Library Rock's Backpages

Culture Club

Culture Club

65 articles

Free articles

Culture Club and George

Report and Interview by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 23 December 1983

A TYPICAL SUNDAY afternoon in New York's Central Park. Horse drawn carriages sweep by full of tourists. Armies of joggers with headphones stream down every ...

Audio interviews

Culture Club's Boy George (1983)

Interview by Max Bell, Rock's Backpages audio, October 1983

The Culture Club icon on his travels through Europe: druggies in Amsterdam, efficient Germans, and European art and fashion.

File format: mp3; file size: 21.4mb, interview length: 23' 24" sound quality: ***

Boy George (2002)

Interview by Bill Brewster, Rock's Backpages audio, 7 January 2002

The sometime Culture Club frontman talks about his involvement in the Taboo stage show; looks back at the '80s, the New Romantics and characters such as Steve Strange and Philip Salon; talks about Taboo's inspiration Leigh Bowery; discusses his relationship with the gay community; reflects on songwriting, clubbing, DJing... and reading Sasha's palm.

File format: mp3; file size: 59.8mb, interview length: 1h 02' 16" sound quality: ****

List of articles in the library

By date | By writer | Most recently added

Culture Club: The Boy's Own Club

Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 1 May 1982

PAUL MORLEY MEETS A BOY CALLED GEORGE — FORMER MODEL, BOW WOW WOW SINGER AND NOW FOUNDER OF A NEW MUSICAL EXPERIENCE, THE CULTURE CLUB. ...

Culture Club: Top Of The Fops

Interview by Betty Page, Sounds, 12 June 1982

"PEOPLE THAT plan interviews are really boring. I just say what I want when it comes into my head. People in Scunthorpe don't care what ...

Culture Club, Musical Youth: Heaven, London

Live Review by Neil Tennant, Smash Hits, July 1982

THERE'S A nightclub in London called Heaven which is normally ruthlessly well run, organised for fun and good value. Tonight it's catering for a "rock" ...

Culture Club: Kissing To Be Clever (Virgin V2232)

Review by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 9 October 1982

The lust patrol ...

Culture Club: The Boy In New York City

Report and Interview by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 23 December 1982

Culture Club take on America and George discovers 46 flavours of shaving foam. Words: Dave Rimmer. ...

Culture Club: Kissing To Be Clever (Virgin, LP)

Review by Julie Panebianco, Boston Rock, 26 January 1983

THIS IS disco music with some reggae and soul thrown in. My God, I can close my eyes and see the flashing ultra violet lights, ...

Culture Club: Kissing To Be Clever (Epic/Virgin)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1983

JUST WHEN you thought the last thing you needed was another washed-out attempt at dance music, along comes Culture Club to smash all your preconceptions ...

Culture Club: Kissing To Be Clever (Virgin)

Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, March 1983

"What some people don't realize is that a lot of normal people are buying our record, like housewives." — George Alan O'Dowd ...

New Romantics: Sweat & Ice

Report and Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, March 1983

THE NEW BRITISH DANCE ROMANTICS: ABC, THOMPSON TWINS, YAZ, CULTURE CLUB ...

Culture Club: Hey There, Georgie Boy...

Interview by Julie Panebianco, Boston Rock, 30 March 1983

THE PIANO lounge of Boston's Marriott Longwharf Hotel is imposing — sharp white walls and ledges surround ceiling-high glass windows, dramatizing the expanse of the ...

Culture Club: Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool

Live Review by Betty Page, Record Mirror, 9 April 1983

The Boy in the band ...

Culture Club: The Culture Vultures Gather

Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 30 April 1983

THE YOUNG girl walks hesitantly through the foyer of the Dominion Theatre; amidst all the colour and excitement she strikes an uncertain, rather nervous figure. ...

Culture Club: Readers' Q&A

Interview by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 12 May 1983

You sent them. We opened them and sorted out the best. The mail sacks were ferried round to the band's London hotel. Dave Rimmer did ...

Culture Club Comes Clean

Profile and Interview by Jim Green, Trouser Press, June 1983

The End of the World is Nigh ...

Culture Clubbing With George And The Boys

Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, June 1983

Suddenly...Mount Rushmore had changed! ...

Eleganza: Dress for Excess

Column by John Mendelsohn, Creem, July 1983

Eleganza returns! This one-time fave fab fashion column, as you may know, oozed away slowly in the past few years for "reasons" we don't need ...

Soft Rock Beats Beneath Culture Club's Wild Image

Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore Sun, 30 August 1983

NEW YORK — The cover of Culture Club's first album, Kissing to Be Clever, featured lead singer Boy George in all his glory: glistening red ...

Helen Terry: Hellenic Culture

Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 17 September 1983

CULTURE CLUB'S 'BOLSHIE' MEMBER — HELEN TERRY — LETS RIP ...

