Culture Club, the '80s Brit-pop phenomenon best known for flamboyant

vocalist "Boy" George O'Dowd and a string of smashes such as "Karma Chameleon" and "Do You Really Wanna Hurt Me," has reunited for a summer tour and a compilation album, according to sources at Virgin Records and the William Morris Agency.

The original Culture Club lineup -- Boy George on vocals, guitarist Roy

Hay, bassist Mikey Craig and drummer Jon Moss -- will headline an

amphitheater tour this summer with fellow '80s new wave acts Howard Jones and The Human League, according to Melanie Levy, national retail marketing director for Virgin Records.

Though the tour hasn't yet been officially announced, Levy did confirm

Culture Club's reunion, Virgin's compilation and the band's subsequent

summertime schedule.

"We [Virgin] will be releasing a Culture Club greatest hits for the tour," Levy said, noting that the album will be associated with a taping of a show featuring Culture Club on VH-1.

According to an anonymous source at the William Morris Agency, which is booking the show nationally, an official itinerary will be released next week. In the meantime, shows are already slated for venues in New Jersey and Massachusetts. In addition, Culture Club will perform on VH-1's "Storytellers" series on May 2, coinciding with the release of the Virgin compilation album on July 14.

The as-yet-unnamed retro romp is scheduled to begin thereafter, most likely in the Southeastern United States. "The album will be like a compilation," Levy said. "It's going to possibly have a couple of new tracks on it, too -- to keep it fresh."

Culture Club, who released four albums before breaking up in 1986, enjoyed their greatest success with their 1983 sophomore release, Colour By Numbers. That album reached #2 on the Billboard charts, propelled by hits such as "Karma Chameleon," "Miss Me Blind," "It's A Miracle" and "Church Of The Poison Mind."

Since then, androgynous Boy George has recorded a number of dance songs that produced ripples in England but never materialized stateside. A well-publicized battle with heroin plagued the singer, leading to an arrest in connection with the drug-related death of musician Michael Rudetsky at his home in 1986.

In 1992 he made a mini-comeback in the United States, covering Dave Berry's "The Crying Game" for the Neil Jordan film of the same name. Three years later, George turned to the written medium, releasing his autobiography "Tell It Like A Man."