We’re all clinging to a rock

“It feels like the mainstream has been hijacked by hit-makers, people who are really good at writing songs that all drop in the right places, they’re all pleasant, but there’s not many people who really give of themselves, if you know what I mean. When I was 19, there was still the mystery of rock’n’roll, there was still the wizard behind the curtain. Kids now, they know how to make records, they know where to get their clothes. They don’t have to walk to Deptford High Street to look at the platform shoes in the window, they can go online and get them from Asos, whereas we had to dream about it: is this possible? Now, it’s like: ‘Yeah, you can be famous, you get on this show, you do that, you do this,’ but I think the thing is, I don’t think it necessarily means that much. I’m glad I had that exciting first part of my career in a decade when you could make a cultural difference of sorts, you know?

"...I’ve always been positive. I wouldn’t still be here if I wasn’t. I think you’re always who you are, but life distracts you, particularly because of fame – everybody treats you different, therefore you end up with a distorted idea of who you are. Don’t you think that life’s about growing into yourself in a funny kind of way? You’re looking for answers and I think as you get older, you realise there aren’t really answers. You just have to kind of get on with it. Life is kind of like clinging to a rock, isn’t it? We’re all clinging to a rock, and some people have got a better grip than others. Some people look bedraggled, and other people look like Jerry Hall dressed as mermaid on that Roxy Music album cover.”

Boy George, interviewed by Alexis Petridis for The Guardian.

Culture Club - Time

Don't put your head on my shoulder
Sink me in a river of tears
This could be the best place yet
But you must overcome your fears
In time we could've been so much more
But time is precious I know
In time we could've been so much more
The time has nothing to show
because
Time won't give me time
And time makes lovers feel
Like they've got something real
But you and me we know
We got nothing
but time

Push aside those that whisper never

From the BBC website comes an intriguing piece of news:

Re-formed 1980s band Culture Club feature among a line-up of concerts with the BBC Philharmonic designed to broaden the appeal of orchestral music.

[The band], who announced their comeback earlier this year, will revisit their acclaimed 1983 album Colour by Numbers accompanied by the 90-strong BBC Philharmonic.

The record featured their chart-topping hit Karma Chameleon and songs Church of the Poisoned Mind and It's a Miracle.

I can't wait to hear this!

One song in particular - my favourite of the whole album - should be an absolute treat:

Culture Club - Victims

Colour By Numbers Wikipedia entry.

About a Boy

Apparently this week thirty years ago, a certain Madonna Ciccone released her very first record Everybody, and began her quest for world domination. It would, of course, take another couple of years before she was even heard of in the UK.

No, thirty years ago, the world belonged to a boy called George - whose appearance and amazingly catchy debut hit Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? was practically the only thing in the news in October 1982 (Cold War, Falklands fall-out, suppression of the Polish Solidarity union and the raising of the Mary Rose aside...). Something had changed in society, for good, with this single.

Culture Club - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?

Culture Club official website