“Two Tribes” is an anti-war song by British band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, released in the UK by ZTT Records on 4 June 1984. The song was later included on the album Welcome to the Pleasuredome. Presenting a nihilistic, gleeful lyric expressing enthusiasm for nuclear war, it juxtaposes a relentless pounding bass line and guitar riff inspired by American funk and R&B pop with influences of Russian classical music, in an opulent arrangement produced by Trevor Horn.
Supported by a striking advertising campaign depicting the band as members of the Red Army and a wide range of remixes, the single was a phenomenal success in the UK, immediately entering at the number one position on 10 June 1984 and staying at the top of the UK Singles Chart for nine consecutive weeks, during which time the group’s previous single “Relax” climbed back up the charts to number two. It was the longest-running number-one single in the UK of the 1980s. It has sold 1.58 million copies in the UK as of November 2012. Songwriters Johnson, Gill, and O’Toole received the 1984 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. In 2015 the song was voted by the British public as the nation’s 14th-favorite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.
Internationally the single reached the #1 position in seven countries however in the USA it only managed to peak at #43 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
ABOUT THE TRANSFER
I transferred this cassette single using a Nakamichi BX-300 Discrete 3 Head Cassette Deck. I did not apply any Dolby or other noise reduction pretty much leaving the cassette un-altered so you may hear some analog tape noise. As with vinyl, I did remove the occasional click or pop. The printed tracklisting on the release is not accurate so I used what was available according to ZTTAAT.com and Discogs.
SIDE A/B:
1. On the subject of Frankie Goes To Hollywood… 0:25
2. One February Friday (Singlette version, part 1) 0:40
3. Two Tribes (Cassingle Mix) 15:27
4. One February Friday (Singlette Version, Part 2) 1:08
5. War (Hide yourself!) 4:16
6. One February Friday (Singlette Version, Part 3) 0:22
7. War Is Peace 0:06
CASSETTE GRADE:
Cassette: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
U.S. CHART HISTORY:
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Two Tribes | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | #43 |
| 1984 | Two Tribes | U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks | #1 |
| 1984 | Two Tribes | U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Music/Club Play | #27 |
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: ZTT – CTIS 103
Series: Action Series – 3, Incidental Series – 30
Format: Cassette, Single
Country: UK
Released: 23 Jul 1984
Genre: Electronic, Rock, Pop
Style: Pop Rock, Synth-pop
CREDITS:
Artwork [Packaged By] – XLZTT
Photography By – Anton Corbijn
Producer – Trevor Horn
Producer [Assisted By His] – Bright Building Theam*
Voice Actor [As Himself] – Patrick Allen
Voice Actor [As Ron Reagan] – Christopher Barrie
NOTES:
Program repeats on both sides.
“Produced by Trevor Horn, assisted by his bright building them. And then there were the players: Patrick Allan (as himself) and Christopher Barrie (as Ron Reagan)
…
This cassette can be seen as both a part of number 3 in Zang Tumb Tuum’s bloodied action series ot number 30 in Zang Tumb Tuum’s harrassed incidental series. Did we save the world?”
Freedom Is Slavery
Find the Cassette at DISCOGS
CASSETTE RESTORATION BY::
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net
EQUIPMENT USED:
Cassette Deck: Nakamichi BX-300 Discrete 3 Head Cassette Deck
DAC/Phono Pre-amp Line In: Alpha Design Labs GT40a USB DAC
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner
SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi
Username: btg
Password: burningtheground
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Hi Paul,
Just wanted to thank you for very impressive cassette rip by Frankie. Got the original cd so this will be the first time I’ve heard this.
One other thing, you have some mightily impressive 12″ covers down the left side of the blog (just fantastic artwork and great designs on those). Linking them to your posts may be an idea for the future, time permitting! There is one with a woman and the letters writ large JW but I don’t recognise or know what it is.
Best wishes to you and keep up the great work,
J
Hey, thanks for the idea, Jay. That record is Jody Watley “Real Love”.
I’ve never seen this one before, can’t wait to listen to it! Thanks!
Do you happen to have any other mixes of this song?
Thank You Paul for offering this gem! Never got my hands on any of the tapes at the time. And today I’m also missing my old tape deck. I will enjoy your Nakamichi. Feel free to offer more tapes.
