C is for Culture Club

This is the third post in the A-Z Blogging Challenge and when I thought of something beginning with C the only thing that sprang to mind was Culture Club.   Now I've committed to writing about Culture Club, I can of course think of other things (isn't that always the way?)

Culture Club was formed in 1981 and was known mainly for it's far from shy lead singer - Boy George.   With hits that are hard to get out of your head like Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want To Hurt Me, Culture Club released four albums during the 80s.

Culture Club's most successful album was their second one - Colour By Numbers.   This had one of my favorite Culture Club singles on it - Church of the Poison Mind.

Culture Club - A Short Bio

Boy George and Bassist Mickey Craig set out to form a group, next they joined forces with former Ant (from Adam and the Ants) Jon Moss. The final member of the group to join was their guitarist Roy Hay.

The name of the band was originally to be Sex Gang Children, however at Jon Moss' suggestion they changed it to Culture Club. The name would give them some flak as people thought it was extremely pretentious, but it was actually an inside joke on the different cultures inside the club.

• Boy George - transvestite Irish
• Mickey Craig - Jamaican-Briton
• Jon Moss - Jewish
• Roy Hay - Anglo-Saxon

The band signed with Virgin records in the UK and released their first album in 1982 - Kissing to be Clever. Their second album was Colour By Numbers and was released in 1983. The Band released a third album in 1984 titled Waking Up With the House on Fire which was not as successful. Their final album was 1986's From Luxury to Heartache.

During 1985 George started a battle with drug dependance, he was arrested in 1986 for possession of heroin and Culture Club's break up was officially confirmed in 1987.

Culture Club's Music

Culture Club were part of the New Romantic era of music where groups were kicking back against the punk movement and presenting themselves as the whole package. Musically and visually they wanted to ooze glamour and for people to notice them and even emulate them.

Culture Club's music seems to be a fusion of pop, reggae and even a little disco. Their songs contain a hook that gets the audience singing along and wanting more.

Kissing to be Clever - Culture Club

Editorial Reviews from Amazon.com

Against the cynical, post-punk backdrop of the early Thatcher and Reagan era, Culture Club's debut release Kissing to Be Clever was as refreshing as a scoop of gelato in a heatwave. These were the innocent days when Boy George could still declare he'd rather "have a cup of tea than sex," well before he hurtled to the brink of near self-destruction. Several of the cuts are still amazingly fresh and easily convey the winning charisma that transformed Boy George and his band into a pop icon. Songs like "I'll tumble 4 ya" and "Boy-Boy-I'm the Boy" seem tailor-made for the frontman's smooth-sliding tenor, while Mikey Craig's bass grooves pump with dance-til-you-drop Hi NRG. Although relatively brief (the original LP had one more cut than the CD release), the album stylistically hops like a Mexican jumping bean from disco funk to rhumba to reggae and contains obvious filler material. But the gender-bender flair perfected by Boy George announced a unique style that helped define the decade. --Thomas May

Kissing to Be Clever
Track Listings

1. White Boy [Dance Mix]

2. You Know I'm Not Crazy

3. I'll Tumble 4 Ya

4. Take Control

5. Love Twist - Captain Crucial, Culture Club

6. Boy Boy (I'm the Boy)

7. I'm Afraid of Me [Remix]

8. White Boys Can't Control It

9. Do You Really Want to Hurt Me

10. Love Is Cold [*]

11. Murder Rap Trap [*] - Captain Crucial, Culture Club

12. Time (Clock of the Heart) [*]

13. Romance Beyond the Alphabet [*]

[*] Bonus tracks not included on the original album

The first two singles off of Culture Club’s Kissing to be Clever album didn’t even dent the UK’s top 100. They were White Boy and I’m Afraid of Me. Their next three singles, however were a different story.

Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? (top ten hit around the world, reaching number 1 in 7 countries including the UK, Australia and Canada.

Time (Clock of the Heart) their second top ten single.

I’ll Tumble 4 Ya – this single was only released in the US and Canada and reached number 9 in both countries.

Colour by Numbers

Culture Club

Colour By Numbers
Culture Club continued their onslaught on the charts with their best album Colour by Numbers. The first single off of this album was Church of the Poison Mind which made the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic.

It was the second single off of Colour by Numbers which was to become the band's biggest hit - Karma Chameleon became a number 1 single on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world.

