Sons of Egypt - Some Demos

The path that led Holly Johnson from being a solo artist to leading Frankie Goes to Hollywood has been quite complicated. After the split of the first line-up of FGTH (including Ambrose Reynolds and Steve Lovell) Johnson was quite active and productive in the underground musical scene. Among the relics of the period 1980-1982 are the demos recorded with the Sons of Egypt.
Here are his memories of the time:

‘Steve (Lovel, ndr), Buddy Mate (a boy working in a Virgin Record shop, ndr.) and I started rehearsing in ‘The Ministry’, a well equipped rehearsal room […]. Our band was to be called WIN (World Intelligence Network), a name taken from the puppet series ‘Joe 90’. Eventually however, Steve and I decided that Buddy’s bass playing wasn’t slick enough. Rather guiltily, we sacked him’ (A Bone in My Flute, 139)

‘A few months after we asked him to leave our group, Buddy Mate formed his own band, out of a group of young scally teenagers. His still-at-school girlfriend Julie played keyboards, Brian Nash (Nasher) played guitar, Buddy played bass guitar, Peter Gill (Ped) played drums and Ged O'Tool (Mark's brother) sang. They used to rehearse in The Cells, a disused prison behind the Hollywood Club in Duke Street, ten minutes' walk away from my flat. I used to go down the hill and watch them rehearse and I even named them - The Dancing Girls.

Eventually, at a friend's suggestion, I replaced Ged as the singer. They thought I was hip as I'd had two singles out on the Eric's label and had been in Big In Japan, a group that some of them had seen as kids at Eric's Saturday matinees. Nasher had a job as an apprentice electrician with the council, and Ped, having just been made redundant from Hygena, had used his redundancy money to buy himself a better drum kit. They were all around sixteen or seventeen years old. I was an `old man' of twenty-one or twenty-two.

I tried to rewrite the songs that they had, putting new lyrics to their backing music. We eventually got a spot on a local Granada TV show as `Sons Of Egypt' which became our name for some unknown reason. `Shake, Shake' was one of the songs [Bring on the Violins was the other, ndr]. The performance was quite good, but the songs in general were not.’ (ABIMF, 141)

‘I had realised I needed to get a live band going if I was ever going to attract record company attention. Eventually Ped and I decided to leave Buddy's band and form another with Mark O'Tool as bass player. We felt a bit guilty leaving Buddy in the lurch, but we knew that his bass playing and his attitude were holding things back.

Almost on the first rehearsal we wrote `Love Has Got A Gun`. a song that appeared on the first Frankie Goes To Hollywood album. […] Quite a few songs were bashed out, just like this, by the three of us Sometimes we would drag the equipment out into the sunny yard at the back of the building. Anyone who joined the band late ­would have to accept that we had written most of the songs.

At this time Sounds, a pop-music newspaper, printed a farn tree of Liverpool bands in which `Frankie Goes To Hollywood’ somehow appeared. This was the band that had never played ­live, with the line-up of Steve Lovell, Ambrose Reynolds a7, Holly Johnson. We decided to take this name, one I had create for my old band, as the name for the new one.

We tried out a few guitarists from the echelons of Mark’s family. There were two brothers who could both play, Vinny and Ged, the latter becoming the guitarist for the first performance, though neither was a very important part of the sound which was dominated by the rhythm section. Ped and I had tried to get &­ guitarist from The Jazz Babies (a.k.a. The Jass Babies, Rob Boardman) to join, but without success. I played maracas while singing at these early rehearsals to fill out our sparse sound. We eventually also added a girl singer, Sonia M (a.k.a. Sonya Mazonda or Mazunda), to do backing vocals. She also added visual interest. She was a short rotund girl of Eastern extraction who told us she collected semen and urine samples in a clinic in the Liverpool Royal Hospital. She had a red satin dress that she had made herself, with a small padded devil's tail safety-pinned to the hem at the back. She was the kind of girl whose stiletto heels came from wire baskets outside shoe shops. Her voice could be described as overpowering. Her style was rather `Frank 'n' Furter Goes To Kwik Save'. (ABIMF, 142-143)

Songs of Egypt recorded several versions of 'Shake Shake' and a few other songs which would then be part of the early FGTH's repertoire. Here you'll find:

- Shake Shake
- Untitled 1 (Is anybody out there)
- Untitled 2 (Bring on the violins)

sons of egypt

Watch the band’s performance on Granada TV here

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Early Recordings (1982-83)

