I know what you’re thinking. Truth is, we don’t always have full control over what it is we’re reviewing and this falls loosely into the category of ‘What the hell where they thinking when they popped it in the post’? Too many copies? Perhaps. Too little regard for readers? It’s possible. Too giddy with the stamps? For sure. So it comes with no small degree of surprise to find myself sliding this warily into the disc tray with the unsteadiest of hands. Do you really want to hurt me? Evidently they do.
This is in fact the first DVD to chart the career of the genre and gender-bending eighties pop phenomenon, Culture Club and we can pretty much expect it to be the last. Whilst Boy George’s contribution to pop did go some way beyond the brazen novelty of looking like a girl, they were seldom able to equal the soulful, lugubrious demeanour and class of their first single, or indeed first album. Karma Chameleon was as preposterous and tacky then as it is now; The War Song as puzzling and ‘It’s A Miracle’ miraculous only in that it was ever a hit.
Those with an eye and ear for kitsch, a life-time membership with FRIENDS REUNITED, a copy of I LOVE THE EIGHTIES and pitiful disregard for their own credibility are perhaps the only people likely to buy this DVD. As a record of that totally perplexing period it works just fine – but as something of either visual, filmic or cultural worth – it’s really rather feeble.
Want a sharper, more definitive guide to the eighties? Try Duran Duran’s ‘Greatest DVD. It’s less embarrassing.