ZANG TUMMM TUMB ARTICLES “the first draft of history”

Frankie goes to Tokyo

Im trying to find some information on a Frankie Goes To Hollywood release which was available only in Japan. It was a compact disc EP titled ‘Bang!, released about five years ago, and almost certainly unobtainable now. I remember that, when I tried to get it at the time, I was told that ZTT had banned its import here. I dont believe that there were any unfamiliar titles on it, but I suspect the mixes of some tracks might be exclusive to this EP. Any info you can glean would be appreciated.

Jeremy McIntyre, Leicester

Bang! was almost an early FGTH ‘Best Of package, rounding up the smash hits from the bands glory year, 1984. Although it was supposed to be a CD EP (ZTT/Island P33D-20017, Japan only), the running time was about 40 mins, which is longer than some albums I can think of. All titles included are indeed familiar; bearing in mind that there were more mixes of most Frankie songs than there are sushi bars in Tokyo, I dont feel qualified to stick my neck out concerning their exclusivity, but the track details and timings as shown on the CD sleeve will hopefully make things clear. The EP contained: ‘War (Hidden)(8:33)/Relax(7:22)/Black Night White Light(4:06)/Welcome To The Pleasuredome(8:03)/Two Tribes (Hibakusha Mix)(6:35)/Power Of Love(5:29).

The package included the lyrics to all these in both English and Japanese, but the lengthy booklet notes were unfortunately only in the latter, so any clues therein to the precise track versions remain inscrutably hidden (from me, anyway). The Japanese notes also appear to explain why the EP was titled ‘Bang! — were just going to have to work that one out for ourselves as well.