Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome (single, b-sides and remixes)

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Here are Holly Johnson’s recollections of the writing and the recording of the band’s fourth single, Welcome to the Pleasuredome:

“There were one or two preliminary meetings with Trevor Horn, Jill Sinclair and Paul Morley. Trevor was porky and short with huge spectacles and a slight Durham accent. Jill was a hefty, dark-haired blue-stocking with a school marmish manner. She reminded me a bit of Tina Charles, Trevor's former protegee. Morley, an ex-NME journalist, was employed as Artistic Director of the company. Jill, Trevor and Paul Morley took Bob, Sharon, Paul and me to dinner at the Hiroko restaurant at the Kensington Hilton. Paul and I went to another meeting at Sarm West, then a run-down studio owned by Chris Blackwell, proprietor of Island Records, who were going to distribute Trevor's label. Morley was there posing in Eighties black clothes and sipping some alcoholic beverage out of a metal flask. He told us that the label would be called ZAANG TUUM TU B, after a Futurist poem. I think we were meant to be astounded at thec originality of the idea.
We waited and Trevor eventually came to talk to us. He told us of his plans to refurbish the studio and building. We played him some new demos, including 'Welcome To The Pleasuredome' I believe, and he criticised my rhyming `power' with `hour' o --­something like that. Trevor said that we had to wait until the Autumn before he was free to record with us, and before his studio would be refurbished.” (A Bone in My Flute, 158)

“ZTT wanted the fourth single off the album to be an edited version of `Welcome To The Pleasuredome'. What had started out as a three-and-a-half-minute demo done at a John Peel session turned into a twenty-minute opus courtesy of Trevor's magic wand. Steve Lipson and Andy Richards had programmed long sequenced sections based on the original musical motifs of the demo. Lipson had also visited the aviary in Regent's Park Zoo for the exotic sound effects at the beginning of the track. This conjured up a kind of Paradise or Garden Of Eden soundscape, where statues sing with flute-like voices as the perfumed breeze blows over them. Then came a keyboard section of arpeggios composed by Andy Richards. Steve Howe, an old friend of Trevor's from his Yes days, also contributed an acoustic guitar solo.
So the next thing was to turn it back into a three-and-a-half­minute pop song! Vicious editing was needed, and of course a promotional video. No expense was spared as ZTT were assured of massive royalties. Bernard Rose was called in again to create another epic-looking video. The budget was something between sixty and eighty thousand pounds.
AH this was an attempt to make the fourth single into another number one, which was not to be. When it was released, many people had already bought the track on the album and the single stalled at number two in the Gallup charts. The video was also banned by the BBC as it showed 'The Lads' stealing a car, drinking while driving and running down two pedestrians (Morley and wife - if only!).
I wore an Anthony Price suit for the video but felt I looked a bit tired. Also ZTT had briefed Bernard Rose to make more use of the rest of the band rather than focusing the video on me lip­syncing the track, another attempt to make sure that I did not become `too indispensable'.
While we were filming this video, Jill Sinclair asked us to go to Paris to do a 'TV show the day before we started our world tour, a day we desperately needed for packing etc. She came down to the video shoot to try to persuade us, but I was in no mood. I told her to fuck off. I was not going to be bullied, even though she was claiming that we could sell another hundred thousand units in France if we did the show. I have never regretted that particular moment as she promised I would do one day. She left the building at my request, tail between her little legs.” (ABIMF, 209-210)

Welcome to the Pleasuredome (single, b-sides and remixes)
1. Happy Hi (All In The Body)
2. Welcome To The Pleasuredome (Altered Real)
3. Get It On (Shorter Version)
4. Happy Hi
5. Welcome To The Pleasuredome (CD Mix)
6. Welcome To The Pleasuredome (Real Altered)
7. Get It On (Even Longer Version)
8. Welcome To The Pleasuredome (Fruitness Mix)
9. Relax (International)
10. Welcome To The Pleasuredome (Tribal Urban Mix)
11. Welcome To The Pleasuredome (Pleasurefix)
12. Disneyland
13. Welcome To The Pleasuredome (Kzap Edit)
14. Welcome To The Pleasuredome (Into Battle Mix)
15. Happy Hi (All In The Mind)

welcome to the pleasuredome