Reunited Culture Club were scheduled to perform their Colour By Numbers album in full with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra tomorrow. For at least a month, what's been showing on the BBC site was '80's icons Culture Club' and a recent picture of the band together.

I just checked the site now, and the title has changed to '80's icon Boy George' and shows a picture of just him:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/r6hbj5

So what happened this time, and will they make up in time for me to see them live in December? Discuss!

It's not clear whether the whole reunion is cancelled or whether the others just didn't want to be part of this particular project of recording Colour by Numbers with the orchestra.

But I wouldn't be surprised if they had a disagreement. They have never gotten along. Hate to say it, but I told you so!

It's a little weird though because I heard online an interview with George that was recorded at the beginning of this month and he said they were all getting along. But George tends to say things in interviews sometimes that aren't true, so who knows!

Here is the explanation given on Boy George's website for the other members of Culture Club not being included.

"We are so excited about the unique performance of Colour By Numbers which is happening with the BBC Philharmonic orchestra tonight and going out on R2 on 27 September!
Boy George and some great special guests are sounding incredible in rehearsals and putting a totally unique spin on the iconic album.
Jon, Mikey and Roy are not performing tonight with the orchestra as the show has now become totally acoustic, but they have been involved and are so excited to hear the finished show before the tour later in the year"

This doesn't quite make sense to me. Why can't Jon, Roy and Mikey play acoustic/unplugged instruments? It was such an accomplishment for them all. They should have been included somehow someway. George has invited other guests like Jimmy Somerville but he can't find a place for Jon, Mikey and Roy? This is why I don't like George. He always has to be in control of everything and fails include the other guys in the band.

This is what I posted on the BBC Philharmonic Facebook page:

"VERY glad I didn't schlep up to Manchester for a show billed as 'Culture Club' until only a few days before the show. Don't get me wrong, I love Boy George on his own, but BG =/= CC and this just strikes me as profoundly wrong. So disappointed, and that explanation is seriously iffy. A show of this size, they just suddenly decided to change at the very last minute to such an extent that 3/4ths of the band, all professional musicians with 30+ years of experience, are now only able to take part as audience members? And this was only publicly addressed after people started asking questions? Really?"

I agree 100%. Honestly though I don't think all of Colour by Numbers really is suited to be performed with an orchestra. I would rather hear it with a regular band. I think once George figured out it wasn't going to work with the rest of CC, he should have tried to change it away from being just CBN. He could have done a few CC songs like Victims that work with an orchestra and mix them with some of his solo orchestra based stuff like Il Adore from Cheapness and Beauty.

It has been very trendy now to play all of a classic album, but I honestly don't see the point of it. If I wanted to hear one album from start to finish I could just sit home and listen to it. I prefer when artists mix things up and play a couple of songs from each of their albums.

It just seems to me this was trying to combine two very big trends in music performance recently, playing all of one album and pop stars singing with orchestras without really thinking if it would work for Boy George and Culture Club.