Take his, at the time, controversial appearance out of the equation, what do you have? A very VERY ordinary pop band. Karma wotsit, Church of the Poisoned Thing, Do you really want to hurt me (yes I do) - and game over. Nothing memorable. Hits, yes, but people will remember those and nothing else. Many bands in the 80s fell foul of this, having some - admittedly big - hits that would always define their career and would in the end weigh them down as they tried either to shake that image or to replicate the success of their chartbuster.

Look at Culture Club dispassionately. Listen to their music (if you can bring yourself to put yourself through that torture). Compare them to - I don't know: Johnny Hates Jazz, Curiosity Killed the Cat, Wet Wet Wet - what's the difference? They're all totally bland pop bands whose music was literally nothing to get excited over. It's only stood, to some degree, the test of time because of the hits, but I bet few people own a CC album or if they do, play more than the singles from it.

Nothing against BG: he knew how to work the PR machine and made it all about him, he made his money, he ****ed off. Fair play to him. But can you name the other members of CC? Can you name even one? Where are they now? Exactly.

I think Boy George was lovers with one of the Culture Club members if I remember. I did own Colour By Numbers, but you're right; I only played the singles tracks. They weren't a bad singles band and they were certainly better than the other bands you mentioned. That wasn't exactly saying much though.

Yeah, the point is people will say "Oh Boy George revolutionised pop music" or something, which is bull. Yes, he brought the sort of androgyny into it maybe for the first time, unless you count Bowie et al, but musically - musically - he did nothing new. Nothing. His songs were bland, boring and forumulaic. Sure, you could dance to them and sing along, but you could say that of Spandau Ballet or Go West, who were, I think, better bands. If CC hadn't had BG as their gimmick, I doubt they'd have even been noticed.

^ lol at both !

Yes, I pretty much agree with Trollheart, who has reminded me that even their hits were pretty lame. Do you really want to hurt me? was a rhetorical question that rather backfired because so many people reacted, as TH did, with an affirmative.