Boy George offered cleaning help from Mum

Singer Boy George asked: "Am I bothered?" as he recounted his experiences of cleaning the streets of New York.

The flamboyant singer revealed that his mother had offered to help him clean the Big Apple as punishment for wasting police time.

George was speaking as he launched his comeback single at the Met Bar in central London.

He said of his experience: "Chinatown stinks." The former Culture Club singer added: "I'll do London next, but I'll charge this time."

He said of how he broke the news to his mother: "I'm a nightmare, I tell her everything. She still gets shocked by the things I do. My mum wanted to come out and help me. She gets worried about things and on the first day I called her and I just said, 'Am I bothered?'. She asked, 'Who is it?' and I just said, just ask if I'm bothered.

"She hears things in the news and people ring her up and tell her, 'Boy George is doing this or that'."

He said of his five-day community service punishment: "At first I thought I would have to wear an orange boiler suit. I don't look good in orange or a boiler suit with my short legs.

"I was treated really nicely, it was worth it. I quite enjoyed it really. I was p****d off to start with but people were jumping out of manholes to see me and being really nice. So many people came to see me."

The singer, whose mother was a cleaner, was given the sentence by a New York City judge after being found guilty of wasting police time when he falsely reported a burglary at his Manhattan apartment.

George performed a duet, Time Machine, with Amanda Ghost at the Met Bar, his first commercial single in eight years. Ghost was the co-writer of James Blunt's You're Beautiful.document.write(unescape("