Culture Club
Encyclopedia
Culture Club are a British rock band who were part of the 1980s New Romantic movement. The original band consisted of Boy George
(lead vocals), Mikey Craig
(bass guitar), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards) and Jon Moss
(drums and percussion). Their second album, Colour by Numbers
, has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, and they had several international hits with songs such as "Church of the Poison Mind
", "Karma Chameleon
" and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me". Boy George's androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media.
Culture Club's music combines British new wave
and American soul
with Jamaican reggae
and also other styles such as calypso
, salsa
or country
. From the time of the band's first album release in 1981 to its dissolution in 1986, Culture Club had amassed hits in several countries around the world, including ten Top 40 hits in the US, most of which went Top 10. They went on to have subsequent hits in the UK during a reunion period of 1998–2002, where they scored a No. 4 single and a No. 25 single. In America they are associated with the Second British Invasion
of British new wave
groups that became popular in the United States due to the cable music channel MTV.
under the stage name "Lieutenant Lush". However, his popularity in this role caused friction with the group's actual lead singer, Annabella Lwin
. After his tenure with the group, George decided to start his own band and enlisted Mikey Craig. Next came Jon Moss, and finally Roy Hay.
The group initially called themselves In Praise of Lemmings as well as Sex Gang Children. Then realizing they had an Irish transvestite as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, an Anglo-Saxon on keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they decided on the name Culture Club. 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, while Epic Records
released their albums in the US and North America
as Virgin did not have a US presence at the time.
With their first album, Kissing to Be Clever
(UK #5, US #14) (1982), the band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", both failed to chart. But in September of that year, the group released their third single "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (Number 2 US). With George's eccentric and androgynous look and long hair, the band's debut on Top of the Pops
caused headlines such as "Wally of the week" and "Mr. (or is it Mrs.?) Weird" as the tabloids
and magazines plastered him all over their covers. Pete Burns
, lead singer of the 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-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better".
The 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 (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya
" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles
to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over two million copies in the US, and another three million worldwide at the time of its release, propelling George to international stardom.
(UK #1, US #2) was released in 1983. The first single "Church of the Poison Mind
", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry
, reached the UK and US Top 10, continuing the group's success. The second single "Karma Chameleon
" gave the band its biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (its second chart-topper there), where it sold 1.4 million copies to become the best-selling single of 1983 in that country. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in sixteen countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s. The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind
" (Number 5 US), "It's a Miracle" (Number 4 UK, Nomber 13 US), and "Victims
" (Number 3 UK), and sell four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. With that album, Culture Club was the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Grammy Award
for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry
, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album
. 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, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold
. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite all this success, trouble was brewing within Culture Club. First, George was occasionally using drugs with money from his new-found fame. Second, unknown to other band members Hay and Craig at the time, as well as the public, George and Moss were romantically involved with each other. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with both physical and verbal abuse. The pressure to hide the relationship from the press and the public started to take its toll on the band.
(UK #2, US #26). It was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two releases. "Waking Up..." sold up two million copies worldwide upon its release, with one million of those in America, earning platinum certification. The album had one hit single in "The War Song", which went top ten and top twenty in the UK and US, respectively. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US #33) and "The Medal Song" (UK #32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic to quickly release a follow-up to Colour by Numbers. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984 and, as a result, the fatigue ended up coming off on the album.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was 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 lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?
". The song would become an international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several Africa
n nations, particularly Ethiopia
.
George had been abusing drugs for several years and by 1986 he became seriously addicted
to cocaine
, which then evolved into a heroin addiction. As a result, the band continued to lose its place musically. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache
(UK #10, US #32) 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 first single "Move Away
" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US #12, and the album seemed capable of returning Culture Club back to hit-making status. But 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 were denied by the singer, and the second single stalled on the charts. George and Jon also 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. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well and the album ultimately sold about one million copies worldwide. By the summer of 1986, George admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July, he was arrested by the British police for possession of cannabis. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career with several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits. George would continue to struggle with his drug addiction for several years.
In 1998, George and Jon put their differences aside and the band actually reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers
. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that". The tour was a major success. A compilation album based around the Storytellers performance was released, and went platinum in UK, which included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK #4. Their 1999 studio album Don't Mind If I Do
peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included moderate UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK #25) and "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
. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to Boy George's successful DJ career.
In 2006, two original members of Culture Club (Craig and Moss), tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Roy Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, 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, even though Culture Club's MySpace page says otherwise. 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.
