Talk:Frankie Goes to Hollywood

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Frankie Goes to Hollywood is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination failed. For older candidates, please check the archive.
February 13, 2005 Featured article candidate Not promoted
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Contents

[edit] Jacob Moogberg

This article doesn't mention Jacob Moogberg. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.184.52.208 (talk) 04:27, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] T shirts

What about the "Frankie says Go to Hollywood... Who gives a fuck what Frankie says" T shirts?Exploding Boy 13:41, Feb 10, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Name Origin

Regarding the name origin, although it's usually explained as a reference to Frank Sinatra, I'm pretty sure it was actually Frankie Vaughan, which makes a hell of a lot more sense when you consider how proud FGTH were of their Liverpool roots. (It also fits Vaughan's career path better - and of course Frankie Vaughan was actually known as Frankie, which one would have thought was a dead giveaway.) Bonalaw 14:30, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I have only heard the Sinatra version. But now that you mention it, the Vaughan version seems more likely. Feel free to edit the article. 16:50, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)
I've heard another version: that FGTH took their name from a poster (perhaps a mvie poster) which hung in their rehearsal room. If this is true, this should be "easy" to confirm...we just to find that poster and have a look if Sinatra or Vaughan is pictured on there... --Klaws 11:04, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

If you listen to "One September Monday" you get the definitive version of the group's name - it was a poster. And it was Sinatra. DaveG12345 03:32, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Intro and Formation sections

I tried to tidy up the intro and "formation" section - the article as a whole seems flabby and full of POV - e.g. the original convoluted explanation about Frankie Vaughan, who-taught-who guitar - some of this stuff is so trivial it's hardly worth mentioning except in a footer at the end called "Trivia". I think this is probably why the article was never "featured" - the sections on the individual singles, etc., still require similar tightening. Still too much POV, too much inconsequential or unstantiated trivia. DaveG12345 09:27, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Frankie are performing during 2005. (No, not "Davey Johnsons" version!)

[edit] BBC ban

Quoth the article: "the BBC decided to ban the record from all its TV and radio outlets." I'm sure this wasn't the case, and that they continued to appear on Top of the Pops - Steve Wright has even made reference to this when the song has been shown on TOTP2 at least once, commenting that unlike the rest of the BBC, "we were big enough, we could take it". Angmering 11:21, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

The much-repeated clip of FGTH doing "Relax" on TOTP actually comes from the week before the ban (as evidenced by the fact that the studio has been specially decorated for the show's 20th anniversary, which was that week.) --Bonalaw 10:38, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
Indeed. They were fortunate to get on TOTP that week - it was a new entry at No.35 and they got quite a high billing and a lucky break, much like Wham! did about 18 months earlier. Must have been a tough week for getting artists to appear live. But there's no doubt that the BBC did not feature Relax at all between Mike Read's moment of glory and the TOTP Christmas special. Bentley Banana 20:10, 22 February 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Influences

Horn very cleverly marshalled the two aparently irreconcilable areas of musical taste in the group - Holly and rutherford's fondness for Hi-NRG and The Lads' admiration for the then-deeply unfashionable Pink Floyd. The mix made them irresistable to a vast range of British youth (It is notable that they were the first major pop act for about ten years not to have a "tribal" following), while it also accounts for their relative failure in the US, where their genre-hopping confused radio programmers.

[edit] Ryan Molloy

As I did in the German edition, I removed Molloy for the reason that that had nothing to fo with FGTH anymore. It was an anniversary event for Trevor Horn 25 years later -- it's nice extra info but he shouldn't be listed as regular band member. --Blane 21:16, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Computer game

Just some trivia: Frankie Goes to Hollywood was also a computer game, on the commodore C64. It was quite good... roan (The game also appeared on the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. The music was rather better on the C64)

I added the game article to Wikipedia. Felsir 11:54, August 15, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Hard Candy

anybody know how the Counting Crows song "Up All Night (Frankie Miller goes to Hollywood)" might relate to this?

[edit] British Disco

Basicly Trevor Horn was a failed prog-rocker and Paul Morlay a closet intellectual fascist cum journalist who both thought they could score by bringing the Munich/New York sound to an unknowing Essex girl and boy audience (what we now as "chav") - in other words excite the Thatcher and Reagan crowd. Unwittingly they stumbled upon a Scouse punk band with a talented bass-player and an apparently unhinged lead-singer. The original version of Relax was a quite good and funky song, but Horn managed to drown it in fairlight mish-mash. Before the term "mash-up" became fashionable Horn mixed "Relax" with Evelyn Thomas' Hi-NRG classic titled... "High Energy" and the immediacy of the song had the effect of a typical Euro-disco song. And then he remixed it some more. Much has been made of the BBC banning it for its socalled risky lyrics, but they are hardly any more risky than for instance some songs by Donna Summer or Grace Jones, so it was probably a simple marketing ploy. In any case, the popularity of the song was also evident in other countries - were it was not banned. Nor was the video, which was basicly a pastiche on Italian movie director Fellini's work. "Relax" was remixed into an insane number of variations - maybe so Morley could write some more of his clever cover notes. Also the popularity of the song gave inspiration to Pet Shop Boys - although they took around ten years to revert to the Italo Disco sound they had initially intended, but refrained from for marketing reasons - probably.

