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Culture Club

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Culture Club

Culture Club is a popular English new romantic pop group, that achieved considerable global success in the 1980s. The four band members consist of androgynous lead singer Boy George, Mikey Craig on bass, Roy Hay on guitar and keyboard, and Jon Moss (formerly of The Damned, The Clash, London and Adam and the Ants) on drums and percussion.

1981-1986

Before the formation of Culture Club, George occasionally sang with the British group Bow Wow Wow with the stage name "Lieutenant Lush". His popularity in this role caused friction with the group's lead singer Annabella Lwin. After his tenure with the group, George decided to start his own band and enlisted Craig. Next came Moss, and finally Hay. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, and Epic Records signed them in the US as Virgin did not have a US presence at the time.

Their first album, 1982's Kissing to Be Clever, saw the release of their first single "White Boy". Although a clever dance song, it failed to reach the UK or US Top 100 but George was still happy because "5000 people bought my song and didn't even know me". Next single "I'm Afraid of Me" also failed at radio. The release of the third single "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?", a reggae-influenced number, went to #1 in the UK in late 1982 and became a smash international hit, peaking at #1 in over a dozen countries (#2 in the US). The debut of the band on the UK's flagship chart show Top Of The Pops prompted outlandish headlines in the tabloid newspapers the next day in reaction to George's androgynous look and eccentric dress. "Wally of the week" and "Mr. (or is it Mrs. ?) Weird" were typical of such headlines and made George a huge international celebrity. Pete Burns, lead singer of the pop/new wave band Dead or Alive would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colorful costumes but George would cut back with a sharp tongue "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better".

Culture Club's follow up single "Time (Clock of the Heart)", featuring George's soulful vocals over an R&B groove, became another Top 10 hit in the US and UK, and "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top 10 hit in America. This gave Culture Club the distinction of becoming the first band since The Beatles to garner three Top Ten hits in the US from a debut album. The album sold over two million copies in the U.S. and another three million worldwide at its time of release. George would go on to became a worldwide celebrity and favorite of new music network MTV.

Their second album, Colour by Numbers, was released in 1983 and first single "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10. Second single "Karma Chameleon" gave the band its second #1 hit in the UK where it sold over one million copies and became the best-selling single of 1983 in that country. It also made #1 in the US, topping the Hot 100 for three weeks, and would eventually hit #1 in sixteen countries and become one of the most played songs of the decade.

The album would go on to have additional hits including "Miss Me Blind" (#5 US), "It's a Miracle" (#4 UK, #13 US), and "Victims" (#3 UK), and sell four million copies in the US and another four million worldwide at its time of release. With that album, Culture Club was the first group ever to have a diamond album (10 times platinum) in Canada, for more than a million copies sold. The band also won the 1984 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating "Thanks America... you know a good drag queen when you see one."

The group's backing singer Helen Terry would later began work on her solo album and George and Roy Hay would write "Love Lies Lost" for her album. The pair would also write "Passing Friend" for the upcoming Beach Boys album. Then Culture Club was asked to write two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan. Royalties were split four ways as with the rest of group's songs at the time. George also collaborated on "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett who had co-written "Karma Chameleon" with the band and who had also frequently played keyboards for the group.

Despite all this success, trouble was brewing within the Culture Club camp. First, George was occasionally using drugs with money from his newfound fame. Second, unknown to the public, George was romantically involved with the band's drummer Jon Moss. Even band members Craig and Hay were unaware. The relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with physical and verbal abuse. The pressure to hide the relationship from the press and the public started to take its toll on the band.

In 1984 the group released it's third album, Waking Up with the House on Fire. It was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to "Colour by Numbers". The album sold just over a million copies worldwide upon its release, with 500,000 of those in the US. The album had one hit single in "The War Song" which went top ten and top twenty in the UK and US respectively, and moderate hits in "The Medal Song" (UK #32) and "Mistake No. 3" (US #33). George would later state that he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because it was rushed, due to pressure from Virgin and Epic to quickly release a followup album.

At the end of 1984, the band were recruited by Bob Geldof to attend the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas". The song would eventually become an international hit, raising millions for famine victims in Africa.

