Culture Club ~ Cold Shoulder + StarmanThat seasoned old pro and veteran of the BowieNetChat, Boy George, releases a double-A side on Virgin records in the UK today (Monday 15th November), with his faithful band of chums who make up Culture Club. ‘Cold Shoulder’ is a well-crafted ballad reminiscent of some of George Michael’s gentler moments, and in fact of some of Culture Club’s own past glories. But the song of greater interest to most of us here is the band’s wonderful cover of ‘Starman’.George has not been afraid in recent years to nail his Bowie colours to the mast, and has admitted that seeing Ziggy for the first time changed his life, didn’t it everybody’s?! The following is from an interview with George conducted recently by Clive Anderson: “I knew I was gay and suddenly I saw this man with no eyebrows and orange hair singing ‘Starman’* and I thought, Daddy!” ~ indeed, and George certainly wasn’t the only UK pop star of the early 80s that felt that way.This particular version of ‘Starman’ is not typical of Culture Club’s sound, but it works all the same. The song opens with the familiar sound of strummed acoustic guitars, heavily chorused in this case, and follows the original quite faithfully apart from an unnecessary, but not too offensive, break of fairly tepid beats before the final fade-out. The string arrangement throughout is lovely and quite powerful. Culture Club have been performing the song on tour and it is to be included on their forthcoming album. This is a sincere and charming version of a timeless Bowie classic. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear David do this one again?For those that care the third track on this CD is a mix of ‘Your Kisses Are Charity’ featuring Dolly Parton.* Trivia buffs should note that David’s tele-visual performances of Starman here in 1972 was accompanied by a full set of eyebrows numbering two.From our European Correspondent ~ Total Blam Blam
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