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Frankie say Reform

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FGTH back on stage for Eurovision. Do they need a pension top-up?

“The five original members – Holly Johnson (vocals), Paul Rutherford (backing vocals), Mark O’Toole (bass), Brian ‘Nasher’ Nash (guitar), and Peter ‘Ped’ Gill (drums) – will reunite for their first performance in front of an audience since their last gig in Bordeaux, way back in late February 1987”

https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/frankie-goes-to-hollywood-to-reunite-for-eurovision-song-contest/

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  1. The event ” will feature performances from other bands with a connection to the city including Atomic Kitten, The Real Thing and The Lightning Seeds.”
    Will there be a Beatles Medley at the end?
    Eleanor Rigby Says Relax

  3. I’d say it’s about time they reformed again. Haven’t they been back a few times in the past? It seems a clear pattern that heritage acts with a brief moment of glory come back every few years for some biggish shows and festival appearances, and push a bit of product, maybe even to a different audience. There would be a reasonable wedge in reward, and it may top up funds: several of Frankie were on the dole weeks after being dumped from the label in the late 80s. Holly Johnson acts like the poor-man’s Kevin Rowland in his starry grandiosity, but it costs, and sometimes it will need actual work to enable.

  4. Frankie Say Relax. With a nice sit down and a cup of tea. Where are my pipe and slippers? It was all fields round here. Liverpool? Better under Bob Paisley. Got any Werther’s?

  6. Well I hope it works out for them. I have a lot of time for Frankie. 1984 was a great year for the UK charts and they were a big part of that. They were a lot of fun and brightened up things no end. I don’t really care how much of it was them, and how much was Trevor Horn and Paul Morely (although the very good session they did for Kid Jensen before they hit it big suggests they deserve more credit than they get). The 12″ mixes have aged very well, especially War (Hide Yourself) and the Welcome to the Pleasuredome extended version. Great band.

    • Yes, despite my slightly sarcastic post further up they were great weren’t they? The “ow ow ow” bit on Two Tribes is a great pop hook and what a good overall sound they had. Fun videos too, in an era which could be prone to being over-earnest.

      • Paul Rutherford was living as a farmer in New Zealand for a bit I think.
        They fell out quite badly after the split didn’t they, especially after the court case with ZTT.
        It’ll be interesting. They were the biggest thing for a couple of years

        • I seem to remember some sort of “Where are they now” thing on VH1 which revealed that one of them owned property in France (maybe a hotel?) and another was working in web design or similar. It definitely sounded like they never got the huge payday they deserved.

          Yes, some/lots of their sound was down to other people, and yes, Trevor Horn and his crew are production geniuses, but for a year or two FGTH were the biggest thing in music and at least some of that has to be due to the five of them. If they get a new burst of life, and a nice pension boost, on the back of this gig, good luck to them.

          Oh, and if you’re at a loose end, Trev H, the big hits are still absolute belters and WTTP is crying out for some surround sound treatment, thank you very much.

                • Thanks @Yorkio. That is the most splendid piece of post-career music trivia I’ve read since discovering that “The King of Rock and Soul”, Solomon Burke. had several sidelines. These included a snow-clearing service and a funeral parlour.

                  • Three words… Justin. Lee. Collins. I’m sorry I had to do that.

                    Strewth, remember him? About twenty years ago – I’m sure he fronted those reunite bands programmes – he was E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E.

                    His act was “being loud from the West Country”… erm… that’s it.
                    Bit like Quantick.

                  • Post -career trivia.

                    Howard Devoto got a job as a researcher at the Hulton Picture Library in Kensal Town (the photo archive of “Picture Post” magazine, 1938-1957, now a digitised and fully-searchable “featured resource” of Getty Images).

                    Arthur Brown, the “King of Hellfire”, had a painting and decorating business in the USA for a while in partnership with Jimmy Carl Black, “The Indian Of The Group” in Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention”

                    Emily Ovenden of the Medieval Baebes was a pub landlady with her Norwegian recording engineer husband for 9 years. Now a C of E vicar in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Formerly at a church in Primrose Hill.

