Jesus Loves You (band)

Jesus Loves You
Origin United Kingdom
Genres Acid house, Balearic beat, deep house, electronic dance, house, Indian classical, pop, soul
Years active 1989–1992
Labels More Protein, Virgin Records
Past members Boy George
Richard Cottle
Colin Eliot
Jon Quarmby
John Themis

Jesus Loves You were a British band, founded by the singer Boy George. The band's music is a mixture of electronic dance music, Indian classical music and western pop music. Their lyrics are about love, spirituality and the equality of all human beings.

History

After the band Culture Club broke up, Boy George started a solo career. He succeeded with the singles taken from his debut album Sold in 1987. For the next two albums, Tense Nervous Headache (1988) and Boyfriend (1989), he wanted to break out in a new direction, by dabbling in electronic dance music. The singles taken from the two albums did not attain much commercial success, but they were often played at clubs.

Boy George founded the band Jesus Loves You, as a collective project with other musicians, under his own label "More Protein", which aimed to be an underground label and not meant to release music for the charts. George adopted the pseudonym "Angela Dust". "After the Love", the first song by Jesus Loves You that was released as a single, is about the separation from his ex-bandmate Jon Moss, drummer of Culture Club, and the two artists wrote it together.[1]

The first three singles by the band only had modest success in the UK singles chart. On a journey across India, Boy George got to know better the Hare Krishna movement. He was impressed with the Hare Krishna philosophy, and as a result he wrote the song "Bow Down Mister". This was a crucial reversal point for the band, because it was their first religious song. It was released as a single in 1991 and it became a hit in the United Kingdom  with a peak of #27, their highest position, France, Switzerland, Germany and most notably in Austria  where it peaked at #2 in the Ö3 Austria Top 40, the official singles chart.

Because of this success, the band's debut album, The Martyr Mantras, was released in the same year. Meanwhile, Boy George felt more and more grateful to Hare Krishna. The religion helped him to conquer his heroin addiction, he said.[2]

In late 1991, remixes of "Generations of Love" and "After the Love" were released as singles.

In July 1992, the band performed before 35,000 people at the Luzhniki Stadium, in Moscow, Russia, during a Hare Krishna festival (the festival also took place in Saint Petersburg, Russia; Riga, Latvia; and Kiev, Ukraine, but the band only participated in the Moscow event).[3]

In December 1992, the release of the second album, Popularity Breeds Contempt, was planned.[4] The single "Sweet Toxic Love" (with "Am I Losing Control" as B-side) was pre-released, but the record company Virgin Records was so disappointed in the chart positions of the single that the album was not released. The remaining songs that were recorded for the album have not been released. The band dissolved a short time later.

In 2005, a white label 12" and a one-sided promo 12" were released in the summer, using the Jesus Loves You pseudonym. The track was called "Love Your Brother". On the info sheet included with the white label, there was a talk about "expect an album in September", but that never happened. The track got some reviews, which were good.

Discography

Singles

Year Single Chart positions Version (A-side)
UK
[5][6]
AUS
[7]
AUT
[8]
BEL
(FLA)

[9]
FRA
[10]
GER
[11]
NED
[12]
SWI
[13]
1989 "After the Love" 68 160 10 Glorious Years Mix
1990 "Generations of Love" 80 Land of Oz Mix[14]
"One on One" 83 Fon Force Mix
1991 "Bow Down Mister" 27 2 44 29 6 15 A Small Portion 2 B Polite Mix
"Generations of Love" 35 30 27 12 La La Gone Gaga Mix[15]
"After the Love" Naughty Norman Normal's Nightie Edit
1992 "Sweet Toxic Love" 65 14 51 Deliverance Mix
"Bow Down Mister"
The band's most successful song

"Generations of Love"
Classical house song

"One on One"
Mainstream pop song

"Sweet Toxic Love I"
Gospel intro of "Sweet Toxic Love"

"Sweet Toxic Love II"
Guitar riff of "Sweet Toxic Love"

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Albums

Year Album Chart positions
UK
[5]
AUT
[8]
GER
[11]
1991 The Martyr Mantras 60 13 44

Note: No single was released in the United States. The album The Martyr Mantras was released as a Boy George album in the United States, and not as Jesus Loves You.[16]

See also

References

  1. Information on After the Love.
  2. Hare Krishna in general and Boy George's relationship with HK.
  3. The tour.
  4. Information on Jesus Loves You.
  5. 1 2 "Official Charts > Jesus Loves You". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  6. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 282. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  7. "Response from ARIA re: chart inquiry, received 12 July 2016". Imgur.com. Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  8. 1 2 "austriancharts.at > Jesus Loves You in der Österreichischen Hitparade" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  9. "Ultratop Vlaanderen > Zoeken naar: Jesus Loves You" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 2016-07-04.
  10. "lescharts.com > Jesus Loves You dans les Charts Français" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  11. 1 2 German chart peaks:
  12. "dutchcharts.nl > Zoeken naar: Jesus Loves You" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  13. "hitparade.ch > Suchergebnisse in der Schweizer Hitparade" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  14. "Generations of Love" at Discogs.com.
  15. "Generations of Love" 1991 version at Discogs.com.
  16. Detailed discographies of Jesus Loves You, Boy George and Culture Club.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/22/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.