By now, George had been abusing drugs for several years and by 1986 he became seriously addicted to cocaine, which then evolved into a heroin addiction. The band continued to lose it's place musically. Recording of their 1986 album From Luxury to Heartache dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to record the final vocals. Songs like "Gusto Blusto" and "Reasons" took days for the addicted singer to finish. Nevertheless, the album consisted of decent musical output and seemed capable of returning Culture Club back to hitmaking status as its first single "Move Away" peaked at UK #7 and US #12. But George and Jon could no longer be around each other due to constant relationship battles and, coupled with George's drug addiction, a forthcoming American tour had to be cancelled. By the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, which the singer denied, and the single stalled. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts and the once promising album eventually sold under one million copies worldwide. By the summer of 1986, George announced that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July, he was arrested by the British police for possession of cannabis. The band eventually broke up and George pursued a solo career.

1998-present

In 1998, the band put their issues aside and decided to do a reunion tour. Kicked off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers, the tour was a major success. A new compilation was released based around the Storytellers performance including new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK #4. "I Just Wanna Be Loved" had been written during the Peter Asher reunion sessions in the early 1990s.

Their 1999 studio album Don't Mind If I Do peaked at no. 64 in the UK album chart. Although not a strong seller, it included a moderate UK hit in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK#25) and a minor hit with "Cold Shoulder" (UK#43).

The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall, which was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to Boy George's concentration on his successful career as a DJ.

Two original members of Culture Club (Craig and Moss), will possibly launch a new tour with another lead singer. (George and Roy Hay have declined to tour). Earlier in 2006, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." George expressed his displeasure in the press with his replacement, even though Culture Club's MySpace page says otherwise. [1]. A tour was announced for December 2006 in the UK, but was postponed to give the new line-up time to finish recording their album. Without official press statements, in 2007, band manager Tony Gordon, said that the project was "on hold," while drummer Jon Moss stated that the project was shelved.

Phil Pickett, co-writer and keyboard player for Culture Club, performed with tribute band Culture Dub for a special performance for Pink Day at Funderworld in Bournemouth on the 2nd September 2007. Culture Dub perform with Silvio Gigante as Boy George, and on special occasions, guest Mikey Craig.

Discography

Albums

Compilations

Singles

  • White Boy (UK only) (from K)
  • I'm Afraid of Me (UK and Mexico only) (K)
  • Do You Really Want to Hurt Me (K)
  • Mystery Boy (Japan only) (on remastered C)
  • Time (Clock of the Heart) (K)
  • I'll Tumble 4 Ya (North America only) (K)
  • Church of the Poison Mind (from C)
  • Karma Chameleon (C)
  • Victims (UK and Europe only)(C)
  • It's a Miracle (1984, C)
  • Miss me Blind (everywhere except UK)(1984, C)
  • Mister Man (South Africa only) (1984, C)
  • The War Song (from W)
  • The Medal Song (UK, Europe and Japan only) (W)
  • Don't Go Down that Street[1] (B side of the previous; now a bonus track on remastered W)
  • Mistake No. 3 (Canada, USA, Peru, South Africa and Australia only) (W)
  • Don't Talk About It (Mexico only) (W)
  • Love Is Love (Canada, Europe and Japan only) [2] (1985, B side of the previous; now a bonus track on remastered W)
  • Move Away (from F)
  • God Thank you Woman (UK, Europe and Japan only) (F)
  • Gusto Blusto (Canada and USA only) (F)
  • I Just Wanna Be Loved (from G; then, remixed and with extra spoken intro, on D)
  • Your Kisses Are Charity (UK, Europe and Japan only) (from D)
  • Cold Shoulder/Starman (UK only) (D)
  • See Thru (UK only) (only released as a limited promo 12" with remixes (D)
  • Do You Really Want To Hurt Me '05 (remixed version released only in France (#19))

Notes

  1. ^ Japanese single only
  2. ^ European/Japanese single only (where Love Is Love was actually either the A side or both songs made up a double A side single)