                    Parallel Career.
                    Having been pretty active as a Blues, R&B and Jazz saxophonist in his younger days, Art Themen devoted the bulk of his time to work as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, with occasional tours playing with pianist Stan Tracey’s bands and accompanying visiting US musicians . Now that he’s retired from Orthopaedics (he’s now 83), he’s a lot more active as a musician.

  8. VH1 did one of those Behind the Music episodes about FGTH; it was about twenty years ago, I think. The band reformed for a gig, but Holly Johnson wouldn’t do it. I seem to recall they brought another singer in, which seems rather futile: you simply can’t have the band without Holly.

  9. Amazed they are getting back together. Must be serious wonger involved

    I read Holly Johnson’s autobiography from the early 90’s recently. A very entertaining read. He comes across as quite tricky to work with as do the band. So not that surprised they split

    The second album is not as bad as you will remember but must win the award for the dullest album title ever… what were they thinking?

  10. There’s a #12inch80s going on over at Twitter during May. The Annihilation Mix of Two Tribes is already firmly at number one on my list. The absolute pinnacle of the 12″ concept. I always thought they looked like a great band which was a massive part of their appeal. Paul Rutherford’s protoBez dancing and sheer joy at his good fortune always a highlight for me. Eurovision in Liverpool is the perfect place for a Frankie Goes To Hollywood party. I hope they do a great big cheesey mega-mix. I cannot wait…

    • Completely agree with this. Annihilation edges it over the Carnage mix due to the sirens and Patrick Allen’s voiceover being that little bit more insistent.

      I was 12 in 1984 and Frankie were the first band I properly fell in love with. Two Tribes was the greatest song I ever heard to that point. It would still be in my top ten. And the only thing I wanted for Christmas that year was the Welcome to the Pleasuredome album.

      Their lack of financial gain from those years has been mentioned. Brian Nash said it was down to the deal they signed with ZTT. Paul Rutherford was the only one who didn’t have songwriting credits but they made nothing during their years of success. Nash has said that it was only merchandise sales that has given them any earnings from the band. His isn’t a bad book and is usually on sale for pennies for the kindle version.

      Sylvia Patterson wrote about their finals days and tour when she was at Smash Hits and mentioned it again in her first book. A sad ending for a band who, in a year of huge excitement, were the most exciting band of 1984.

      • I had the cassette version of Two Tribes, with an extended version made up of both Carnage and Annihilation. Before I lost the tape somehow I’d ripped it as an mp3 which I then lost sight of in the gradual move to cloud based streaming and subscriptions. The long mix was returned to me with my favourite RSD release Altered Reels in 2022. It remains unbeatable when you’re feeling ‘on’.

  12. Have probably mentioned this before, but I was at (Liverpool) university with Mark O’Toole’s brother, Vinny, both of us doing the same engineering degree. One evening my flatmates and I gathered around our black and white portable to watch The Tube because “Vinny’s brother’s band are going to be on”, and the rest was history ….

  13. Two Tribes was a brilliant single – very much the soundtrack to the hot summer of 1984. Far better than Relax – and each remix took it to another level. I still play the Carnage and the Annihilation mix from time to time, still sounds fresh and exciting. Welcome to the Pleasuredome (side 1 of the LP’) is also a work of over-the-top genius.

    Looking forward to the show.

  14. No doubt I’ve told this story before, but haven’t we all…? 🙂
    I loved the WTTPD album so much that I recorded it onto a cassette tape for convenience, and one long night I played it non stop through my headphones while I was reading “Pet Semetary” in one go. Since that time I can never hear any of those songs without feeling a bit nervous. “The Power of Love” being particularly creepy…

  15. Have we done the Peel sessions yet? I remember hearing them at school and being amazed at the disconnect between these scratchy versions and the polished Horn product. But now I think there’s a real ragged charm to them, and the band could definitely play. There’s even a completely different version of album opener The World Is My Oyster …

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