Frankie Goes To Hollywood

A (relatively) in-depth analysis of the pop band Frankie Goes To Hollywood in just under thirty minutes.

Goes to Hollywood signed to ZTT Records in 1983. Their debut album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome was released in 1984. Produced by Trevor Horn, it achieved advance sales of more than a million, and their first three singles, Relax, Two Tribes and The Power of Love, reached number one on the UK singles chart.

Their second album, Liverpool was released in 1986. The album sold fewer copies, and they disbanded acrimoniously the following year. Holly Johnson successfully sued ZTT to leave his contract and began a solo career. He declined invitations to reunite and attempted to block the band from using the Frankie name. In 2004, the group reunited without Holly Johnson and Brian Nash to perform at a Prince's Trust charity concert, with Ryan Molloy on vocals, and underwent a subsequent tour in 2005.

In 2011, ZTT reissued an expanded edition of Liverpool, plus The Art of the 12", a compilation of tracks from ZTT artists including Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Universal Music purchased ZTT in 2017. The group reunited with Johnson and Nash for the first time since 1987 to perform for the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest.

Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford were openly gay throughout the group's existence, making Frankie Goes to Hollywood the first openly gay major pop act, with gay rights and sexuality becoming a theme of their music and performances. The BBC famously banned them from broadcast, which only generated further publicity.

It has been reported that a Frankie Goes to Hollywood biographical film is in development, based on Johnson's memoir. Bernard Rose, who was responsible for the Relax music video, is set to direct, with Callum Scott Howells as Johnson.

In this episode I am in conversation with Dr. Andrew Webber.

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Mathew Woodall