Boy George and his Culture Club bandmates are set to pay out £1.75million to the group’s former drummer to settle a row over profits – a week before they were due to go to a costly trial.
Jon Moss, 65, was a founding member of the group which shot to fame in the 1980s, but alleges he was ‘expelled’ by their manager in September 2018 after 37 years playing with them.
The drummer brought legal action against lead singer George, guitarist Roy Hay and bassist Michael Craig, which was set to determine the band’s profits since his departure.
It was the latest chapter in a long-running feud between Moss and the frontman, who were lovers for multiple years during the height of the band’s success in the mid 1980s.
I’m a Celebrity star George – whose real name is George O’Dowd – and his bandmates are now expected to pay a settlement of £1.75million to Moss immediately.
I’m a Celebrity star Boy George – whose real name is George O’Dowd – and his bandmates are now expected to pay the sum to Mr Moss immediately
Jon Moss, 65, was a founding member of the 1980s band, but alleges he was ‘expelled’ by their manager in September 2018 after 37 years playing with them
The court order, issued yesterday, states that the group had agreed a judgment should be made in favour of Moss.
It means the musicians will avoid a six-day trial, which had been due to start next week, to determine the amount its former drummer might be entitled to.
George once referred to his relationship with Moss as the ‘creative force behind Culture Club’.
Writing in his 1995 autobiography Take It Like A Man, he called it the ‘the great unresolved romance of the century’ and said it was ‘built on power-tripping and masochism’.
The pair broke it off in 1985 but the tensions caused by their rocky relationship continued and George developed a heroin addiction.
Their US tour was cancelled when Moss and George no longer want to be around each other and by 1986 the band had broken up.
They have reunited over the years and found success with their 1998 tour and album Don’t Mind If I Do.
The quartet met again 20 years later for the 2018 album Life, which saw George and Moss back in the studio together. They took the album on a world tour, but after the US leg, Moss decided to skip the European dates.
Moss and George pictured together in London in 1981, before their rise to fame
Culture Club group portrait, Washington DC, August 1983, (clockwise from top left) George, Roy Hay, Mikey Craig and Moss
It was this decision that Moss decided to sue the band over, claiming he was ‘told’ to ‘take a break’ by the band’s manager Paul Kemsley, which the drummer claimed saw him miss out on almost £200,000 in earnings.
The trial had been set to put a value on the Culture Club name – with the New Romantic band known for hits including Do You Really Want To Hurt Me and Karma Chameleon.
The order, approved by Mrs Justice Joanna Smith, additionally said that Moss agreed to ‘relinquish’ any right to the band’s name and its use.
It comes around ten months after Moss’s barrister, Celia Rooney, told the court that efforts to come to a resolution had ‘not been fruitful’.
She added that there was a ‘considerable lack of trust and goodwill’ between the former bandmates, The Times reported.
With mediation failing, the barrister said, it was likely that costs in a court battle may have amounted to millions.
Last year, the court was told that Moss was amending his legal challenge to include allegations that George ‘conspired to defraud’ him over the Life Tour money.
He claimed this was after he learnt that funds were released to a US company, You Give Me Life, Inc (YGML), said to be a personal service company of George’s, following the settlement of legal proceedings in America in January 2021.
