Holly Johnson, Basil Switzerland, Nov 11, 2022
December 2, 2022 4:40 PM Subscribe
It's like peeling back nearly 40 years of history. Holly Johnson performs just a few weeks ago in Switzerland, doing many Frankie Goes To Hollywood hits. Holly Johnson of Frankie goes to Hollywood - Baloise Session 2022 – @ARTE Concert [1h11m]. At age 62, he's still got the voice, and his band takes twice as many people to make up for The Lads.
One of the best musical performances ever on Saturday Night Live was in November 1984, when FGTH had the audacity to cover Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run". It can be found on the internet archive at this link [cue it to 1:05:30] and just tell me you expected THAT.
They nailed it.
Maybe even better than the original. Such a powerful voice.
(It's also a decent episode to watch that "all-star" 1984-85 cast with Eddie Murphy, Martin Short, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Billy Crystal, etc., and George Carlin hosting.)
posted by not_on_display at 6:47 PM on December 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
They nailed it.
Maybe even better than the original. Such a powerful voice.
(It's also a decent episode to watch that "all-star" 1984-85 cast with Eddie Murphy, Martin Short, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Billy Crystal, etc., and George Carlin hosting.)
posted by not_on_display at 6:47 PM on December 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
Well, um.. I mean, Born To Run is on Welcome To The Pleasuredome, Track 3 of side T, which also includes a cover of Do You Know The Way To San Jose. Frankie was a band of many contrasts. Although I have never seen this performance before, so thank you!
posted by hippybear at 6:58 PM on December 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 6:58 PM on December 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
Also, O'Toole was one hell of a bassist. The Lads in general don't get enough credit. I wish the band had lasted longer.
posted by hippybear at 6:59 PM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 6:59 PM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
still. fuckin. got it.
posted by lalochezia at 7:33 PM on December 2, 2022
posted by lalochezia at 7:33 PM on December 2, 2022
"Welcome to the Pleasuredome" is one of the most under-rated albums of all time. Fucking masterpiece. Saw FGTH live in 1985 (opening act: Belouis Some) as a 16-year-old kid in Portland, Oregon. One of the top three shows of my life. This band was groundbreaking, but too edge-y to really make it big.
posted by jdroth at 8:21 PM on December 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by jdroth at 8:21 PM on December 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
One of the best musical performances ever on Saturday Night Live was in November 1984, when FGTH had the audacity to cover Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run". It can be found on the internet archive at this link [cue it to 1:05:30] and just tell me you expected THAT.
I implore everyone to check that out. First off, the FASHION is so on point. Secondly, it's an incredible rendition.
posted by alex_skazat at 8:23 PM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
I implore everyone to check that out. First off, the FASHION is so on point. Secondly, it's an incredible rendition.
posted by alex_skazat at 8:23 PM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Here it is in a slightly easier to digest format:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REis9VUOQdc
That's such an amazing chestnut. UGH.
posted by alex_skazat at 8:24 PM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REis9VUOQdc
That's such an amazing chestnut. UGH.
posted by alex_skazat at 8:24 PM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Saw FGTH live in 1985
I saw Frankie in early 1987 on their Liverpool tour in Hannover Germany. I didn't imagine at the time I'd never have the chance to see them again.
posted by hippybear at 8:37 PM on December 2, 2022
I saw Frankie in early 1987 on their Liverpool tour in Hannover Germany. I didn't imagine at the time I'd never have the chance to see them again.
posted by hippybear at 8:37 PM on December 2, 2022
This band was groundbreaking, but too edge-y to really make it big.
they did okay. Pleasure Dome was top ten pretty much everywhere except the USA. First few singles did pretty darned well, too.
I also saw them in 1985. Vancouver. Last date of the tour. Quite the party. As I recall, they finished with Two Tribes, setting off some kind of sonic boom on the final note which blew out most of the venues windows. House wrecker!
posted by philip-random at 9:07 PM on December 2, 2022
they did okay. Pleasure Dome was top ten pretty much everywhere except the USA. First few singles did pretty darned well, too.
I also saw them in 1985. Vancouver. Last date of the tour. Quite the party. As I recall, they finished with Two Tribes, setting off some kind of sonic boom on the final note which blew out most of the venues windows. House wrecker!
posted by philip-random at 9:07 PM on December 2, 2022
It's good to see him in such fine form!
I've never thought they were a band that could hold together long - The Lads wanted to be Pink Floyd you could dance to while Paul and Holly were a little more complicated.
I'm fond of this performance of Relax (warning - clip is from Channel 4 in '83 so it's porny in an ugly way) from before they signed to ZTT and Trevor Horn and his backroom team got to work on them.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:56 PM on December 2, 2022
I've never thought they were a band that could hold together long - The Lads wanted to be Pink Floyd you could dance to while Paul and Holly were a little more complicated.