Culture Club: Brighton Centre

Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 27 September 1983

SUCCESS STORIES abound in the fickle pop world, but the rise of Culture Club is genuinely deserved. The band and their androgynous singer Boy George ...

Culture Club: If It's Thursday It Must Be Munich

Report and Interview by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 29 September 1983

'DO YOU REALLY WANT TO HURT ME' HAS BEEN NUMBER ONE IN 23 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, "AND IF YOU'RE A WORLD-WIDE ACT, YOU HAVE TO TRAVEL ...

Culture Club: Hey Fella, You Wanna Step Outside And Say That?

Interview by Geoffrey Himes, Musician, October 1983

BOY GEORGE and Culture Club aren't what they seem. ...

Culture Club: Brighton Centre, Brighton

Live Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 1 October 1983

IF EVER there's a tune crying out to symbolise the genius of Culture Club, it's the final encore of tonight's set, an uplifting, clapalong version ...

Culture Club: Colour By Numbers (Virgin)

Review by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 8 October 1983

TOP OF THE LOOKING CLASS ...

Culture Club: A Boy For Europe

Interview by Max Bell, The Face, November 1983

THE BEST thing about the Culture Club is that anybody can join. Membership isn't exclusive. Jon, Roy, George and Mikey have managed to come up ...

Culture shock as Bob Dylan is outshone by the Boy Wonder

Review by Max Bell, The Times, 5 November 1983

Culture Club: Colour By Numbers (Virgin V2285); Bob Dylan: Infidels (CBS 25538); John Hiatt: Riding With The King (Geffen GHS4017 Import); The Doors: Alive, She ...

Culture Club: Colour By Numbers (Virgin/Epic)

Review by J.D. Considine, Record, January 1984

BOY GEORGE may be pop music's best argument against judgment on the basis of looks alone, but Culture Club's music makes a pretty strong case ...

Cutlure Club: The Jon Moss Story

Interview by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 1 March 1984

Pig William, Phone Bone Boulevard, Pastrami Barmy, Eskimo Norbert, The Clash, London, The Damned, The Edge, Jane Aire & The Belvederes, The Nips, Adam And ...

Steve Levine: Before and After Science

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 31 March 1984

Culture Club's producer STEVE LEVINE blinds an inquisitive Adam Sweeting with the new science of recording technology, and explains why he's embarked on his own ...

Boy George: Bohemian!

Interview by Cynthia Rose, Creem, June 1984

Were they rebels? Were they artists? Were they outcasts from society? They were all of these. They were the Bohemians. These bohemians, Mr. and Mrs. ...

Culture Club In The Land Of The Rising Sun

Report by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 19 July 1984

Culture Club in Japan are very big news INDEED. They're the most popular British pop group. They fill massive stadiums. There are Girl Georges everywhere. ...

Into Battle: Declaring War On The Pop State

Essay by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 8 September 1984

IAN PENMAN goes over the top, typewriter at the ready, and asks, Can one speak of the state of pop without protecting the interests of ...

Boy George: It's An Odd Boy Who Doesn't Like Sport #1

Interview by Danny Baker, New Musical Express, 22 September 1984

"Where can you find pleasure?/Search the world for treasure?/Learn science technology?/Where can you begin to make your dreams all come true?/On the land or on ...

Adele Bertei: Contorted Into Culture

Interview by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 29 September 1984

This is ADELE BERTEI, the new one in that Club. DON WATSON files the scoop. ...

Boy George: It's An Odd Boy Who Doesn't Like Sport #2

Interview by Danny Baker, New Musical Express, 29 September 1984

LAST WEEK Boy George recalled his earliest memories and the slow dawning on him that he was apart from his contemporaries in many ways. ...

Culture Club Say War — Watch Yourself!

Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 29 September 1984

CULTURE CLUB ARE BACK WITH A VENGEANCE — 'THE WAR SONG' TO BE EXACT. BUT HOW HIGH IS THE PRICE OF THEIR FAME? AND WILL ...

Steve Levine's Cross-Cultural New Age

Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician, November 1984

It's a Clean Machine, Very Clean: The Digital Powerhouse Behind Queen George's Platinum Throne ...

Boy George and the War On Pop

Essay by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, December 1984

2003 note: I don’t know about this: "this" being the original 2,000 words I handed in at the very last minute to a poor, frazzled ...

Boy George: Boy On Fire

Interview by Lesley White, The Face, December 1984

The friendly but frozen smile of Boy George has been served up, like a cake fresh from the refrigerator, all over the media. It has ...

Culture Club: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 20 December 1984

OF ALL THE SUPERGROUPS currently vying for public attention Culture Club and their lead singer Boy George seem the most vulnerable. The title of their ...