In June 1978 Holly Johnson left Big in Japan to go solo and the group split up two months later. In the meantime Paul Rutherford was singing with the punk act The Spitfire Boys. The band gigged regularly around Liverpool but had a hard time getting a record contract. This pushed Rutherford to quit the group and in September of the same year he joined Peter Wylie and former Big in Japan members Ian Broudie and Budgie in The Opium Eaters. In 1979 the group changed the name to English Opium Eaters and the line-up, and the only original member was now joined by Holly Johnson on bass, Gary Dwyer on drums (future Teardrop Explodes) and Jamie Farrell on guitar (future Ellery Bop). The band split before the end of the year, when Rutherford decided to travel to California, and Johnson – after releasing a couple of solo singles as Holly in 1979 and 1980 (Yankee Rose b/w Treasure Island / Desperate Dan and Hobo Joe b/w Stars of the Bars) – put together another band, Hollycaust with Ambrose Reynolds (ex Big in Japan, Walkie Talkies with Wayne Hussey, Nightmares in Wax with Pete Burns, and future Pink Industry), Phil Hurst (ex Mystery Girls and Nightmares in Wax, both with Pete Burns) and Steve Lovell (ex Tontrix, later Blitz Brothers). The group did not hold together for long and split before changing their name to Frankie Goes to Hollywood (the name was supposedly spotted by Ambrose Reynolds in a headline about Frank Sinatra in a vintage issue of Variety).
During the (English) Opium Eaters and Hollycaust days, Peter Gill (aka Ped, or Pedro, on drums) and Brian Nash (aka Nasher, on guitar) were in a number of local bands, including The Dancing Girls and Sons Of Egypt (but also Tara Box, Motorhead and Saxon, then named Son of a Bitch, for Ped, and Smuzz for Nash), both of which occasionally guested Johnson on vocals. At this time, Mark O’Toole was playing bass in a number of unnamed groups, often with his brother Jed (on guitar). After his days with Sons of Egypt, Ped and the O’Toole brothers teamed up in the yet-nameless early incarnation of FGTH and started to write material that would eventually appear in the first FGTH album (according to Mark O’Toole the fist song the three-piece line-up wrote together was Love Has Got a Gun). In 1982, in Liverpool Holly Johnson was shopping in Virgin Records where he met Gill and the O’Toole brothers and this chance encounter was the start of a new line-up for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, completed for live appearances by Sonya Mazunda (aka Sonia Mazonda) on vocals and dances. This line-up performed the first FGTH gig at the Leeds nightclub The Warehouse, supporting Hambi & The Dance. A few weeks later at Pickwick’s, in Liverpool, Rutherford, at the time filling in on vocals with Hambi & the Dance, was so impressed with FGTH that joined them on stage on vocals and dances for Relax, definitively taking / stealing Mazunda’s place in the group. Ruhterford was also responsible for the fetish aesthetics associated with the band: Liverpool-born photographer John Stoddart recalls that “[for their live appearances] they had these secretary sisters called the Leatherpettes [Julie and Marie Muscatelli] who dressed in stockings. Paul and Holly whipped them with their arses hanging out”.
FGTH were beginning to attract attention and, in mid-1982 Arista Records paid for demos of Relax and Two Tribes to be recorded. Even though Arista didn’t like the result and dropped the group, they managed to shoot a cheap video of both songs, filmed at London’s Hope & Anchor. A few month later the group got money from Phonograms records for demos and the recorded Love Has Got A Gun and Junk Funk. Just before 1983, due to the lack of interest by record companies Ged O’Toole decided to leave the group. He was replaced by his cousin Brian Nash. In November ‘The Tube’, the key music show on fledgling UK TV network Channel 4, had seen the rough and ready video of FGTH, and were sufficiently impressed to commission a rather more impressive re-shoot, at Liverpool’s State ballroom. John Peel’s influential radio one show also offered the boys a recording session, which was broadcast in November 1982, which testifies to the state of the art achievement of the band, with songs like"Krisco Kisses, Two Tribes, Disneyland and The World Is My Oyster.

FGTH early 82-83

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - 1983

A few months after their first Peel session, in February 1983 FGTH werer asked to record a session for David Kid Jensen, another DJ on Radio One (which they did, performing new material, like The Only Star In Heaven, Welcome To The Pleasuredome, Invade My Heart, besides a new veriosn of their early composition, renamed for the occasion Relax -Shoot It In The Right Direction). Producer Trevorn Horn (ex Buggles) heard the show and,highly impressed by the raw energy of the band, revealed his interest in producing the band. A period of inactivity followed, as Horn fulfilled his production commitments with Yes. In the meantime ZTT (Horn’s record company) took full control of the FGTH affairs, getting the group into the studio to develop their sound. They were not allowed to play any more live gigs until Horn was satisfied they had the right sound he was looking for. The group would continue to practice and polish their act while Horn was working withYes on their 90125 album. In September 1983 FGTH finally entered the recording studio to record their first single, then released in October 1983.
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Relax (1983)
- Relax
- One September Monday (7”)
- Ferry Cross the Mersey (12”)

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The 12” was backed with a cover of Gerry and the Peacemaker, while the 7” version featured a weird piece of music and spoken words, actually an interview between journalist Paul Morley and the band (Johnson and Rutherford) about the beginning of FGTH, which is quite interesting: here it is:


