Review - 3Arena Dublin, Boy George & Culture Club Life Tour

Boy George & Culture Club

3Arena Dublin, 25th November 2018

Boy George bounces onto the stage of the 3Arena, and within seconds announces that the band are like “a live soap opera”. If you don’t know their tumultuous history, that might seem an odd statement, but very little about their ups-anddowns hasn’t been documented. Indeed, a reunion tour in 2014 was scrapped, and the whole build-up and implosion recorded for a BBC Four documentary, that contains more drama than an episode of EastEnders!

This time around, the band have managed to make it through a US tour, and they landed in Dublin on the European leg. They have lost drummer, Jon Moss, along the way – officially he opted out of the European dates to spend more time with his family – but other than that, they seemed to be getting along fine. Well, musically at least.

The tour is to promote their new album, Life, but remaining members, Mikey Craig, Roy Hay, and George know the crowd want to hear the classics, and that is exactly what they give them.

Other than a couple of songs from the new offering, we were treated to hit after hit. It’s a Miracle, Victims, and Time all drew cheers. But when the opening strains of their breakthrough hit, Do you Really Want to Hurt Me? emanated across the arena, the crowd went wild.

I have seen Culture Club several times over the years, and George’s voice (and attitude) could be hit-and-miss. However, on this occasion, he was in fine voice – as good if not better than his heyday. He also seemed to say this is the best they ever were!

Set List:

1. God & Love 2. It’s a Miracle 3. Let Somebody Love You 4. Time 5. Everything I Own 6. Runaway Train 7. Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? 8. Victims 9. Different Man 10. Miss Me Blind 11. Church of the Poison Mind / I’m Your Man

Encore:

12. Life 13. Let’s Dance 14. Get It On 15. Karma Chameleon