A three-masted barque (early 20th century photo)

Three-masted barque sail plan

A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.

History of the term[link]

The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish and Portuguese barco, and the French barge and barque.^[1] In both Latin and Italian the term barca refers to a small boat, not a full-size ship. French influence in England led to the use in English of both words, although their meanings now are not the same. Well before the nineteenth century a barge had become interpreted as a small vessel of coastal or inland waters. Somewhat later, a bark became a sailing vessel of a distinctive rig as detailed below. In Britain, by the mid-nineteenth century, the spelling had taken on the French form of barque. Francis Bacon used this form of the word as early as 1605. Throughout the period of sail, the word was used also as a shortening of the barca-longa of the Mediterranean Sea.

The usual convention is that spelling barque refers to a ship and bark to tree hide, to distinguish the homophones.

Bark (ship)[link]

Four-masted barque Nippon Maru II

In the eighteenth century, the British Royal Navy used the term bark for a nondescript vessel that did not fit any of its usual categories. Thus, when the British Admiralty purchased a collier for use by James Cook in his journey of exploration, she was registered as HM Bark Endeavour to distinguish her from another Endeavour, a sloop already in service at the time. She happened to be a ship-rigged sailing vessel with a plain bluff bow and a full stern with windows.

William Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine defined "bark", as "a general name given to small ships: it is however peculiarly appropriated by seamen to those which carry three masts without a mizen top-sail. Our northern mariners, who are trained in the coal-trade, apply this distinction to a broad-sterned ship, which carries no ornamental figure on the stem or prow."^[2]

Barque rig[link]

Rigging of a three-masted barque

By the end of the eighteenth century, however, the term barque (sometimes, particularly in the USA, spelled bark) came to refer to any vessel with a particular type of sail-plan. This comprises three (or more) masts, fore-and-aft sails on the aftermost mast and square sails on all other masts. Barques were the workhorse of the Golden Age of Sail in the mid 19th century as they attained passages that nearly matched full rigged ships but could operate with smaller crews.

The advantage of these rigs was that they needed smaller (therefore cheaper) crews than a comparable full-rigged ship or brig-rigged vessel as there were fewer of the labour intensive square sails, and the rig itself is cheaper. Conversely, the ship rig tended to be retained for training vessels where the larger the crew, the more seamen were trained.

Another advantage is that a barque can outperform a schooner or barkentine, and is both easier to handle and better at going to windward than a full-rigged ship. While a full-rigged ship is the best runner available, and while fore-and-aft rigged vessels are the best at going to windward, the barque is often the best compromise, and combines the best elements of these two.

Most ocean-going windjammers were four-masted barques, since the four-masted barque is considered the most efficient rig available because of its ease of handling, small need of manpower, good running capabilities, and good capabilities of rising toward wind. Usually the main mast was the tallest; that of Moshulu extends to 58 m off the deck. The four-masted barque can be handled with a surprisingly small crew—at minimum, ten—and while the usual crew was around thirty, almost half of them could be apprentices.

Today many sailing school ships are barques.

A well-preserved example of a commercial barque is the Pommern, the only windjammer in original condition. Its home is in Mariehamn outside the Åland maritime museum. The wooden barque Sigyn, built in Göteborg 1887, is now a museum ship in Turku. The wooden whaling barque Charles W. Morgan, launched 1841, taken out of service 1921,^[3] is now a museum ship at Mystic Seaport^[4] in Connecticut. The United States Coast Guard still has an operational barque, built in Germany in 1936 and captured as a war prize, the USCGC Eagle, which the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut uses as a training vessel. The Sydney Heritage Fleet restored an iron-hulled three-masted barque, the James Craig, originally constructed in 1874. The oldest active sailing vessel in the world, the Star of India, was built in 1863 as a full-rigged ship, then converted into a barque in 1901.

Barques and barque shrines in Ancient Egypt[link]

In Ancient Egypt barques, referred to using the French word as Egyptian hieroglyphs were first translated by the Frenchman Jean-François Champollion, were a type of boat used from Egypt's earliest recorded times and are depicted in many drawings, paintings, and reliefs that document the culture. Transportation to the afterlife was believed to be accomplished by way of barques as well, and the image is used in many of the religious murals and carvings in temples and tombs.

The most important Egyptian barque carried the dead pharaoh to become a deity. Great care was taken to provide a beautiful barque to the pharaoh for this journey, and models of the boats were placed in their tombs. Many models of these boats, that range from tiny to huge in size, have been found. Wealthy and royal members of the culture also provided barques for their final journey. The type of vessel depicted in Egyptian images remains quite similar throughout the thousands of years the culture persisted.

Barques were important religious artifacts and since the deities were thought to travel in this fashion in the sky—the Milky Way was seen as a great waterway that was as important as the Nile on Earth—cult statues of the deities traveled by boats on water and ritual boats were carried about by the priests during festival ceremonies. Temples included barque shrines, sometimes more than one in a temple, in which the sacred barques rested when a procession was not in progress.^[5][6] In these stations the boats would be watched over and cared for by the priests.

See also[link]

The barque Alexander von Humboldt.

