FLEXIPOP!’S (not so) SLOPPY SECONDS No. 46 – Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles) by The Cult Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles) was the second single from Dreamtime, The Cult’s debut album. It was released on 10 August 1984 and peaked at No. 90 in the UK. It was also released as a single in Australia, New Zealand and France. The first time the band performed the song live was on 13 May 1984 and the last time was 6 June 1992. Ian Astbury formed Southern Death Cult in 1981 in Bradford. The name was derived from the 14th century Native American religion or Southern Death Cult as it sometimes known, from the Mississippi delta area. It was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in southern England including the music industry. Astbury was joined by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums) and they performed their first show at the Queens Hall in Bradford on 29 October 1981. Their music was dubbed as positive-punk and they achieved critical acclaim at the time. They released a triple A-side single, Moya, and toured with Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate. The band played their final performance in Manchester in February 1983. Two months later, Astbury teamed up with guitarist Billy Duffy and formed Death Cult. Duffy had previously been in The Nosebleeds with Morrissey, Lonesome No More and Theatre of Hate. In addition to Astbury and Duffy, the band also included Jamie Stewart (bass) and Raymond Taylor Smith - later known as Ray Mondo - (drums). Death Cult made their live debut in Oslo, Norway on 25 July 1983 and also released the Death Cult EP in the same month. They changed their name to The Cult in January 1984 just before appearing on The Tube. The band went on to release nine studio albums and 27 singles and broke the US market in the late 1980s as a hard rock band with singles such as Love Removal Machine and Fire Woman. Their music has been described as, ‘fusing a heavy metal revivalist sound with the pseudo-mysticism of The Doors and the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin while adding touches of post-punk Goth rock.’ Although the band have had various line-ups over the years – and split up a couple of times - Ian Astbury and Duffy are the two mainstays and songwriters. In July 2009, Astbury announced that The Cult would not record or produce any more studio albums, focusing on EPs and Digital Releases instead for new material. But he subsequently changed his mind and they released the album Choice of Weapon on 22 May 2012. They are currently working on a tenth studio album, which is due for release later this year. No official music video was recorded for Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles). A live performance from their concert film Dreamtime Live At The Lyceum was included in place of a proper music video. What some thought was a promotional video was posted on YouTube several years ago. The surreal performance features the band singing the first version of the song at an open-air public swimming pool for the German television show Music Convoy. Enjoy…
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 11:58:32 +0000
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