He also was a guest on Liquid news on March 2nd ( picture)
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picture by Maz-It-Out: The Marilyn Mailing List
comeback trail. We talk high heels, cross-dressing...
Marilyn: Well, yeah, it's a reggae tune, a cover of Dennis Brown's
How Could I Live. I figured since I was born in Jamaica I should go back to my roots. But we can't find a label to release it. We need to find someone who doesn't think I'm a washed up old trannie! I could do with an appearance on Top of the Pops actually. Have you got the producer's number?
Er, hang on. No interest at all from the labels then?
Marilyn: Actually, I was supposed to be singing at Home House the other night (trendy London members club) and Madonna came along because she wanted to talk about signing me to her label, Maverick but I never got to do the show.
Why?
Marilyn: Because I have a stalker at the moment, a woman. She sent the club an e-mail saying that I owed money to a lot of people and that they were all going to come down to the club if I performed. I'm actually waiting for the CID to come around right now and get some more details on her because she keeps posting evil messages on my website.
You were known in the '80s as Boy George's glamorous, cross-dressing sidekick. How do you look back on those days now?
Marilyn: With stupidity. I think George manipulated our relationship for publicity. I used to be really good friends with him, we were close, I'd known him for ages. Then we came back from a holiday in Egypt and I wondered why George was dressed up to the nines. Then when we came out of customs there were 150 photographers waiting for us. He organised the whole thing without telling me. He used me for publicity not vice-versa. I don't talk to George much now. If I see him out I'll say hello but we're not close.
People may see this as a comeback but you haven't stopped singing since the '80s have you?
Marilyn: No, I love singing and performing. I make my money out of personal appearances and club gigs. I am NOT on the dole if thats what you think!
life of Boy George and his friends)?
Marilyn: I did but I ended up rowing with a person sitting next to me. This guy kept grabbing my arm because I laughed at the bit where Philip Salon gets stabbed. I walked out after five minutes so I couldn't tell you what the play is like. It was your birthday yesterday (Marilyn is now 40). How did you celebrate?
Marilyn: I didn't. I don't celebrate birthdays. I think you should celebrate the day that the sperm actually penetrates the egg, not the day that you "fall out" of your mum. I don't see that there's anything to celebrate there.
Do you think attitudes to homosexuality (Marilyn has always claimed he is bisexual) and cross-dressing have changed now? Would people today be just as 'shocked' at your '80s antics?
Marilyn: Yeah, of course people's attitudes have changed but I don't think I ever shocked anyone really. I just think my image was
very sexual and that straight men fancied me. They always have. And then their girlfriends would get jealous. My image was about sex whereas George tended to temper his sexuality. He made it all cuddly by going on Terry Wogan and talking about curling up with a teddy bear and preferring a cup of tea to sex. Whereas I always had that just f***** look.
Did you have a lot of sex in the '80s?
Marilyn: Not as much as everyone thought, no. I wasn't into one night stands. I was looking for a relationship. Infact I haven't
had sex since 1988 when a love affair ended. I haven't missed sex up to now but lately I've had the urge to shag. I might see if I can go clubbing tonight and get lucky!
If TV talent shows like Pop Idol had been around in the '80s would you have entered?
Marilyn: Oh, God no. Those shows are s***. The whole thing is so fake. They're not making a Pop Idol, they're creating a very successful show that brings in high ratings so they can sell merchandise. It's just about making money not creating stars. Those
singers have a shelf life of 18 months at the most.
Simon Fuller is planning to make Second Chance Idol next? A show in which '80s pop stars get a second chance at fame. Any interest there?.
Marilyn: Kiss my batty! No way. I'd never do it. I don't want to sound pretentious but I'm an artist. My last album was all about a
break up with a former lover. I don't want to be singing insipid "I love, you love" songs.
What music do you listen to nowadays?
Marilyn: Toni Braxton, reggae and I love opera - Verdi and Maria Callas.
Do you have good memories of the '80s?
Marilyn: Like everyone I have good and bad. I don't sit at home watching my old videos over and over again like that dizzy old
tart in Sunset Boulevard. It was great to meet Diana Ross because she was my idol but some people were arseholes - like Luther Vandross. He's very bitchy and nasty. He was very rude to George once after performing on a Motown tribute show in New York. I tent off him after that.
There's a story from your past that you tried heroin because
your lover was addicted and it was the only way to wean him off it. Is that true?
Marilyn: Yes. I'd tried everying, screaming at him, bullying him but nothing worked. I was 16-years-old and I'd never touched drugs before. But I wanted to show him that I would do this for him. It worked. He came off it. I'd like to fall in love again. And I look really good at the moment!