers’ top music personality of the year award again last night. And his group Culture Club also took the prize for best single of the year with “Karma Chameleon” at the glittering Rock and Pop awards.

The Sun, 31/5/84:

BELT UP, MARGARET! GEORGE IS NO TART!

He wins "Sun" poll

Princess Margaret got a rollicking from angry “Sun” readers yesterday for calling their pop hero Boy George “an over made-up tart.”

And by a two-to-one majority they decided that the Princess deserves a raspberry for her tarty jibe.

The row started when she refused to be photographed with the Culture Club singer at an awards ceremony, saying: “I don’t know who he is but he looks like an over made-up tart.”

The “Sun” asked: “Do you agree - is Boy George a tart?" And an astonishing 3,269 people jammed our special lines, manned by Audience Selection, to have their say.

Some 2,112 readers aged from seven to seventy chorused “Boy George, we love you” while 1,157 rang to support the 53-year-old Princess’s view.

One 66-year-old granny said she believed the 22-year-old singer was a delicious strawberry tart… while the Princess was more of a gooseberry one.

The pro-George readers’ comments included:

He puts a lot of money back into this country and this goes towards paying for her luxury.

George should give Margaret make-up lessons because her age is beginning to show.

Her ancestors used to walk around in wigs and make-up, so why should she criticise George?

He’s the best thing to happen to this country since Winston Churchill.

I’d like to hear her talk to Danny La Rue like that, George is just a younger version.

He’s so beautiful I just sit and draw his portraits.

I’m a 78-year-old polio sufferer and people like him keep me alive.

Yesterday Boy George stood up for himself by saying: “If Princess Margaret is representing the country she should behave better.

“I bring more money into the country than she does.

“I think she’s very unhappy.”

The Princess’ supporters countered:

Good job the British Army hasn’t got any of his sort - the Russians would be here tomorrow.

He’s done for pop music what Arthur Scargill has done for the miners - nothing.

If ever she earned her money she earned it then.

He’s a disgrace to British manhood. The world will think we are a nation of poofs. -

George was a 1980s hair-o!

The Sun June 14 1984:

Pop star Boy George was sitting pretty yesterday with his dummy double at Madame Tussaud’s. Delighted George - 23 today - waxed lyrical as he said: “I love it, but it’s not as pretty as the real me.”

George’s spitting image will rub shoulders with pop “greats” like Elvis and David Bowie.

A soundtrack with the model tells visitors: “I prefer a nice cup of tea to sex - and if you believe that you’ll believe anything.”

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On the cover of a 1984 TV Times, with another likeness. Boy George dolls were highly popular. Quite a lot of people actually dressed up like the Boy, too - George clones were in the news.

The Sun, 6/2/1985:

George said of Simon Le Bon: “He’s just another pop star. The music business hasn’t got any personalities apart from me.”

Of his Recording Artist of the Year award, George said: “I deserve it. Having a big mouth pays off in the end!”

He added: “Now I suppose everyone will want to sleep with me.”