• Barquentine (3 masts, foremast square-rigged)
• Brigantine (2 masts, foremast square-rigged)
• Jackass-barque (3 masts, foremast and upper part of mizzen mast square rigged)
• Schooner
• Windjammer
• List of large sailing vessels

References[link]

• Oxford English Dictionary (1971) ISBN 0-19-861212-5

Further reading[link]

• Wilhelmsen, F D (1956). Omega: Last of the barques. Westminster, MD: Newman Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=yAIYAAAAIAAJ&dq=barque%20omega&num=100&pg=PA97#v=onepage&q=barque%20omega&f=false. 

External links[link]

Look up barque in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Barques

• "Sailing Ship Rigs" Infosheet Guide to Classic Sailing Rigs Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
• Description of the four-masted barque Kaiwo Maru

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2011)

Martina Filjak (born in Zagreb) is a Croatian pianist.She started playing piano at the age of 5 and held her first public performance aged 6. She completed her studies at the Music Academy of Zagreb, the Vienna Conservatoire, the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover and additionally at the Como Piano Academy.

Filjak was awarded the 2007 Concorso Busoni's 5th prize, and subsequently won the 2007 Viotti and 2008 Maria Canals competitions. In addition, she won the Bösendorfer Prize. In 2009 she won the first prize at the 2009 Cleveland piano competition.

Filjak is internationally active as a concert pianist. Martina Filjak has performed with esteemed orchestras of her home country and abroad, including The Cleveland Orchestra; the Zagreb, Strasbourg, Morocco, Belgrade and Torino Philharmonics; the Barcelona, Bilbao, Chautauqua, Tenerife, Chile and Moscow Symphony Orchestras; the Georgian Chamber Orchestra of Ingolstadt, Croatian Chamber Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa under such esteemed conductors as Jahja Ling, Christian Zacharias, Heinrich Schiff, Theodor Guschlbauer and Stefan Sanderling. As a recitalist as well as concerto soloist, Ms. Filjak has performed in such major venues as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Berlin, l’Auditori and Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Carnegie Hall in New York, Palais des Congrès in Strasbourg, Musikverein in Vienna, Shanghai Oriental Art Center and the Severance Hall in Cleveland.

Martina Filjak’s 2009-2010 season began with a first-place victory at the 2009 Cleveland International Piano Competition.^[1] Her New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall in December 2009 received excellent reviews by the New York Times critic Anthony Tomassini praising her 'resourcefulness of her technique and the naturalness of her musicality' and declaring her 'a pianist to watch' .^[2] In October 2009 she was additionally awarded an Honorary Medal by the President of the Republic of Croatia for her artistic achievements.

In the 2010 and 2011 she performs with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie and Christoph Poppen, at the Al Bustan Festival in Lebanon,the Granada symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and as a recitalist at the Residenz in Munich and at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona. Future performances include appearances with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, The Florida Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic, the Madrid symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Weimar and the Granada Symphony Orchestra.

Miss Filjak is a Croatian and Italian national and speaks 7 languages.

References[link]

• [1] International Keyboards Institute and Festival in the Mannes College

External links[link]

• Official website

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André Laplante, OC (born Rimouski November 12, 1949) is a Canadian pianist. He received a 2004 Juno Award for the 2003 recording Concertos: Music of Jacques Hétu. He is considered to be a Franz Liszt specialist and is much associated with the music of Maurice Ravel.^[1]

Laplante was awarded 3rd prizes at the inaugural edition of the Sydney Competition and the XV Long-Thibaud Competition.^[1] He shared second place with French pianist Pascal Devoyon at the 1978 International Tchaikovsky Competition.^[2] He made his debut at Carnegie Hall on October 21, 1978.^[2]

He has received two Felix Awards for his recordings. At the award ceremonies of 2004, Laplante received a Juno Award in the category Classical Album of the Year – Large Ensemble or Soloist(s) with Large Ensemble Accompaniment for the recording Concertos: Music of Jacques Hétu.^[3][4] He was awarded the Order of Canada on October 29, 2004 and invested to the Order on June 10, 2005.^[5][6]

References[link]

Citations

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Bruno Coulais
Bruno Coulais, July 2006.
Background information
Born	(1954-01-13) 13 January 1954 (age 58) Paris, Île-de-France, France
Genres	Film score
Occupations	Composer
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1978–present

Bruno Coulais (born 13 January 1954) is a French composer, most widely known for his music on film soundtracks. He recently composed the score for the animated film, The Secret of Kells, released 12 March 2010.

Life and career[link]

Coulais was born in Paris; his father is from Vendée and his mother was born in Paris. Coulais began his musical education on the violin and piano, aiming to become a composer of contemporary classical music. However, a series of acquaintances gradually re-oriented him towards film music. Coulais met François Reichenbach, who asked him in 1977 to sonorize his documentary México mágico and the producer Marie Bodin who permit to compose the first soundtracks for Jacques Davila. Until the end of the 1990s, he remained low-profile, composing mainly for television. His name can often be found from TV films by Gérard Marx and Laurent Heynemann. He also composed the soundtracks for Christine Pascal's 1992 film Le petit prince a dit, and Agnès Merlet's Le fils du requin in 1993.

