Low - Enter the Bigger Reality (unreleased)

After the split of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Brian Nash, Mark O’Toole and Peter ‘Ped’ Gill continued demoing under various names like The Lads (see relevant post below) or the Shuffle Brothers. According to Gill ‘the Shuffle Brothers was just a joke name we used for booking into recording studios (after FGTH split). There never was an official name for the band and there were no plans to continue the Liverpool style’ (1997). The Lads / Shuffle Brothers recorded various demos, some with Dee Harris on vocals (among the songs recorded Tearing my soul apart, In the Coaless Winter) and many others with Grant Boult (ex Chicane) singing (Boss dog Symphony, Knucklegroove, In God We Trust, Beautiful Loser, The Forest, Deep inside a Bad Dream, Love Comes back in Fashion, Suck on this, Tearing my Soul apart, England in the Rain).

After the Shuffle Brothers Brian Nash and Grant Boult continued as a duo with the act Low. Many of the numbers demoed by the Lads / Shuffle Brothers were re-recorded and appeared on Low's unpublished album, Enter the bigger reality.

Enter the Bigger Reality

- Tearing My Soul Apart

- Love Comes Down

- My Foolish Heart

- England In The Rain

- Hold Me

- When U Were Mine

- Melon

- When Love Comes Back In Fashion

- Life Goes On

- Sleep

- Deep Inside A Bad Dream

- Godless Times

- New Heaven

low

(see also: http://www.fgthonline.org.uk/oldsite/gillinter.html

http://www.zttaat.com/article.php?title=144

http://www.punkbrighton.co.uk/chicane.html )

The Lads – Some Demos (1987-1988)

‘The split of FGTH and the legal episodes aside marked the beginning of solo careers of both Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford. Holly teamed up with producers Steve Lovell (who once played the guitar in the pre-FGTH Hollycaust), Stephen Hague and the late Dan Hartman and went on to release several singles which included the massive hits, Love Train & Americanos. Holly also went onto to release four solo albums (Blast, 1989; Hollelujah, remix compilation album, 1990; Dreams That Money Can't Buy, 1991; and Soulstream, 1999). Paul Rutherford released three relatively unsuccessful ABC produced singles, none of which were hits although Get Real, his first release was a club hit abroad, the album Oh World (1989) followed.

‘The lads, O'Toole, Nash, and Gill, were determined to go on after Liverpool as Frankie Goes To Hollywood with a new singer. They continued to use the name and aired an ad on Music Box in 1987 asking for interested singers to apply for the job. The ad featured some demo take-outs which sounded like the Liverpool-Frankie. The Lads set up offices in Kensington and also advertised in the music press for a new singer. During a period of two years, two singers were successfully recruited: first came Dee (Dave) Harris (ex-Fashion), then Grant Boult in 1988. During this time the Lads came up against an issue with them continuing to use the name FGTH. Holly, back in 1984 had, without informing the rest of the band registered the F.G.T.H. name as a Limited Company, some dismay was expressed when the rest of the band discovered this but it was agreed between them all that a contract should be drawn up between Holly and the rest of the band that in essence stated that no-one person could leave and continue to use the FGTH name without the permission of each other. Now, as the lads were using the name after Holly left, they kept this agreement in mind and approached Paul Rutherford, who had no objections to them continuing with the name, they then approached Holly’s lawyers for his approval, a condition on the possible use of the band name was came the reply, it was felt by the Lads that any conditions would be unworkable and they declined the offer.

‘Mark, Ped, Nasher & Grant were now without a band name but booked themselves into studios in Camden (London), under various name (Slapper, Trout & Pike and The Shuffle Brothers being two) and continued to record & write songs with Grant being the main singer & lyricist. Songs recorded at the time included such titles as; Tearing My Soul Apart, England In The Rain, Love Come Back In Fashion, Deep Inside A Bad Dream, Boss Dog, I Want You and the wonderfully Franki’esque sounding, Suck On This.’

Some Demos (1987-1988)

- Boss Dog Symphony (Instr.)

