profile by Sharon Jaffa
When Boy George first laid eyes on the figure in a “long black velvet skirt, fingerless leather gloves, black lipstick, mask-like eyeshadow, and shaved hair lacquered up into devil’s horns”, he looked on admiringly and whispered “fantastic.”
In person, Philip Sallon doesn’t disappoint. He is frank, funny, and every bit as fantastically colourful and camp as you might expect of a man with a habitual penchant for cross-dressing, who famously went on to become Boy George’s closest confidant - described in detail in the singer’s autobiography, Take it like a Man.
The show, which has just opened, takes a heady trip back to the music scene of the 1980s; a time characterised by its extraordinary mix of new romanticism, tech-rock and passé punk. Experimentation and individualism was key, and at the forefront of a culture of clashing trends in fashion, art and sexuality, was none other than this curious Jewish man from north London.
Trying to establish quite what inspired Philip to be the capital’s first person to dye his hair luminous green is another story, however. As the conversation gaily skips about from everything from party organising, to the reaction he gets at his local synagogue in one of his “straight” outfits and onto the abusive bloke who headbutted him on a bus recently, this flamboyant character is nothing if not friendly. Indeed, he readily admits his is a life “devoted to mixing with millions of people.”
From masterminding Boy George’s recent 800-strong 40th birthday bash to running notorious clubs during the 1980s and 1990s such as Bagley’s and the Mud club at Buzby’s – a magnet for anyone who was anyone in London, including a young Vivienne Westwood who could be found setting up a rail of clothes inside - Philip’s love affair with the music and club scene saw him make friends with the Sex Pistols, one-man extravaganza Marilyn, Steve Strange from Visage, fashion designer Leigh Bowery and countless other legendary faces.
Many of their exploits centred around Bowery’s former nightclub Taboo in Leicester Square, providing the foundation for the musical of the same name. Directed by award-winning West End and Broadway director Christopher Renshaw, the show also features brand new songs penned by Boy George (who wrote the lyrics too) along with some of his greatest hits including ‘Do you really want to hurt Me’ and ‘Karma Chameleon’. According to Philip, fans have a real treat in store.
“I know I sound like I’m just being a loyal friend, but George has written some really good music,” he says. Today the singer spends more time DJ-ing at nightclubs around the world. “I was a bit dubious at first because he hasn’t done anything in a while, but the music is probably the best bit about Taboo.”
Philip is equally complimentary about another of the key artists involved in the production – Jewish comedian Matt Lucas. Matt, 27, plays famous bisexual fashion designer and clubber, Leigh Bowery, who died of Aids in 1993. “Matt’s become one of the stars of the show,” Philip enthuses about the comedy actor and writer who made his name as ‘George Dawes, the man with the scores’ on BBC’s Shooting Stars, and has more recently starred in Rock Profiles. “He’s really funny in it – a true comedian.”
Interweaving some fantastical facts about the 1980s with a classic love story, the musical also features newcomer Euan Morton as Boy George – an unforgettable music and fashion icon who has publicly described Philip as his “punk guru” and whom, in return, is described by Philip as being both “funny and kind”; capable of “poisoning an atmosphere or creating one.”
“Whatever you say about George, the opposite is true,” he adds. “He’s a typical Gemini; a contradictory character.”
So how does it feel for Philip, who is portrayed by accomplished stage actor Paul Baker, being the subject of a West End musical?
“It’s kind of cool really – something to show off to your cousins about,” he giggles. “When I first saw it, I was very embarrassed though. It freaked me out and I kept cringing when they said my name. It features all the clothes we wore, the places we went… the degenerate lives we led.
“The funniest thing is that everyone kept coming up to congratulate me afterwards and I was saying: ‘But it’s not my musical.’”
Asked about his upbringing, for the first time during our conversation, Philip gives a conventional answer. “I never missed a Saturday in shul until I was 16 when I was growing up in Cricklewood,” he explains.
Yet this was no conventional family. Just ask Boy George: ‘All the Sallon family are eccentrics.’
“It’s true – my family liked to think they were a lot more normal than they were,” says Philip, whose father, Ralph, was a distinguished cartoonist for the Daily Mirror. His mother, Anna, used to “constantly rage that her son was not normal.”
That said, Philip is adamant that his outlandish behaviour has never been anything to do with rebelling against Judaism. In fact, he says he would not want to be anything else, and speaks at length about the importance of Israel as the Jewish homeland and his trips to the Saatchi Synagogue.
“Before I was a punk I was king beck, hanging out in Golders Green and at Jewish youth clubs,” he adds. “But all the phases I went through after that – hippy, punk, new romantic – they’re just visual things and they mean nothing.
“The way I see it, most people spend their whole life trying desperately to fit in, with the right haircut or the right shaped heel. But I still go out now wearing shaving foam on my head or a piece of netting over a corset. I guess I just like to do my own thing.”
Luckily, unlike many of his contemporaries such as Adam Ant and Leigh Bowery, ‘doing his own thing’ hasn’t led to disastrous consequences.
Indeed, for Philip, now 50 and living in St John’s Wood, his heydey is far from over. He is still busy doing what he does best – bringing people together (being a “shiduch-maker”, in his words, although you sense he doesn’t mean that in quite the usual way). For a while he was spending eight hours a night playing scrabble with Boy George, until he realised it had become an obsession and his pal starting winning. So he concentrated on getting his degree in sociology and history instead and, now that’s done, he’s hectic trying to organise the Valentine’s Day launch party for Taboo – a massive 80s-style ball for hundreds of his showbiz friends.
Having been “chased all his life” for his overt homosexuality and what others deem ‘gender-bending’ – “you’re always looking over your shoulder when you’re dressed up” – at least in principle, people are more accepting in today’s ‘politically correct’ society.
“I don’t believe in labels and I don’t consider myself part of any group – or as some kind of 1980s relic,” he concludes. “But I will say we’re more liberated now compared to 20 years ago.
“Funnily enough, even despite Thatcher’s right-wing society, individualism thrived back then. As a left-winger, I believe in equality, but not in everyone being the same. And that’s the drawback today; now we live in a faceless world and that’s a pity.”