In 1994, he met the television producer Josée Dayan, who let him write a theme for the TV series La rivière esperance, aired on the France 2 network in autumn 1995. He worked with Dayan again with other major productions such as Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, Balzac, and Les nuiteux.

The largest turning point of his career came in 1996, when he worked with directors Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou of the documentary Microcosmos. This single film, which gave a great significance to the music in it, was a great success and made Coulais one of the most wanted composers of French film music. In 1997, he won the César award for the best musical score in a film, as well as a Victoire de la Musique. His reputation was confirmed by the soundtracks to Himalaya (1999) and Les rivières pourpres (2000), and after that Bruno Coulais's name was to be found on most new French blockbusters, such as Belphégor and Vidocq.

After producing the soundtrack to Winged Migration in 2001, Coulais announced that he wanted to significantly reduce his contributions to film music, and instead concentrate on other projects, such as the creation of an opera for children, and collaborations with Akhenaton, Akhenaton's group IAM and the Corsican group A Filetta, with whom he had worked since he had made the soundtrack for Jacques Weber's film Don Juan in 1998.

In 2002, his name was found on the ending credits of the animation L'enfant qui voulait être un ours, and in 2004, on Frédéric Schoendoerffer's Agents secrets. The same year, he wrote the soundtrack to the film Les choristes by Christophe Barratier, which subsequently became an international hit. The music for this film received as great praise as the film itself, and it won Coulais his third César award. Since then, Coulais's collaborations in cinema seem to be limited to works by directors with whom he already shares some history, in particular Jacques Perrin, Frédéric Schoendoerffer, and James Huth.

In 2009, he won the 37th Annie Awards in the "Music in a Feature Production" category for Coraline.^[1]

In 2009 he also collaborated with Irish band Kíla to produce the soundtrack for the beautifully and uniquely animated feature film, The Secret of Kells, which tells the story of an orphan boy, Brendan, and his involvement with The Book of Kells. The music is equally light and dark and the textures and sounds equally Continental and Irish.

Bruno Coulais's musical style may vary significantly between different projects, but there are some constant factors visible: his taste for opera and for human voice (in particular that of children), for a search for original sonority, for world music and mixing different musical cultures, and finally, a certain tendency to give preference to the ambience created by lighting rather than the film's narration.

Filmography[link]

• La femme secrète, 1986, directed by Sebastien Grall
• Qui trop embrasse, 1986, directed by Jacques Davila
• Zanzibar, 1988, directed by Christine Pascal
• La campagne de Cicéron, 1990, directed by Jacques Davila
• Le jour des rois, 1991, directed by Marie-Claude Treilhou
• Le fils du requin, 1992, directed by Agnes Merlet
• Le retour de Casanova, 1992, directed by Edouard Niermans
• Les équilibristes, 1992, directed by Nico Papatakis
• Le Petit prince a dit, 1992, directed by Christine Pascal
• Vieille canaille, 1992, directed by Gérard Jourd'hui
• Waati, 1994, directed by Souleymane Cissé
• Adultère mode d'emploi, 1995, directed by Christine Pascal
• Microcosmos, 1995, directed by Claude Nuridsany
• La famille Sapajou (television), 1997, directed by Elisabeth Rappeneau
• Déjà mort, 1997, directed by Olivier Dahan
• Préférence, 1997, directed by Gregoire Delacourt
• Gaetan et Rachel en toute innocence, 1997, directed by Suzy Cohen
• Don Juan, 1998, directed by Jacques Weber
• Belle maman, 1998, directed by Gabriel Aghion
• The Count of Monte Cristo (1998 miniseries), 1998, directed by Josée Dayan
• Serial Lover, 1998, directed by James Huth
• Balzac (television series), 1999, directed by Josée Dayan
• Épouse-moi, 1999, directed by Harriet Marin
• La débandade, 1999, directed by Claude Berri
• Scènes de crimes, 1999, directed by Frédéric Schoendoerffer
• Le libertin, 1999, directed by Gabriel Aghion
• Un dérangement considérable, 1999, directed by Bernard Stora
• Zaide, un petit air de vengeance, 1999, directed by Josée Dayan
• Himalaya - l'enfance d'un chef, 1999, directed by Éric Valli
• Comme un aimant (The Magnet), 2000, directed by Kamel Saleh and Akhenaton
• Les rivières pourpres (The Crimson Rivers), 2000, directed by Mathieu Kassovitz
• Harrison's Flowers, 2000, directed by Elie Chouraqui
• Belphégor, le fantôme du Louvre, 2000, directed by Jean-Paul Salomé
• De l'amour, 2000, directed by Jean-Francois Richet
• Un aller simple, 2000, directed by Laurent Heynemann
• Vidocq, 2000, directed by Pitof
• Origine océan quatre milliards d'annees sous les mers, 2001, directed by Gérald Calderon
• L'enfant qui voulait être un ours, 2001, directed by Jannick Astrup
• Le Peuple migrateur (Winged Migration), 2001, produced by Jacques Perrin
• Genesis, 2002, directed by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou
• Agents secrets , 2003, directed by Frédéric Schoendoerffer
• Les choristes, 2004, directed by Christophe Barratier
• Je préfère qu'on reste amis..., 2004, directed by Eric Toledano
• Brice de Nice, 2004, directed by James Huth
• Milady (television), 2004, directed by Josée Dayan
• Sometimes in April (television), 2005, directed by Raoul Peck
• Les Rois Maudits (television miniseries), 2005, directed by Josée Dayan
• Gaspard le bandit (television), 2006, directed by Benoît Jacquot
• La Planète Blanche, 2006, directed by Thierry Piantanida and Thierry Ragobert
• Truands (2007), directed by Frédéric Schoendoerffer
• Le Deuxième souffle (2007), directed by Alain Corneau
• Les Femmes de l'ombre (2008), directed by Jean-Paul Salomé
• Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders (2008), directed by Mark N. Hopkins
• MR 73 (2008), directed by Olivier Marchal
• Coraline (2009), directed by Henry Selick
• The Secret of Kells (2009), directed by Tomm Moore
• Océans (film), 2010, directed by Jacques Perrin
• Babies (Documentary), 2010, directed by Thomas Balmes
• Turk's Head (2010), directed by Pascal Elbé
• The Chameleon (2010) directed by Jean-Paul Salomé

