Cutting Crew

Cutting Crew

Cutting Crew are a London-based new wave, pop and pop rock group formed in 1985 by vocalist Nick Van Eede and Canadian guitarist Kevin Scott MacMichael. The group begins with demo recordings that lead to a record deal, and bassist Colin Farley and drummer Martin Beadle join in 1986. The line-up later includes Tony Moore, Tom Arnold, Dominic Finley, Sam Flynn and Gareth Moulton, alongside Van Eede and MacMichael.

Breakthrough and early success

Their debut album, Broadcast, appears in 1986 and becomes the first U.S. number one album for Richard Branson’s Virgin Records. It includes their best-known single, “(I Just) Died in Your Arms”, which reaches number one in the United States and number four in the United Kingdom. The album also produces another U.S. top-ten single, “I’ve Been in Love Before”.

Cutting Crew receive a Grammy nomination in 1987 for Best New Artist.

Later history

The band breaks up in 1993. Kevin MacMichael later works with Robert Plant and plays on Plant’s Fate of Nations album. MacMichael dies of lung cancer at his home in Nova Scotia on New Year’s Eve 2002.

Nick Van Eede re-forms Cutting Crew in 2006 with a completely new line-up. That version of the group releases Grinning Souls on the Hypertension label, and the band continues in active circulation from its London base.