Boy George at Koko

Went to see Boy George at Koko tonight, a venue I've never been in in any of its guises and I quite liked it. I'd happily go there again.

The show had a few support acts - by the time we got there QBoy was on stage doing his white-boy-wrap-hibbidy-hop-thang, sounding and looking so unoriginal that yawning would've been too much effort. O yes, I was in full slagging-off mode - that name for a start is enough to wind me up, especially when he later said he was 28... why would anyone call themselves 'boy' at that age (Mr George clearly isn't a boy)? Just wind me up and set me off ...

And then he started talking to the semi-rowdy audience about racism and homophobia in schools and how something needed to be done about bullying and how we can all support kids in schools. A lot of it was platitudes but he seemed to be involved in some campaign or other and he said it during his set in a proper music show that wasn't a little promo appearance where he takes his top off. Now, I'm not saying I liked his music (I didn't), all I'm saying is that I'm not slagging him off. He's earned another chance in my book. But please drop the name!

Next up was The Rum Circus who I assume are goths. That's about it really. I jigged to a couple of songs, another couple just passed over me while I was admiring the ceiling at Koko and, well, then they were off.

A seeming age later, on bounded Boy George looking slimmer than when we saw him in the autumn, full of smiles and buoying over with energy. Whatever he'd had for his tea tonight, I want some of it! On the other hand, maybe there just a teensy bit too much spare energy, with not being able to stand still, moving and prowling the stage. O dear.

He did a nice set, lots of his reggae songs but the highlight for me was a punked-up version of 'Church of the Poison Mind' which was always one of my favourite Culture Club songs. Fast and loud was good. He did 'Do you really want to hurt me' and 'Karma Chameleon' in his encore but they didn't have the same kind of buzz about them. Maybe his tea was wearing off? A documentary about 'Taboo' was projected onto a screen behind the stage which was a bit interesting (it's probably on the DVD).

It wasn't the best gig. The sound wasn't too good, drowning out the vocals most of the time, but maybe that's because of where we stood? More annoying were the lights. The stage was largely back-lit so we didn't actually get to see much of him. What was that about? Rarely did any light shine on him from the front so, although there were lots of lights we didn't really see much. And they all wore black except the guitarist so that didn't exactly provide a visual feast.

I'm pleased I went. I'm pleased I saw him. But it won't linger in my mind (except for the wrong reasons).