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bruno Coulais

• Official website
• (French)(English) Non-official site
• Bruno Coulais at the Internet Movie Database

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2008)

Boy George
Boy George in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2007
Background information
Birth name	George Alan O'Dowd
Born	(1961-06-14) 14 June 1961 (age 51) Bexley, Kent, England
Genres	New Wave, soul, pop, soft rock, disco
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, Disc Jockey (DJ), Fashion Designer, Performer, Photographer, Producer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1978–present
Labels	Virgin Records, Epic Records, Plan A Records
Associated acts	Culture Club, Jesus Loves You, Mark Ronson, Bow Wow Wow
Website	http://www.boygeorgeuk.com/

Boy George (born George Alan O'Dowd on 14 June 1961) is an English singer-songwriter, who was part of the English New Romanticism movement which emerged in the early 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by rhythm and blues and reggae. His 1990s and 2000s-era solo music has glam influences such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop. He also founded and was lead singer of Jesus Loves You during the period 1989–1992. Being involved in many activities (among them songwriting, DJing, writing books, designing clothes and photography), he has released fewer music recordings in the last decade.

Career[link]

Early life and career[link]

Boy George was born George Alan O'Dowd at Barnehurst Hospital in Bexley, Kent on 14 June 1961, to Jeremiah and Dinah O'Dowd (née Glynn), who were originally from Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland. He attended Eltham Green School in Eltham.^[1] He is one of six children. His siblings are Richard, Kevin, David, Gerald, and Siobhan.

He was a follower of the New Romantic movement which was popular in Britain in the early 1980s. George frequently lived at the infamous Warren Street Squat in Central London. George and his friend Marilyn were regulars at The Blitz,^[2] a trendy London nightclub run by Steve Strange of the group Visage.^[1] George and Marilyn also worked at the nightclub as cloakroom attendants.^{[citation needed]}

Culture Club[link]

Boy George's androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of music executive Malcolm McLaren (previously the manager of the Sex Pistols), who arranged for George to perform with the group Bow Wow Wow, featuring Annabella Lwin. Boy George's (then going by the name "Lieutenant Lush") tenure with Bow Wow Wow was a disaster and he was booed off the stage at a live performance and subsequently dropped from the group. He then started his own group with bassist Mikey Craig. Next came Jon Moss (who had drumming stints with The Damned and Adam and the Ants), and then Roy Hay. The group called themselves In Praise of Lemmings, but the name was later abandoned, as was their next name, Sex Gang Children. Realizing they had a transvestite Irish singer (George), a black-Briton (Craig), a Jewish drummer (Moss), and an Anglo-Saxon Englishman (Hay), they settled on the name Culture Club, referring to the various ethnic backgrounds of the members.

The band recorded demos that were paid for by EMI Records but the label declined to sign them. Virgin Records, however, expressed interest in signing the group in the UK for European releases, while Epic Records handled the US and North American distribution. They recorded their debut album Kissing to Be Clever (UK#5, US#14,) and it was released in 1982. The single "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?", became an international hit, reaching #1 in a dozen countries around the world, plus top ten in several more countries (US #2). This was followed by the Top 5 hit "Time (Clock of the Heart)" in the US and UK, and "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" which reached US #9. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since the Beatles to have three Top 10 hits in the US from a debut album.

Their next album, Colour By Numbers was an enormous success, topping the UK charts and hit #2 in the US. The single "Church of the Poison Mind" became a Top 10 hit, and "Karma Chameleon" became an international hit, peaking at #1 in sixteen countries, and the top ten in additional countries. It hit #1 in the US where it stayed for three weeks. It was the best-selling single of the year in the United Kingdom, where it spent six weeks at #1. "Miss Me Blind" and "It's a Miracle" were Top 5 and Top 20 hits respectively in the US. "Victims" was another Top 5 UK hit.

