Review of Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Hard On

Introduction

Back in 1984, like many other twelve year olds, and many more people of all ages, I was mad on Frankie Goes to Hollywood (FGTH).

Many of today`s teenagers know little or nothing about the pop sensation from Liverpool, and would probably be surprised to find that FGTH`s chart record and sales figures eclipse anything achieved by today`s pop acts.

Back in the 80`s, getting to number one was a real achievement, and required bands to sell enormous numbers of records. Singles would enter low down in the charts and gradually climb up. Nowadays, a single`s highest position is generally the one that it enters in, and you really don`t have to sell a great deal to get to the top.

Legendary producer Trevor Horn signed FGTH after seeing them on Channel 4`s "The Tube" and went about rerecording "Relax" which when released didn`t even enter the charts in the Top 40 but gradually climed high enough to warrant a "Top of the Pops" appearance. This was the trigger for a remarkable year - Radio 1 DJ Mike Read whilst on-air stopped playing the single half-way through after realising what the song was about and the notoriety catapulted "Relax" to Number 2 and eventually Number 1, where it stayed for weeks. On the way, it sold nearly 2 million copies, firmly establishing it as one of the most sucessful singles of all time. The Guiness Book of Records recently published a list of the top 100 singles of all time, based on sales and chart success - "Relax" was third.

How do you follow that? - well in the case of FGTH, with "Two Tribes" - featuring wartime instruction of how to avoid air raids and a classic video by Godley and Creme featuring US President Reagan and Soviet leader Mr. Chernenko wrestling alongside numerous remixes. "Two Tribes" simply blew everything else in the charts away and stormed in at Number 1, staying there for an amazing nine weeks. The success of "Two Tribes" generated even more interest in "Relax" which rose back up the charts and sat in the Number 2 position. It`s highly unlikely that you will ever see a singles chart 1-2 again.

FGTH was not just about music, they were the first mega-hyped act, with slick marketing and promotional material - during the summer of 1984, almost everyone had a "Frankie Say" t-shirt...The hype surrounding todays manufactured pop acts can all be traced back to ZTT`s genius in selling FGTH 16 years ago.

The third single, "The Power Of Love" also reached number one, equaling Gerry and the Pacemakers` record for the first three singles reaching the top of the charts, the fourth single, "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" only however made it to Number 2, preventing the group from taking the record outright.

The monster success also demanded an album for Christmas which saw the release of a double album "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" - another monster seller - Paul Morley says that it is in the Top 10 double albums of all time...

FGTH couldn`t continue the success and quickly faded, but there has been the occasional re-release of the singles over the years, along with a couple of compilations.

Video

The video quality is a mixed bag.

The original videos are 16 years old and suffer from some grain and dirt. The newer ones, especially the ones for the 2000 remixes however look great.

The picture quality on the interviews is very good.

Audio

Audio comes in Dolby Digital Stereo throughout.

Whilst some of you may yearn for Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, I prefer stereo for standard music "video" releases - and 5.1 on live releases. The quality on the music videos, interviews and "history of" is very good.

Features

There are a number of interviews with Paul Rutherford, Trevor Horn, Paul Morley, Paul Lester and Gary Farrow - these run in total for around 30 minutes. The menu system allows you to choose from various topics discussed or play them all in order. For anyone who was/is a fan of the band, this material is extremely interesting and well worth watching.

There is also a 20 minute "History of FGTH" written and narrated by Paul Morley. Basically a monologue read over a staic background, this is brilliantly written and again of a very high interest value for fans of the group.

Lastly, there is a montage of album covers, magizine covers and publicity shots.

All this is wrapped up in a nice FGTH style menu system.

Conclusion

Overall there are 14 music videos on the DVD, including the original controversial video for "Relax" that many people have still not seen. For fans of the group, the videos and music alone make the DVD well worth having, but the addition the interviews and "history of" makes this disc a must-have.

I`ve still got all the 7" and 12" singles and double album on vinyl, along with it all on CD as well and some of the reissues and compilations etc - this DVD can now sit proudly next to them.