UNITED KINGDOM: Boy George hosts a party auctioning off his celebrity photographs in aid of the Hepatitis C Trust

Record ID: 191079

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Boy George hosts a party auctioning off his celebrity photographs in aid of the Hepatitis C Trust
  • Date: 1st April 2011
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MARCH 31, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF THE JAZZ CAFE, CAMDEN TOWN, LONDON, ENGLAND
  • Embargoed: 16th April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom, United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA58TJ40LLKFFT5VEEG8IVVS8O7
  • Story Text: Culture Club's Boy George hosted a party on Thursday night (March 31) to auction off his collection of celebrity photographs in aid of the Hepatitis C Trust's GET TESTED! campaign.
    The Campaign which hosted the event with the singer-songwriter-DJ, including a star-studded evening of jazz at London's iconic The Jazz Cafe in Camden Town, marks the fact that despite the hepatitis C virus being discovered in the 1980s, 75 per cent of people still do not know they have it.
    The photographs taken by Boy George depict celebrities posing as 80's music icons. They include British singer-songwriter and actress Paloma Faith as Boy George (from his 'Karma Chameleon' days); British singer-songwriter/pop singer Josh Weller as singer-songwriter Prince; actress Sadie Frost as singer-songwriter and actress Madonna; actor Mat Horne as musician Adam Ant; actor Jimi Mistry as former Queen singer Freddie Mercury; singer Gary Kemp's son Finlay as Kemp from his Spandau Ballet days); English singer-songwriter Lisa Moorish as singer-songwriter and actress Grace Jones; shoe designer Beatrix Ong as singer-songwriter Sade; food writer, chef and television presenter Gizzi Erskine as singer-songwriter Siouxie Sioux; singer-songwriter Eliza Doolittle as singer-songwriter Kate Bush; and actor-producer Jonny Owen as singer-songwriter Robert Smith from The Cure.
    The public could bid on their favourite photo and collector's item signed by not only Boy George, but all the celebrities such as Horne, Frost, Mistry, Doolittle and Faith, with some of the photographs on offer in the 'silent auction' on the night -- entering card bids on items. For example, Horne as Adam Ant went for 2700 Pounds Sterling to a private bidder.
    Artists performing along with George on the night included HMV Next Big Thing festival participants Weller and Faith, up-and-coming artist Joe Worriker and Lou Hayter and Ty Bulmer from The New Young Pony club. The special guest on the night co-hosted by DJ Jodie Harsh, who acted as co-auctioneer along with Moorish and Horne, was 80s' icon, singer-songwriter Adam Ant of the band Adam and the Ants.
    Ant made a surprise appearance, but was happy to support the cause for personal reasons, as he lost his friend and drummer, Mark Tanner, from his band at art college, Bazooka Joe, as well as Matthew Ashmore who was his guitar player.
    "So, you know, anything you can do to sort of clear things up, make young kids aware. I've got a daughter. She's thirteen and she knows all about it [hepatitis C], so. We didn't. Now they do, so. Raising money, good," said Ant.
    Asked why Boy George chose her to appear as him in his photograph, after first meeting at former Squeeze musician Jools Holland's Hootenanny, Holland's annual New Year's Eve music show on British television, Faith said Boy George saw something of him in her.
    "I think he [Boy George] was like, kind of pleasantly surprised at how much I naturally dress up anyway, cause I think a lot of the great 80s' stars, kind of, were really amazing at that, and there's not many people who do it anymore. So, he was sort of drawn to me and he was like, he just sort of said, you've got to be me. So, I was just honoured, really. But I didn't have any choice," said Faith.
    Host Boy George said doing the photographs was a lot of fun, and that he has now learnt to enjoy life and what he does more than in his heyday in Culture Club -- something he hopes young artists and fashion icons like Lady Gaga are doing. He was thrilled with how the bidding and performances went on the night, but admitted having reservations.
    "You know, I thought tonight was going to be a total nightmare because, you know, [it's] bad enough when you're doing your own show. When you got like a troop of other celebrities and people sort of joining you it can be quite difficult. But you know, it was great. It was much better than I could of ever dreamed of," said Boy George.
    Asked how the night's event came about, Boy George admitted that Ant was an inspiration, with the magic happening in Paris.
    "I was talking to a friend of mine about 'Young Parisiennes' [an Adam and The Ants song], a friend of mine who does like punk music. I said you should make a cover of this song. We were talking about it and this kid's quite young, so she didn't know about Adam [Ant], and suddenly, I turned around and there was like Adam. I was like, this is an omen, and then, you know, we sort of spoke on the train and I said, look we're doing this thing, you know, are you up for it, and yeah, he was great, absolutely great. He looks amazing, as well. I think he looks like Johnny Depp [laughs]. Handsome man. Handsome man. Handsome man," said Boy George.
    Ant was in high spirits after performing 'Young Parisiennes' with Boy George on the stage, saying he was surprised they were told that they had sang in tune.
    Boy George thrilled the crowds with renditions of his Culture Club tracks, 'Karma Chameleon' and 'Do You Really Want To Hurt Me', as well as a host of jazz classics.
    Boy George (born George Alan O'Dowd on June 14, 1961) was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international boost with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by rhythm and blues and reggae.
    Boy George's personal life has seen much controversy and entanglements with the law. On October 7, 2005, George was arrested in Manhattan on suspicion of cocaine possession and falsely reporting a burglary. He pleaded guilty to falsely reporting a burglary, and was sentenced to five days of community service, fined 1000 USD and ordered to attend a drug rehabilitation program. On December 5, 2008, George was convicted in Snaresbrook Crown Court, London, England of the assault and false imprisonment of Audun Carlsen, which he was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment on January 16, 2009.
    After releasing a new album in January 2011, 'Ordinary Alien', the singer-songwriter-DJ plans to reunite Culture Club in 2012 for a world tour.
    Hepatitis C is is a blood-borne virus that predominantly infects the cells of the liver, causing inflammation of and sometimes significant damage to the liver. Although regarded as a liver disease (hepatitis means inflammation of the liver), recent research has shown that hepatitis C affects a number of other areas of the body, including the digestive system, the lymphatic system, the immune system and the brain. The level of infection, known as prevalence, varies widely from country to country. In Egypt it is over ten per cent, in the US nearly two per cent, and in northern Europe around one per cent of the estimated 130-170 million people worldwide infected.
    GET TESTED! was founded in 2009 to raise awareness of hepatitis C and much the needed funds to supply more services across the UK. It kicked off with a hugely successful collaboration between The Hepatitis C Trust and DJ Pete Tong's International Music Summit (IMS). Since then, London-based fashion designer Bella Freud and Frost have designed T-shirts for the campaign.
    According to the GET TESTED! website, there are: "three to four million new infections every year. In the UK there are 250,000 to 500,000 people infected, of whom considerably more than half have no idea they have the virus. Despite UK Government Action plans in all four countries of the UK, awareness remains dangerously low, leaving all those still undiagnosed at risk of developing potentially fatal liver disease, as well as unwittingly infecting others."
    Hepatitis C Trust is committed to addressing health inequalities by raising awareness and promoting testing in hard-to-reach groups at high risk, including homeless and ethnic minority communities, especially the South Asian ones. Throughout 2010 they rolled out mobile clinics all over the UK and tested and diagnosed many people, but more awareness is needed to prevent people still dying unnecessarily of hepatitis C.
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