"Welcome To The Pleasuredome" by FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD - October 1984 UK ZTT Records 2LP Debut Double-Album - Guests Include Steve Howe of Yes, Steve Lipson on Guitar, String Arrangements by Anne Dudley and Production by Trevor Horn (December 2020 UK ZTT/UMC 1CD Reissue and Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Victims Of Ravishment..."

 

Ah the Frankies - Going To Hollywood in the Eighties with a Zang Tuum Tumb Remix in their hearts and a set of Mongolian Moose horns in their codpieces - and thereafter feeling the need to Relax and not do it (nor even suck it to it).

 

In March 2022 - Frankie Goes To Hollywood's October 1984 wake-up-call debut double-album "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" is for sure showing its excessive age. But then you crank Track 2 - the staggering over-the-top who-ha 13:40 minutes of its title track and suddenly you think (nay even tumb tang admit) - there's never been anything this brilliant anywhere else - evah! 

 

Half toss, half genius - Liverpool's Frankie Goes To Hollywood practically invented 80ts cult with their extraordinary launching pad - aided by the stellar Production talent of TREVOR HORN who realized their mad Mongolian Kublai Khan bad-boys of Rock Music vision.

 

We heard giggles, distorted vocals, a Ronald Reagan pisstake during "War", the British Royal Family's Prince Charles in the "(Tag)" bit starting Side 3 before the Gerry & The Pacemakers "Ferry Across The Mersey" cover version (often miscredited on original LPs as 'Furry') - and the Supervisor warning before launching into the Boss's "Born To Run" - and so much more. 

 

And of course, the artwork, my god the artwork; those two inner sleeves with all those eclectic indecipherable liner notes, secret gay shagging references and adverts for product. Hell, if you looked closely enough, you could even see that each side of ZTT IQ1 had a subliminal title of sorts - Pray Frankie Pray, Say, Sing and Play Frankie Play. And the crafty covers incorporated into absolutely everything too.

 

But FGTH had those searing original songs and that squeaky clean so-80ts sound too. Just dig that acoustic moment (around eight minutes in) by Lead Guitarist Steve Howe of Yes - something they'd employ themselves with the stunning "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" (also produced by TH) or that delicate Electric Guitar solo by Steve Lipson. WOW!

 

But the initial sonic-assault of "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" has had a very marred audio history when it comes to reissues - the constraints of vinyl and earlier half-assed CD versions. Well, at last this 2020 ZTT/UMC CD Remaster does that animal beast a solid. Let's get to the moving at one million miles an hour details...

 

UK released 12 December 2020 - "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" by FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD on ZTT/UMC 8242199 (Barcode 602508242199) offers the full 1984 double-album remastered onto 1CD (Definition Series No. 32, ZTDS32) and plays out as follows (64:37 minutes):

 

Side 1 - Pray Frankie Pray 

1. The World Is My Order (including 'Well' and 'Snatch of Fury') - 1:39 minutes

2. Welcome To The Pleasuredome - 13:40 minutes

 

Side 2 - Say Frankie Say 

3. Relax (Come Fighting) - 3:56 minutes 

4. War (And Hide) - 6:13 minutes 

5. Two Tribes (For The Victims Of Ravishment) - 3:28 minutes 

 

Side 3 - Sing Frankie Sing 

6. (Tag) - 0:35 minutes 

7. Ferry (Go) - 1:49 minutes

8. Born To Run - 3:58 minutes 

9. San Jose (The Way) 

10. Wish (The Lads Were Here) - 2:48 minutes 

11. Including The Ballad of 32 - 4:49 minutes 

 

Side 4 - Play Frankie Play 

12. Krisko Kisses - 2:59 minutes 

13. Black Night White Light - 4:08 minutes 

14. The Only Star In Heaven - 4:16 minutes 

15. The Power Of Love - 5:32 minutes 

16. Bang... - 1:09 minutes 

Tracks 1 to 16 are the debut 2LP-set "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" - released 29 October 1984 on ZTT Records IQ 1. Produced by TREVOR HORN - it peaked at No. 1. 

 

The 8-page booklet is unfortunately the usual deflating effort that covers the inner gatefold artwork of the 2LP set, the band photos and each member discussed and those original liner notes. But apart from a credit to Philip Marshall for the 2020 rejiggered artwork layout, there is bugger all else - no history.

 

What is not in contention is the very clear and clear Remastered Audio that somehow manages to retain the integrity of the 'Trevor Horn' production sound that was such a part of WTTP, but give it muscle in places where it has always screamed out for power. If you give some welly on your stereo to the gorgeous guitar-work in the half-instrumental/half-porn soundtrack "Including The Ballad of 32" – the audio is incredible - so damn good.

 

While it was fun back in the big-hair-do days to hear Bacharach and David’s "Do You Know The Way To San Jose?" (done by Dionne Warwick originally on Scepter Records in 1968) or Springsteen’s "Born To Run" (Columbia Records, 1975), they feel like alien limpets now. Better is those lesser heralded album cuts like "Krisko Kisses" or the devil may take you there of "Black Night White Light" with its internal WTTP guitar bits. And those huge strangely touching string-arrangements by Anne Dudley on the No. 1 single "The Power Of Love" that ends the opus in a suitably epic manner.

 

You can’t help thinking that the 12” Alternate Remix of “Pleasuredome” would have made the perfect Bonus Track (and there is room) or their cover of T. Rex’s “Get It On” – but alas (Frankie Say No More).

 

The second and last album by FGTH "Liverpool" would finally arrive in October 1986 again on ZTT Records with all the accompanying paraphernalia and plethora of versions - but it felt like an anti-climax because it just couldn't compete with the sheer bombast of such a debut (produced three No. 1 singles).

 

But you have to smile at FGTH for taking their name off a Frank Sinatra poster and getting the BBC to ban "Relax" and therefore send it up to No. 1. For that alone and the Xanadu dingbat "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" - I stand erect for Frankie Goes To Hollywood (probably not a good thing really at my age)...