George and Roy Hay co-wrote the group's contributions to the movie soundtrack Electric Dreams with the songs "Love is Love" and "The Dream". The P. P. Arnold song "Electric Dreams" was written by George and Phil Pickett.

The band's third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK#2, US#26) featured the hit single "The War Song" and a modest hit in "Mistake No. 3". George then provided a lead vocal role on the Band Aid international hit single "Do They Know It's Christmas." He was not featured on the cover sleeve of the single. Proceeds from the single were donated to feed famine victims in Africa, particularly Ethiopia. In 1986, George guest-starred on an episode of the television action-drama series The A-Team, in which he played himself. The episode was entitled "Cowboy George".

George had been occasionally using drugs for several years, and by 1985, he had developed a heroin addiction. His relationship with Jon Moss had also completely soured, and the two could hardly be around each other at that point. The group released its fourth album, From Luxury To Heartache (UK#10, US#32), and it featured one hit single, "Move Away". However, word shortly began circulating in tabloids that George was addicted to drugs. He was arrested in Britain for possession of cannabis. Shortly thereafter, keyboardist Michael Rudetsky, who co-wrote the song "Sexuality" on Culture Club's From Luxury to Heartache album, was found dead of a heroin overdose in George's London home. George had expressed interest in working with the keyboardist on a solo album George was planning. Rudetsky's parents filed a wrongful death suit in Britain against George, seeking financial damages for their son's death. With George's drug addiction, the underwhelming performance of their latest album, a soured romance between band members shrouded in secrecy, and a wrongful death lawsuit, the group ultimately disbanded. George would win the court case against the Rudetskys, and would not be required to pay any monetary damages. He would agree to seek treatment for his addiction. Following next would be the death of his friend Mark Vaultier, who overdosed on methadone and Valium at a party. George had been arrested en-route to the party on suspicion of carrying drugs.

Solo career: late 1980s[link]

Boy George, now a solo artist and now signed to Virgin Records in the US and internationally, entered treatment for his addiction. He was prescribed narcotics to treat his heroin addiction. In kicking his heroin addiction, he then became addicted to those prescription narcotics that were used during his treatment. In 1987, he released his first solo album, Sold, and enjoyed its success in Europe. It spawned the UK singles "Everything I Own" (UK #1), "Keep Me In Mind" (UK #29), "To be Reborn" (UK #13), and the title song, "Sold" (UK #24). The singles were hits in various other European countries as well. The album's success, however, was not duplicated in the US. This may be due in part to the fact that George was prohibited by US authorities from travelling to America for several years because of his British drug charges. He did score his first solo Top 40 hit with the single "Live My Life" (US #40) from the Hiding Out soundtrack. Tense Nervous Headache (1988), and Boyfriend (1989) would be his next two internationally released albums; however, these two albums would not be distributed in the US. Instead, Virgin Records selected several songs from each of these two albums for a North American-only release called High Hat (1989). This album scored a US Top 5 R&B hit in "Don't Take My Mind On A Trip", produced by Teddy Riley. George's following single in the UK was a protest song against the UK Conservative Party's legal restriction that anyone working for a local authority be barred from "promoting" homosexuality. The song, 'No Clause 28 (Emilio Pasquez Space Face Full Remix)' was an underground acid house hit.

In 1989, George formed his own record label, More Protein, and began recording under the name Jesus Loves You, (writing under the pseudonym Angela Dust, a word play off angel dust). He released several underground hits; "After The Love", "Generations Of Love", and "Bow Down Mister", the latter giving him a UK Top 30 hit in 1991. Inspired by his involvement in the Hare Krishna movement (ISKCON),^[3] George had written the song during a trip to India. Another single, "One On One", featured a remix by Massive Attack.

	Bow Down Mister (A Small Portion 2 B Polite Mix) excerpt noicon An excerpt from Bow Down Mister (A Small Portion 2 B Polite Mix)
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Solo career: 1990s[link]

From March 1990 to April 1991, George presented a weekly chat and music show on the Power Station satellite channel called Blue Radio. In 1992, George had a major US and UK hit with the song "The Crying Game", from the movie soundtrack of the same name. The movie became a surprise hit and the single reached the #11 in the US. Although he had had several solo hits in Europe, this would be Boy George's biggest US hit since Culture Club's "Move Away" reached the US Top 20.

He has also enjoyed a second career as a notable music DJ. His first gig as a DJ was at Phillip Sallon's new nightclub, Planet's, located in Pickadilly. In the 1990s he came to the attention of legendary rave/house promoters Fantazia who asked him to mix 1 of the discs on the 2 volume in their new compilation series Fantazia The House Collection 2. This compilation was a success in the UK, going gold. The album was also sold to Sony for European-wide release. London nightclub Ministry of Sound hired him to compile one of their first CDs, and it promptly sold 100,000 copies. He then completed some compilations for them, five of them being the Annual I to V.

George made many recordings between 1990 and 1994, but none were issued. In 1992 a pop and world music-oriented album was scheduled for release by a group George was fronting called Jesus Loves You. The album, to be named "Popularity Breeds Contempt", was never released. An EP entitled "Sweet Toxic Love" released in 1990 reached #65 on the UK Chart. The phrase "popularity breeds contempt" was used as the opening line on the beginning of the 1993 greatest hits album At Worst: The Best of Boy George and Culture Club. In 1993, George was featured on the P.M. Dawn single "More Than Likely" which became a moderate US and UK hit.

