Favorite Live albums part 2:Boy George and Culture Club

In 1997,Boy George and Culture Club partnered with music television network VH1 to do a reunion tour which was a smashing success all around. At the time VH1 had a concert series called “Storytellers” where bands would perform in an intimate setting for a small group of fans and do what else tell the stories of their careers, how certain songs had come to be, and naturally sing the songs as well. Culture Club did a “Storytellers” and it was great and out of that special came what would be their first live album to my knowledge. I got recorded on a video tape and watched it over and over and over again.

The storytellers of Boy George and Culture Club is full of good fun and surprises. It is also mixed with all of their hits and they debuted some new songs too.

The new songs that they debuted were “strange voodoo”, “black money”, “that’s the way”, “I just want to be loved” and “what do you want “. The music of Boy George solo and with Culture Club has always been heavily influenced by reggae music. Boy George is a self confessed lover and fan of the genre and he had always been as well. The reunion in 1997 with VH1 actually began as an “Behind the music” interview. Of course there had to be a follow up behind the music to cover the reunion and how the band went about preparing. To backtrack the show began with a block of their hit songs then they went into a block of the new songs and then back to their hits again.

The concert was also a time for the band to interact with their fans and answer questions that members of the audience had for the band that night.

In the early 2000s the group celebrated their 20th anniversary in the music business with a concert of course performed at The Royal Albert Hall in London England. Around the time of the concert Boy George was also doing his musical “Taboo” so all were treated to costumes and actors from the show.

The show was fun as always and the group did a couple of their hit songs like “Do you really want to hurt me”, “it’s a miracle”, “everything I own”. Boy George being a lifelong fan of David Bowie aka Ziggy Stardust did the hit song “Starman”. Boy George and Culture Club did the songs that they had debuted on their reunion in 1997.

As well as some never before heard tracks Until that night. I only saw it once but from that time it was a very memorable dvd to watch.

Backtracking to 1997 with their reunion it had been the first time that the original members of the group had been truly reunited. Also it had been the first time that one time couple of the group Jon Moss and Boy George had been reunited let alone being civil to one another in the same room. Actually all of Boy George and Culture Club’s hits were written by Boy George about his relationship with Jon. All of the groups albums were like diary entries about their relationship as Boy George had at one time described in an interview.

Boy George and Culture Club have achieved timelessness. Anyone can be a fan of them anyone and any generation at all. These live albums by the group are just fantastic there are more live albums that available and undoubtedly just as good but these are the two that I have had the privilege to have been able to have access to.