Were they rebels? Were they artists? Were they outcasts from society? They were all of these. They were the Bohemians.

These bohemians, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Williams and their seven children Biff, Tina, Sparky, Louise, Tuffy, Mickey, and Biff Number Two, lived in a notorious artists’ colony and planned community....

(Steve Martin, Cruel Shoes)

There is no problem locating the unobtrusive door of Red Bus studios, where Boy George is sitting in on the production of backup singer Helen Terry’s solo debut. Half a blockful of punkettes are giggling outside, shifting their fishnets, legwarmers and Day-glo socks in the bitter cold. Tina, George, Judith, John, Dinky, Libby and Tina Number Two part as politely as the Red Sea, however, when I approached the buzzer and no one utters a word as the sacred door admits me to a small and claustrophobic universe of mirrors and carpets.

George is upstairs doing a spot of advance TV; vocals by Helen are faintly audible through the walls of the Ladies’—an effect rather like an Aretha maniac loose somewhere in your basement.