George showed an interest in releasing a rock album. He released the rock-driven album Cheapness and Beauty in 1995, but the album was not successful, although the single "Same Thing in Reverse" became a minor US hit. The Unrecoupable One Man Bandit Volume One was the next album release, first being sold on the internet only. It was then distributed by independent labels. Another project from the time was a new group that would include Boy George and two long-time musicians, John Themis and Ritchie Stevens. Initially named "Shallow", it was later re-named "Dubversive". The project took place in 1997 and was to include trip-hop, dub and reggae. The project was not picked up by any major labels but some of the songs were later included on the 2002 Culture Club Box Set, and some others appeared on eBay in 2004.

On some other labels, several dance-oriented songs were released in various countries. For example, "Love is Leaving" went Top 3 in Italy and "When Will You Learn" reached the top positions in the Swiss charts. "When Will You Learn" was also nominated for the Best Dance Recording, at the Grammy Awards. In 1999, Boy George collaborated on songs with dance-oriented acts. For example, "Why Go", a slow-paced track with Faithless, from their Sunday 8 PM LP, was later released in a remixed form in some European countries and Australia. A track was done with Groove Armada, named "Innocence Is Lost", but was only released on a promo 12" in 1999.

Solo career: 2000s[link]

Boy George remained a figure in the public eye, starring in the London musical Taboo, based on his life (George did not play himself, opting instead to take on the persona of Australian-born performance artist Leigh Bowery). Boy George was nominated for a Tony Award for the "Best Musical Score" and Taboo was a great success in London's West End, though a heavily-altered Rosie O'Donnell-produced run in New York City was short-lived (100 performances, versus the two-year run in London).

In 2002, Boy George released U Can Never B2 Straight, an "unplugged" collection of rare and lesser known acoustic works. It contained unreleased tracks from previous years as well as some ballads from Cheapness And Beauty and the Culture Club album Don't Mind if I Do. It received the best reviews of Boy George's solo career, many of them highlighting his strong song writing abilities. The record was only released in the UK and Japan, and received almost no promotion from Virgin Records, only rising to #147 on the UK album charts.

From 2002 to 2004, under the pseudonym "The Twin", Boy George experimented in electronica, releasing limited edition 7" singles and promo records. Performed in small venues such as the Nag Nag Club, the material was considered innovative, but not commercially marketable.^{[citation needed]} This period, however, was a very creative and liberating one for George; for "The Twin", could sing whatever he wanted. The limited releases included four 500 to 520 copies 7", one limited 12" (for Sanitized) and a promo CD, 1000 copies 13-track album Yum Yum. Two years later, it was released via digital outlets like iTunes. An album recorded in the Spring of 2003 was also shelved. A collaboration with electronic combo T-Total, the album was a collection of covers of songs by Jefferson Airplane, David Bowie, John Lennon, Dusty Springfield, T. Rex, and Eurythmics among others. It is suggested that Boy George's numerous abandoned projects are due to his broad interest and need to explore other creative mediums such as photography, writing, and fashion.

During 2003, he presented a weekly show on London radio station LBC 97.3 for six months. He wrote the foreword for a feng shui book called Practical Feng Shui by Simon G. Brown (published in 1998). He also appeared as a guest on the British comedy-talk show The Kumars at No. 42. In March 2005 he was the guest host for an episode of The Friday Night Project, for Channel 4 television.

On his "More Protein" website, George did announce another unreleased album, named Straight, for mid-2005. It was to include tracks such as "Panic" and "Talking Love". Four tracks were released as a sampler with the book of the same name in 2005. A reggaeton oriented EP was also planned for August 2006 but was never released. Some recent tracks were shared by George himself in late 2006 and early 2007 on his YouTube account, his three Myspace pages and sometimes on his official site. In January 2007, Boy George released "Time Machine" on Plan A Records. "Time Machine" was co-written by double Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriter Amanda Ghost who also co-wrote "You're Beautiful" with James Blunt.^[4]

On 20 October 2006, it was announced that he would be writing some tracks for Kylie Minogue (News.com.au story) with Amanda Ghost; however, the songs were not included on her 2007 album. It was not the first time that George wrote songs for other artists; in the past, he shared songwriting credits with the Beach Boys, Caron Wheeler, Charlotte Church, Mica Paris and many others. He also wrote many of the tracks for the artists on his own dance oriented music label, More Protein, such as Eve Gallagher, Zee Asha, Lippy Lou, and E-Zee Posse.

Boy George has run his own fashion line for some years, called "B-Rude". B-Rude has shown at fashion shows in London, New York and Moscow. On 24 December 2006, George appeared on a one-off BBC TV programme Duet Impossible in which he performed with himself from the 1980s and joked about his street cleaning.