Well, thanks for that. The future of British rock criticism is secure. Lupine Proletariat 14:11, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

The remixes were to make money, although Morley's intentions were fairly transparently subversive. In the summer of 1984 FGTH only had two singles out - but probably more physical records on the market than Wham, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet put together. Before the BPI changed the rules sometime in the late 1980s, you could sell a single on as many different formats as you wanted - presenting the possibility that Two Tribes was probably kept at number one by the same people going out to buy multiple versions of the same single.

It's worth mentioning that both Relax and Two Tribes are perhaps the first notable examples of a major hit record where no two people can agree on which is the "definitive version"... unless you count "Love Me Do", ho-ho.

[edit] Relax

I was under the impression that the offending lyric was when you want to suck it, chew it; it's about oral sex. I would provide a source - but I'm at work, and I would probably get in trouble. Lupine Proletariat 14:11, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunatley, you have fallen under the spell of a misheard lyric. The lyrics directly from the official FGTH website [1] state the chorus as -

"Relax don't do it / When you want to go to it / Relax don't do it / When you want to come // Relax don't do it / When you want to sock to it / Relax don't do it / When you want to come"

I still insist the song is about orgasms, but not everyone agrees, so I will drop that issue. Pixiestix 13:51, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Default Band Infobox Listing Original Members As Past Members

I removed this thing - the default Wikipedia band infobox is basically bland and hopeless for past bands IMO, but besides that, the implementation included a photo of the 1984 line-up whilst listing Johnson and Nash as "past members".

I know FG2H is trying to make a name for itself, and good luck to them all - but let's please not re-write history and have Holly Johnson and Brian Nash accorded the same status as (effectively) Pete Best or Wally Nightingale.

The new line-up hasn't made a name for itself yet - and so it deserves a footnote in the main article at this stage - no way should any "infobox" be listing johnny-come-lately members as a kick-off to the article, and no way should the original members be relegated to subsidiary importance in such a shoddy and disrespectful "past members" way.

Discussion welcomed but, IMO, come such a time that the "current" line-up has at least matched the original line-up's musical achievements, then we can start to talk about infoboxes bearing their name front-and-centre, eh? :-) --DaveG12345 21:49, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] louis100000

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[edit] NME cover

FGTH were, I think, one of the select group of artists to have featured on the front cover of the NME before they had a record contract. Am I right?

[edit] Two Tribes video banned on British TV?

I distinctly remember seeing the video on TV at the time. I don't think it was "not shown", though perhaps it wasn't shown on some TV shows or until after the 'watershed'. Can someone verify this please, and add a citation in the relevant place? -- Mal 19:22, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

On reflection, I think the full version wasn't shown, and perhaps parts of it were 'looped' so as to avoid showing the more 'violent' parts of the original cut. -- Mal 19:24, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Right and wrong. The Two Tribes video wasn't shown by the BBC, but it was shown by Channel 4 (who premiered the full-length version at about 1am one night in April 1984).

[edit] Special Concerts and other mindless trivia

FGTH were at "Rock around the Dock", a special concert as part of the renovation of the Liverpool docklands area. They did "Rage Hard" and "Warriors of the Wasteland". There is some measure of dispute over whether they were genuinely playing live, however. (If anyone has more info, that would be great.) I don't know if this was their only special, but it seems unlikely.

On a different node, FGTH was a major part of the musical revival in Britain, and Britain was kicking into high gear on revival in general. (The Liverpool Docks project, plus an effort to revive inner cities by turning scrubland into extensive international gardens were all during the same years.) It would be interesting to know how the attitudes of the time shaped FGTH and vice versa. (The music reflects the times, but the times also reflect the music. The relationship is rarely one-sided.)

[edit] Not performing during 1984?

"This rumour eventually gelled into the general accusation that "Frankie cannot play", since the group were unavailable for touring duties during the whole of 1984."

Not true. The same weekend that the first album was released (ie the last of October), FGTH flew to America for their first US tour. I don't know how many dates they played, but they were sure as hell live when they played "Born to Run" on Saturday Night Live. It is, however, true that Frankie's public performances during their summer-1984 peak consisted entirely of miming to "Relax" and "Two Tribes" on various European pop programmes.


[edit] Power of Love

I have removed "the seasonal Power of Love" as PoL is not a Christmas record. It happened to come out at Christmas and be FGTH's shot at the Christmas number one, and had a comically ornate nativity video with this in mind, but to lump it in with "I Believe in Father Christmas", Slade, Wizzard et al is just misleading.

[edit] disambiguation

There is also a game (for C64) called Fanky Goes to Hollywood. I think this topic needs disambiguation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.138.92.218 (talk) 05:40, 25 December 2007 (UTC)