Jesus Loves You (band)

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Jesus Loves You


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Background = group_or_band
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Origin = United Kingdom
Genre = Christian pop
Indian classical
House
Years_active = 1989–1992
Label = More Protein, Virgin Records
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Past_members = Boy George
John Themis
Richard Cottle
Jon Quarmby
Colin Elliot
Jagdeep Singh

Jesus Loves You was a British band, founded by the singer Boy George. The music of the band 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.

Band history

After Boy George left the band Culture Club, he tried to start a solo career. He succeeded with the singles taken from his debut album "Sold" in 1987. For the next two albums he wanted to break out in a new direction, by dabbling in electronic dance music. The singles taken from the two albums didn't attain much commercial success, but on the other hand they were often played at clubs.

In order to achieve commercial success again, Boy George founded the band "Jesus Loves You" together with other musicians. He thought the band would be more successful if nobody knew that he was the leader of the band. Boy 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-boyfriend Jon Moss. Ironically, he wrote the song together with Moss. [ [http://swisscharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Jesus+Loves+You&titel=After+The+Love&cat=s Information on "After the Love"] ]

The first three singles by Jesus Loves You only had modest success in the UK singles chart. On a journey across India Boy George got to know 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. "Bow Down Mister" 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 official singles chart.

Because of this success, the debut album of Jesus Loves You was released in the same year, called "The Martyr Mantras". Meanwhile, Boy George felt more and more grateful to Hare Krishna. The religion helped him to conquer his heroin addiction, he said. [ [http://www.apologeticsindex.org/i12.html Hare Krishna in general and Boy George's relationship with HK] ]

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

In July 1992 Jesus Loves You performed in St. Petersburg, Riga, Kiev and as the climax of the tour, in the Moscow Luzhniki Stadium in front of about 35,000 attendees, during a Hare Krishna festival. [ [http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0122a.html The tour] ]

In December 1992 the release of the second album "Popularity Breeds Contempt" was planned. [ [http://www.allaboutboygeorge.com/jesuslovesyou.html Information on Jesus Loves You] ] 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 wasn't released. The remaining songs that were recorded for the album haven't been released. Jesus Loves You disbanded a short time later.

In 2005, a white label 12" and a one-sided promo 12" was 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

Note: The singles only were released in Europe at first and since 1991 also in Australia. 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. [ [http://www.martyrmantras.com Detailed discographies of Jesus Loves You, Boy George and Culture Club] ]

References