Frankie Goes to Hollywood

At certain times in music a band arrives and sparks things up and before you know it they fizzle out. Frankie goes to Hollywood (FGTH) are certainly a band that fits that bracket perfectly.

The band consisted of Holly Johnson, Paul Rutherford, Mark O'Toole, Brian Nash and Peter Gill who all hailed from Liverpool and there music was a high energy dance music mixed with synth pop. The group emerged out of the late punk scene of the late seventies and the nucleus of the band reformed in 1982 and made a recording on the John Peel sessions on Radio 1 in 1982 and an appearance on Channel 4 music programme The Tube whilst still without a recording contract. Such was the interest in the group that Trevor Horn signed the group for his new label ZTT records.

The band released 'Relax' but it didn't make big strides until an appearance on Top of the Pops and an subsequent ban by Radio 1 DJ Mike Read and the BBC for it's overtly sexual lyrics and graphics on the record sleeve. Such was the interest the single shot to the top spot and stayed there for 5 weeks causing the BBC acute embarrasment as they could not feature the song on there flagship programme.

The follow up single the anti-war song 'Two Tribes' did even better going straight in at number 1 and stayed there for 9 weeks with sales going over 1.5 million. The success of that song revigorated interest in 'Relax' and the song re-entered the charts and the band held the top 2 spots in the single charts. All this coincided with the marketing of the group and the infamous 'relax' and 'frankie says' t-shirts that all young people were now wearing. The band now had serious support.

The third single was released late 1984 'The power of love' which was a christmas ballad and again the song went to number one. They were the first act since Gerry and the Pacemakers to obtain 3 number ones from there first 3 single releases. The song didn't enjoy a long stay as the iconic 'do they know it's christmas' was released and knocked it off the top spot.

They released the album 'Welcome to the pleasuredome' and the title track was released as a single but the single only reached number 2. Many thought this was now the decline of the band and new material didn't appear for over 18 months.

In late 1986 they released 'Rage hard' a more harder edge sound and the song peaked at number 4. The second album was released and unfortunately it was panned by the popular press and subsequent singles 'Warriors of the wasteland' and 'Watching the wildlife' barely made a dent on the top 30.

The pressure was starting to tell on the group and the factions saw Holly Johnson disengage himself with the band and a altercation between Johnson and O'toole at a Wembley Arena concert in 1987 eventually saw Johnson leave the band citing Musical differences.

As good as it started the end was bitter with court cases with ZTT holding Johnson and the band accountable, after 2 years Johnson won the case due to 'restrictive restraint of trade' and subsequently the rest of the band were released from there contracts.

The band that said were a breath of fresh air at the time and were controversial but not on the scale of the Sex Pistols but they certainly had message regarding sex, war, politics and religion. All often hot topics but they did it in true Frankie style.

For further listening