Boy George announced on 27 January 2011 to the BBC
that there will be a 30th anniversary Culture Club reunion tour sometime later in the year and that they would be releasing a new album in 2012.
won the award. In 1984, Culture Club was also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award
for International Album of the Year, but The Police won that award. In January 1985, they were nominated for an American Music Award
for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for 2 MTV Video Music Award
s for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award
for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist. Considered as one of the 500 most influential rock songs, "Time (Clock Of The Heart)" has been included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. In 2009, "Karma Chameleon" was chosen as the quintessential song of the 1980s by video site Ryeberg.
-rock band, whose sound combines British new wave
and American soul
with Jamaican reggae
and also other styles as calypso
, salsa
or country
.
Philadelphia Daily News
described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times
said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience...".
In the 1980s, Boy George
said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent".
When Culture Club won the 1984 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, Philadelphia Inquirer said about the band, "Among the other major winners were the English rock band Culture Club (Best New Artist), hard-rock vocalist Pat Benatar (Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female) and the English rock trio The Police (Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group)".
Stephen Holden
, music critic for The New York Times
, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that the popular quartet, "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels".
Star News
considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s, the newspaper said, "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats".
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
, senior editor for Allmusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America
and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era".
The music of the English rock band Culture Club, is basically a combination of new wave and soul, is described by Boy George himself as he says, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The rock band, also described as pop/rock, was part of the second British rock
invasion of the 1980s in the United States as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock
that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
N.B. Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
(lead vocals), Mikey Craig
Mikey Craig
Mikey Craig is a former DJ who became the bassist with Culture Club, one of the most popular bands of the 1980s.-Personal life:...
(bass guitar), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards) and Jon Moss
Jon Moss
Jon Moss is an English drummer best known as a member of the 1980s pop group Culture Club. He has also played with other bands, including London, The Nips and The Damned.-Early life:...
(drums and percussion). Their second album, Colour by Numbers
Colour by Numbers
Colour by Numbers is the second album by New Wave band Culture Club, released in 1983.-Overview:The album features several international hits such as "Church of the Poison Mind" and the worldwide hit "Karma Chameleon" which had sales of over one million in the United Kingdom alone...
, has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, and they had several international hits with songs such as "Church of the Poison Mind
Church of the Poison Mind
"Church of the Poison Mind" is a 1983 hit single for Culture Club. It was the first single to be released from their second album Colour by Numbers....
", "Karma Chameleon
Karma Chameleon
"Karma Chameleon" is a song by British New Wave band Culture Club, featured on the group's 1983 album Colour by Numbers. The song spent three weeks at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, becoming the group's biggest hit and only US #1 among their many top ten hits...
" and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me". Boy George's androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media.
Culture Club's music combines British new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
and American soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
with Jamaican reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
and also other styles such as calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
, salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
or country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
. From the time of the band's first album release in 1981 to its dissolution in 1986, Culture Club had amassed hits in several countries around the world, including ten Top 40 hits in the US, most of which went Top 10. They went on to have subsequent hits in the UK during a reunion period of 1998–2002, where they scored a No. 4 single and a No. 25 single. In America they are associated with the Second British Invasion
Second British Invasion
The term Second British Invasion refers to British music acts that became popular in the United States during the 1980s primarily due to the cable music channel MTV...
of British new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
groups that became popular in the United States due to the cable music channel MTV.
Formation and Kissing to Be Clever: 1981–1983
In 1981, Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow WowBow Wow Wow
Bow Wow Wow were an English 1980s New Wave band created by Malcolm McLaren to promote his and business partner Vivienne Westwood's New Romantic fashion lines.The group's music is described as having an "African-derived drum sound".-History:...
under the stage name "Lieutenant Lush". However, his popularity in this role caused friction with the group's actual lead singer, Annabella Lwin
Annabella Lwin
Annabella Lwin is an Anglo-Burmese singer, songwriter and record producer best known as the lead singer of Bow Wow Wow.-Biography:Lwin was born to a Burmese father and an English mother in Rangoon, Burma .Medina, Maximillian Mark; ChopBlock.com Her birth name in Burmese translates to "High,...
. After his tenure with the group, George decided to start his own band and enlisted Mikey Craig. Next came Jon Moss, and finally Roy Hay.
The group initially called themselves In Praise of Lemmings as well as Sex Gang Children. Then realizing they had an Irish transvestite as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, an Anglo-Saxon on keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they decided on the name Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, while Epic Records
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
released their albums in the US and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
as Virgin did not have a US presence at the time.
With their first album, Kissing to Be Clever
Kissing to Be Clever
Kissing to Be Clever is the debut album by new wave soul band Culture Club, released in 1982.-Overview:The album was anchored by the international hit "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me". The album's first two singles were "White Boy" , and "I'm Afraid of Me"...
