Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Having formed in Liverpool in the early 80s, Frankie Goes To Hollywood became the most contentious and groundbreaking musical force that decade.
In a chart saturated with the saccharine pop of Wham! and Duran Duran, Frankie bought a much-needed sense of danger with their first three singles systematically breaking every British taboo – sex, politics and religion.
Peter Gill (drums), Holly Johnson (vocals), Brian Nash (guitar), Mark O’Toole (bass) and Paul Rutherford (vocals) became the first signing to ZTT Records. Both their first single and it’s video were banned by the BBC but still managed to top the charts. In fact while ‘Relax’ was at number one in the UK, another Horn production – Yes’ ‘Owner of a Lovely Heart’ – was at number one in the USA.
‘Relax’ stayed at number one for five weeks and remained on the chart for the rest of 1984, selling almost two million copies. When its follow-up ‘Two Tribes’ hit number one, ‘Relax’ came back up the chart and Frankie occupied the number one and number two spots. ‘The Power of Love’ followed at Christmas 1984 by which time the vast majority of under-20s in the UK were wearing a Frankie Say… t-shirt.
By this stage Trevor Horn was also widely regarded as the “king of the remix” for his inspirational use of the 12” single and what it could offer. When Chris Blackwell took Horn to New York’s notorious Studio 54 discothèque he was truly inspired, returning to London to create two new remixes of ‘Relax’ which joined a whole set of radical reinterpretations and revisions of this and his other productions from that era.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s debut album Welcome To The Pleasure Dome took over a million pre-orders before it even reached the shops. It’s follow-up, Liverpool, consolidated the band’s success and drew to a close the Frankie story. As Paul Rutherford once said quoting Bladerunner, “the brightest stars shine for the shortest time…”
