Talking of Boy George, doesn't the fellow on the right of this photo look like him? It's a scan of the cover of some forgotten Japanese teenpop magazine from 1984, a mag called Rio. The man who looks like Boy George crossed with David Bowie is in a band called Seona Dancing. This past week I've been oddly fascinated by a track they made, a remixed b-side called "Bitter Heart". You can download an mp3 of the song if you follow that link. It's almost a parody of English mid-80s shiny Simmons synth-pop, very Tears for Fears, very Pet Shop Boys, dark and sparkly. The band never had any hits, though they did quite well in Japan and (it says here) the Philippines.
Well, twenty years later that Bowie-Boy George fellow shot to fame as quite a different sort of animal. His name is Ricky Gervais, and he devised, wrote and acted in a TV sitcom called "The Office". Watching David Brent, I always did suspect he was a man who knew his way around a make-up box.
