ZANG TUMMM TUMB ARTICLES “the first draft of history”

When you dont wanna come…

SENSATIONAL, sizzling super-hot Liverpool band Frankie Goes To Hollywood decided to celebrate the 1,000th re-mix of their soaraway number one hit “Relax” by… filming a video. What a wheeze! Just in time to be outrageous and different this time, they decided, the video wouldnt be banned. So they decided to film it in a concert situation, as it were, and put the word out that they would be appearing at the Brixton Academy on Monday night. This exciting news was duly transferred to the nation at large by that nice Peter Powell on weekend Radio 1 and duly repeated in a national paper on Monday morning. Freely expecting several million teenagers to invade Brixton, we dispatched our hardiest photography, Mr Jon Blackmore, to record the trail of devastation and disaster we felt sure would follow. Jon arrived clad in full riot gear… where was everyone? Scarcely bulging at the edges, the Academy wasnt even a third full for the filming. All those TV documentaries about how tedious it is making videos have clearly left their mark and it was awfully cold that night and you get loads of homework this time of year so… still the Frankie crew did look a bit upset. Pros to the last they still made the best of it, doing their level best to create the illusion that the place was throbbing with excitement by liberal use of dry ice and smoke machines. The sparse audience was urged to the front to simulate mass hysteria, as the “Relax” riff was churned out time and time again.

  • Here we see the cameraman go wild as Holly Johnson gets out his world-famous torch.
  • The crowds begin to get so raucous that Holly is forced to grab a megaphone to persuade them to cool down.
  • Ciggy break. Note the eager way members of the audience push forward to proffer a light.
  • The climax of the show. In a well-orchestrated burst of spontaneity, a pre-selected young gel leaps across the footlights to plant a pert pair of lips of the internationally celebrate Johnson cheek.