Victims was released in the UK and made it to number 3.

Miss me Blind was released in the US and made it to number 5.

The single It's a Miracle didn't quite break into the US top 10 settling for number 13, it was however, able to reach number 4 in the UK.

Track Listing

1. "Karma Chameleon" – 4:12
2. "It's a Miracle" – 3:25
3. "Black Money" – 5:19
4. "Changing Every Day" – 3:17
5. "That's the Way (I'm Only Trying to Help You)" – 2:45
6. "Church of the Poison Mind" – 3:30
7. "Miss Me Blind" – 4:30
8. "Mister Man" – 3:36
9. "Stormkeeper" – 2:46
10. "Victims" – 4:55
11. "Man-Shake" – 2:34 (2003 remastered CD bonus track)
12. "Mystery Boy" (Suntori Hot Whiskey Song) – 3:33 (2003 remastered CD bonus track)
13. "Melting Pot" – 4:31 (2003 remastered CD bonus track)
14. "Colour by Numbers" – 3:57 (2003 remastered CD bonus track)
15. "Romance Revisited" – 5:00 (2003 remastered CD bonus track)

Waking Up With the House on Fire - Culture Club

Culture Club’s third album was unable to reach the commercial success of Kissing to be Clever and Colour by Numbers.

The first single War Song made it to number 2 in the UK, but Culture Club were not able to break into the US top 10 again. War Song was only able to reach number 17 on Billboard.

The Medal Song was released in the UK and managed to scrape into the top 40.

Mistake No 3 was released in the US and only just managed to scrape into the Billboard’s Top 40.

Waking Up with the House on Fire
Track Listings

1. Dangerous Man

2. War Song

3. Unfortunate Thing

4. Crime Time

5. Mistake No. 3

6. Dive

7. Medal Song

8. Don't Talk About It

9. Mannequin

10. Hello, Goodbye

From Luxury to Heartache - Culture Club

Culture Clubs last album in the 80s was not a commercial success. Because of Boy George’s fight against drug addiction and his failing relationship with Jon Moss the album took a lot longer to produce than it was planned. Even Boy George’s notorious drug arrest in 1986 couldn’t help to sell the album and only two singles were ever released from it (only one in the US).

Move Away managed to get into the UK top ten and even peaked at number 12 in the Billboard Chart. God Thank You Woman only made it to number 31 in the UK.

From Luxury to Heartache heralded the end of Culture Club and this was officially confirmed the following year.

From Luxury To Heartache
Track Listings

1. "Move Away" – 4:21

2. "I Pray" – 4:00

3. "Work On Me Baby" – 4:06

4. "Gusto Blusto" – 4:40

5. "Heaven's Children" – 4:44

6. "God Thank You Woman" – 4:14

7. "Reasons" – 4:35

8. "Too Bad" – 4:36

9. "Come Clean" – 3:20

10. "Sexuality" – 5:28

What did you think of Culture Club?   I had a friend who actually wore a Boy George duster coat everywhere and even had her hair styled like his (I'd love to know what she looks like these days!).   Share your Culture Club memories and/or favorite song below.

Blondie and The Pretenders

The countdown is on and I'm not talking about Christmas even if dd has started her advent calendar! In ten days I am going to see Blondie and the Pretenders at an open air concert otherwise billed as the Day on the Green. I went to a Day on the Green concert earlier in the year and thoroughly enjoyed it, this time the bands are even more significant to me!

Blondie's Parallel Lines was the first cassette tape I ever brought, I can still remember going into WH Smiths with my gift certificate and buying it and then absolutely thrashing it to death. I know purists are all shouting that wasn't the 80s it was the late 70s. I think it was 1979, but I don't care because Blondie continued to produce some great singles in the 80s - The Tide is High being one of the biggest that I can think of and of course we can't forget Atomic and Island of Lost Souls.

When my hubby found out about this event he didn't even bother to contact me (I was overseas) instead he confirmed it for both of us and held his breath while he asked me! He was pretty confident that I'd want to see Blondie and he knew he wanted to see The Pretenders.....our dd will just have to enjoy it! Mind you she loves any live music so that shouldn't be a problem.

My hubby always seems to forget that I like the Pretenders as well (he always thinks it's his band!!) but from the sassy Brass in Pocket to the absolutely beautiful Hymn to Her I think The Pretenders (and Chrissy Hynde's voice in particular) are fantastic as well.

