Cutting Crew

Cutting Crew
Origin	United Kingdom
Genres	Pop rock
Years active	1985–1993 2005–present
Labels	EMI/Virgin Hypertension Spectra
Members
Nick Van Eede Gareth Moulton Sam Flynn Dominic Finley Tom Arnold
Past members
Kevin MacMichael Colin Farley Martin "Frosty" Beedle Tony Moore

The Cutting Crew is a pop rock band formed in England in 1985, best known for their #1 hit, "(I Just) Died in Your Arms".

Career

Vocalist Nick Van Eede founded the group along with Canadian guitarist Kevin 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, was released on Virgin Records in 1986. Although Virgin Records was already a major label in the UK, this song provided the first U.S. hit for Virgin as a full-fledged label. Virgin flew the band to New York City for initial recordings of the album, then to Australia to shoot music videos. The unknown band shot to #1 in the major US market, as well as smaller markets such as Canada and Norway, with their debut single, "(I Just) Died in Your Arms". Their most popular single, it was a multiformat success in the US, 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 another major market, the UK Singles Chart, as well as becoming a hit in the smaller Switzerland and South Africa markets. It went to #2 in Sweden and Ireland, and #9 in Austria.^[1]

The choice for follow-up single in the UK had been "I've Been In Love Before", but that song spent only 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 Frosty Beedle has a successful career as a session musician and in the West End.

In 2005, 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 1985-1993

• Nick Van Eede - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards
• Kevin MacMichael - lead guitar
• Colin Farley - bass
• Martin "Frosty" Beedle - drums
• Tony Moore - keyboards

Members 2005-present

• Nick Van Eede - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards
• Gareth Moulton - guitar
• Sam Flynn - Keyboards
• Dominic Finley - Bass
• Tom Arnold - Drums

Discography

Main article: Cutting Crew discography

• 1986 Broadcast
• 1989 The Scattering
• 1992 Compus Mentus
• 2006 Grinning Souls

References

1. ^ Steffen Hung. "Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died In Your Arms". hitparade.ch. http://hitparade.ch/showitem.asp?interpret=Cutting+Crew&titel=%28I+Just%29+Died+In+Your+Arms&cat=s. Retrieved 2010-05-21. 

External links

• VH1 artist profile
• Cutting Crew official website