Later in 2007, two electronica/dance collaborations were released in limited editions. In the spring, the track "You're Not The One" was remixed from an old demo and released with the dance combo "Loverush UK" reaching the top 20 in the UK dance chart. It was a digital-only release, available in many digital retailers like iTunes. Also on iTunes, a new collaboration with trip-hop/electro band Dark Globe, called "Atoms", was released on 19 November. The single contains eight versions, from the slow original to electro remixes by Ariya and Henrik Schwarz. Also in late 2007, an EP titled "Disco Abomination" appeared on the internet, available for download on several underground outlets. It included new remixes of tracks like "Turn 2 Dust", "Love Your Brother", and covers of "Don't Wanna See Myself" and "Go Your Own Way". Most of the versions are remixes done by German producer Kinky Roland.

On 25 February 2007, George was special guest DJ at LGBT nightspot, The Court Hotel in Perth, Western Australia. On 4 March 2007, George performed as a DJ at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney for the Mardi Gras Festival. On 11 May 2007, George performed as a DJ at the launch party for the Palazzo Versace in Dubai, UAE. George cancelled his planned 2007 October tour via an announcement on his official website. In 2007: George toured as a DJ, visiting Florence, Stuttgart, Rotterdam, Toulouse, Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Dubai, Skopje, Niagara Falls, Montreal, Toronto, Cagliari, Blackpool, Coventry, Munich, Naples, Mantova, Lyon, Follonica, Paris, Kristiansand, Noli, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Amsterdam, Beirut, Budapest, Skanderborg, Baia, London, Mykonos, Geneva, Lausanne, Stockholm, Manchester, Brussels, Bologna, Hong Kong, Letterkenny, Aix-en-Provence, Reims, Moscow and Genova.

Upon his return from prison Boy George resumed his successful DJ career embarking on a worldwide tour of clubs. George has played a special residency at the Shaw Theatre in London (in which all shows were sold out) from 23 January 2008, followed by a full UK tour.^[5] In April 2008, The Biography Channel featured a documentary on the life of Boy George. The American tour which was planned for July/August 2008 had to be cancelled because he had been denied a United States visa due to a London court case scheduled for November 2008. On 2 July, 6 concert dates in South America were announced. Boy George participated in RETROFEST held in Scotland in August 2008,^[6] and a 30-date UK tour took place in October/November 2008.

In 2009 he signed a new record deal subsequently releasing the album Ordinary Alien – The Kinky Roland Files in the autumn of 2010. The album consisted of previously recorded tracks mixed by longtime dance partner Kinky Roland. He took part in Night of the Proms, which is a series of concerts held yearly in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. Regularly there are also shows in France, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Scandinavian countries. The concerts consist of a combination of pop music and popular classical music (often combined) and various well-known musicians and groups usually participate.

On 11 May 2009, Boy George was released from prison at HMP Edmunds Hill in Newmarket, Suffolk, four months into a fifteen-month sentence for the assault and false imprisonment of a male escort, in his East London flat. He was tagged and placed on a curfew for the remainder of the sentence.^[7]

In December 2009, Boy George had a successful run of concerts at the Leicester Square Theatre in London's West End.

Solo career: 2010s[link]

26 November 2010 saw the release of British DJ and musician Mark Ronson’s third single from his album Record Collection. "Somebody to Love Me" featured Boy George and was met with critical acclaim from critics and also meant a return to BBC Radio 1’s play list after being banned for many years.^{[citation needed]}

Reunions[link]

In July 1998, a reunited Culture Club performed three dates in Monte Carlo and then joined the Human League and Howard Jones in a "Big Rewind" tour of the US. The following month, the band appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and made an appearance in Britain, their first in 14 years. Later that year, the band had a Top 5 hit in the UK with "I Just Wanna Be Loved" and later a top 30 hit with "Your Kisses are Charity". In 2006, the band decided to again reunite and tour; however, George declined to join them for this tour. As a result, two members of Culture Club replaced George with vocalist Sam Butcher. George has expressed his displeasure at the turn of events.^[8] Finally, after one showcase and one live show, that project was shelved.

Boy George announced in 27 January 2011 to the BBC that there will be a 30th anniversary Culture Club reunion tour sometime later in the year and that they would be releasing a new album in 2012.^[9] Although the 2011 tour never took place, Culture Club did play two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a new year's eve concert. In interviews given shortly before the concerts, the group confirmed that they were indeed recording new material.

Legal problems[link]

By the late 1980s, George had been struggling with his severe heroin addiction for many years.^[10] He attempted to perform concerts while under its influence. Addictions to other drugs soon followed. Determined to save George's life, his younger brother David made an appearance on UK national television and discussed George's drug habit, which George had been publicly denying at that time. In 1986, Boy George was arrested for heroin possession as part of 'Operation Culture.'.^[11]

In 1995, Kirk Brandon sued George for libel claiming that George mentioned a love affair between them in George's autobiography, Take It Like a Man. George won the court case and Brandon was ordered to pay £200,000 to Virgin Records, EMI Virgin Music and the book publisher in costs. Brandon declared himself bankrupt, which resulted in Boy George paying over £60,000 in legal fees.^[12]

On 7 October 2005, George was arrested in Manhattan on suspicion of cocaine possession and falsely reporting a burglary. George denied that the drug was his.^[13] In court on 1 February 2006, the cocaine possession charge was dropped and George pleaded guilty to falsely reporting a burglary. He was sentenced to five days of community service, fined US$1,000 and ordered to attend a drug rehabilitation program.^[14]