Very surprised to see this! pretty excited. I’m sure there’s something on here that I haven’t heard before. Never owned this one, or the INXS cassette only release.
Thank you for posting! Frankie always appreciated.
Great stuff, thanks! I bought this cassette in the Netherlands in 1984. At least i’m pretty sure it’s the same release. It’s one of the few cassettes I still have. The remainder are mostly – if not all – Prince items. Lacking a cassette player it’s great to hear this again.
Another great post Paul, featuring Frankie Goes to Hollywood, I grew up listening to Relax and Two Tribes, plus all the various mixes that came with these tracks plus I loved both albums.
As well as vinyl I bought many cassettes, for some reason I bought a Duran Duran RIO cassette album from Our Price record shop (UK) , this £1.99 version had a brown cover of RIO and when I got home and put in on my personal stereo I realized it was in mono, eventually bought the better version.
Can you post sometime INXS DekaDance cassette please.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard the Cassingle Mix. It sounds awesome. Thanks for posting.
Yesssssss…. thank you soooo much Paul!!!!!!
Thanks so much Paul. Who doesn’t love a ZTT cassingle.
Just noticed ‘Frankie’ is mis-spelled as ‘Frabkie’ in the Flac16 tags Paul. xx
This is awesome – maybe a repost of Johnny hates Jazz ‘I Don’t Want To Be A Hero’.
Interesting…didn’t know you were going to post this when i commented on the Bonzo post evocking memories of ‘The Presidents Brain Is Missing’ yesterday. The start and end snippets on this are voiced by Chris Barrie…who voiced Reagan on Spitting Image the parent show of ‘The Presidents Brain Is Missing’ skits.
Hi Paul, Fantastic to see this. Massive Frankie Fan. Great to hear this cassette after all these year. Great job Paul and glad you are back.
Hey Paul. Great post, if you hadn’t stated this was from a cassette I wouldn’t believe it. I have 15 different mixes of Two Tribes from import CDs but none of the cassingle mix. Thank you very much.
Kent 🙂
¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪
This is simply AMAZING!!!! I have everything by FGTH and can never get enough of them (and DEPECHE)!!! I haven’t listened to this yet, but their CASSINGLES are always stunning and I bet your transfer is pristine as always. Trevor Horn was so far ahead of his time!!!
⊱✿ ✿⊰⊹ ♧ ✿. .T.H.A.N.K. .Y.O.U. . ✿ ♂ ♀ ∞ ☆ ★
(=’.’=)
Been away a while (not prison), but hello DJPaulT followers,I hope you all had happy holidays! Love FGTH. It was so fun trying to collect all the cassingles and twelves back then, and the clever ones at ZTT never made it easy to get every mix. Maybe nobody has all of them even now. Thank you Paul! Trevor Horn. Brilliant.
Mothloop, so great to see you stop on by. I miss your presence here on BTG. You always have something nice to say.
Enjoy your day!
Jeff
Wow Jeff, you are an early riser as well. You made my day, All the best to you sir!
Big fun! Thanks. 🙂
Hi Paul, Nice to see a Frankie single be presented in this format. I have several cassingles from that era, but did not get the Frankie ones at the time. ZTT has done a good job of preserving all of these on the deluxe editions, and you can get them all digitally also from various sites. I appreciate you transfer of it, and for your preservations also. Two tribes has many, many, many versions, and its my favorite song from them. The Trevor Horn touch always made it an epic, along with the groundbreaking video (long before deepfake became common).… Read more »
Fantastic. These cassettes are a a long lost piece of Frankie history. The whole cassette factor is something that was so of the times, perhaps like the download today, heard in the moment and then forgotten or lost. To this day I am still finding out about lost cassette versions of songs. I would love a series of these lost treasures if you have more of them. Thank you Paul for this still very relevant treat.
You’re welcome 🙂
I just have to add, this is the best sound I have ever heard of this cassette. Thank You again!
Awesome, really big fan!!
thanks Paul 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂
Simplemente extraordinario, gran tema y un cassette que lo dice todo, en la descripción un personaje de la historia universal, que marco una época en Rusia y alrededores. Gracias por el aporte
Hey Paul, I just love reading these comments. You do touch our lives most beautifully. I myself and the world just adore you!!
