Welcome To The Pleasuredome - Frankie Goes To Hollywood

When I was a kid, like many other kids I detested the clutch of smarmy, self-satisfied radio 1 DJs that ruled the airwaves back then- so gratifyingly lampooned by Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. "What are you doing this weekend, MATE?" "Well, MATE, I'm doing an awful lot of work for chariddy..." Mike Read was one such smarm, and bizarrely Frankie Goes to Hollywood fans such as I have something to thank this man for- helping to bring this band not only to their attention but to the attention of the masses. By the end of 1984 Frankie Goes to Hollywood were arguably the biggest pop band on the planet, due in part to Mike Read's refusal to ...  Read the complete review

In the early/mid eighties, it was common for albums to be around the half hour mark, which would explain why this album is a double when it would easily fit onto a single. That out of the way, here goes with the rest of it... This great-sounding album would be better described as something like "The Art Of Frankie", as most of the music was preformed by (the then) house band, The Art Of Noise. Guest guitarist was steve Howe, former Yes member when producer Trevor Horn was vocalist of that group. Even Rimmer from "Red Dwarf" (Chris Barrie) appears here to throw in a few of his impressions of a psycotic Ronald Regan and a 'saucy' ...  Read the complete review

Frankie’s first and finest album, with ‘best of’ thrown in for good measure. This album features all the reasons Frankie became famous as well as infamous, namely ‘The Power of Love’, ‘Two Tribes’ and ‘Relax’. The album opens with a surrealistic track called ‘The World is my Oyster’ giving a trendy, ‘pastiche’ feel to the album, quickly followed by a ‘snatch of fury’. By track three (Welcome to the Pleasure Dome) we are into the typical Frankie ‘beat’ so characteristic of their work and engineered by master producer (‘and all that’ as the credits ...  Read the complete review

If you took a stroll round the seaside resorts of Britain or indeed any city centre during the 1983-84 period, particularly on a warm summer’s day, and you would inevitably come across (oo-err, missus!) a multitude of white T shirts all proclaiming the legend (in foot high letters) “Frankie Says…” There were many different things that Frankie said in that particular period but it was always the same impression you got. A new movement had started and was being shoved unceremoniously in the faces of Britons everywhere. The rulers of this new kingdom were too blatantly gay individuals, three Scouser scallies with beer guts and ...  Read the complete review

The banning of "Relax" was of course the reason why the single shot to the number one spot, and the rest, as they say, is history. 1984 became the year of Frankie, with "Frankie say?" T-shirts everywhere. The record was at Number 1 for 5 weeks, and was still in the charts 48 weeks later. Apart from the hype and the publicity, the song itself is a great piece of explosive music, produced and transformed by Trevor Horn (the song had been kicking around a while before he got his hands on it, and I have heard an earlier version, which was frankly nothing that special). Even though the band insisted it was just a dace song, "Relax" was ...  Read the complete review