One September Monday

Holly Johnson: mmmmm
Paul Morley: What was the danger about Paul, Holly?
Holly Johnson: The danger about Paul?
Paul Morley: I mean what made you realise that here was someone you could work with?
Holly Johnson: I didn't until (pause) sometime this year in fact
Paul Morley: Really?
Holly Johnson: It didn't seem possible (pause) up to that point (pause) because we both shot off in different directions. I was heavily into the Big In Japan thing and he was like (pause) visiting London, giving it loads in that direction. So we had a big break (pause) from each other, and then he did this Hambi tour giving it much dance ooops
Paul Rutherford: (laughs) Holly Johnson: ergh, and he gave it loads right.
Paul Morley: yeah
Holly Johnson: and we were just starting, we got a few support dates with Hambi, through knowing Hambi
Paul Morley: That's Frankie
Holly Johnson: That's Frankie Goes To Hollywood, in fact. Which was (pause) you know (laughs) woooah (laughs)
Paul Rutherford: (laughs)
Holly Johnson: Oh yeah. Which was Mark, Ped and Ged and Sonia
Paul Rutherford: Sonia
Holly Johnson: Sonia Mazonda
Paul Morley: Why did you choose the name?
Holly Johnson: Ohh, not, it's not a too much of an exciting story, ahm (laugh). There was this old this, this old, this band I was in, I was just jamming with, in the reheasal room
Paul Morley: Jamming?
Holly Johnson: Yeah you know kind of learning, learning period. Erm we needed a name quick cos we had to get a gig you know and all that stuff and there was a (pause) a picture, a piece of the New Yorker magazine stuck to the wall in the reheasal room that said Frankie goes to Hollywood, and a picture of Frank Sinatra, getting ahh, mobbed (laughs) by, what were they called, what were they called (pause) oh you know Teenie Boppers or something like that (laughs)
Paul Rutherford: That's it (laughs)
Holly Johnson: Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Holly Johnson: We used to give it loads of 'Hey it's a movie' (laughs) and this is your audition, well that was it at the time.
Paul Morley: At this time it was complete nonsense really, weren't it?
Holly Johnson: Sorry?
Paul Morley: Complete nonsense really?
Holly Johnson: Yeah it was but it was entertaining nonsense, we thought. And that's whatcha got it good.
Paul Morley: Entertaining nonsense.
Holly Johnson: Well yeah. (pause) Dada! (laughs) No need to Dada. Zang Tuum Tumb an' all that. Oh when are we gonna have these parties then? (laughs) We've been promised parties.
Paul Rutherford: Where's these parties you've promised us?
Holly Johnson: You've promised us parties.
Paul Morley: I promised you four parties.
Paul Rutherford: Four? Ahh love.
Holly Johnson: I'm ahh (cut off).
Paul Morley: Why do you sing?
Holly Johnson: Sing?
Paul Morley: Yeah.
Holly Johnson: Why do? I could give it loads of 'it's something that comes from within' but, you know, it's just not that?
Paul Morley: So why do you sing?
Holly Johnson: It's just something I've always wanted to do.
Paul Morley: Yeah?
Holly Johnson: One of the things I've always wanted to do.
Paul Morley: Since when?
Holly Johnson: Since I was about four, I used to sing to the pigeons (laughs)
Paul Morley: Who do you sing to now?
Holly Johnson: Eh?
Paul Morley: Who do you sing to now?
Holly Johnson: ergh? I think it's dead important to sing to yourself really. You know what I mean?
Paul Morley: Yeah?
Holly Johnson: You gotta enjoy it firstly (pause) and it's a buzz if other people enjoy it.
Paul Morley: It's a what?
Holly Johnson: A buzz
Paul Morley: Yeah?
Holly Johnson: Do you ever think about who's gonna enjoy it?(pause)
Holly Johnson: I think about the people.
Paul Rutherford: Yes they crossed my mind once (laughs)
Paul Morley: I mean do you care about (muffled)
Holly Johnson: Do we really, do we really care?
Paul Morley: I mean do you (pause) like think about like competition?
Holly Johnson: Occasionally, occasionally, occasionally.
Paul Morley: like Culture Club or ABC or anything like that?
Paul Rutherford: No, no not like, erm, no not them
Holly Johnson: I don't them as competition 'cos it a completely different thing what we're doing
Paul Morley: What are you doing them?
Holly Johnson: oooh, well you'll just have to flip it over and see. (laughs)

[The interview on the b-sides ends here, the actual interview continues as follows]

Holly Johnson: Oh, I don't wanna get into anything dodgy like that. (laughs)
Paul Morley: What were you doing in Big In Japan?
Holly Johnson: I was playing bass
Paul Morley: You weren't singing?
Holly Johnson: I was doing, I was singing in, in my own way.
Paul Morley: What what kinda way was that?
Holly Johnson: er, stifled (laughs) Stifled in a very stifled way.
Paul Morley: So what's the difference between being stifled and being what you're are now?
Holly Johnson: Set free
Paul Morley: Set free?
Holly (laughs) mmm. Free your mind
Holly and Paul Rutherford: ...and your arse will follow
Holly Johnson: the kingdom of heaven is within
Paul Morley: When did'ya meet Paul?
Holly Johnson: Paul. We met in a nightclub. We were about 15
Paul Rutherford: We were nightclubbing
Paul Morley: A lot of grease involved there or a there was just a casual kinda meeting? I mean a lot of liquid kinda...
Paul Rutherford: Pardon.
Holly Johnson: Ah . We had a mutual friend.
Paul Rutherford: Mutual
Paul Morley: Lubrication
Holly Johnson: We had a mutual friend. Jayne Casey in fact.
Paul Morley: Jayne?
Holly Johnson: mmm
Paul Rutherford: Well we met a lot earlier then that, but, we didn't, we weren't knocking around together then.
Holly Johnson: True. I think we knew of each others existense.
Paul Rutherford: Existense.
Holly Johnson: It was dead strange in fact
Paul Morley: How did you know of each others existence?
Paul Rutherford: Sensitive vibes
Holly Johnson: Aha
Paul Morley: oh yeah
Holly Johnson: When you're, when you're in a town like Liverpool (laughs) you know what I mean and you go into town
Paul Morley: I don't know what you mean Holly? Tell me what you mean.
Paul Rutherford: It means you put one foot in and one foot out...
Holly Johnson: yeah
Paul Rutherford: ...and you see everybody on your way
Holly Johnson: ...and shake it all about (laughs)
Holly Johnson: I tell ya, I tell ya


Before the end of the year, in December 1983, almost one year after their fist Peel sesion, the band recorded another session for John Peel, performing some new material:

Peel session 03-12-1983
- Junk Funk (Get On Down)
- The Other Side Of Midnight
- The Power Of Love
- Get It On

Fgth 1983

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Two Tribes (single, b-sides and remixes)