Grateful to and for you always!
Jeff
This cassette does require Dolby B for correct playback.
Agree – Any tape manufactured with Dolby B noise reduction ALWAYS requires the same Dolby de-emphasis decoder settings to be applied during playback in order to restore the original (correct) EQ curve.
Otherwise the resulting sound will be shifted the the higher end (brighter sounding and lacking in bass.)
Thanks, I will remember for next time.
This is actually I tough one. What the above posters say is technically correct. However over time tapes lose some top end…so the extra ‘brightness’ caused by leaving the dolby off isn’t there anymore. If you put the dolby on the playback will not be correct sounding anymore as it will be ‘under-bright’ due to the aged related top end loss. BUT on the otherside of the coin leaving the dolby off will introduce extra hiss which flicking dolby on will still be correctly removed. So with a 35 year old tape it hard to know which to compromise. I… Read more »
This Dolby reduction thing has always had me confused. At the time when tapes were all the rage, some of my friends did not like using Dolby for playback. They said it diminished the highs. Flicking back and forth between and on and off, you could certainly hear that. After this comment yesterday, I did some research into the thing. Check this out. Fascinating. I guess it’s personal tastes, but I love that Paul left the Dolby off. Just my opinion.
https://www.audiomasterclass.com/newsletter/did-that-dolby-b-noise-reduction-thing-ever-really-work
Jeff
Yes people thought they preferred the brighter ‘off’ sound…but it wasn’t the correct sound.
Very appropriate Paul. Warriors Of The Wasteland should also be posted. Thanks.
Now tHAT´s a pleasant surprise! Being a Frankie maniac it is needless to say that I have all the cassette singles, picture disks etc etc but the sound quality of your rip will be amazing, I am sure. Richard S beat me on the “cassingle” quote 🙂 What can I say more other than that I am so happy about this rip? Nothing! Because “On The Subject Of Frankie Goes To Hollywood Nothing Occurs To Me.” 🙂
Brilliant, Paul.
“Musicians? Nah! We´re just the hammer that knocks the nail in.”
Oh, and for those few who wonder why I chose my odd nick name – from the first “Welcome To The Pleasuredome” 12inch:
“In song and in dance I express myself as a member of a higher community (…)” 🙂
Song And Dance, I LOVE THIS!!! That introduction to the 12-inch is one of my favorites. “I am no longer an artist. I have become a work of art!!” I always felt you were special Song And Dance! This proves it!!
Admiration and Hugs!
Jeff
Thanks so much, Song And Dance 🙂
First, off thank you for this. Secondly (and incidentally) I just want to point out (re: the tracklisting) how meticulous the band & producer were about every tiny aspect on all the FGTH releases, and yet almost always got the tracklisting WRONG on the picture sleeves! This band has proven very frustrating to me to collect as a result, I’m not even sure what I actually own. But I know I don’t own THIS, so I’m very happy to have it presented so beautifully.
You’re welcome 🙂
This is a typical Paul Morely/ZTT thing. You should try wading through the Art of Noise back catalogue – it’s even worse! 😀
Awesome cassette for its time, if I remember correctly this was joint 1st for best selling cassette single with Relax, both sold out of the limited(!) 20,000 copies each. And also unavailable for nearly 3 decades until it appeared again on a deluxe remastered release, in various parts, but this cassette has ever been released in its entirety since the original cassette. Same goes for the Relax cassette. Great to see you using the Nakamichi BX-300, it’s the same model I used in 1984 to play this cassette to death. PS ZTT’s next cassette single (Power of Love) states: This… Read more »
I have the “Welcome To The Pleasuredome” Cassette still sealed I might open it someday. that is so funny what ZTT said about calling it a cassingle. Love it!
Unbelievable Paul!! Wow, I am thrilled to have this from you. These ZTT cassingles are epic, at least this is what I’ve heard. Thanks a ton for sharing this with us. I must admit, however, that with the political climate in the world right now, I’m quite scared of the future. I was quite scared in the ’80’s, but right now, the song seems a little too close for comfort. Most haunting line in the song for me is: “We’re living in a land where sex and horror are the new Gods.” Frightening.
Jeff
It is very scary and things seem to be escalating quickly. I only wih we did not have an ill tempered maniac at the helm.