(UK #5, US #14) (1982), the band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", both failed to chart. But in September of that year, the group released their third single "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (Number 2 US). With George's eccentric and androgynous look and long hair, the band's debut on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
caused headlines such as "Wally of the week" and "Mr. (or is it Mrs.?) Weird" as the tabloids
Tabloid journalism
Tabloid journalism tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news...
and magazines plastered him all over their covers. Pete Burns
Pete Burns
Pete Burns is an English singer-songwriter, author and television personality who founded the band Dead or Alive in 1980, for which he acted as the vocalist and songwriter, and which rose to mainstream success with their 1985 single "You Spin Me Round "...
, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive
Dead or Alive (band)
Dead or Alive were a British New Wave band from Wirral, England, United Kingdom, Europe. The band rose to fame in the 1980s with their number one single on the UK Singles Chart, "You Spin Me Round ". They were the first group to have a number one single under the production team Stock Aitken Waterman...
would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colorful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better".
The follow-up single "Time (Clock of the Heart)
Time (Clock of the Heart)
"Time " is a song by the British band Culture Club, released as stand-alone single in most of the world and as the second single from their debut album Kissing to Be Clever in North America. Following on the heels of the number-one UK hit, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time " peaked at number...
", featuring George's soulful vocals over an R&B groove, became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya
I'll Tumble 4 Ya
"I'll Tumble 4 Ya" was a single from Culture Club's debut album Kissing to Be Clever.The single was released only in North America, peaking at number nine in both the U.S. and Canada...
" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over two million copies in the US, and another three million worldwide at the time of its release, propelling George to international stardom.
Colour by Numbers and international acclaim: 1983–1984
The band's second album, Colour by NumbersColour by Numbers
Colour by Numbers is the second album by New Wave band Culture Club, released in 1983.-Overview:The album features several international hits such as "Church of the Poison Mind" and the worldwide hit "Karma Chameleon" which had sales of over one million in the United Kingdom alone...
(UK #1, US #2) was released in 1983. The first single "Church of the Poison Mind
Church of the Poison Mind
"Church of the Poison Mind" is a 1983 hit single for Culture Club. It was the first single to be released from their second album Colour by Numbers....
", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry
Helen Terry
Helen Terry is a British singer, known for her backing vocal work with Culture Club. As a solo performer, she scored a Top 40 hit single in 1984 with "Love Lies Lost", and released one album in 1986, Blue Notes....
, reached the UK and US Top 10, continuing the group's success. The second single "Karma Chameleon
Karma Chameleon
"Karma Chameleon" is a song by British New Wave band Culture Club, featured on the group's 1983 album Colour by Numbers. The song spent three weeks at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, becoming the group's biggest hit and only US #1 among their many top ten hits...
" gave the band its biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (its second chart-topper there), where it sold 1.4 million copies to become the best-selling single of 1983 in that country. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in sixteen countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s. The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind
Miss Me Blind
"Miss Me Blind" is a song by the 1980s pop band Culture Club. The song was released on the band's second album, Colour by Numbers, and it peaked at #5 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in April 1984....
" (Number 5 US), "It's a Miracle" (Number 4 UK, Nomber 13 US), and "Victims
Victims (song)
"Victims" is a single from UK band Culture Club's album Colour by Numbers, released in 1983. As with most early Culture Club singles, the song is about Boy George's then publicly unknown relationship with drummer Jon Moss....
" (Number 3 UK), and sell four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. With that album, Culture Club was the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry
Helen Terry
Helen Terry is a British singer, known for her backing vocal work with Culture Club. As a solo performer, she scored a Top 40 hit single in 1984 with "Love Lies Lost", and released one album in 1986, Blue Notes....
, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album
The Beach Boys (album)
-Sources:* Keepin' the Summer Alive/The Beach Boys CD booklet notes, Andrew G. Doe, c.2000.* "The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys and the Southern California Experience", Timothy White, c. 1994....
. 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, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold
P. P. Arnold
P. P. Arnold is an American-born soul singer who enjoyed considerable success in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and beyond.-Early life:...
. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite all this success, trouble was brewing within Culture Club. First, George was occasionally using drugs with money from his new-found fame. Second, unknown to other band members Hay and Craig at the time, as well as the public, George and Moss were romantically involved with each other. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with both physical and verbal abuse. The pressure to hide the relationship from the press and the public started to take its toll on the band.
