MARILYN

"You just expect that after Danny La Rue and Quentin Crisp and God knows who else, that people would be able to accept someone with a bit of make-up. England is like such a bunch of old drag queens anyway. I'm quite tame compared to a lot of people" - Marilyn once commented in response to press criticism about his androgynous image.

From the outset it was clear that the tabloids, having already begun to snap at the heels of Boy George, would go for his best friend. Marilyn (born Peter Robinson in Kingston, Jamaica) who joined the cross-dressing band-wagon in 1983, becoming an instant cause celebre with the number 4 hit "Calling Your Name".

His blonde flowing locks, which gave him his tide (after Marilyn Monroe, lip gloss and eyelashes failed to secure him another major hit and his follow up for Mercury Records, "Cry and Be Free" (a gospel-influenced number) only managed number 31. Further success proved ever more elusive and at the end of 1984 he went to work with producer Don Was of Was (Not Was) in Detroit, Michigan where he changed his image but without any further impact on the UK charts. Marilyn's escapades out on the town can be found within the pages of Boy George's
fascinating book, "Take it like a man".