If you have been going through a slightly tricky patch of late, and are trying to re-launch your career 20 years after your heyday with a new single, then there is one person you want in your audience - the Comeback Queen herself, Kylie Minogue.

Here is Boy George performing his new single Time Machine at the Pigalle Club in the West End - and there, cheering him on like he was the hottest new thing on the music scene, is Kylie.

Minogue, 38, who is recording a new album following her treatment for breast cancer, looked - of course - as fabulous as ever as she danced to the music and then rushed backstage to give the singer a congratulatory hug afterwards.

As for Boy George ... well, he had a nice hat. The release of 45-year-old George's new single - a duet with Amanda Ghost - marks the longawaited return of a singer who has not released a record of his own for eight years - and who has, notoriously, endured his own share of adversity of late.

In August he was forced to sweep the streets of Manhattan for five days after pleading guilty in March to falsely reporting a burglary at his New York apartment. His community service was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary this week, The Madness Of Boy George.

A charismatic star since the heady days of Culture Club and such hits as Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? - released, incidentally, several years before Kylie even landed her breakthrough role in the Australian soap Neighbours - George has recently been better known as a DJ than a performer.

As for Kylie, her own comeback - from something rather more serious than public humiliation and a spot of municipal street-cleaning - continues in leaps and bounds.

She is doing a fashion shoot with Karl Lagerfeld for the December issue of Elle magazine, together with a major interview with author Kathy Lette.

She is also about to return to Australia in time for the relaunch of her Showgirl Tour next month, which she was forced to interrupt when she was diagnosed with cancer. Minogue will be performing at Wembley in a series of sell-out concerts in January.