Culture Club new album and tour news

The more I read interviews with George the less I like him as a person.

 

Social media can benefit some artists, but I think it's not a good thing for George and for frankly a lot of older artists from the 80's. They came up with when stars were these mysterious distant people that you fantasize about. And I think it's better left that way.

For me, artists on social media come across best if they show you some personal side of themselves, like them hanging with their family in their off time. You think, cool they are just like me. I don't feel G's twitter is personal at all, or really lets you into what his life is like in his off stage time.

I agree about his obituaries! I think it comes off as more genuine if you only pay tribute to someone you know personally or that you worked with. Then it feels like it comes from your heart, that it has really affected you that this person is gone.

 

The thing is with George these days everything is about his personality. His biggest fans love his personality. There are a lot of artists who I don't like as people or I don't agree with certain things they say in interviews, but they release music on a much more regular basis than George so you can easily ignore the negative side of their personalities and just focus on their music which you do like.
George has made a big mistake in making everything about his personality and forgetting about the music.

 

George always puts his solo projects ahead of the band. As much as I love Jon, Roy and Mikey, I wouldn't even mind that so much if he was releasing high quality solo albums on a regular basis. But most of the time his solo projects don't get released or are self indulgent and crappy.

His last album This is What I Do was an exception to the rule. It's not my all time favorite album, but it had some decent songs and seemed like a worthwhile project that came to fruition. So if he could release solo albums like that on a regular basis it would be fine.

Now he is promoting non stop that techno cover of Sweet Dreams by the guy from the UK Voice which really is of zero interest to me.

 

When I read on these forums a couple of days ago that Gregg Allman had died I went straight to the Boy George Twitter page and sure enough there was his RIP tweet. I just saw on the news that ex children's TV presenter John Noakes has died and you guessed it, George has already posted his RIP.
This is just complete desperation for any kind of publicity. I cannot believe for a second that he was a fan of Gregg Allman so why bother posting an RIP? Somebody really needs to have a word with him, he is embarrassing himself these days...

 

Do we know for sure that George does his tweets himself or does a manager or a publicist does it?
Of all the annoying things, George does, I think doing a tribute to someone who died is the least of things to get upset about.
I don't care what he tweets about. Doesn't really affect my life. I just would like for Tribes to be released.

 

Apparently they are going to announce another tour of Australia next week to capitalize on George's success on the Voice. Whether that will include the release of Tribes remains to be seen.

They are down to the final 8 on the Voice. George has two contestants left. They are quite good singers and very un-Boy George in that they don't wear weird clothes or have a loud or annoying personality.
Seal has 3, Kelly Rowland 2 and poor Delta only 1.

I sure hope Seal doesn't win, that would put George in a bad mood!

 

Big news! Apparently G has signed a record deal with Sony BMG, but it appears to be for a new solo album.
No news of what ever happened to Tribes, the CC album or if that will ever be released.

 

Well I'd say that kind of speaks for itself. I doubt Tribes will be released for a long time, if ever.

 

Ready for some fun!!! Here is an interview with Jon, Roy and Mikey!

LISTEN: Sam Delaney meets Culture Club

God, I love these guys! I like them so much more than George. I was falling on the floor laughing at this interview!

They are asked about the album, but are kind of evasive and change the subject. Jon says it's up to Roy to sort that out! LOL

 

It's all kind of unclear to me. They are still together and touring as a band, so I suppose it's possible it will be released at some point. (They are doing 3 concerts in the UK this weekend.) A fan site says it's still in the pipeline to be released, but I don't know if they know what they're talking about. Jon, Roy and Mikey all seem to love the album that was recorded so the reason it wasn't released couldn't be that they weren't happy with it.

Mikey says something in the interview that's very telling. He said back in the 80's they shared everything and wrote all the songs together. I think that's where CC went wrong, they stopped sharing and stopped being a band, because George was put above the others. George thinks he is so much better than the rest of them and that he is the band by himself, but he is just 1/4 of the band. George needs to get over himself and be part of the band again.

As far as George's solo album, it seems it will be original songs, not covers as George previously talked about which is a relief. I think signing to a record label could be good for George, as it will force him to finish something and actually release it. It could go wrong if he's arrogant and refuses to listen to the people at the label.

Whether it's good or not, I think depends on who the songwriters and producers are since George needs a lot of help in writing songs. He doesn't write them by himself. Never been impressed with George's current solo band of John Themis and all of them. The solo album could be good if they bring in some new blood to write and produce the songs.