Waking Up with the House on Fire, From Luxury to Heartache and decline: 1984–1986
In 1984, the group released its third album, Waking Up with the House on FireWaking Up with the House on Fire
Waking Up with the House on Fire is the third album by New Wave band Culture Club, released in 1984.-Overview:While Waking Up with the House on Fire did reach platinum status in the US it was considered to be a disappointment compared to the 4X platinum status of the groups last album Colour by...
(UK #2, US #26). It was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two releases. "Waking Up..." sold up two million copies worldwide upon its release, with one million of those in America, earning platinum certification. The album had one hit single in "The War Song", which went top ten and top twenty in the UK and US, respectively. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US #33) and "The Medal Song" (UK #32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic to quickly release a follow-up to Colour by Numbers. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984 and, as a result, the fatigue ended up coming off on the album.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof
Bob Geldof
Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...
to attend the Band Aid
Band Aid (band)
Band Aid was a charity supergroup featuring British and Irish musicians and recording artists. It was founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia by releasing the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for the Christmas market that year. The single...
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
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...
of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?
Do They Know It's Christmas?
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 to raise money for relief of the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The original version was produced by Midge Ure and released by Band Aid on 29 November 1984....
". The song would become an international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n nations, particularly Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
.
George had been abusing drugs for several years and by 1986 he became seriously addicted
Substance use disorder
Substance use disorders include substance abuse and substance dependence. In DSM-IV, the conditions are formally diagnosed as one or the other, but it has been proposed that DSM-5 combine the two into a single condition called "Substance-use disorder"....
to cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
, which then evolved into a heroin addiction. As a result, the band continued to lose its place musically. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache
From Luxury to Heartache
From Luxury to Heartache is the fourth album by New Wave band Culture Club, released in 1986.-Overview:From Luxury to Heartache was a deliberate departure for Culture Club, a move away from the reggae-flavoured pop of their previous releases into dance-oriented music. Veteran pop and R&B producer...
(UK #10, US #32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco, and country...
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 first single "Move Away
Move Away
"Move Away" is the first single from Culture Club's fourth album, 1986 From Luxury to Heartache. The song became the group's eighth top-ten hit on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number seven...
" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US #12, and the album seemed capable of returning Culture Club back to hit-making status. But 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
Tabloid journalism
Tabloid journalism tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news...
, which were denied by the singer, and the second single stalled on the charts. George and Jon also 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. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well and the album ultimately sold about one million copies worldwide. By the summer of 1986, George admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July, he was arrested by the British police for possession of cannabis. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career with several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits. George would continue to struggle with his drug addiction for several years.
Reunions
The band first tried to reunite in 1989 after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and Boy George's current manager at that time. Boy George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions that went quite well and producing more than a dozen songs that are still unreleased to this day. Boy George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his dance-oriented music he was looking to release. The reunion would end up being cancelled.In 1998, George and Jon put their differences aside and the band actually reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers
VH1 Storytellers
Storytellers is a television music series produced by the VH1 network.In each episode artists perform in front of a live audience, and tell stories about their music, writing experiences and memories, somewhat similar to MTV Unplugged...
. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that". The tour was a major success. A compilation album based around the Storytellers performance was released, and went platinum in UK, which included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK #4. Their 1999 studio album Don't Mind If I Do
Don't Mind if I Do
Don't Mind If I Do is the fifth and final album by new wave band Culture Club, released in 1999 for the Virgin label. The album has been released only in Europe and Japan. Some promo copies circulated in Australia too.-Overview:...
peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included moderate UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK #25) and "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
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to Boy George's successful DJ career.
In 2006, two original members of Culture Club (Craig and Moss), tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Roy Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, 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, even though Culture Club's MySpace page says otherwise. 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.
Boy George announced on 27 January 2011 to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
that there will be a 30th anniversary Culture Club reunion tour sometime later in the year and that they would be releasing a new album in 2012.
Awards, nominations, honours
In 1984, Culture Club won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist and Philadelphia Inquirer said about the successful band, "Among the other major winners were the English rock band Culture Club (Best New Artist), hard-rock vocalist Pat Benatar (Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female) and the English rock trio The Police (Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group)". They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo but the English rock band The PoliceThe Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
won the award. In 1984, Culture Club was also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award
Juno Awards of 1984
The Juno Awards of 1984, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 5 December 1984 in Toronto at a ceremony hosted by Joe Flaherty and Andrea Martin of SCTV at Exhibition Place Automotive Building...
for International Album of the Year, but The Police won that award. In January 1985, they were nominated for an American Music Award
American Music Awards of 1985
The 12th Annual American Music Awards were held on January 28, 1985.-Pop/Rock Category:-Soul/R&B Category:-Country Category:...