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Here’s Holly Johnson memories about the writing and recording of Two Tribes:

“Almost on the first rehearsal [with the three-piece lie-up of the band, comprising Johnson, O’Tool and Gill] we wrote `Love Has Got A Gun’ a song that appeared on the first Frankie Goes To Hollywood album. Mark had an energetic bass playing style influenced by Bow Wow Wow and Spandau Ballet -- fast and funky. Ped had a solid drumming style and an appreciation for what was becoming fashionable at the time from a percussive point of view (we liked the rhythms of The Hicksons from East Anglia and `In The Name of Love' by The Thompson Twins).
I wrote lyrics and melodies over this rhythm section. This how `Two Tribes' was written. Mark had a Russian-sounding bass line that he played, an adaptation of a Bow Wow Wow bass line. I suggested that we broke it up with an American funk line, as an extreme cultural contrast, for a verse, and there it was. The lyrics were inspired by the Armageddon scenario described ­by a voice-over at the beginning of the film Mad Max 2: Road Warrior, and the threat of the Falklands War.” (A Bone in My Flute, 142)

“After ‘Relax’ had been such a huge hit, Trevor became very nervous, afraid that he would not be able to produce ‘Two Tribes’ to a sufficient standard to make it a hit. He was also scared that we might become just a one-hit wonder. He asked us to record a song called `Slave To The Rhythm' written by Bruce Wooley and Simon Darlow. No one in the band was keen about the idea but it was hard for us to say ‘no’ to Trevor. A version was recorded, but to no one's satisfaction. Later Trevor cobbled together an electronically sequenced version of 'Two Tribes' that to my mind sounded fantastic. It wasn't up to his standards however, and was scrapped. Another three-month process began in which Trevor and his team worked on 'Two Tribes' over and over again. 'Two Tribes' and all subsequent Frankie tracks were recorded digitally, in contrast to `Relax' which was recorded on one twenty-four-track analogue tape. I believe that on the 'Two Tribes' sessions, Steve Lipson learnt to use Trevor's new toy, the Synclavier (an extremely expensive instrument that was to replace the Fairlight as the premier sampling tool), for a while. During the recording of `Two Tribes' Trevor would still ask me to come into the studio and sing at odd hours. (ABIMF, 178-179)
“'Two Tribes' went through as many incarnations as `Relax' had done. The wonderful bass line was eventually created from a series of sampled, sequenced and played elements. The sixty­piece orchestra was arranged and conducted by Ann Dudly - friend of Trevor's and a member of The Art Of Noise. I read in an interview with Ann that Trevor said to her that he wanted to spend lots of money on a huge string section. The orchestra certainly sounded magnificent. Trevor was now assured substantial income from `Relax' so he felt that he now had carte blanche to Spend, Spend, Spend. On our behalf.
`Two Tribes' was released to great acclaim and went straight to number one in the UK. It then stayed there for nine weeks, equalling Queen's previous record with `Bohemian Rhapsody". For it we recorded about five different `Top Of The Pops' performances. It almost became a bind, and certainly put a strain on our wardrobes, as we were determined to have a slightly different look for each show. While `Two Tribes' stayed at number one, `Relax' re-entered the charts and reached number two again. This had never happened to a new pop group before, the nearest event in living memory was The Beatles' early success. `Relax' eventually sold over five million copies, and `Two Tribes' over three million. Then Fleet Street really became interested in `The New Pop Phenomenon'. `They have the wit of the Beatles, the decadence of the Rolling Stones and the wildness of the Sex Pistols. ..'wrote Mike Andrews of the Daily Express (Monday 25th June 1984).” (ABIMF, 184)

Two Tribes (single, b-sides and remixes)
1 Two Tribes (Cowboys & Indians)
2 One February Friday (Doctor's & Nurses) OR (Only Bullets Can Stop Them Now)
3 Two Tribes (We Don`t Want To Die)
4 Two Tribes (Annihilation)
5 One February Friday (Abridged)
6 War (Hide Yourself)
7 Two Tribes (Surrender)
8 Two Tribes (For The Victims Of Ravishment)
9 Two Tribes (Carnage Mix)
10 War (Hidden)
11 Two Tribes (Hibakusha)
12 Two Tribes (Destructo Video Mix)
13 The Last Voice

two tribes

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Relax (single, b-sides and remixes)

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Here’s Holly Johnson’s memories about the writing and the recording of Relax, Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s first signle:

“There was also a drug called Crystal which we would snort for Saturday Night at Heaven, the famous gay disco under the arches at Charing Cross[London, ndr]. This scene had an influence on the music I wanted to make. I would pester Ped [Gill, dums] to play fours on his basss drum, just like the disco records I’d heard in London.” (A Bone in My Flute, 147)

“I had been given some ‘speed’ by a friend one day and was late for rehearsals. I had no money so I had to walk all the way from my parent’s house to town. Walking down Princess Avenue, I started to sing something to myself to make the journey go faster.

