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Frankie Goes To Hollywood.


bubinga5
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Still got my original vinyl of this, it's one of my go-to albums when checking out new turntables.

I knew that Steve Howe does an acoustic solo on the title track. Just seen this article http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/mick-burgess-chats-steve-howe-7032017 where he says he also did some bass playing for Two Tribes! Didn't know that. Whether and where it's ended up on the final version is anyone's guess though.

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We had a guest lecture at uni a few months ago from JJ Jeczalik who was in the Art of noise, and co-produced a lot of this. He was given the country's one and only Fairlight by Trevor Horn, and told to work out how to use it, and make some money from it.

He's a really cool guy, and was talking about the making of this album, particularly the single Relax.

The band themselves could barely play, and they'd exhausted all the session players in London, trying to get the single to sound 'right'.

Trevor Horn was getting very demoralised with the whole thing, it'd cost him a fortune to sign the band, and for all the studio time.

JJ stayed behind in the studio the one night, with instructions to pack everything away, instead he started sequencing some of the recordings through the Fairlight. He'd got it playing back quite loudly through the monitors, when Trevor Horn came back heard it and loved it. The rest is history.

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[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1454156638' post='2967008']
We had a guest lecture at uni a few months ago from JJ Jeczalik who was in the Art of noise, and co-produced a lot of this. He was given the country's one and only Fairlight by Trevor Horn, and told to work out how to use it, and make some money from it.
[/quote]

Nice story, but I seriously doubt that it was "the country's one & only Fairlight".
There were quite a few people using Fairlights in the UK by that time, Geoff Downes had two of his own in 1982, Thomas Dolby had one, Gabriel was using them. Gabriel actually owned the company that sold them in the UK (Syco Systems, which used to be in Paddington).

Edited by RhysP
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Sounds like JJ Jeczalik was making things up. FGTH could definitely play, as they played Relax on legendary music show The Tube where they featured as an unsigned act before getting signed to Trevor Horn's ZTT label. Theres also live footage, from The Tube again if memory serves, of them playing a very exhilarating version of Two Tribes with live keyboards, bass and drums.

As for the Fairlight, plenty of them in the country at the time and thanks to the screen with a light pen, very easy to operate. Syco Systems, the UK importer mentioned above, were the main suppliers of high end music technology. Their place was actually in Maida Vale and burnt down, at which point they realised they'd forgotten to get insurance. I use their former repair guys, who now trade as Hammond Hire.

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I also doubt the "cost a fortune to sign" point... TH spotted them on the Tube whilst mixing one of the later Yes albums... they were just a scouse club act... can't imagine there was much of a bidding war going on over them.

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So good.

Also, check out the 12" release of Power of Love. I'd love to play that lead line on bass with some fuzz (and a pitch-shifter, I guess!)

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52wWf4GS8ho[/media]

Edited by HMX
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I know I've mentioned it before, but I can't let this thread go by without a shout out for my dear, late friend Lana Newman. She's the girl in the bath with the snake in the Welcome to the Pleasuredome vid.
Such a beautiful, funny and kind friend. Alas, taken from us too soon. :-(

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[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1454158187' post='2967026']


Nice story, but I seriously doubt that it was "the country's one & only Fairlight".
There were quite a few people using Fairlights in the UK by that time, Geoff Downes had two of his own in 1982, Thomas Dolby had one, Gabriel was using them. Gabriel actually owned the company that sold them in the UK (Syco Systems, which used to be in Paddington).
[/quote]

Yep, I was st LCF doung electronic music technology 81-84 and we had one. I seem to remember student demonstrations such as the national anthem sung by dogs!

Syco Systems, that's a trip down memory lane, one of my classmates/fellow musicians worked there. Really exciting time to be doing music although so much if it sounds so synthetic to my ear now.

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I received this a couple of days ago - pristine condition original double vinyl album.

Playing along to the title track is so enjoyable.

[URL=http://s7.photobucket.com/user/kevin_lindsay/media/20160203_185054.jpg.html][IMG]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/kevin_lindsay/20160203_185054.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

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[quote name='PaulGibsonBass' timestamp='1454676057' post='2971929']
Nice live stuff from Frankie in 1984 here... Mark O'Toole rocking a nice Cutlass I by the look of it. I thought they couldn't play..? ;)

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOWTtYgPmlg"]https://www.youtube....h?v=BOWTtYgPmlg[/url]
[/quote]

They went through a lot of session players trying to get the single recorded, and sounding right. At one point they even had the Blockheads in the studio.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l1wMw27KDI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l1wMw27KDI[/url]

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[quote name='kevin_lindsay' timestamp='1454723192' post='2972484']
I received this a couple of days ago - pristine condition original double vinyl album.

Playing along to the title track is so enjoyable.

[url="http://s7.photobucket.com/user/kevin_lindsay/media/20160203_185054.jpg.html"][/url]
[/quote]Good call. Fantastic album.!!

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[quote name='PaulGibsonBass' timestamp='1454676057' post='2971929']
Nice live stuff from Frankie in 1984 here... Mark O'Toole rocking a nice Cutlass I by the look of it. I thought they couldn't play..? ;)

[/quote]

The recording of Relax is legendary & there are a lot of myths and rumours about it.

From what I've read over the years my impression is that the problem wasn't so much that the original Frankie line up couldn't play ( they'd been gigging for a while before they got signed) it was that Trevor Horne had a definite idea in his mind about how he wanted the song to sound and neither Frankie or half the session musicians in the UK, including members of the Blockheads could get the song to sound the way he wanted it to.

The eventual single release was stitched together from about a million different sessions ,including some from band members ,with some serious post production thrown in for good measure.

Of course others may have heard different versions of what actually went on during those sessions.

Edited by Cato
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