Culture Club: NEC, Birmingham

Live Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 22 December 1984

WHEN, EXACTLY, did this creature stop aspiring to be like Bo Diddley, and want to turn into Barbara Streisand? ...

Culture Club: Waking Up With The House On Fire (Epic)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, January 1985

NOBODY HAS ever accused Culture Club of having too much depth. For them, frivolity is its own reward, and there's more than enough meaning in ...

Culture Club: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Chris Roberts, Sounds, 5 January 1985

HE KNOWS it's going. ...

Culture Club: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Dave Rimmer, Smash Hits, 17 January 1985

"THIS SONG — first of all it's a great song," George titters, something like this: aha-haha-huyuk. "Second, it's called 'The Medal Song'." ...

Boy Georgie

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, April 1985

IT'S A TOUGH life in today's pop world. In these dark days of decreasing sales, with tight-fisted conservative little brats putting their pocket money into ...

Dave Rimmer: Like Punk Never Happened: Culture Club And The New Pop (Faber And Faber £4.95)

Book Review by Tony Fletcher, Jamming!, November 1985

THE TITLE says it all. There are those of us who have, over the years, battled on our own territory desperately hoping that the downward ...

Culture Club: From Luxury to Heartache

Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 5 April 1986

TODAY'S SHY, retiring George is to be found downgraded to the top-left quarter of a scrupulously democratic sleeve photograph. Nobody smiles. We are no longer ...

Culture Club: From Luxury To Heartache (Virgin C2380)

Review by Betty Page, Record Mirror, 5 April 1986

THE BOY has a new Mireille Mathieu haircut, a conscience and an album that, on first hearing, is soothing in the extreme. But the aural ...

Boy George: Chasing the Dragon

Report by Jon Savage, The Observer, 13 July 1986

JON SAVAGE reports on the rise and fall of Boy George ...

Boy George's Nightmare

Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 28 August 1986

A SPECIAL REPORT ON THE FALLEN POP IDOL'S BOUT WITH HIS DRUG ADDICTION ...

Boy George: Flying nun back on the runway

Interview by Jon Savage, The Observer, 22 February 1987

Boy George talks exclusively to JON SAVAGE about heroin, cold turkey and death ...

Jon Moss: "Culture Club is the last thing on my mind"

Interview by William Shaw, Smash Hits, 3 June 1987

Why does Culture Club's drummer Jon Moss not want to think about his old pal Boy George? Is it because their last few months together ...

Boy George: Mr. Clean

Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 8 October 1987

Boy George Straightens Up His Act ...

Boy George: Culture Shock

Interview by Jon Wilde, Melody Maker, 18 February 1989

THREE YEARS AFTER HIS DRUG-INDUCED DOWNFALL, TABLOID VILIFICATION AND COMMERCIAL FAILURE, THE GOLDEN BOY OF EIGHTIES POP HAS FINALLY MANAGED TO REBUILD A SOLO CAREER. ...

Culture Club

Interview by Mat Snow, Q, January 1990

ALREADY A MINOR celebrity in the fevered confines of New Romantic London clubland, Boy George's band Culture Club secured a deal with Virgin in early ...

Jesus Loves You: The Last Temptation of Boy George

Report and Interview by Lucy O'Brien, Select, April 1991

Four years ago BOY GEORGE'S world crashed, his career in shreds as he struggled to come off heroin. He became a bitter, paranoid recluse, shunning the same media he'd once courted. In this rare interview, ...

Top Of The Pops and The '80s Brit Pop Boom

Overview by Stuart Maconie, Q, November 1994

YOU CAN tell if they're boys or girls these days, that's the trouble. Just look at them, these so-called modern pop phenomena. ...

Culture Clash: The Return Of The 50 Foot Gender Benders

Report and Interview by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, 1998

"LIAM GALLAGHER is so sexy! There’s not much irony in the things Liam says, it’s just pent up rotweiler frustration. But honey, I ...

Boy George (2002) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Bill Brewster, Rock's Backpages transcripts, January 2002

This is a transcript of Bill's audio interview with Boy George. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Culture Club, Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 14 July 2002

WHEN THE FAT lady sings at the start of a show, you know something's seriously wrong. So it proves with Culture Club, the band for ...

Steve Levine

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, June 2010

ACHIEVING THE perfect mix and getting the balance right are essential skills for any record producer but, with a glittering career which has spanned 35 ...

Culture Club: Heaven, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 22 October 2014

THE FIRST TIME Culture Club played this basement nightclub, Smash Hits' reviewer Neil Tennant didn't see much of a future for them. ...

Boy George & Culture Club: Bournemouth International Centre

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 14 November 2018

The singer's soul-infused, reggae-inflected vocals have deepened and ripened in middle age, acquiring a jazzy sophistication. ...

see also Boy George

see also Edge, The

see also Helen Terry

see also Heartbeat UK

RSS

back to LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE