The singer and his remaining Culture Club bandmates have been taken to court by Moss (Picture: Erika Goldring/FilmMagic)
Boy George has addressed Culture Club’s legal battle with ex-drummer Jon Moss over the group’s profits, insisting he has no ‘real hatred towards him’ despite Moss racking up £1million in legal costs as part of an ongoing High Court dispute.
George – who was also previously in a relationship with Moss during the band’s heyday in the 1980s – took to Twitter to give his version of events as he admitted ‘nothing had really been resolved’ between Moss and him and the band’s guitarist, Roy Hay, and bassist Michael Craig.
Moss is bringing a legal challenge against Culture Club after allegedly being ‘expelled’ by their manager in September 2018 after 37 years playing together.
The drummer has already racked up £1million in legal costs as part of the ongoing legal battle, a judge was told in December, ahead of a trial date set for March.
‘When I talk about the whole situation with Jon Moss I can seem pretty angry or bent out out [sic] shape,’ wrote George – real name George O’Dowd.
‘In fairness I feel I have much to be upset about but I have to the best of my knowledge removed any real hatred towards him,’ he added.
Jon Moss, Roy Hay, Mikey Craig and Boy George of Culture Club pose together in 2016 (Picture: Mike Windle/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)
Boy George with Jon Moss in 1983, during the decade they were also in a secret relationship (Picture: TV Times via Getty Images)
Writing another tweet, alongside a throwback picture of him alongside Hay, he continued: ‘I am disappointed by his actions but hatred is off the menu of emotions. The last time we met we hugged it out but nothing was resolved and it really can’t be while he is instructing lawyers.’
Remembering the specifics of their meeting, the I’m A Celebrity star wrote: ‘He was having breakfast with Borat in Hampstead which added some surrealism!’, referring to the actor and satirist Sacha Baron Cohen, who created the fictional Kazakhstani character.
The 61-year-old then claimed that during a mediation session he had confronted Moss over his financial decisions made on behalf of the group, for which George alleged there was ‘no paper trail’.
‘There was a band mediation a year ago and I asked Jon why he made himself sole director and sole shareholder of our company Sharp Grade. This meant he was in control of the band’s finances for almost 40 years. Weirdly there is no paper trail. He said “you should be grateful”.’
A six-day trial due in March will determine the value of the Culture Club name, the profits made by the band since Moss’s alleged ‘expulsion’, and the amount he is entitled to receive.
It will also cover Moss’s claim to an ‘outstanding balance’ of $246,000.17 (£188,000) under the terms of a band agreement reached over the operation of its 2018 Life Tour.
Boy George, Michael Craig and Roy Hay are understood to be disputing his claim to the outstanding money.
Moss had been performing with Culture Club until he alleges he was ‘expelled’ in 2018 (Picture: Chiaki Nozu/WireImage)
The High Court previously heard that the band settled a dispute over whether there was a ‘continuing partnership’ since the formation of Culture Club before a trial listed in December last year, with George, Hay and Craig conceding there was until Moss’s alleged ‘expulsion’.
Tom Weisselberg KC, for Mr Moss, said in written submissions for a preliminary hearing before Mrs Justice Joanna Smith in December that this ‘eleventh hour change of position… on the partnership issue was an enormous waste of costs’.
He added that the drummer had so far ‘been put to costs of some £1million in order to obtain recompense for his years of work in the band’.
‘That is particularly galling as he was the only band member to have taken a real interest in ensuring that its financial affairs were in order; he managed its financial affairs for more than 30 years,’ the barrister added.
Mr Weisselberg said the other Culture Club members, who are all defending against the claims, ‘appear to be determined to keep (Moss) out of sums to which he is entitled, reflecting decades of service for the band, for as long as possible and to be determined to cause (Moss) to rack up as many costs in the process, with a view, it is to be inferred, to discouraging him from continuing his claim’.
Moss has claimed Craig, George and Hay have been ‘defrauding’ him of profits he is entitled to (Picture: Ebet Roberts/Redferns)
The payment of legal fees in the case will be decided following an outcome of the trial due to begin on March 23.
Mr Weisselberg also revealed in his written submissions that Moss had previously applied for a ‘limited freezing injunction’ against Boy George’s home in Hampstead, north London, after discovering the singer was seeking to sell the property.
This was becauseMoss ‘considered that there was a risk that he would dissipate his assets’, Mr Weisselberg said.
But the property was taken off the market, and Moss’s application was dismissed, the court was told.
Thomas Plewman KC, for Boy George, Mr Hay and Mr Craig, said in written submissions the freezing order application was ‘ill-founded’ and that their preparation for the trial had been affected by the singer’s participation in the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! reality TV show filmed in Australia.
Frontman George was recently on I’m A Celebrity (Picture: James Gourley/ITV/Rex/Shutterstock)
The court heard earlier this year that Moss was amending his legal challenge to include allegations that Boy George ‘conspired to defraud’ him over the Life Tour money, after he learnt that funds were released to a US company, You Give Me Life, Inc (YGML), following the settlement of legal proceedings in America in January 2021.
YGML and another English company, Other Places Drama LLP (OPD), had brought proceedings against Agency for the Performing Arts (APA) in California claiming to be entitled to the money it held.
It was argued that the US proceedings involving these ‘personal service companies’ – also defendants in the UK case – could only have been brought with Boy George’s knowledge or by people acting on his behalf.
Moss had originally launched litigation seeking a court declaration that the outstanding balance money was being held for him by APA, acting as his agent.
The drummer claims that Boy George, YGML and/or OPD, were allegedly in breach of the ‘deal memo’ that he says meant each band member would receive a fee of $600,000 (£458,000) for up to 80 concerts on the Life Tour.
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In an earlier statement issued out of court, Boy George accused Mr Moss of making a ‘personal attack on me’ and ‘the most unfounded and hurtful allegations’.
‘His allegations that I conspired to defraud him are entirely untrue and will be defended in the High Court in London,’ he added.
Metro.co.uk has contacted a rep for Jon Moss for comment.
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Moss has already racked up a £1million bill for legal costs.