On 17 June 2006, a Manhattan judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Boy George after he failed to appear in court for a hearing on why George wanted to change his sentence for the false burglary report. George's attorney informed the court that he had advised George not to appear at that hearing.^[15]

On 14 August 2006, George reported to the New York Department of Sanitation for his court-ordered community service. As a result of the swarming media coverage, he was allowed to finish his community service inside the Sanitation Department grounds.^[16]

In a February 2007 interview, the performer explained: “People have this idea of Boy George now, particularly the media: that I’m tragic, fucked up. I mean, I’m all those things, but I’m also lots of other things. Yes, I’ve had my dark periods, but that isn’t all I am.”^[17]

On 5 December 2008, George was convicted in Snaresbrook Crown Court, London, of the assault and false imprisonment of Audun Carlsen.^[18] On 16 January 2009, he was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment for these offences.^[19] George stated that Carlsen was viewing his private information without George's consent. Initially sent to HMP Pentonville in London, George was later transferred to HMP Edmunds Hill in Newmarket, Suffolk (a category C prison).^[20]

On 11 May 2009, George was released after serving four months of his 15 month custodial sentence at HMP Edmunds Hill. He was released on home detention curfew and was required to wear an ankle monitor for 90 days.^[21]

On 23 December 2009, George had his request to appear on the final series of Celebrity Big Brother (to be broadcast on Channel 4) turned down by the Probation Service. Richard Clayton QC, representing the Probation Service, said George's participation would pose "a high level of risk" to the service's reputation. Clayton argued that if he used the show to promote his status as a celebrity and earn "a lucrative sum of money" it could undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system.^[22]

In January 2011, George agreed to return to the Church of Cyprus an 18th-century icon of Christ that he had bought without knowing its origin. The icon, which had adorned his home for 26 years, had been looted from the church of St Charalampus from the village of New Chorio, near Kythrea. George had originally purchased the icon from a London art dealer eleven years after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. He returned the icon at the Saints Anargyroi Church, Highgate, north London.^[23][24]

Memoirs[link]

Harper Collins published his first autobiography, Take It Like a Man, in 1995, written with Spencer Bright. The book was released to coincide with the timing of George's solo album, Cheapness and Beauty, actually released at the same time, dealing with the same themes, and also including a number of photographs as in the book. Take It Like a Man was a bestseller in the UK.

In 2005, Century published Straight, his second autobiographical book, this time written with author Paul Gorman. It stayed in The Sunday Times bestseller list for six weeks. This latter autobiography starts off there where the former had stopped, though the two works are different in style, due to their different co-authors, and all of the chapters have a title in the 2005 book, while the 1995 autobiography only featured numbered sections.

Gorman has also ghost-written Cry Salty Tears, the memoirs of George's mother Dinah O'Dowd, which was published by Arrow Books, in January 2007. The same year also saw the publication of Straight in paperback. It was originally supposed to be updated, but Boy George declined to do so since he felt the book was too bitter and negative about other people, and he regretted writing it.^{[citation needed]}

Sexual orientation[link]

When Boy George was with Culture Club, much was made of his androgynous appearance, and there was speculation about his sexuality. When asked in interviews, George gave various answers. He gave a famous, oft-quoted response to an interviewer that he preferred "a nice cup of tea" to sex.^[25]

In Take It Like a Man, George told his side of his secret relationships with punk rock singer Kirk Brandon and Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. He stated many of the songs he wrote for Culture Club were directed at Moss. However, one of Culture Club's biggest hits "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" was about Brandon. Moss acknowledged that he had a sexual and romantic relationship with George, but Brandon denies he ever had a relationship with George.

In 2006, in an episodic documentary directed by Simon George titled The Madness of Boy George, George declared on camera he was "militantly gay".^[26] In a 2008 documentary Living with Boy George, he talks about his first realisation he was gay, and when he first told his parents. He discloses that he understands why men fall in love with one another as well as with women.^[27]

References in popular culture[link]

In 1984, during the height of the popularity of Culture Club, country singers Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley recorded a parody called "Where's the Dress". In the song, they see Boy George on television and decide they can be more successful if they dressed like him.^{[citation needed]} The intro to the song is identical to "Karma Chameleon" before it goes into a traditional country feel, which in turn caused problems due to copyright infringement.^{[citation needed]} However, the song reached #8 on the country charts.^[28]

In The Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word", one-year-old Bart Simpson watches an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Johnny remarked: "No, this is true. The Coast Guard arrested Boy George for scraping the barnacles on his dinghy." Ed McMahon chuckles with his trademark "Hiyo!" laugh, and Bart laughs "Hiyo!" as well.^{[citation needed]}

Boy George was portrayed on film by Douglas Booth in the BBC2 drama documentary Worried About the Boy. The TV film was aired in May 2010.^[29]

Discography[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Boy George

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• Official website
• Boy George on Myspace
• Boy George at the Internet Movie Database
• Boy George at the Internet Broadway Database
• Boy George Website