- Boss Dog Symphony (Vox)

- In the Coolest Winter

- In God We Trust

- Untitled

lads

(see: http://www.steveirving.entadsl.com/FGTH/html/fgth_history5.html )

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Liverpool Sessions (1985-87)

‘After the huge successes of the previous 18 months and extensive touring the band needed some time off just to relax and contemplate the future and also to work on a new album. After all the members returned from well deserved individual holidays they were brought back together by ZTT to the Irish Manor House surroundings of Boris House in Kilkenny, mainly to start writing the next release and also for Tax reasons. The first track to be penned was Warriors Of The Wasteland, which was reported as a possible next-album title as early as July 1985. By now feelings between Holly & the rest of the band were becoming strained, musical directions being one of the main problems, the Lads by this time had grown in their appreciation of studio knowledge and along with their love for playing live wanted to carry this sound onto the new album, Holly wanted to keep it dance based, a sound he always loved. The lads would record demo’s on their four track portastudio downstairs at Boris House then pass the tapes onto Holly to write the lyrics and record the vocals in his room.

‘After Ireland they all travelled to Ibiza for a short while to lay down tracks at Mediterranean studios, about half of the album had been written by this point. After two weeks, next was the Wisseloord Studios in Hilversum, The Netherland [see relevant posts]. Trevor Horn had promised the band he was to be producer of the new album, however, Steve Lipson (his junior) took the producer role - unbeknown to the band - this only created more feelings of discomfort. Steve was perhaps too easy going. Holly would turn up at 9 am in the studio to start with, the lads preferred starting late in the afternoon and working through the night, as a result very little time was spent with each party recording at the same time, ZTT later claimed Holly appeared for only 23 days recording out of a seven month period, although Holly was going through some personal & private trauma’s at this time he would later reveal in his Autobiography.

‘The album with around 11 tracks recorded was eventually completed and passed onto to Trevor Horn to mix for it’s release, he was now acting as Executive Producer. This process took around 5 months as Trevor was busy with other artists on his books at the time. In the end, the new album Liverpool was released on October 20, 1986, Liverpool eventually contains only 8 tracks and sounds very different to Welcome To The Pleasuredome. Holly later said that he didn't like the new style that the Lads were attempting and was sometimes bemused at their approach, preferring the 'electronic dirty disco' style of Pleasuerdome. The Lads as said earlier had learned much over the last few years, technology had advanced and recording wise they wanted to move on from an electronic sound to a much more live fee, in fact the original pre-produced Horn tracks from Holland were even more ‘Rock’ sounding than the released final mix of the album.’

Some of the demos recorded in the various sessions included unreleased tracks:

- Kiss

- Forest

- Delirious

Others are alternative takes of numbers to appear on Liverpool LP or on the singles’ b-sides:

- Rage Hard (1 and 2)

- The Waves

- Anyone Out There

lvpl_sessions

( see: http://www.steveirving.entadsl.com/FGTH/html/fgth_history3.html )

Dead or Alive - Live at Rotter’s Bar, Manchester (1982) [Re-Up]

This is arguably among the early shows featuring the new line-up, featuring bass player Mike Percy, new guitarist Wayne Hussey and keyboard player Monty Healy (cf. the article in the picture, referred to another gig – this time at Pickwick’s – a few weeks before the Manchester show).
Here are Merseysound journalist Linda Walsh's memory of the 1982 Pickwick's show: "What a difference seven months makes [with] the departure of Mitch and Sue and the arrival of their replacements Wayne Hussey and Mike Pursey [sic]. [...] After wading through the thick 'smoke' which now engulfed the stage the band produced a set of over an hour long brimming over with new songs. Altough they were all excellent in quality none of them were, unfortunately the slower numbers I've been waiting for to stop the lengthy set verging dangerously on the edge of monotony. New material such as the now hopefully released 'It's Been Hours Now' was mingled with the old favourites, 'Number Eleven', 'Nowhere to Nowhere' and a superb rendition of 'Flowers' which more than compensated for the somewhat disappointing 'I'm Falling'. Burns' voice continued to soar and plummet to amazing heights and depths backed by a powerful display of drumming courtesy of Joe Musker" (Feb. 1982)

Live at Rotter’s Bar 1982

(The tracks are organized in alphabetical order)
– Guildered Splinters
– It’s been Hours Now (1 and 2)
– Military
– Misty Circles (1 and 2)
– Number 11
– Number 12
– Number 11 / Military
– Selfish Side
– The Stranger
– Whirlpool

DoA – At Rotter’s Bar (1982)