If you want the techno bang bang remixes then sorry, you'll have to look elsewhere.It's not that I don't like the remixes, it's just that most of them don't add anything to the experience that is Frankie and Frankie Only.

I'm a fan of the real Frankie Goes To Hollywood and not the remixed, regurgitated dross that's peddled by ZTT every couple of years. ZTT, there's another issue! Frankie recorded so many tracks that have never (commerically) seen the light of day, songs like Delirious, Invade my Heart and my favourite Junk Funk.

This site reflects my feelings towards the band, it doesn't have flash animation or downloads, it doesn't even have a discography or a list of song lyrics, all that can be found elsewhere in far greater detail than I could possibly supply.

The headline in a painting of a newspaper front cover which featured a picture of Frank Sinatra inspired Holly to use the name "Frankie Goes To Hollywood" for a band he had just formed. Although the band never actually performed 'live' the name stuck with him and eventually resurfaced a couple of years later. The rest as they say is history!

So the question remains 'what is it about Frankie that I like so much?'

Well from the moment I heard Relax on the radio (December '83) I was hooked. I remember buying the 7" single and playing it over and over again on my little Tandy record player, thus ensuring I drove my parents mad. Then a couple of weeks later I saw them perform on TOTP and when I realised my parents hated everything about them my mind was made up!

Since then I have collected as many of their records as possible. In the early days that was quite tricky as I was still at school and penniless. But as time went on I slowly built up a large collection of records, cd's and videos. Sad bastard, quite probably, but a collection becomes an obsession and even now I find myself looking through the shelves in every record store I go in to, just in case!

Looking back now, I realise that maybe they weren't the 5 most talented people ever to form a band but they certainly aren't the worst. That doesn't matter, nothing can dampen my enthusiasm for a group that exploded on to the scene with messages of sex, love and war, which entertained the younger generation and alienated the older.

After all, isn't that what pop music is all about? Or should I say, wasn't that what pop music was all about!

After all the success of the "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" album and the four huge singles it spawned the band embarked on a world tour. 'The Lads' enjoyed to party all night and not worry about work commitments, whereas Holly preferred a quieter way of life. This coupled with their very obvious differences in life styles made for some uneasy times. After the tour it was also obvious that the band wasn't making as much money as some people expected, this provoked more tension between the band members.

By the time the "Liverpool" album was being recorded the group had split in to two factions. Ped, Nash and Mark wanted to record a rock album and to get away from the pop / techno sound of the first album. Holly on the other hand disagreed with the rock idea. It had been intended that Trevor Horn would produce the second album but due to work commitments he was unable to work on it from the beginning. Arguments about musical direction soon brought the group to breaking point.

Due to contractual agreements the band had to finish the album and also promote it, this resulted in a European tour of 1987.

After all that, this final tour was their most financially successful !

So then what happened? As if you didn't know!

Well, Holly went solo, The lads thought they were rock stars and Paul went mental - have you seen the Hard On DVD?

Holly has so far released three albums with varying levels of success - that's the polite way of putting it. Blast was good, but either I'm getting old or Holly is stuck in the gay disco's of the 80's and his latest release 'Soulstream' isn't a classic.

Paul tried his hand at singing, releasing a few 'happy - acid - house' tracks and an album, before fading away completely.

Nasher also eventually went solo and although his album has yet to be 'commercially' released - that's to say a record company is prepared to put it's money were it's balls should be - it is a damn fine album. As of June 2002, a second album is imminent.

Now even "the animal that bashes drums" Ped, has released an album of techno, dance, trance music.This album is about as far from the rock music he wanted to play in the eighties as it is possible to get. It's called "about 8 minutes" and the band is Ltd Noise.

So the perennial question remains, should they reform.

Well in my opinion, NO. Here's why;

Just look at the bands who have recently decided to get back together, The Euythmics, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Blondie, The Human League. Groups of fat, balding, middle aged, badly dressed (and that's just the women) individuals who can't stand each other and who haven't got a single common interest - apart from one. Some mananger has told them that they could make another million each by doing a few new tracks and maybe a short re-union tour, before disappearing again.

It's enough to make you violently sick whilst hiding behind the sofa and desperately trying to find one redeeming aspect of this group of individuals.

No 'reformed' band can ever live up to its hey day, so why destroy the memory.

Hey, but that's just my opinion. Of course, if it were to ever happen you can bet your life I'd be there in the front row screaming with the rest of you!!

June 2002

JR