I will of course report back to you about how good they are, I must admit I'm getting quite excited. The only downside is that the weather has turned to custard a little bit and the long range forcast is for rain. I might go shopping for a raincoat just in case, one thing is for certain - me, hubby, daughter and four other friends will be there with bells on....we'll all (the adults that is)also forget that we're no longer teenagers :)

Gift Ideas | 80s Technology | Reminising

Are you looking for some gift ideas for someone who's 'stuck in the 80s'? I have come across some great 80s inspired iphone cases.

Old School Cell Phones by ElectricPopSpot
Browse more iphone 3 cases

The one pictured is quite ironic with 'the brick' it reminds me of Gordon Gecko. Everyone wanted a brick, the real symbol of success. I can remember the first mobile phone my hubby brought.....not quite as bad as a brick as it was the 90s, but the weight would cause one of his pairs of shorts to fall down! Not so with the light iphones! Let's face it without the brick we would never have evolved to the iphone.

The 80s really do seem to have been at the forefront of bringing cyber-technology into everyday homes. Personal Computers.....even if the early ones ran on tapes and you had to learn BBC Basic to operate them! Gaming Consoles.....the evolution from pong to pacman and now Wii system is amazing.

Cassette tapes and vinyl were on their way out as the 80s entered it's dying years and cds started to outsell vinyl? Now we can combine our favorite 80s music with our iphone ringing tone....you've gotta love progress!

As we progress it's great to look back at a great time in our life - the 80s - in all it's glory and you can do that in a number of ways from the 80s iphone collection, listening to the best 80s music or re-living the 80s through reminising. Talking of reminising I read Gary Kemp's autobiography recently andit really is like he's sat there reminiscing with you.....mind you Boy George was never making snide comments at me and Johnny Rotten never came running into the toilets at any club I was at, but you know what I mean! If you're interested in a great read or just looking for a gift for someone who loved the New Romantic movement then check out my review of Gary Kemp's Autobiography - I Know This Much: From Soho to Spandau.

What is 80s Music?

My dd simply rolls her eyes at alot of my musical choices, but she was listening to a song the other day and was shocked to find it was from the 80s because it had a great guitar sound to it!!! I really need to educate that girl! Anyway she asked me what is 80s music and I realised just how hard that is to answer.

There's the rock of Bon Jovi and Poison and you can't leave out Bruce Springsteen. Then you have the pop of Madonna, Fun Boy Three and Bananarama. The New Romantics movement, house music and goth were also embraced by the 80s. Trying to explain that a lot of the 80s music scene was about diversity was really difficult.

I think most of the people I know seem to think of the pop of the 80s when they talk about 80s music, but it really was so much more than that. I think at times the 80s compilation cds that we can buy have made us forget some of the less mainstream sounds that blasted out from our ghetto blasters or sony walkmans (the cassette tape version).

I took her to see the Proclaimers and the B52s earlier this year and in December she'll be able to experience Blondie and the Pretenders so perhaps she'll start to appreciate 80s music more.

What was your favorite type of music to listen to during the 80s??

The A Team

When I was at the movies a few days ago I saw a preview of the A Team movie, it looks great, but will it be as good as I remember the A Team television series being? I pity the fool who never got to watch it, it was one of the shows that I was glued to.....and we didn’t watch much television in our house (in fact we went without tv for a few years, but that’s a whole new story).

It will be interesting to see how Liam Neeson (Hannibal), Bradley Cooper (Face), Sharlto Copley (Maddog) and Quinton Jackson (BA) do in comparison to the classic team of Peppard, Benedict, Schultz and Mr T.

You can buy the complete series in this limited edition set which has a picture of Mr T driving the A Team van which would make it a great gift idea. Personally after seeing the shorts for the new movie I really want to watch the old series again and it’s my birthday soon so I’m dropping a few hints!!

Spandau Ballet & Tears for Fears Concert Reviews

If you haven't had a chance to see Spandau Ballet's Reformation tour for yourself then you can check out my review on my squidoo lens.

Living in Australia these days has it's advantages and one of them was the fact that Spandau Ballet had some very special guest performers - Tears for Fears. I have never ever seen TFF perform before and so guess what? That's right I wrote a review of their performance as well as a bit about the band on my Tears for Fears lens, complete with some photos taken last night.