Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax, It's Frankie...

Remix by Dakeyne / DMC

Frankie Goes To Hollywood (FGTH) was one of the most controversial and commercially successful UK pop acts of the early 1980s. The Liverpool group was fronted by vocalist Holly Johnson, supported by Paul Rutherford ( backing vocals ), Peter Gill ( drums ), Mark O'Toole ( bass ) and Brian Nash ( guitar ).

The group's debut single " Relax " was famously banned by the BBC and subsequently topped the UK singles chart for five weeks, enjoying prolonged chart success throughout 1984. Following the phenomenal follow-up success of " Two Tribes " and the seasonal " The Power Of Love ", FGTH became only the second act in the history of the UK charts to reach number one with their first three singles (the first being Gerry and the Pacemakers in 1964).

Formation

On the B-side to the group's first single, Johnson explained that the group's name derived from a page from the New Yorker magazine, featuring the headline "Frankie Goes To Hollywood" and a picture of Frank Sinatra . An alternate story relates that a similar article about Frankie Vaughan was the source for the group's name. The original group named "Frankie Goes To Hollywood" allegedly dates from 1980. [1]

The nucleus of the group emerged from the late 1970s Liverpool punk scene. Lead singer Holly Johnson had played bass with Big In Japan , and had also released two solo singles. Paul Rutherford — who did not join until later — had sung in The Spitfire Boys . Local musicians Peter Gill (drums), Jed O'Toole (bass) and Jed's cousin Brian Nash (guitar) initially joined Johnson, and the band secured a number of local gigs. During a particularly fluid period of personnel changes, Nash left and Mark O'Toole joined on bass, brother Jed switching to guitar. A female vocalist, Sonya Mazunda , subsequently joined the group, and this line-up performed the first Frankie gig at the Liverpool pub "Pickwicks", supporting "Hambi & The Dance".

Rutherford, who had been temporarily filling in as backing vocalist for the headlining act, apparently got so caught up in Frankie's performance that he effectively replaced Mazunda that very night. The new all-male musical line-up subsequently toured locally with a leather-clad duo known as "The Leatherpets", and managed to fund promotional videos and demos, despite being eventually turned down by both Arista and Phonogram . In October 1982, the group recorded a John Peel session for BBC Radio One , comprising the originals " Krisco Kisses", "Two Tribes", "Disneyland" and "The World Is My Oyster". Around this time Jed O'Toole left the group, to be replaced by the returning Nash.

In November 1982, the group were invited to record a video for "Relax" by the Channel Four show " The Tube " at the Liverpool State Ballroom. After the broadcast, the Peel session was repeated on radio, and a new session recorded for the BBC, comprising " Welcome To The Pleasuredome ", "The Only Star In Heaven" and "Relax". These performances, along with a repeat of the "Tube" video, apparently convinced Trevor Horn to sign the group for his new label, ZTT Records , in early 1983.

"Relax"

The final cut of "Relax" was released in October 1983 and got a modicum of airplay, allowing it steady progress into the UK Top 40. After an appearance on Top Of The Pops , the song shot into the Top 10 — and then would come the incident which would propel both song and band into pop notoriety forever.

BBC Radio 1 disc jockey Mike Read was playing the record on his show when he noticed the mild sexual imagery used as a design on the front cover, including one of the more salacious quotes from the lyrics. This prompted him to listen more intently to the words, and his reaction was such that he removed the disc from the turntable live on air, branding it "disgusting". [1]

On January 10 , 1984 , two months after its initial release, and without Read's knowledge or input, the BBC decided to ban the record from all its TV and radio outlets. A surge to buy the single and find out what the controversy was about followed. Music journalist and ZTT associate Paul Morley immediately started a PR campaign which led to a massive demand for the band and song.

"Relax" immediately shot to Number 1 in the UK charts and stayed there for five weeks, leading to the ludicrous and embarrassing situation for the BBC whereby they couldn't feature the nation's best-selling single on their flagship chart shows on TV and radio.

Also getting in on the act was fashion designer Katharine Hamnett , who designed a range of minimalist, sloganeering T-shirts : "Frankie Say Relax Don't Do It", "Frankie Say War Hide Yourself", "Frankie Say Arm The Unemployed". (T-shirts with "Frankie Says " were knockoffs.) Prior to these, Hamnett had also designed the familiar "Choose Life" T-shirts worn by Wham! on their video for "Wake Me Up before You Go Go".

The offending nature of "Relax" was difficult to decipher entirely, although outrage was expressed in some quarters.

Allegedly the expression ...when you want to suck it to it... which appeared on the sleeve and caused Read's outrage was, in fact, a deliberate inaccuracy placed on the sleeve to cause extra interest and intrigue. The real words were, in fact, ...when you want to SOCK it to it... . As for the expression ...when you want to come... , the imagery is inescapable. The design, meanwhile, depicted a man and woman pressed against each other, back to back, with clothed upper bodies but bared buttocks . In a relatively liberalised mid-1980s period, this was saucy at best, not shocking. The video, however, was unsurprisingly banned as it depicted an S&M den (filmed in a Liverpool nightclub called The Coconut Grove , near Johnson's home at the time).

Adding to the controversy surrounding the song, rumours began to circulate after its release that the single had actually been recorded by session musicians. Some time later, producer Trevor Horn admitted that in fact he had cut a 'demo' version of the track with The Blockheads , the renowned backing group for New Wave icon Ian Dury . He then cut a second version with FGTH, but was unhappy with the result and took the tape away to work on it. The perfectionist Horn then spent five weeks refining it, augmenting the basic tracks with extensive overdubs by session musicians. "Relax" was a massive gamble for Horn and his record label, ZTT, and its failure could well have bankrupted him. By the time it was completed, it had cost £70,000 in studio time alone, with the video clip costing an additional £15,000.

"Two Tribes"

"Relax" was followed into the charts by "Two Tribes", a topical song about nuclear war . Featuring sirens, the unmistakable voice of Patrick Allen (who voiced the British Government 's actual nuclear warning ads two years earlier) and another hard-faced, electronic backing, it went into the UK charts straight in at Number 1 and stayed there for a phenomenal nine weeks (the first single to do so since Wings' " Mull of Kintyre " had spent nine weeks at the top in late 1977 and early 1978).

There were no problems with the song's lyrics this time, but again the video was not shown on British television, this time due to its overtly violent nature. Directed by the renowned duo of Kevin Godley and Lol Crème (half of '70s rock band 10cc ) it featured lookalikes of Cold War leaders Ronald Reagan and Konstantin Chernenko wrestling in a marquee while band members and others laid bets on the outcome. Ultimately, the audience - consisting of other world leaders - starts to join in the fight, and eventually Earth was seen to explode .

What made the reign of "Two Tribes" at the top even more notable was the continuing success of its predecessor. "Relax" had made a natural decline down the charts but on the release of "Two Tribes", sales of it began to rise again to the extent that FGTH held the top two spots in the UK charts, the first act to do so since the posthumous clamour for singles by John Lennon at the beginning of 1981.

This text is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Frankie Goes To Hollywood".