 

They still must be working on the album because last night at the horse racing concert they premiered a new song called Bitch Face!

 

They are working on a new 'record' apparently....http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjCj8y88prVAhWpBcAKHSJ3AhgQqQIIIygAMAE&url=http://www.eadt.co.uk/what-s-on/culture-club-s-roy-hay-teases-new-songs-ahead-of-band-s-newmarket-racecourse-gig-tomorrow-1-5114986&usg=AFQjCNEvuUf38IiBdcCxUrAiT80cd_LmeA

 

Hmmm... I wonder if they're replacing some tracks that were done for Tribes, or erasing Tribes completely and starting over?

 

God knows, but this comeback seems completely hopeless. What a mess.....

 

Well, performance-wise the shows seem to be pretty good it's just that they really should have had an album out to tour and promote otherwise this tour doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

They are playing various racecourses over here at the moment (Epsom, home of our Derby, Newmarket, home of the 1000 and 2000 Guineas classics, and Haydock Park). Its become a popular thing in the UK, especially with 80's acts. Watch some decent afternoon or early evening horse racing and then an open air concert. Racing fans get some popular music; music fans get some good horse racing. Horse racing is increasingly a TV sport there days, so the racecourses are happy. But courses like those mentioned are still popular with punters, so the bands are happy too.

 

I don't suppose they've thrown "The Dive" into the setlist anywhere, have they? That would be kind of fun.

 

I think you are being a little overly negative. Their live dates have been quite well received and gather a decent crowd and people seem to enjoy them as well as the band seem to be enjoying themselves. So I would hardly call it completely hopeless.

 

It does make sense because they make money from the tour and they enjoy playing live. Albums don't really sell so you don't necessarily need an album out to tour. So touring without an album actually totally makes sense. Many bands do it all the time.

 

I think the Tribes tracks were really good, and it's a shame they didn't release them at the time, but because most of them are out online, it would be kind of pointless to release them now because it's not very exciting to buy an album of tracks you've already heard.

 

Time for a Culture Club update! They are going to South America including Chile and Argentina before the Australian tour.
Phil Pickett, the former keyboard player is writing a book called Calmer Chameleon (not a very creative title) about his time with the band. Apparently, George approves because he is writing a forward to the book. So we can expect a lot of kissing up to George and whitewashing of his less attractive qualities.
To me, Phil is not a very interesting person and I'm not interested in reading a book by him. I believe George said in TILAM he thought Phil's input was invaluable, even though Jon, Roy and Mikey didn't always think so.
I think Phil is the type of person who likes to big himself up and take more credit for the songwriting in CC than he actually deserves. He once tried to start a tribute band to Culture Club called Culture Dub, and was part of that ill fated New Culture Club with Sam which everyone would love to forget about. Wonder if he will cover that in the book?
This seems to me like a cynical cash in on Phil's part. Hasn't he done anything else in his life to write about besides CC?
I like him even less when I read his twitter and it was full of all these far right views attacking Muslims and immigrants. Seems to go against the concept of Culture Club?

There's only one person associated with Culture Club I want a book from and that is Jon Moss. I think he's a very funny, intelligent, unique guy, who gives you the truth, not the politically correct version. I would love a book from his perspective, but not sure George would! LOL

No news on Tribes!!

 

George is now working on his solo album of cover versions as he has a new label. This is his second attempt to release a covers album, the last one a few years ago was scrapped as no label was interested.
The album he was recording/producing with Marilyn (80's one hit wonder) is no more as they have fallen out again.
Marlyn keeps threatening to write his story, if he dares to tell all and go the no holds bars route this could be very interesting. Marilyn was around for that whole 80's New York heroin period and he could really spill the beans.
However George is very calculated and would soon befriend Marilyn again if he thought a book was a serious proposition, just as he tried to do with George Michael. Boy George was vile and vicious about GM in both volumes of his autobiography, in interviews and also in private. As soon as heard that GM was going to write his autobiography he quickly backtracked and tried to befriend him also. These days he comes out with that claptrap about how their egos wouldn't allow them to be friends....

 

George (O) was pretty obviously always jealous of George (M) and I always thought he was really petty and mean to him for no good reason.

 

Boy George signs his first major record label in 30 years | Daily Mail Online