Culture Club founding member Jon Moss has racked up £1 million in legal costs as part of an ongoing High Court dispute with his former bandmates over the group’s profits, a judge was told.
The drummer is bringing a legal challenge against the band’s lead singer Boy George, guitarist Roy Hay and bassist Michael Craig, after allegedly being “expelled” by their manager in September 2018 after 37 years playing together.
A six-day trial due in March will determine the value of the Culture Club name, the profits made by the band since Mr Moss’s alleged “expulsion”, and the amount he is entitled to receive.
It will also cover Mr Moss’s claim to an “outstanding balance” of 246,000.17 dollars (£188,000) under the terms of a band agreement reached over the operation of its 2018 Life Tour.
Boy George – whose real name is George O’Dowd – Mr Craig and Mr Hay are understood to be disputing his claim to the outstanding money.
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 Boy George, Mr Hay and Mr Craig conceding there was until Mr Moss’s alleged “expulsion”.
Tom Weisselberg KC, for Mr Moss, said in written submissions for a preliminary hearing before Mrs Justice Joanna Smith on Thursday 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 £1 million 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 (Mr 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 (Mr 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”.
The payment of legal fees in the case will be decided following an outcome of the trial due to begin on March 23 next year.
Mr Weisselberg also revealed in his written submissions that Mr 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 because Mr Moss “considered that there was a risk that he would dissipate his assets”, Mr Weisselberg said.
But the property was taken off the market this month, and Mr 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.
The court heard earlier this year that Mr 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.
Mr 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 dollars (£458,000) for up to 80 concerts on the Life Tour.
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.