for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for 2 MTV Video Music Award
1985 MTV Video Music Awards
The 1985 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 13, 1985, honoring the best music videos from May 2, 1984, to May 1, 1985. The show was hosted by Eddie Murphy at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City....
s for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award
American Music Awards of 1987
The 14th Annual American Music Awards were held on January 26, 1987.-Pop/Rock Category:-Soul/R&B Category:-Country Category:...
for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist. Considered as one of the 500 most influential rock songs, "Time (Clock Of The Heart)" has been included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. In 2009, "Karma Chameleon" was chosen as the quintessential song of the 1980s by video site Ryeberg.
Music
Culture Club are a British new romanticNew Romantic
New Romanticism , was a pop culture movement in the United Kingdom that began around 1979 and peaked around 1981. Developing in London nightclubs such as Billy's and The Blitz and spreading to other major cities in the UK, it was based around flamboyant, eccentric fashion and new wave music...
-rock band, whose sound combines British new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
and American soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
with Jamaican reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
and also other styles as calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
, salsa
Salsa music
Salsa music is a genre of music, generally defined as a modern style of playing Cuban Son, Son Montuno, and Guaracha with touches from other genres of music...
or country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
.
Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News
The Philadelphia Daily News is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The newspaper is owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Daily News began publishing on March 31, 1925, under...
described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience...".
In the 1980s, Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent".
When Culture Club won the 1984 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, Philadelphia Inquirer said about the band, "Among the other major winners were the English rock band Culture Club (Best New Artist), hard-rock vocalist Pat Benatar (Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female) and the English rock trio The Police (Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group)".
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden is an American writer, music critic, film critic, and poet.Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963...
, music critic for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that the popular quartet, "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels".
Star News
STAR News
STAR News is the Hindi language news channel of STAR TV based in Mumbai. The channel is a co-production of STAR Group and ABP Pvt. Ltd...
considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s, the newspaper said, "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats".
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
, senior editor for Allmusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era".
The music of the English rock band Culture Club, is basically a combination of new wave and soul, is described by Boy George himself as he says, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The rock band, also described as pop/rock, was part of the second British rock
British rock
British rock describes a wide variety of forms of music made in the United Kingdom. Since around 1964, with the "British Invasion" of the United States spearheaded by The Beatles, British rock music has had a considerable impact on the development of American music and rock music across the...
invasion of the 1980s in the United States as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock
Soft rock
Soft rock is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock music to compose a softer, more toned-down sound. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships. The genre tends to make heavy use of acoustic guitars, pianos, synthesizers and sometimes...
that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
Discography
- Kissing to Be CleverKissing to Be CleverKissing to Be Clever is the debut album by new wave soul band Culture Club, released in 1982.-Overview:The album was anchored by the international hit "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me". The album's first two singles were "White Boy" , and "I'm Afraid of Me"...
(1982) - Colour by NumbersColour by NumbersColour by Numbers is the second album by New Wave band Culture Club, released in 1983.-Overview:The album features several international hits such as "Church of the Poison Mind" and the worldwide hit "Karma Chameleon" which had sales of over one million in the United Kingdom alone...
(1983) - Waking Up with the House on FireWaking Up with the House on FireWaking Up with the House on Fire is the third album by New Wave band Culture Club, released in 1984.-Overview:While Waking Up with the House on Fire did reach platinum status in the US it was considered to be a disappointment compared to the 4X platinum status of the groups last album Colour by...
(1984) - From Luxury to HeartacheFrom Luxury to HeartacheFrom Luxury to Heartache is the fourth album by New Wave band Culture Club, released in 1986.-Overview:From Luxury to Heartache was a deliberate departure for Culture Club, a move away from the reggae-flavoured pop of their previous releases into dance-oriented music. Veteran pop and R&B producer...
(1986) - Don't Mind If I DoDon't Mind if I DoDon't Mind If I Do is the fifth and final album by new wave band Culture Club, released in 1999 for the Virgin label. The album has been released only in Europe and Japan. Some promo copies circulated in Australia too.-Overview:...
(1999)
Songbooks
- Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" – 1982), London & SuffolkSuffolkSuffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, 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, EssexEssexEssex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, England - Culture Club (Songbook)Culture Club (Songbook)Culture Club is a songbook by the British new wave-oriented band Culture Club. It contains ten of their best songs for melody line with lyrics and guitar boxes, so that fans, either amateur or professional musicians, may try to play them if they wish....
(10 of their best songs – 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
N.B. Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.