Relax, don’t do it, When you want to go to it
Relax, don’t do it, When you want to come

I laughed out at the last line, which I kept repeating, with its sinmple tune, over and over in my head. When I got to rehearsals Mark [O’Toole bass] and Ped were jamming on a simple one-note bass line and my little tune seemed to fit perfectly. Because of the simplicity of the repetitive chorus, we created a convoluted middle eight in a different rhythm, but later we dropped that for the simple but climactic middle eight that ended up on the record.” (ABIMF, 151)

“January 1983 was the month when Trevor eventually called upon us to start recording. Sarm Studios was still not ready so he booked us into The Manor Studios, Virgin's luxurious residential studio in Oxford. We all went down there;[…] There was little for me to do but swim in the outdoor pool, while Trevor was putting the band through their paces. He did not like what he heard. Mark, Nasher and Ped were between sixteen and eighteen years old, and inexperienced as studio musicians. Trevor soon got tired of their playing and started to construct a rhythm track on his Fairlight (a then state-of-the-art sampling keyboard device). Trevor occupied 'The Lads', as they became known, by getting J. Jeckzalic, the Fairlight operator (and co-founder of The Art of Noise) to record samples of them jumping into the swimming pool, a sound effect which was to be their only musical contribution to the recording of `Relax'. We were in awe of Trevor and whatever he said we went along with. As with the contract, we understood only that ZTT held all the cards.
Meanwhle the refurbishing of SArm was completed so Trevor abandoned The Manor sessions, and resumed recording there.” (ABINF, 161)

“With the help of J.J. Jeckzalic, Andy –richards on keyboards and Steve Lipson on guitar, Trevor created a new, machine-like electronic version of the backing track. It was a hybrid of the kind of disco records I had heard in the gay clubs, but with a significant rock edge to it.
Paul and I were summoned to the studio at about eleven pm. Trevor played us the latest version. He told us to go to a club and come back later. Excitedly we went to a gay club, the Copacabana in Earls Court, then returned in the studio at about two am. After an hour of waiting, Trevor sent Paul home. After another hour, I was asked to sing. […] So, very stoned, I was positioned in front of a microphone in the huge, empty studio. […] I was very excited by the new groove that ‘Relax’ had, and finally I sang my heart out -- at four am in the morning. I did some overdubs afterwards but the bulk of the vocal was done very quickly that night.” (162)

“Trevor had the idea during these sessions to record ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’, the old Gerry and the Pacemakers song, as a B side. Although I was a bit reluctant, this was recorded quickly with Trevor playing bass and Andy Richards on keyboards. I did a vocal that surprised everyone, and for a while it was sounding better than ‘Relax’.
Another night, when I got very stoned, Morley [Paul, NME] came to the studio and interviewed a giggling Paul and me in a very relaxed mood. Trevor told us that this was going to be the B side of the seven inch single. […] I had composed an instrumental years earlier that was used as background music. […] Trevor [included] a little spoked set piece just before the song ‘Reffy cross the Mersey’ (album version) [in the folder, at the very beginning of ‘Relax (From Hard to Soft)’] . I got my actress friend Teabag to play the part of the Social Security officer, and Paul played the dole-ite.

Paul: “I’ve left me card [a UB40] ar’’ome.”
Teabag: “Well yer late as well, next time I’ll put yer on daily signin.”

On one occasion Trevor said to me that he had considered sacking the musicians from the band, leaving just Paul and me to front the act. I protested gently, saying I did’t fancy being an Eighties version of Siomon and Garfunkel. And I had enough loyalty to the band at that time to discourage the idea.
Finally ‘Relax’ seemed completed after a mix by Julian Mandelsohn. […] Meanwhile work on the first twelve inch dance mix of ‘Relax’ began in Sarm East. I did a special whispering vocal, speaking a list of sexual peccadilloes and the names of Amsterdam leather bars. Appropriately this became known as the Sex Mix. It was not the most popular mix, though, as it did not include the song’s familiar refrain. Also people were unsure what speed to play t at, as the speed instructions given were incorrect.
Our minds were now directed at a record cover. Our friend, the illustrator Yvonne Gilbert, had done some erotic illustrations for Men Only magazine which I had seen. I showed them to Bob and the rest of the band, and decided on one with a man on his knees and a red haired woman reclining on h sack. This image was sent to XL to incorporate into a record sleeve.” (ABIMF, 163-164)

Relax – (single and re-mixes)
- 1 Relax (Move)
- 2 One September Monday
- 3 Relax (Come Fighting)
- 4 Ferry Cross The Mersey
- 5 Relax (From Soft To Hard)
- 6 Relax (US Mix)
- 7 Relax (Sex Mix) (From Dry To Moist)
- 8 Relax (Warp Mix) (The Last 7 Inches)
- 9 Relax (The Party Trick - Cassette)

Relax

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Larks in the Park (29 July 1982)

In 1982 Frankie Goes to Hollywood line-up was quite unstable. Holly Jonson and Peter Gill (a.k.a. Ped, drums) had just left the Sons of Egypt (see relevant post) and teamed up with Mark O’Toole (bass) to form a new band, FGTH, using the name of Johnson’s former band (with Steve Lovell, guitar, and Ambrose Reynolds, bass). At this point they started looking for a guitarist. Johnson recalls:

‘We tried out a few guitarists from the echelons of Mark [O’Toole]’s family. There were two brothers who could both play, Vinny and Ged, the latter becoming the guitarist for the first performances, though neither was a very important part of the sound which was dominated by the rhythm section. Ped and I had tried to get the guitarist fro the Jazz [a.k.a. Jass] Babies to join, but without success.’

(Holly Johnson, A Bone in My Flute, 142-43).

After having tried for a short period of time a female singer, Sonia M, Johnson finally replaced her with Paul Rutherford (former Spitfire Boys, English Opium Eaters). This line-up would eventually perform at the Larks in the Parks festival, in Sefton Park. These are Holly Johnson’s memories about the event:

‘Soon the Larks in the Parks, an annual open-air event for the local bands, came up. We made sure we got a place on the bill, and planned our appearance down to the last detail. We should have a delayed start when we would play car crash sounds from the Mad Max soundtrack which Paul provided. I wore a pair of old leather chaps with G string, which meant that my arse was exposed at the back, and I got someone to paint one cheek pink and the other blue with oil pastel crayons. A black-and-white publicity photo by John Stoddard of this mad it look as if my cheeks had been whipped with a riding crop.

