Cutting Crew
is a pop rock band formed in England in 1985, best known for their United States #1 hit, "(I Just) Died in Your Arms".
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CUTTING CREW TICKETS
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Career
Vocalist
Nick Van Eede founded the group along with
Canadian guitarist Kevin Scott MacMichael in 1985, and the two made
demos that led to a
recording contract, before
bassist Colin Farley and
drummer Martin Beadle joined in 1986.
Their first album,
Broadcast
, released in 1986, provided the first
U.S. hit for
Richard Branson's
Virgin Records. Virgin flew the band to New York for initial recordings of the album, then to Australia to shoot videos.
[1] The unknown band shot to #1 in the U.S., Canada and Norway with their debut single, "
(I Just) Died in Your Arms". Their most popular
single, it was a multiformat success in the U.S., where it also reached number four on the
Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, #24 on the
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart and —in an extended remix version— #37 on the
Hot Dance/Club Play chart. The song peaked at #4 in the
UK Singles Chart, as well as in Switzerland and South Africa; it went to #2 in Sweden and Ireland, and #9 in Austria.
[2]
The choice for follow-up single in the UK had been "I've Been In Love Before", but that song only spent three weeks in the UK Top 40, peaking at #31. Their choice for follow-up single in the U.S. was their third UK release, "One For The Mockingbird", but the song was a relative commercial disappointment on both sides of the Atlantic, just cracking the Top 40 of the Hot 100 at #38 and hitting #29 on the Mainstream Rock chart in the U.S., #47 in Canada and #52 in the UK Singles Chart.
The band took a chance on "I've Been in Love Before" again, this time with greater success. The song became Cutting Crew's second U.S. Top 10 on the Hot 100, peaking at #9, and was their first major hit on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart, where it peaked at #4. This success prompted a UK re-release, and this time it spent five weeks in the UK Singles Chart Top 40, peaking at #24. The song failed to chart throughout most of Europe, but it peaked at #8 in Canada. Despite an unflattering review by
Rolling Stone
magazine, the band received a
Grammy nomination as the Best New Artist of 1987.
The Scattering
was released in early 1989. Its lead single, "(Between a) Rock and a Hard Place," (CA 54, UK 66, U.S. 77) failed to reach the Top 40. Van Eede's vocal style, however, did score a sizable U.S. Adult Contemporary hit with "Everything But My Pride". That song peaked at #4 and stayed in the top 50 for 22 weeks. It climbed to #72 on the Canadian pop charts, though it failed to hit the U.S. Hot 100. The prophetically named "The Last Thing" scaled the AC charts as high as #17 in early 1990 and went to #90 on the Canadian chart, and has been their final chart hit to date. Although a video for the title track did air briefly in the UK and North America, "The Scattering" failed to chart.
Cutting Crew's third album,
Compus Mentus
, released in 1992, failed to chart.
After the band broke up in 1993, MacMichael joined forces with
Robert Plant, and played on his
Fate of Nations
album. MacMichael died of
lung cancer on New Year's Eve 2002, at his home in
Nova Scotia, at the age of 51.
Van Eede continued as a solo artist, producer, and songwriter. Colin Farley, the bass player in the 1980s line up, currently lives in
Surrey and continues to work in the
music industry, playing with his new band in
pubs. Drummer Martin Beedle retired from professional music.
In 2006, Van Eede reformed the group with a completely new line-up. They released an album,
Grinning Souls
, in February 2006 on the Hypertension
record label. The new band toured
Germany early the same year and played on tours in the UK and
Denmark. In 2008, Cutting Crew signed a U.S. deal with label
Spectra Records.
Members
- Nick Van Eede - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards
- Kevin MacMichael - lead guitar
- Colin Farley - bass
- Martin "Frosty" Beedle - drums
- Tony Moore - keyboards
Discography
- 1986 Broadcast
- 1989 The Scattering
- 1992 Compus Mentus
- 2006 Grinning Souls
References
- Interview with Nick Van Eede
- http://hitparade.ch/showitem.asp?interpret=Cutting+Crew&titel=%28I+Just%29+Died+In+Your+Arms&cat=s