Re: So...Apparently The Culture Club Have Reunited..?

Details are sketchy in their official bio found on their site:

[boygeorgeandcultureclub.net]

which mentions their upcoming Vegas shows. Just says that they've reunited, but not stating exactly who "they" are. In any case, looks like they're down to a trio. And they released an album in 2018. Who knew?

Some nice tunes, but can't say I was ever a fan. By the looks of 'em, I was hoping for some kind of outrageous Dolls/Bowie/Nina Hagen kinda thing. but what we got was more like Seals and Croft. Solo George (what I heard of it) was worse, predictable dance thumping. A sad case of unrealized potential - George's spectacular guest vox on an Antony & The Johnson's album made me realize how great he could be in the right setting.

Culture Club has reunited several times since their original 1986 breakup. The current trio includes three of the four original members. Drummer Jon Moss is the only one who's not on board. He still was a member of Culture Club until 2018. At that time, the band claimed he was taking a break from touring duties, but the door still was open for him. I'd say it's slammed shut since then, because Moss filed suit against his former bandmates, alleging he'd been pushed out and cheated out of royalties. He officially announced his departure from Culture Club last year.

Anyway! Three Culture Club shows in Vegas, followed by one in suburban L.A., all in February. Watch out for stampedes at the entrances.

I'm with Mr Fab. Culture Club were simply…dull. I heard "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" on the local "lite jazz" station in 1982 long before they made inroads to Pop radio, and liked the Lovers Rock of it, but when I bought the album, it was uninspiring. And their commercial heyday was tiresome to me. The title of the single "Church Of the Poison Mind" intrigued, so I bought it on import 7" when it came out. Pseudo-Motown drivel, but the B-side was why it's still in the bins. Helen Terry's "Man-Shake" was a much more interesting proposition. If I ever heard "Karma Chameleon" ever again it might be my ruin.

I'd ignored Boy George ever since, but he popped up on the third B.E.F. album [in 2013] singing a pretty fascinating cover of "Now I Wanna Be Your Dog" where I don’t think I’d ever identify the singer of that as Boy George!! It sounded more like Nick Cave in delivery, if not voice! And wasn’t that Tom Jones belting following the bridge??!! It almost atoned for 30 years of “Karma Chameleon” and actually made me wanted to hear Boy George sing more stuff!

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

I'm in the midst of putting together my annual Bowie tribute, and noticed Culture Club's cover of "Suffragette City." Jeez, the fake new wave band in that punk episode of CHiPS could've done a more convincing job.

George sang on a recent Paul Weller album and sounded pretty good. Other than "Time," I never want to hear a Culture Club song ever again.

Oh yeah, "Time" was a good single.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

I actually gave these guys a good listen this past week, my first time doing so. Can't say I'm a fan, musically speaking I think they had almost an LP's worth of pleasant but lightweight hits (most of which are on the second album). However, in their defense (and I just familiarized myself with their work so I could be wrong about this), they probably hold up as a worthy footnote in rock history simply for being a massively popular band that I'm guessing for a lot of listeners helped redefine gender roles and sexuality.

I don't want to inflate what they did too much - you can certainly find truly great rock artists who had been doing that for at least a full decade before the Culture Club released their first record - but it's no small accomplishment when you manage to do that and attain massive popularity across the world, especially within the U.S. (what had been a pretty conservative market) where that second album alone sold 4 million copies. I think that carries quite a bit of weight now given how much has changed with gender roles and sexuality in the last 15 years, particularly among the current youth generation. Granted, Boy George isn't completely on board with how things have developed to this point, but he is a pioneer. I just wish his music was a lot better.

Forgot one thing - I really like that one track on P.M. Dawn's "The Bliss Album...?" featuring Boy George, it may be my favorite record he's been on.

Love that one. I even still have the CD-single!