Rock On Vinyl: Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasuredome (1984) plus 5 x Bonus 12" Singles

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasuredome (1984) plus 5 x Bonus 12" Singles

(U.K 1980-1987, 2004-2007, 2023)

Frankie Goes to Hollywood (FGTH) were a British band formed in Liverpool, England, in 1980. The group was fronted by Holly Johnson (vocals), with Paul Rutherford (vocals), Peter Gill (drums, percussion), Mark O'Toole (bass guitar), and Brian Nash (guitar).

Four years later, FGTH unleashed a recording on an unsuspecting world that was so epic, so massive, so seismic; that a publicity tsunami finally washed ashore down here in Australia and the existence of Frankie was made known. Despite Frankie's heavy British flamboyance, the act was still irresistible and, for a time, resistance was futile. Yes, Frankie was all the rage with the arrival of the aptly titled mammoth seller of pure, unadulterated, shameless, unapologetic pop pleasure, 'Welcome To The Pleasuredome'.

The group's 1983 debut single "Relax" was banned by the BBC in 1984 while at number six in the charts and subsequently topped the UK Singles Chart for five consecutive weeks, going on to enjoy prolonged chart success throughout that year and ultimately becoming the seventh best-selling UK single of all time. It also won the 1985 Brit Award for Best British Single. Their debut album, 'Welcome to the Pleasuredome', reached number one in the UK in 1984 with advanced sales of over one million.

After the follow-up success of "Two Tribes" and "The Power of Love", the group became only the second act in the history of the UK charts to reach number one with their first three singles; the first being fellow Liverpudlians Gerry and the Pacemakers. This record remained unbeaten until the Spice Girls achieved a six-single streak in 1996–97. In 1985 the band won the Brit Award for Best British Newcomer, and also received Grammy Award and MTV Video Music Award nominations for Best New Artist.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood with Gene Kelly - 1984

Songwriters Johnson, Gill and O'Toole received the 1984 Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Two Tribes". In 2015, the song was voted by the British public as the nation's 14th favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.

Today, I still listen to this indulgent gem of a recording that seemed to tap into the zeitgeist of the mid-80s. To dub Frankie a one-hit wonder on the basis of Relax is entirely unfair as they were clearly a one-album wonder. If there was ever an act that dominated the global music scene in 1984 it had to be Frankie. Nowhere had sadomasochism mixed with pleasure pop and fashion more seamlessly than through the quintet of Frankie's Holly Johnson [vocals], Paul Rutherford [vocals, keyboards, dancing], Peter Gill [drums], Mark O'Toole [bass] and Brian Nash [guitar].

FGTH Promo Shot

Of course, in many respects, the true mastermind behind the outfit was then producer extraordinaire Trevor Horn. Horn churned out sterling production after production effortlessly for years particularly during the 1980s. Frankie was his greatest studio experiment and the act seemed to capture the look and sound of a decade of excess through excessively good fun in well-executed and cleverly crafted pop.

Trevor Horn 1984

Horn's credentials are worth mentioning too. He was a supreme master of sound and mixing. Horn's trademark is perhaps best known through his personal stamp on The Buggles' Adventures In Modern Recording [1981] especially Video Killed The Radio Star [best remembered as the first MTV music video], and Yes' 90125 album [1983] [a recording of pure resurrection by commercial standards for the progressive rock band]

Analyzing it today, I'm still blown away by the epic thirteen minute odyssey that is the title track, a personal favorite for my money. The opening seconds is like a stroll through the jungle is a bit like a walk through the local zoo before engaging in a persistent, tight and magnificent groove. As you might imagine, "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" never plays it safe. There's nothing typical about its weave through funky rhythms complemented by ad-libbed verse in the hands of Rutherford's fabulous foil. It is a powerful pop tribute to the long and winding epics of the progressive rock era, yet positively bold and ambitious in its own pop construction. It's positively major. It remains a stunner.

"Relax", arguably one of the biggest pop songs of the 1980s, even if it only barely scratched the top ten in America. Relax is an over-the-top salute to sex. It bursts, it spews and it absolutely explodes with a kind orgasmic energy. One instantly recalls Rutherford and Johnson parading through the laser beam light show in the music video. That, of course, replaced the Brian DePalma [Body Double] production that replaced the banned S&M parlor number complete with leather bondage and drag queens, a clip befitting the track. Still, time and distance has been kind to these songs. I defy anyone to scoff at these selections as anything less than some of the most brilliantly crafted pop numbers ever made. This is bad ass pop music, a culmination of talent and studio experimentation that makes Britney Spears sound positively robotic.

"Two Tribes" tapped into the zeitgeist of a globe dominated by American/ Soviet Cold War politics. Ronald Reagan pressed the Soviet Union to the economic brink inevitably bringing about its eventual dissolution in 1991. That standoff is dramatically captured through a video brawl between Reagan and then Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko. Chernenko would die in 1985. It represented the ongoing political struggle between two nations and two ideologies with Holly Johnson as the circus ringmaster. It also symbolized the stranglehold those political winds had on nations across the globe. The geopolitical front changed dramatically thereafter.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood on Stage 1984

The remainder of the album is topped with the gorgeous ballad "The Power Of Love", which was accompanied by the controversial nativity-themed religious video. The track further emphasized the band's complete immersion into taboo subjects of politics and religion, heaven and hell, sex and love. The act artfully engineers such risks into a complete canvas of originals and reinventions. Remakes of "Ferry", "War", "Born To Run" and "San Jose" are delightful treats exhibiting Frankie's absolute balls to audaciously cover everything from Gerry Marsden to Bruce Springsteen to the Burt Bacharach-penned Dionne Warwick number. Frankie had the audacity to break all the rules.
[extracts from MUSINGS OF A SCI-FI FANATIC and VALVULADO]

FGHT Profiles

This post consists of FLACs ripped from CD / Vinyl and includes full album artwork for both media types. I bought Pleasuredome on vinyl when it was first released in Australia along with the 12" single releases of Relax & Power Of Love. Over the years, I have been able to track down the remaining 12"single releases of Two Tribes & War. For your pleasure, I am also making these 12" Singles available here as separate links (incase you already have Pleasuredome). Please note that the front cover (see left) for the double LP release of Pleasuredome is different to the CD release.

Track Listing:
F - Pray Frankie Pray
01 The World Is My Oyster / Snatch Of Fury (Stay) 1:57
02 Welcome To The Pleasure Dome 13:40
G - Say Frankie Say
03 Relax (Come Fighting) 3:56
04 War (...And Hide) 6:14
05 Two Tribes (For The Victims Of Ravishment) 3:28
T - Stay Frankie Stay
06 The Last Voice 0:35
07 Ferry 1:49
08 Born To Run 3:59
09 San Jose (The Way) 3:10
10 Wish (The Lads Were Here) 2:48
11 The Ballad Of 32 4:49
H - Play Frankie Play
12 Krisco Kisses 2:58
13 Black Night White Light 4:08
14 The Only Star In Heaven 4:16
15 The Power Of Love 5:32
16 Bang... 1:07