Like the early demo's KISS recorded of soon-to-be-hits before they wound up on one of their LP's upon signing a deal with Casablanca Records, I also liked what few early demo's I've heard by Culture Club before they were signed with Virgin Records in 1982. Early, under-produced and faster versions of "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "White Boy", which were slowed down a bit when re-recorded for their first album, Kissing To Be Clever in 1982.
My most favorite demo was "You Know I'm Not Crazy": THIS was when Culture Club was a four-member group, each member giving 100% in the studio. Before the drama between George and Jon, before George got into heroin and becoming known in the media as "Junkie George" (he's long ago cleaned his act up, thankfully!). When "Crazy" was re-recorded for their first LP, it was slowed down considerably, and in addition to the four group members, female backing vocals were added to the mix as well as horns and other annoyances when the original version with just George, Roy, Jon and Mikey was just 100% perfectly raw, before any clever studio additions or mixing. No keyboards, no synth's, nothing like that in their original demo's - and the way I prefer to hear them.
It would be nice if George would release some more of those pre-Virgin Records demo's. I love the music my favorite groups make, but love them even more when they're raw non-professional demo's, and I don't even care if it's recorded in a garage. I think the girl group Klymaxx originally released a promo video of demo's recorded in a garage, small auditorium or something like that (I've only seen brief clips of it so far).
Here's Culture Club when they were a real band with ambition and performed in the studio like they knew they were going to be famous someday: Mikey Craig, Roy Hay, Jon Moss and George O'Dowd, at their best, before anyone knew who they were! LOL
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Culture Club is definitely in my top 5 all-time favorite groups. Because all four of their classic 80's LP's are so different from one to the next, it's like you get an entirely different group every time. Reggae on their first album, Top 40 the next, dance/techno on their next one, etc.
My most favorite demo was "You Know I'm Not Crazy": THIS was when Culture Club was a four-member group, each member giving 100% in the studio. Before the drama between George and Jon, before George got into heroin and becoming known in the media as "Junkie George" (he's long ago cleaned his act up, thankfully!). When "Crazy" was re-recorded for their first LP, it was slowed down considerably, and in addition to the four group members, female backing vocals were added to the mix as well as horns and other annoyances when the original version with just George, Roy, Jon and Mikey was just 100% perfectly raw, before any clever studio additions or mixing. No keyboards, no synth's, nothing like that in their original demo's - and the way I prefer to hear them.
It would be nice if George would release some more of those pre-Virgin Records demo's. I love the music my favorite groups make, but love them even more when they're raw non-professional demo's, and I don't even care if it's recorded in a garage. I think the girl group Klymaxx originally released a promo video of demo's recorded in a garage, small auditorium or something like that (I've only seen brief clips of it so far).
Here's Culture Club when they were a real band with ambition and performed in the studio like they knew they were going to be famous someday: Mikey Craig, Roy Hay, Jon Moss and George O'Dowd, at their best, before anyone knew who they were! LOL
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