Hooray for Hollywood
THIS WAS THE MONTH AND THE YEAR OF FRANKIE GOES TO Hollywood. Fronted by the openly gay Holly Johnson, the band’s first two singles, ‘Relax’ and ‘Two Tribes’, both hit No.1 in a blaze of publicity. The former also received a Radio One ban thanks to DJ Mike Read, who objected to the sexually suggestive lyrics and the line ‘when you want to come’. Frankie’s Trevor Horn-produced first album, ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’, followed the singles to the summit, with the biggest ever ship-out of an album in Britain —
It would later be rumoured that the Liverpudlian five-piece had been aided in their studio endeavours by a number of Ian Dury’s Blockheads. And some credit for the singles’ success certainly must go to the ex-10cc duo of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme for their imaginative videos —