CULTURE
CLUB
(UK, ten Top 40 hits, five Top 40
albums)
One
fine autumn's
morning in 1982, a few million people picked up their daily copy of The Sun from
the doormat and were greeted with headlines like GENDER BENDER! and MR (OR IS IT
MISS) WEIRD. Such bigoted outpourings were regulation space-fillers for yer
nation's favourite tabloid, but the effect that the target of those headlines
was to have on the world would have had the Fleet Street right-wingers weeping
their eyeballs scarlet in the Wine Press. Culture Club had arrived, led by
openly gay and quite beautiful lead singer George O'Dowd, self-monikered as Boy
George, who sang camply but earnestly on explosive opening hit "Do You
Really Want To Hurt Me?" ("give me time, to realise my crime"), a regulation
sub-reggae gentlathon of no massive significance, until the super soaraway did
their bit. What followed was quite extraordinary - everybody wanted to get close
to this man whom they'd seen jigging around a courtroom and a swimming pool in
the song's video the week before. The ladies wanted his body - he declined with
thanks - the more liberal of menfolk wanted to know how he could possibly cope
with such amazing scrutiny 24 hours a day, and the less liberated just wanted to
kick his head in for daring to be famous, rich, admired, attractive and gay all
at once.
D
George
took the lot in his stride - he was a
master at his own self-publicity - and the band, hastily chucked together by
ex-model and New Romantic club legend George himself which featured cool midget
drummer Jon Moss, West Indian heritage bassist Mikey Craig and dapper mulleted
guitarist Roy Hay, were the biggest thing on the planet for the next 18 months.
George stayed a step ahead and worked hard on his image, changing the style and
colour of his hair and clothes week after week, with his initial felt hat on
dreadlocks look launching a whole new form of milinary merchandise and their
enormous army of fans (as well as the media) struggled to keep up. George was on
the cover of every magazine from Smash Hits to the TV Times and was a chat show
darling. The hype had to be backed up by the music, of course, and after that
floodgate-opening first single, a huge No.1, Culture Club spent the next year
enjoying two more Top 5 singles and all the trappings associated with such in-yer-face
fame which their lead singer had inspired. In the late summer of '83, the
gorgeous "Karma Chameleon" ("you
come and go, you come and go-oooooo") spent a whopping six weeks at the
top, complemented by a flick set on a medieval barge and outstripping the sales
of every other chart topper in the preceding months by light years.
SUPREME
Come
the beginning of '84, they were one
of only three bands worth bothering about. George donned a white top hat and
matching suit for the video to "Victims" ("pull
the strings of emotion, take a ride into unknown pleasure") which was a
cliffhanging ballad that confirmed, for the benefit of any leftover doubters
still in existence, the fact that underneath the make-up and the photoshoots was
a man of supreme singing and writing talent. The second album "Colour By
Numbers" nearly robbed the earth of its platinum reserves, and produced one
more Top 10 single, the lively "It's A Miracle" ("and dreams are made of emotions"), which also used the
extraordinary secondary vocals of resident backing singer Helen Terry to the
full. Then, it started to go pear-shaped. George and drummer Moss, who once
dressed as an American footballer on TOTP, were an item and George was deeply in
love. When it split, it was so acrimonious that they found it (understatement of
the 80s coming up) tough to work together, putting pressure on their creativity
and frustrating the hell out Hay and Craig, innocent bystanders to the whole
sorry mess. The third album "Waking Up With The House On Fire", was
still a No.2 album but an unmitigated critical disaster for their profile, with
the pretentious and old hat ishoo-ridden first single "The War Song" ("war,
war is stupid, and people are stupid") laughed at by all and sundry,
although the diehards still got it to No.2 in the hope that it was all a mere
blip. No such luck for them - follow up "The Medal Song" ("sun
go east, sun go west") was a calamitous and immature pile of tat, and
the band took a year's break.
ADDICTION
By
the time they came back, the novelty
had worn off and only one more Top 10 hit, the forgettable "Move Away"
("ain't no need to beg or
borrow") ensued. The last waltz was "God Thank You Woman" ("thank
you thank you for the joy that you give to me"), a confusing sentiment
for George to sing with feeling, but by then he had such colossal personal
problems - a serious heroin addiction had kicked in - that the end of the road
was reached by the summer of '86 and George disappeared to clean himself up. He
returned in '87, leaner and fitter despite the agonies of cold turkey, and his
solo success from thereon in is documented in his own section on here. The 80s
were Culture Club, and to many, Culture Club were the 80s. The re-emerging
interest in the decade of recent years prompted an unexpected but thoroughly
welcome comeback for Culture Club, with all four members intact and friendly,
and they had a little success in the much more cut-throat clamour for chart
placings that exists today, as well as a big retro tour alongside ABC and the
Human League. George remains bolshie, witty, opinionated and motivated, but most
of all, he remains a national treasure, while the other three can feel
justifiably pleased with their own achievements in the shadows of one of music's
greatest and nicest characters. Feel blessed for their existence.
Biggest Hit: "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?", "Karma
Chameleon", both No.1, 1982 and 1983.
Defining Moment: The whole damn lot.
Matt
