Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Perhaps one of the greatest success story of the 80s, Liverpool
group Frankie Goes To Hollywood were more than a mere pop group,
they were an all-conquering phenomenon. "Frankie Say . . .
" was emblazoned across the chests of millions of Britons,
with the T-shirts selling as well as the records.
Their first single, Relax, was deemed unsuitable to be
played on the radio. BBC Radio 1 instantly banned it and it shot
straight to the top of the charts. It went on to become the
biggest selling single in Britain of the 80s, in its original
7" and also in its remixed versions ( 12", 15" and
19").
Two fascinating tensions ran through the group. The gay and
straight factions of the band wildly over-exaggerated their
sexuality. The "out" frontmen, Holly Johnson and Paul
Rutherford, were sending militant coded messages to the many
other occupants of the 80s singles charts who played for their
team but still claimed to be heterosexual.
As a reaction, the other three members of FGTH - three years
younger and "very scally" (guitarist Brian "Nasher"
Nash, bassist Mark O'Toole and drummer Ped Gill) - spent every
waking hour behaving like off-duty members of Liverpool FC to
remind the world that they ('The Lads") couldn't be less
homosexual if they tried.
The other tension - palpable but not as pronounced - was that
four of them were from the rough-arsed crime-ridden estates of
Norris Green and Cantril Farm, while Holly hailed from Penny
Lane.
Rather than disguise this class division, Holly played it as
a cartoonish enlargement, wearing an educated Noel Coward air
and offering waspish one-liners while the rest of the group
tried to drink as much beer as humanly possible.
For one brief glorious moment, FGTH were the biggest group in
Britain, and the first act since The Beatles to hold both the
Number 1 and Number 2 position in the charts. Tabloid
newspapers put The Frankie Phenomenon on their front pages with
headlines such as "Gay Sex Tops Pops" and "Gender
Benders" all making wonderful copy.
They
went on to more hits, more controversy, more number one singles
(Two Tribes and The Power Of Love), more
sloganeering T-shirts, remix singles and slightly bogus artwork
stuffed with forced symbolism - and then they were gone.
At Easter in 1993 Holly Johnson was declared HIV Positive
after an AIDS diagnosis, and as everyone contracting the illness
at the time was dying and no medicine was available that
appeared to help, he was told his condition was terminal.
To make matters worse, hysterical coverage of the suffering
of various high-profile gay figures in the entertainment
industry was beginning to escalate (Freddie Mercury had just
died, Kenny Everett had just been outed with AIDS) and there was
something of a feeding-frenzy in the press.
Johnson organised an interview with the journalist Alan
Jackson destined for the following Saturday's Times to
announce his illness, but Sun editor Piers Morgan
saw the item in the News International database and published a
coldly unsympathetic cover story for his own publication the
next morning, causing unimaginable distress for Johnson's family
and friends. Alan Jackson sued Morgan, who was found
"guilty of non-bona fide journalistic practices," but
the damage was done.
Fortunately the drugs improved and Johnson's health got
better. He lived on his royalties (although he called FGTH's
deal with their production company ZTT "an abomination that
didn't hold up in court") and made four solo albums, the
last (1999's Soulstream) recorded in his home studio
and released on his own Pleasuredome label.
FGTH were brilliantly produced by Trevor Horn (ex-Buggles),
and remain the only band in history to release a 'greatest hits'
album where all 12 tracks on the record are the same song!
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