Music fans have the chance to buy an Ivor Novello Award presented to Culture Club for a 1980s smash hit that became one of the best-selling singles of all time.
Karma Chameleon by Culture Club topped the charts around the world – and won the gong for Best UK Pop Song, 1983. Now the important piece of music memorabilia is coming up for sale at Hansons Auctioneers on March 17 with a guide price of £1,000-£1,500.
Jim Spencer, associate director at Hansons Auctioneers, said: “This is an absolute musical treasure that brings back magical 1980s musical memories for millions of people.”
The vendor, a 54-year-old Londoner who worked for Virgin Music, explained how she came to own the object: “It was a sad day for those of us who worked at Virgin when Richard Branson sold the Virgin Music empire to EMI in 1992. Virgin Music Publishers were the first to have to pack up their things and leave.
“As part of the creative team we were allowed to take mementos. Karma Chameleon was my favourite track of the decade, it was a kind of karma-justice losing my job but being able to take the Ivor as a keepsake.”
The song, co-written by Phil Pickett, Boy George and Culture Club, won huge success and even made it to the number one spot in America. According to Sir Richard Branson in his autobiography, Losing My Virginity, it ‘became Number 1 in every country in the world that had a chart’.
Karma Chameleon featured in the group’s 1983 album Colour by Numbers. It was released in the UK in September 1983 and spent three weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1984. It was the group’s biggest hit and only US number-one single.
In the UK, it was the second Culture Club single to top the Singles Charts, sticking there for six weeks during September and October 1983. That year it took the crown for being the biggest-selling UK single.
To date, it is the 38th biggest-selling single of all time in the UK, selling 1.52 million copies. It has sold over five million copies globally, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time worldwide. In 2015, the song was voted by the British public as the nation’s ninth favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.
Vendor’s Virgin Music memento
In an interview about the song, Culture Club frontman Boy George said: “The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing. It’s about trying to suck up to everybody. Basically, if you aren’t true, if you don’t act like you feel, then you get Karma-justice, that’s nature’s way of paying you back.”
The bronze statuette coming up for auction features a representation of the Greek Muse of lyric poetry, Euterpe, and an engraved brass plaque which says: ‘Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd, Warner Bros. Music Ltd. “Karma Chameleon” Best Pop Song 1983’.
The vendor, who worked for Virgin Music, said: “It was a sad day for those of us who worked at Virgin when Richard Branson sold the Virgin Music empire to EMI in 1992. Virgin Music Publishers were the first to have to pack up their things and leave. As part of the creative team we were allowed to take mementos. Karma Chameleon was my favourite track of the decade, it was a kind of karma-justice losing my job but being able to take the Ivor as a keepsake.”
How to bid
The Karma Chameleon Ivor Novello Award, Lot number 3116, is due to be sold at Hansons, Heage, Lane, Etwall, Derbyshire, DE65 6LS, on March 17. To find out more or place an advance bid, please email: [email protected].
You can also bid in advance or live online by registering with Hansonslive.co.uk or www.thesaleroom.com. The item will be sold in the Music and Film Memorabilia section of the March 12-18 Antiques & Collectors Auction.
To view the lot click here for Hansonslive
To view the lot click here for thesaleroom.com.
* Please note, you must register with Hansonslive/thesaleroom to bid online.