‘Paul and I each dragged a Leather Pet on to the stage pulling at a chain attached to a dog-collar around their necks. The sisters from Kirkby (the Muscatelli sisters, Julie and Marie) posed as captive slaves for us. Slowly we chained them to the drum kit, then launched into ‘Two Tribes’ […]. We had only about eight songs at the time, if that. We sometimes did an impromptu version of the Mickey Mouse Club song to lighten things up a bit: ‘M.I.C. See ya real soon. K.E.Y. Why? Because we like you – M.O.U.S.E.’

‘I walked down the ramp on the lake during one of the first songs. When I turned to return to the stage there was an audible gasp from the audience, provoked by my exposed arse. Near the end of the set I asked the audience if we should release the Leather Pets. We did, and they came gyrating to the front of the stage. Dancing wasn’t their strong point we realised, so for subsequent shows we kept them tied up for as long as possible. People left the park bemused, but still talking about what they had seen.’

(Holly Johnson, A Bone in My Flute, 146-47)

Larks in the Park - Sefton Park, Liverpool (29 July 1982)

- Two tribes

- Welcome to the Pleasuredome

- Relax

- Disneyland

- The World is My Oyster

From an No.1 issue (21 September, 1985), here’s the O’Toole family’s recollection of that afternoon:

‘The first time Mark’s family saw Frankie play was at Sefton Park. Liverpool, three years ago in the annual Larks In The Park festival. At the time Mark’s brother, Jed, was still the guitarist and their dress was completely outrageous. By this time Holly had joined the group and singing with him was Paul Rutherford.

"Their appearance was atrocious," Mark’s dad reckons. "Musically… sound as a pound but their, er, look left a lotto be desired.

"Holly was outrageous. That first time he had just a G-string on. Good job he did, cos when he bent down you thought it was a cat looking at you."

Josie takes up the tale: "After the gig, we were walking around and we had to lend him a coat, cos he would have been arrested for indecent exposure!"

(http://www.zttaat.com/article.php?title=97)

From Uncut (July 2004):

‘Liverpool-born photographer John Stoddart chronicled such ramshackle beginnings from 1982. “That was when they were just a pathetic band on the pseudo-Bowie/Roxy gay scene,” he recalls today. “But they developed fast once Paul joined, and they looked terrific. I’m a witness to the fact they were better and had more raw energy before Trevor Horn got his hands on them. I saw them at Larks In The Park, in Sefton Park, when they had these secretary sisters called the Leatherpettes [Julie and Marie Muscatelli] who dressed in stockings. Paul and Holly whipped them with their arses hanging out. It sounds naff now but in 1982 it was like, ’Hang on a minute!’”

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

larks

(see also: http://www.zttaat.com/search.php?search=larks )

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Early Demos

Holly Johnson remembers:

‘At this time [1982] Sounds, a pop-music newspaper, printed a family tree of Liverpool bands in which Frankie Goes to H§ollywood somehow appeared. This was the band that had never played live, with the line-up of Steve Lovell, Ambrose Reynolds and Holly Johnson. We decided to take this name, one I had created for my old band, as the name for the new one.’
(A Bone in My Flute, 142)

When the band turned from Sons of Egypt to Frankie goes to Hollywood, they already had some songs in store which would never appear on vinyl nor were they ever performed for radio sessions, but were only part of the band’s earliest live sets (in 1982). Besides the songs already there in the Sons of Egypt’s repertoire (like Bring on the Violins and Is Anybody Out There, see post below) FGTH had also demoed a couple of other songs, among which:

Drum up Some
Living in Limbo

fgth – early demos (II)

(see also: http://www.steveirving.entadsl.com/FGTH/html/fgth_history_1-2.html )

Pink Industry - Part 1

By the end of the year 1980, after the release of ‘Do animals Believe in God?’, Jayne Casey’s discontent/unease with Pink Military started to come to the surface: after experimenting whatever was possible at the time, the traditional band structure guitar-bass-drums (despite the mobility of the members) was perceived as an obstacle to Casey’s creativity, forcing all possible inspiration to have to comply with rock’n’roll standards. Casey was more keen on technology and experimentation.
In the same period, Ambrose Reynolds was looking for something different. After the split of the school band the O’Boogie Brothers (1976-77), where he played together with Ian Broudie, Ambrose and ex-members of that same band (Nathan McGough on vocals, and Jon Moss on drums) teamed up with Wayne Hussey to form the short-lived act Walkie Talkies (June 1978- Nov. 79). After that, for a short period of time he played bass with Nightmares in Wax, before joining forces with Holly Johnson, Phil Hurst (ex co-member in NIW), and later Steve Lovell recording demos under the name of Hollycaust. The band changed the name to Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and changed line-up as well, when Johnson recruited Brian Nash on guitar and Peter Gill on drums - with whom he had briefly played in 1981 under the name of Dancing Girls – to form the Sons of Egypt, the nucleus of what would become a year later Frankie Goes to Hollywood as we know it.
Casey and Ambrose teamed at the end of 1981. The duo combined the "anything goes" ethics of post-punk with experimental electronics, they produced a very laid-back, spacious, liquid music, combining textured layers of electronics, simple bass-lines and drum machine, ages before Massive Attack. In the beginning other contributors came and left with some frequency (especially when needed to record their first BBC Peel session), but soon the group established their line-up as a duo, exploiting Ambrose ability as multi-instrumentalist.
And as a duo they produced (on their own Zulu Records):

Forty-five EP (Feb 1982)

- Is This The End
- 47
- Don't Let Go
- Final Cry


New Technology (1983)

- I Wish
- New Aims
- Don't Let Go
- Creaking Doors
- Enjoy The Pain
- Savage
- Send Them Away
- Remove The Stain
- Heavenly
- Is This The End

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Warriors of the Wasteland (single, b-sides and remixes)

.

