414) Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome

I wasn’t born for Beatlemania, I was too young for punk so the first genuine music phenomenon I can recall is Frankie Goes To Hollywood who stormed the UK in 1984, I was the perfect age, thirteen. 

I had already started my musical snobbery so other acts who were getting to number one, Flying Pickets, Lionel Ritchie and Jim Diamond were of no interest to me, apologies to any of their fans.

A dramatic operatic voice welcomes us in before Holly speaks and laughs but this is the scene setter for the title track a plus ten-minute opus and as soon as the band launch into their “hoo ha’s” I’m in. I don’t care that Horn dominated production wise and brought in outside musicians as according to the sleeve the band wrote the song. The chorus is a belter and engages from start to finish.

How do you follow that, how about one of the biggest number ones ever, Relax, I would hope we the UK record buying public would have bought it without Mike Reid giving it more publicity by banning it for the lyrics. Singers Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford were openly gay, different times but really who cares. It became an instant classic and still is, wonderful bass throughout and takes me back to the excitement of a decent song getting to number one.

The follow up Two Tribes also become an instant classic, more energetic than Relax, had a great video and a heavier sound and the final minute as they speed up then the sudden ending and then comeback is exhilarating.

The third number one off this record, The Power of Love,  they went for the Christmas market, it’s beautifully sung by Johnston and can we all have this every day of the week over Cliff.

Now although they wrote three number ones they must have been not the most prolific as we have four cover versions, War is dated with a Ronald Reagan impersonator throughout , Ferry Across the Mersey good vocal but adds nothing to the original and I have no desire to hear their version of San Jose ever again but they rip up Springsteen’s Born to Run.

Of the originals Krisco Kisses is punchy & although dated The Only Star in Heaven I like the chorus with Paul Rutherford stepping forward and they throw everything at it with piano and backing singers.

The rest is just filler really, but it was exciting to watch a band come from nowhere to be the biggest band in the land within the year and the hits ensured they will always be remembered fondly.

7/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Relax