Charts

Albums

Year Album UK U.S. GER JP NOR SWE SWI
1982 Kissing to Be Clever 2 14 8 7 3 3 -
1983 Colour by Numbers 1 2 6 1 2 3 4
1983 Time EP [Japan Only] - - - 8 - - -
1984 Waking Up with the House on Fire 2 26 22 4 9 19 21
1986 From Luxury to Heartache 10 32 45 13 18 13 24
1999 Don't Mind If I Do 64 - - - - - -
1987 This Time - The First Four Years 8 - - 30 - - -
1993 At Worst... The Best of Boy George and Culture Club - 169 - - - - -
1998 Greatest Moments - VH1 Storytellers Live 15 148 - 94 23 - -
2002 Culture Club Box Set - - - - - - -
2005 Greatest Hits - - - - - - -

Singles

Year Song UK U.S. U.S. AC JP CAN GER NOR SWE SWI Album
1982 "White Boy" 114 - - - - - - - - Kissing to Be Clever
1982 "I'm Afraid of Me" 100 - - - - - - - - Kissing to Be Clever
1982 "Mystery Boy (Japan only)" - - - - - - - - - Kissing to Be Clever (Japanese edition)
1982 "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" 1(1) 2 8 23 1 1(2) 2 1 1 Kissing to Be Clever
1982 "Time (Clock of the Heart)" 3 2 6 - 4 16 - 11 9 Kissing to Be Clever
1983 "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" (US/Canada) - 9 33 - 9 - - - - Kissing to Be Clever
1983 "Church of the Poison Mind" 2 10 - 23 7 23 11 13 - Colour by Numbers
1983 "Karma Chameleon" 1(3) 1(3) 3 26 1 2 1 1 1(5) Colour by Numbers
1983 "Victims" 3 - - - - 39 - - 18 Colour by Numbers
1984 "Miss Me Blind" - 5 12 61 5 - - - - Colour by Numbers
1984 "It's a Miracle" 4 13 8 17 5 41 - - - Colour by Numbers
1984 "The War Song" 2 17 - 52 3 12 5 6 10 Waking Up with the House On Fire
1984 "The Medal Song" 32 - - 68 - - - - - Waking Up with the House On Fire
1984 "Mistake No. 3" - 33 18 - 10 - - - - Waking Up with the House On Fire
1984 "Don't Go Down That Street" (Japan Only) - - - 69 - - - - - Love Is Love EP (Japan)
1985 Love Is Love - - - 9 3 - - - - Love Is Love EP (Japan)
1986 "Move Away" 7 12 11 - 4 21 8 7 18 From Luxury to Heartache
1986 "God Thank You Woman" 31 - - - - - - - - From Luxury to Heartache
1986 "Gusto Blusto" - D.C. - - 24 - - - - From Luxury to Heartache
1998 "I Just Wanna Be Loved" 4 - - - 18 80 - - - Greatest Moments
1999 "Your Kisses Are Charity" 25 - - - - 88 - - - Don't Mind If I Do
1999 "Cold Shoulder"/"Starman" 43 - - - - - - - - Don't Mind If I Do

1. For 3 consecutive weeks. (Total chart run in the UK Top 100: 19 weeks).

2. For 6 consecutive weeks. (Total chart run in the German Top 100: 22 weeks in 1982/1983; 4 weeks in 1992).

3. For 6 consecutive weeks. (Total chart run in the UK Top 100: 21 weeks).

4. For 3 consecutive weeks. (Total chart run in the US Top 40: 16 weeks).

5. For 5 consecutive weeks. (Total chart run in the Swiss Top 20: 14 weeks).

Paper Material

Songbooks

  • Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" - 1982), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
  • Colour by Numbers (1983), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
  • Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
  • From Luxury to Heartache (1986), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
  • Culture Club (Songbook) (10 of their best songs - 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England

References

  • David, Maria (1984). Boy George and Culture Club. Southampton: Crescent. ISBN 0-517-45474-2
  • De Graaf, Kasper and Garrett, Malcolm (1983). Culture Club: When Cameras Go Crazy. London & New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-17879-4
  • Ginsberg, Merle (1984). Boy George: The Whole Outrageous Story Behind the Sensation of the Eighties. 1st ed. USA, Dell Publishing Co. Inc.; paperback edition Kent & London, UK, NEL-New English Library. Paperback ISBN 0-450-05790-9
  • Rimmer, David (1986). Like Punk Never Happened: Culture Club and the New Pop. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-13739-3
  • Robins, Wayne (1984). Culture Club. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-32216-9
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