Culture Club- Colour By Numbers

This thread brings back a lot of memories... my sister had all their records and I was forced to endure them, however, I think back now, and my attitude was all wrong, they were good pop.
Sad how Mr George ended up.

 

One of my wife’s favourite's at the time, so, although ordinarily I wouldn't have heard this album, it did get played a lot in our house and I have to say, it was, and remains, a very strong pop album from start to finish. We have it on CD now, so it still gets a play every now and then. Culture Club slipped quite badly after this, with the awful War Song: I think it was the drugs. About 10 years ago, our nephew was a dance DJ in the Brighton area and he got to know Boy George quite well. He always spoke highly of him.

 

Was the first US cd release on Epic/Virgin similar to the first two albums and the "First Four Years" cd comp? The only version I've seen in the used bins seems to be on the Virgin label and doesn't have the Epic style cd inserts with red lettering on the spine.

 

Man, this thread has taken me back. One of the first cassettes I owned and played on my walkman back in '83. I cant remember all the tracks on the album but i've always loved Church of the Poisoned Mind. And especially Victims. What a great tune that is. I would've expected somebody to have picked that up and covered it by now. Best thing they ever wrote/recorded.

 

No, there's a CBS-issued CD out there...

 

I know they made millions by the time they disbanded culture club. Don't know how well Boy George did on his own, but it was obviously nowhere near what Culture club did. In one song he sings "If you still loved me, I'd be Madonna rich"

I wonder how much Boy George is worth (net worth) anyway?

 

The song you refer to above is "Number One" from George's "Unrecoupable One Man Bandit, Vol. 1"- a very good album of leftover studio tracks.

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgoRvnx9Vrk

Most of George's money went up his nose in the mid to late 80's, unfortunatly.

 

While I tend to agree with you Paul, overall, would you agree that Boy George put the WORST possible tracks on that album FIRST? The first couple tracks were accoustic things that I think even had Banjo's!! Awful. At first listen, I thought "Uh oh..."

The album vastly improves as it goes on though, would you agree?

 

I like the later tracks more than the first ones, yeah.

 

I remember liking "Kissing to Be Clever" better at the time. Perhaps because of "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" and "Time (Clock of the Heart)". Come to think of it, I still like it better. Oh, to be 21 again...

 

30 bucks? Dude screwed himself over big time...

 

Nah. Boy George (and probably the rest of the guys) are STILL worth *millions*. Just how many though, I wonder.

 

Recently listened to it in entirety for the first time since the 80's and was amazed how well it has held up. Thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish including the bonus tracks on the remaster, which does sound fine! Also saw the band twice on that tour in a small venue in Toronto on the 1st leg and then the big arena show in Buffalo.

 

un-earthed my UK vinyl on this one and man is it sweet sounding..makes the cd sound like death warmed over...forgot how many UK 12" singles I'd collected either....These 12" 45s sound really great and the CD medium has not been kind to the punch, and low end of these records....fans should seek out the vinyl big time...

needledropping time...

 

Just found a copy of the Virgin CDV 2285 CD pressing today, and I'm remembering now how much I always liked this album. It's a fabulous sounding pressing too - plenty of bass, huge dynamic range, sounds good cranked.

 

One of the 80's best pop albums, pure and simple.

Sometimes everything just falls into place and it certainly happened here. Even the sleeve artwork was great!

The follow up, Waking Up With The House On Fire, doesn't have as strong songs, but it's immensely charming after all these years. Love the shimmering digital production!

T

 

I have this on UK vinyl. Great stuff. Still spin it from time to time. Sounds great too.

 

A few years ago I got a free cd of this album with a newspaper in the UK. I played it and apart from the singles it didn't really do anything for me, yesterday I bought a Canadian LP of it for $2 and just played it and was blown away by how strong an album it actually is.

 

One of my guilty pleasures as well. Original Epic vinyl sounds great. I also have a picture disc vinyl of this as well.

 

I don't know how much money George has left from CC, but he earned a lot of money from his house dj career particularly back in the 90's. At one time, he was one of the highest paid dj's in the world. Although recently his dj career has kind of declined. But he still makes a few thousand pounds for a dj gig. Pretty good for a couple of hours. I"m not really sure about the other guys though. Jon Moss comes from a wealthy family so I'm sure he's not too worried about money. I did read somewhere that Roy Hay declared bankruptcy awhile back, but then he got into doing music for films and tv shows so I guess he makes a decent living from that. Have no idea about Mikey.

 

I would think those guys were all doing quite well, just from the publishing royalties they earn from the songs they wrote together.

 

One of the best albums of the 1980's. Stunning piece of work.

 

Does anyone know when they last pressed this to vinyl? I just bought a sealed copy of the US LP on eBay for next to nothing, and it's absolutely mint. It doesn't look like it's been sitting around in a record store for 30 years. I can't wait to open it up and listen to it, though. I don't buy records to let them sit on the shelf.

 

Do you have a preference between the West German and Japan CDs?