Few and unpleasant are the recollections of Holly Johnson about the band’s sixth single, Warriors of the Wasteland:

“During this same meeting [when the title of the second album was decided], I also found out that Paul had sung `Do You Think I'm Sexy' in the studio and Trevor wanted to put it on the B side of `Warriors Of The Wasteland'. I said something like `Over my dead body', and threatened to leave the band then and there if such a tacky song went out with the name Frankie Goes To Hollywood on it. Not only had they recorded it behind my back, but they intended to play it live as a showcase for Paul, perhaps all part of his attempt to replace me when I left the group. I'd already had a major row with Lipson (in the studio) who had put on some Winston Churchill diatribe on the `threat of Hitler' over the introduction of `Warriors Of The Wasteland'. I despise Churchill. He was someone who only came alive when there was a war, sending many to unnecessary deaths. I also felt dredging up a reference to Adolf Hitler was in extremely bad taste, and, what's more, a veiled dig at Wolfgang [Johnson’s significant other at the time]”. (233)

Warriors of the Wasteland (single, b-sides and remixes)
1. Warriors Of The Wasteland
2. Warriors (Sample-Rated Intro)
3. Warriors Of The Wasteland (Twelve Wild Disciples Mix)
4. Warriors (Instrumental)
5. Warriors (Return)
6. Warriors (End)
7. Warriors Of The Wasteland (Turn Of The Knife Mix)
8. Warriors Of The Wasteland (Attack Full Mix)
9. Warriors (Monopoly Re-Solution)
10. Warriors (Compacted)

warriors of the wasteland

Big in Japan - 1977-78 Recordings

We started off in Liverpool, and in Liverpool we stay.
A large part of what happened there in the post-punk era gravitated around Eric’s Club, and a lot of what originated from there, in a way or another, had to do with a least one of the members of the seminal group Big in Japan. Just take a look at the personal of the band, to have an idea:

Budgie - later of The Slits and then Siouxsie & the Banshees
Ian Broudie - later of Original Mirrors, Care, The Lightning Seeds and a respected producer
Bill Drummond - later of Lori & the Chameleons, the Zoo record label, the JAMMS, and The KLF
David Balfe - later also of Lori & the Chameleons, and The Teardrop Explodes and the Food record label
Jayne Casey - later of Pink Military and Pink Industry and then leading light in the Liverpool club and arts scenes
Holly Johnson - later of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and solo artist
Kev Ward and Phil Allen - no further musical activity

Quite impressive.

Now, the history:

“Big in Japan formed in late 1977. They started off playing gigs around Liverpool, most notably at the seminal Eric's Club. Their stage show was unique: lead singer Jayne Casey would perform with a lampshade over her shaved head, guitarist Bill Drummond played in a kilt and bassist Holly Johnson performed in a flamboyant manner which he would later take further in Frankie Goes to Hollywood. […]
Ian Broudie said that "It was more performance art than rock'n'roll. But it gave me a healthy disregard for musicianship. It's ideas that are important, not proficiency." […]
Hatred of the band reached such a level that a petition calling on them to split up was launched by a jealous young Julian Cope. Displayed in local shop Probe Records the petition gathered 2000 signatures including those of the band themselves. Shortly afterwards the band did split up although this was due to personal differences rather than the petition. […]
Their music ranged from punk paeans to the life of prostitution on Suicide a Go-Go, to goofy 50's pastiches complete with high-pitched chipmunk type vocals on Cindy and the Barbi Dolls.
The band broke up in 1978, but recorded From Y To Z and Never Again afterwards to pay off debts. The unintentional consequence of the E.P. was the formation of the seminal Zoo label, which went on to release early material by Echo & the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes, amongst others.”

(From Wikipedia)

The songs:
In the folder here you find all the songs authored by the band in the years 1977-78:

1. "Big in Japan" (from the split single "Brutality, Religion and a dance beat (e.g., Big in Japan & the Chuddy Nuddies)" backed by "Do the Chud" by the Chuddy Nuddies - fellow Liverpool band Yachts recording under a pseudonym) - Sept. '77, 7", Eric's 0001.

02-05 From Y To Z and Never Again - EP, (first ever release on the Zoo Label,1978, 7")
- 02. "Nothing Special" (recorded at the M.V.C.U. 4 track studio (Teac 3340S), Liverpool, July '78. Produced by Noddy Knowler. Musicians: Jayne, vocals; Ian Broudie, guitar; Bill Drummond, guitar; Dave Balfe, bass; Budgie, drums)
- 03. "Cindy and the Barbi Dolls" (recorded at the M.V.C.U. 4 track studio (Teac 3340S), Liverpool, August '78. Produced by Noddy Knowler. Musicians: Ian Broudie, guitar; Bill Drummond, guitar; Dave Balfe, bass).
- 04. "Suicide a GoGo" (recorded at T.W. studios, London, November' 77. Produced by Rob Dickens. Musicians: Jayne, vocals; Kev Ward, vocals; Ian Broudie, guitar; Bill Drummond, guitar; Holly, bass; Phil Allen, drums)
- 05. "Taxi" (recorded at Amazon studios, Liverpool, May '78. Produced by the band. Musicians: Jayne, vocals; Ian Broudie, guitar; Bill Drummond, guitar; Holly, bass; Budgie, drums)

06. S.C.U.M (Society For Cutting Up Men) - Recorded T.W. Studios October 1977. Licensed from Warner Bros. Music Ltd. Musicians: Bass - Holly Drums - Phil Allan Guitar - Bill Drummond , Ian Broudie Vocals - Jayne Casey , Kevin Ward Engineer - Alan Winstanley Producer - Rob Dickins. Features on Zoo Records compilation album To The Shores Of Lake Placid (1982).

