I never saw any of the Beatles on the bus." 1983-1984: "Relax", "Two Tribes" and success Trevor Horn, pictured in 1984 wearing a Frankie Goes to Hollywood shirt, signed the band to ZTT and produced their first album. You would see these people walking around town, you'd see Ian McCulloch getting on the bus. Nash said the band admired the Liverpool bands Echo & the Bunnymen, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and the Teardrop Explodes: "That was music from Liverpool but from our generation. Frankie Goes to Hollywood played their first gig at a Liverpool pub, Pickwicks, where they recruited the dancer and backing singer Paul Rutherford. Within the band, O'Toole, Nash and Gill constituted a group known as the Lads. Jed left in 1983, replaced by his cousin, Brian Nash. In 1982, Johnson restarted the group with Peter Gill (drums) and the brothers Mark (bass) and Jed O'Toole (guitar). He formed the first version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood with local musicians, but the group soon split. The lead singer, Holly Johnson, had previously played in Big in Japan and had released some unsuccessful solo singles. Their name comes from an advertisement announcing the first film by Frank Sinatra. History 1980-1982: formation įrankie Goes to Hollywood formed in Liverpool in 1980. The original band members reunited for the first time since 1987 to perform for the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. In 2004, Frankie Goes to Hollywood reunited without Johnson and Nash to perform at a Prince's Trust charity concert, with Ryan Molloy on vocals. He declined invitations to reunite and blocked the band from using the name without him. Johnson successfully sued ZTT to leave his contract and began a solo career. In 1985, Frankie Goes to Hollywood won the Brit Award for British Breakthrough Act and were nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards and MTV Video Music Awards.įrankie Goes to Hollywood's second album, Liverpool (1986), sold fewer copies, and they disbanded acrimoniously in 1987. Johnson, Gill and O'Toole received the 1984 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Two Tribes". In 2014, the music journalist Paul Lester wrote that "no band has dominated a 12-month period like Frankie ruled 1984". Their provocative sexual themes led them to be briefly banned by the BBC, drawing further publicity.
Their debut album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome (1984), produced by Trevor Horn, achieved advance sales of more than a million, and their first three singles, " Relax", " Two Tribes" and " The Power of Love", reached number one on the UK Singles Chart. They comprise Holly Johnson (vocals) and Paul Rutherford (backing vocals), Mark O'Toole (bass), Brian Nash (guitar) and Peter Gill (drums).įrankie Goes to Hollywood signed to ZTT Records in 1983. And feel free, of course, to share and RT to your heart’s content.Frankie Goes to Hollywood are an English pop band that formed in Liverpool in 1980. Remember to fan us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and/or subscribe to our bodacious blog by clicking that little ‘Sign me up!’ button over there >. And they never will… thanks to these awesome t-shirts. Among the more famous references, the hilarious scene in a March 1997 episode of Friends titled “The One With the Tiny T-Shirt.”įrankie Goes to Hollywood may have called it quits in 1987, but they never really went away. Since their heyday, the shirt’s ultra-distinctive look has been ripped off and duplicated countless times, often as a modern-day source of 80s nostalgia. Don’t tell us that you didn’t either have one or want one. It wasn’t too long before the shirts made it across the Atlantic to a teenage audience more-than-eager to shell out the cash for them.
All of a sudden the shirts were not only cool, they were also subversive.
#Original frankie says relax t shirt tv#
Of course, it didn’t hurt that in January 1984, the BBC banned the song “Relax” from all its TV and radio outlets. They were, predictably, an overnight sensation, and teens throughout Britain clamored to get them, sporting one of three different slogans: ‘Frankie Say Relax’, ‘Frankie Say War! Hide Yourself’, and ‘Frankie Say Arm the Unemployed’. Paul Morley, who founded ZTT Records (FGTH’s label), is credited with the design, basing it on almost-identical shirts by British designer Katharine Hamnett. Of course the slogan is taken from the most famous (and notorious) single from that album– “Relax”… the über-catchy club hit about… well, showing restraint. They were all the rage in 1984 following the release of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s debut album Welcome to the Pleasuredome.
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