Steve Levine with Boy George and friends
In the BBC Trust's recent service review of Radio 2, the station's 130 hours of documentary output was listened to by 825,000 people each week in 2013-14. The consultation found that listeners regarded the stations documentaries as "informative, interesting and entertaining." In this post, producer Steve Levine throws light on how the station's latest documentary came about Boy George and Culture Club came to life.
The 80s was a very exciting time for me, and for music. We were the first post-Beatles generation and as teenagers we grew up on great glam pop, Philly and Motown soul and the Jamaican reggae music of the 70s. This shaped our love and musical taste and inspired many 80s artists and music producers that changed the way records were made.
As a record producer I have worked with a wide variety of artists, from Culture Club to Honeyz and the Beach Boys. My career began in July 1975 working as a tape op for CBS studios. With disco on the way out and new wave music surfacing, I cut my teeth on demos for The Clash, The Jags and The Vibrators, whilst moving up the ranks to engineer.
Working at CBS I met a number of American producers including Bruce Johnson, then a successful songwriter and freelance record producer, now of Beach Boy fame. It was Bruce who encouraged me to become a record producer. The producers who really influenced me during that time are Phil Spector, Joe Meek, Sir George Martin and Thom Bell, to name a few.
Music and technology changed so much in the 80s and many of these recordings have such a time stamp on them of that era. That’s why I think so many of these productions are still being used in movie soundtracks today; they have an instant 80s vibe as soon as you hear them. Synthesised sound and design really took over and as digital recording became affordable, the next generation of artistes were able to start producing early hip hop and sampling based dance music that’s still with us today.
I met George Alan O’Dowd, or Boy George as he’s more widely known, in 1982 when we did our first session for the demos. We’ve always had a really great working relationship and have some very fond memories. As with all the Culture Club guys, as we’ve got older we have grown closer. George today is even more focused a studio musician then he was back then and his recent DJ work has given him terrific insight into what makes a great record.
Thirty years on from the worldwide, award winning success of Culture Club and the release of their albums ‘Kissing to be Clever’, ‘Colour by Numbers’ and ‘Waking up with the House on Fire’, we felt that the time was right to document the colourful life of lead singer, Boy George.
My company, which I run with broadcaster Richard Allinson, has created several documentaries for BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music, including the series ‘The Record Producers’. So we had the means and connections to put the documentary together and Radio 2’s reputation for celebrating the music of the 80s gave the programme a home.
Radio 2, and in particular Sara Cox’s Sound of the 80s, celebrates the music of the 80’s in a way that really does pay homage without making it naff or cheesy, and some of the music really was quite cheesy. But with 30 Years Man & Boy, A Calmer Chameleon - The Boy George Storya whole new generation can hear and appreciate George’s music as the great songwriter he always was, not just the superstar DJ many people know him to be today.
The programme includes some forgotten gems. I’ve recently moved my studio to a new, larger location and when packing up my studio equipment I found a box of cassettes and DAT tapes that I’d forgotten about. This was the perfect place to get these tracks out there. As a listener myself I always love to hear tracks or a performance that I've never heard before so I’m sure all you Boy George fans and Radio 2 listeners will enjoy them!
It’s great to hear today’s artistes and bands citing George as a major influence; both in their music and the way they focus on image and art design. Arcade Fire reference him as an influence and what’s interesting about them is that you wouldn’t necessarily say they were an 80s sounding band. As a producer I can hear lots of George’s vocal phrase and style in Sam Smith, although tonally they are different. Is Sam Smith this generation’s Boy George?
Steve Levine is a producer at Magnum Opus Broadcasting
- Listen to 30 Years Man & Boy, A Calmer Chameleon - The Boy George Story on BBC Radio 2 on Thursday 23 April, 10.00pm-11.00pm.