07. Match Of The Day (featured on Street To Street: A Liverpoool Album - 1978, Open Eye Records)

08-10 John Peel session of 6th March 1979 (Musicians: Vocals - Jayne Casey. Guitar / Organ / B. Vocals -Ian Broudie; Bass / B. Vocals - Holly; Drums / B. Vocals - Budgie)
- 08. Suicide High Life
- 09. Goodbye
- 10. Don't Bomb China

Big in Japan

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

.
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

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Watching the Wildlife (single, b-sides and remixes)

.
Even fewer are Holly Johnson’s memories about Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s seventh and final single, Watching the Wildlife”:

“I told Trevor that I was extremely disappointed that he had not come to the sessions in Holland as he had promised to do. He told me he was still working on the Yes album, but he would do some work on our record after the Lipson sessions.
I wrote the lyrics of `Watching The Wildlife' while I was there. It was about the situation I was in. I felt surrounded by wild animals who were sly, out to get me, and full of hate. 'Get free from hate and get in love,' was the chorus line.” (A Bone in My Flute, 231)

Watching the Wildlife (single, b-sides and remixes)
1. Watching The Wildlife
2. The Waves
3. Watching The Wildlife (Hotter) (Animal Fur)
4. Watching The Wildlife (Bit 1)
5. Watching The Wildlife (Bit 2)
6. Watching The Wildlife (Voiceless)
7. Watching The Wildlife (Movement 2)
8. Watching The Wildlife (Bit 3)
9. Watching The Wildlife (Bit 4)
10. Watching The Wildlife (Die Letzten Tage Der Menschheit)
11. Watching The Wildlife (Compacted)

watching the wildlife

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - 1985-86 demos

After the huge successes of the previous album and after 18 months of extensive touring the band took some time off just. After all the members returned from individual holidays they were brought back together in Ireland by ZTT to start writing the next release. 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. In fact, the Lads 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, whereas 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.

Mediterranean Studios demos (Nov. 1985)
- All climb up to heaven
- Delirious
- Maximum joy
- Our silver turns to gold
- Waves

(All Climb up to Heaven was to be re-worked and appeared as Kill the Pain on the Liverpool album, together with Maximum Joy . Waves was to be the b-side of the single Watching the Wildlife. Delirious and Our Silver Turns to Gold would remain unreleased ).
After two weeks, next was the Wisseloord Studios in Hilversum, The Netherland.

Wisseloord Studios demos (1985-86)
- All Climb up to Heaven
- Sunny 2 (aka For Heaven’s Sake)
- The Strippah
- Warriors End
- Watching the Wildlife

(The Strippah and Warrios End would remain unreleased.)
The final demos before the album were released at Trevorn Horn’s Sarm Studios in mid to late 1986.

Sarm Studios demos (1986)
- Pocket Vibrator
- Rage Hard
- This Wasteland (aka Kill the Pain)
- Warriors of the Wasteland

“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 to 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.”
(http://www.steveirving.entadsl.com/FGTH/html/fgth_history3.html)


FGTH – demos 85-86

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 )

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Kid Jensen Sessions (February 1983)

‘It was Christmas 1982 and Frankie were the most talked about band on Merseyside […]. Things looked bleak. Worse, Frankie were being overtaken by other Liverpool bands such as The Lotus Eaters and The Pale Fountains in the race for contracts.
In Liverpool at this time was a Tube researcher looking to interview Dead Or Alive for a Tube special on Liverpool. But finding Pete Burns inactive, Mick Sawyer sought out Frankie saying that The Tube would make a video for them. “Frankie were just an averagely bright rock band,” muses Sawyer. “They had a lot of unfinished ideas and an image only The Tube would touch.”
The video was shot in the city’s State Ballroom — now a disco — and stands as one of the most eloquent documents of the original, unretouched Frankie, with Holly delivering a near-monosyllabic version of “Relax”. It was a memorable day. “All the Tyne Tees cameramen spent most of the time with their lenses up the Leatherpets’ crutches,” recalls Holly.
Radio interest was beginning to pick up again, with John Peel repeating his session and Kid Jensen commissioning “Welcome To The Pleasure Dome”, “The Only Star In Heaven” and “Relax 2” for his early evening show.
(Kevin Sutcliffe, from The Face, December 1984)

In February 1983 FGTH recorded a session for Kid Jensen ( DJ on Radio One). The track-listing for the session was as follows:

Jensen Session (February 1983)
- The Only Star in Heaven
- Welcome to the Pleasuredome
- Invade My Heart
- Relax 2 (Shoot in the Right Direction)

When it went out on the air, unknown to the band someone - someone with influence - was listening: record producer Trevor Horn. The rest is history.


fgth – jensen session

(see also: http://www.zttaat.com/article.php?title=138
http://www.x1fmradio.com/musc/artists/Frankie%20Goes%20to%20Hollywood/biography )