ROY HAY - Early Biography

Roy Hay, Guitarist and keyboards player with the group was born on August 12th, 1961, in Southend, the second son in a docker's family.

"Music was encouraged from when I was young with my father helping me get piano lessons," he says. "I'm really pleased he did that because it gave me a good grounding in music, even though I eventually switched to the guitar as my major instrument."

"My brother was really into collecting records of the heavy metal giants at the time and I was influenced a lot by that. I think I saw myself in that style to begin with and spent hours listening to those groups."

"After I left school, much as I'd have loved to become a full time musician I went to work in an insurance office and stuck it there for several years before I fancied doing something a bit more creative."

"I made friends there, however with a guy call Keith Giddons who was to be an important in the
future for me."

"Meanwhile, I'd shifted jobs to work for a hairdressers at Stamford in Essex and I really enjoyed the work and meeting people, It was such a change from office life. But I hadn't given up on music. I was a member of a band called 'Russian Bouquet' and we did quite a few gigs locally. But it was my old insurance colleague, Keith, who put me in touch with Boy George. From then on, things just clicked and I knew this band was going to make it."

Roy sealed his happiness by marrying Alison Green on Christmas Eve, 1982, a girl to he met once at many of the clubs he performed in.

For him 'Culture Club' is also his ticket to see the world. "I'd never done much travelling before joining the group," he says. "Now I'm going to see most of the world. Personally, I can't wait to see places like Thailand and Egypt. I've got a taste for the exotic and I want to be able to take holidays in out of the way islands, like the Seychelles and Bali. It's just a case of trying to find the time to fit them in!"