ZANG TUMMM TUMB ARTICLES “the first draft of history”

HOLLY JOHNSON: Blast (MCA) When Holly left the massively successful popular music phenomenon Frankie Goes To Hollywood, there was this huge great argument in the law courts about whether Holly was actually talented or whether it was all the invention of the groups record company. Well, as we all know now, Holly won, but the question is, does his genius extend as far as writing a whole LPs worth of pop tunes? Well, the problem is that the whole of “Blast” does sound the same. Hollys particularly fond of those rather clattery, bustling disco contraptions, over which he sings in that sneery, snarly voice of his, and after a whole LP this gets a little dull. The other thing is that hes always trying to demonstrate what a clever clogs he is by writing these songs that sound at first like your common or garden love tune, but then turn into a song about ecology or something. Its as if Holly is trying to prove so hard that he is actually a man of desperately immense talent that hes tripped himself up somewhere. (5½ out of 10)

William Shaw