I'm fond of this performance of Relax (warning - clip is from Channel 4 in '83 so it's porny in an ugly way) from before they signed to ZTT and Trevor Horn and his backroom team got to work on them.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:56 PM on December 2, 2022
I was also surprised when I picked up one of their cassettes decades ago, how much they reminded me of Pink Floyd in certain ways. I haven't revisited them since, other than that random run-in on SNL. I was already sold on their few songs that were on MTV's rotation a few years before. But their two songs on SNL, I remember that cemented them as a Good Band in my head, and I filed it away.
(Also, thanks for the intel that Born to Run was on Welcome to the Pleasuredome. I'll have to do a deeper dive into their stuff because I forget most of the non-radio stuff except that it had a lot of Pink-Floydy-synth interstitials and themes woven between songs, as well as that feel of "the eighties is the future" but in a less "eighties" way, if that makes sense.)
posted by not_on_display at 10:20 PM on December 2, 2022
(Also, thanks for the intel that Born to Run was on Welcome to the Pleasuredome. I'll have to do a deeper dive into their stuff because I forget most of the non-radio stuff except that it had a lot of Pink-Floydy-synth interstitials and themes woven between songs, as well as that feel of "the eighties is the future" but in a less "eighties" way, if that makes sense.)
posted by not_on_display at 10:20 PM on December 2, 2022
Saw them live circa 1985 at The Ritz (?) in NYC. Maybe they had an off night or maybe it was me. Their studio stuff is another story.
posted by DJZouke at 5:17 AM on December 3, 2022
posted by DJZouke at 5:17 AM on December 3, 2022
Frankie was a band of many contrasts. - Hippybear
Wow, you aren't kidding. I just listened to Do You Know the Way to San Jose and it's just a straight up regular version of the song. It might be even a bit more mellow than the original!
posted by vespabelle at 8:37 AM on December 3, 2022
Wow, you aren't kidding. I just listened to Do You Know the Way to San Jose and it's just a straight up regular version of the song. It might be even a bit more mellow than the original!
posted by vespabelle at 8:37 AM on December 3, 2022
There's been a lot of this about recently - apart from Trevor Horn touting his book, I watched this four-hour (!) Andrew Scheps interview with Steve Lipson and this (more modest) two-part interview with J J Jeczalik who might be the most influential musician you've never heard of. As a Fairlight tech, or rather the Fairlight tech, he basically invented sampling as we know it, and his work is all over the early 80s, including a lot of records I didn't realise he went anywhere near (Sat in Your Lap! Absolute!).
(It's interesting to hear the evolution of the style, though - from Lexicon of Love through to Slave to the Rhythm, with Welcome to the Pleasure Dome in the middle.)
Trevor Horn regrets not letting Frankie - particularly the bass player - play on the hits (apparently he used a sample of them jumping into a swimming pool so they're actually on the record, presumably for performance royalties reasons), and he says they actually became a much better band when they had the records to live up to (I saw that bit on The Tube when it was on, and I can't say I was impressed). The thing was that Frankie was peak ZTT, and ZTT was all about the manufacture of hyper-modern records rather than proper bands.
I don't think I'd ever encountered anything with as much sheer modernity as ZTT at their height. Everything, from the sound to the attitude to the graphic design was as bang-up-to-date as it was possible to be in probably the most fashion conscious period in British popular culture. Which I suppose makes it look like bakelite telephones in 2022. It's weird to remember how optimistic 1983 was, though.
My favourite bit of Welcome to the Pleasure Dome is the epic title track, complete with Steve Howe guitar solo. Someone really should do something about the enormous influence that progressive rock had on pop music as much as vice versa.
posted by Grangousier at 3:36 AM on December 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
(It's interesting to hear the evolution of the style, though - from Lexicon of Love through to Slave to the Rhythm, with Welcome to the Pleasure Dome in the middle.)
Trevor Horn regrets not letting Frankie - particularly the bass player - play on the hits (apparently he used a sample of them jumping into a swimming pool so they're actually on the record, presumably for performance royalties reasons), and he says they actually became a much better band when they had the records to live up to (I saw that bit on The Tube when it was on, and I can't say I was impressed). The thing was that Frankie was peak ZTT, and ZTT was all about the manufacture of hyper-modern records rather than proper bands.
I don't think I'd ever encountered anything with as much sheer modernity as ZTT at their height. Everything, from the sound to the attitude to the graphic design was as bang-up-to-date as it was possible to be in probably the most fashion conscious period in British popular culture. Which I suppose makes it look like bakelite telephones in 2022. It's weird to remember how optimistic 1983 was, though.
My favourite bit of Welcome to the Pleasure Dome is the epic title track, complete with Steve Howe guitar solo. Someone really should do something about the enormous influence that progressive rock had on pop music as much as vice versa.
posted by Grangousier at 3:36 AM on December 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
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