Tag: Frankie Goes To Hollywood

December 5, 2023

Frankie Goes To Hollywood – The Power Of Love (UK Cassette Single)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1984

“The Power of Love” is a song originally recorded and released by British band Frankie Goes to Hollywood. It was written by Holly Johnson, Peter Gill, Mark O’Toole and Brian Nash, four of the five members of the band. It was released by the group as their third single.

Initially issued as a single in November 1984, and taken from the debut album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome (1984), “The Power of Love” followed its two predecessors, “Relax” and “Two Tribes”, to the top of the UK singles chart. It scored the band an early December number-one. “The Power of Love” was also a top 10 hit in several European countries, in Australia and New Zealand, and in Canada. “The Power of Love” is often regarded as a Christmas song, despite having no reference to Christmas within the song lyrics. However, the accompanying video features the Nativity of Jesus, and the single cover was The Assumption of the Virgin. The single spent just one week at Number One in the UK, outsold by the charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid, which until 1997 was the best selling single ever in the UK.

Holly Johnson, who co-wrote the song, later reminisced: “I always felt like ‘The Power of Love’ was the record that would save me in this life. There is a biblical aspect to its spirituality and passion; the fact that love is the only thing that matters in the end”.

**I have chosen to leave this cassette un-edited to keep the integrity of the original cassette. I did clean up the audio manually removing clicks/pops along with adding fade-in at the beginning and end of the cassette. This was recorded with DOLBY NR enabled.

SIDE A: 22:43
The Power Of Love
The World Is My Oyster (Scrapped)
Holier Than Thou (The First)
The World Is My Oyster (Trapped)
Holier Than Thou (The Second)
The Power Of Love (Instrumental)

SIDE B: 22:43
The Power Of Love
The World Is My Oyster (Scrapped)
Holier Than Thou (The First)
The World Is My Oyster (Trapped)
Holier Than Thou (The Second)
The Power Of Love (Instrumental)

CASSETTE GRADE:
Cassette: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: ZTT – CTIS 105
Series: Action Series – 5, Incidental Series – 153
Format: Cassette, Single, Partially Mixed, Rough Edge
Country: UK
Released: Nov 1984
Genre: Electronic, Rock, Pop
Style: Pop Rock, Synth-pop, Ballad

CREDITS:

Arranged By [Strings] – Anne Dudley
Artwork By [Packaged By] – XLZTT
Composed By – Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Engineer [Assistant] – Bobby The K*
Producer – T.C. Horn*
Producer [Assistant] – Steve The Lippo*
Vocals – Holly Johnson
Written-By – Nash* (tracks: A1, A6, B1, B6), FGTH* (tracks: A2, A3, A5, B2, B3, B5), Johnson* (tracks: A1, A6, B1, B6), O’Toole* (tracks: A1, A6, B1, B6), Gill* (tracks: A1, A6, B1, B6), ZTT (tracks: A2, A3, A5, B2, B3, B5)

NOTES:
Issued in a standard case with a double-sided fold-out j-card inlay.
Shell is grey with a rough edge pattern and red on-body printing.
Recorded in Dolby.
Plays same on both sides.
Track listing in the liner notes is vague.
“This cassette is not a ‘cassingle’ anybody who calls it such will be shot. In combination with ZTAS 5 and 12 ZTAS 5 it forms number 5 in ZTTs movement-less Action Series. On it’s own it is number 153 in Zang Tuum Tumb’s sunshine Incidental Series.
What would you put in it’s place.”

Buy the Cassette at DISCOGS

CASSETTE TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

THE GEAR:
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:
Cassette transfer was recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!

Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.

June 23, 2023

Frankie Goes To Hollywood – In The Pleasuredome (UK Cassette)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1985

Pride month would not be complete without including Frankie Goes To Hollywood known for their leather-clad homoerotic videos and suggestive lyrics. Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ambitious work sought to challenge the status quo of pop, and politics. they were true trailblazers.

“Welcome to the Pleasuredome” is the title track to the 1984 debut album by British band Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The lyrics of the song were inspired by the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

In March 1985, the album track was abridged and remixed for release as the group’s fourth UK single.

While criticized at the time of release and afterward for being a song that glorifies debauchery, the lyrics (and video), just as Coleridge’s poem, were about the dangers of mindless indulgence. This song, along with “Relax”, made Frankie Goes to Hollywood even more controversial than they already were.

Billboard compared it to “Relax,” saying that “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” had “less hook, less controversy, more drama.”

Despite the group’s record label (ZTT) pre-emptively promoting the single as “their fourth number one”, an achievement that would have set a new UK record for consecutive number one singles by a debuting artist, “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, being kept off the top spot by the Phil Collins/Philip Bailey duet “Easy Lover”. The single spent a total of eleven weeks on the UK chart.

It was the first release by the group not to reach number one and, despite representing a creditable success in its own right, it symbolically confirmed the end of the chart invincibility that the group had enjoyed during 1984. Frankie Goes to Hollywood would not release another record for seventeen months, and they would fail to emulate their past chart success upon their return.

The spoken-word introductions to both 12-inch mixes are adapted from Walter Kaufmann’s 1967 translation of Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy. The recitation on the first 12-inch (“Real Altered”) is by Gary Taylor, whilst that on the second 12-inch (“Fruitness”) and the cassette is by actor Geoffrey Palmer. It is unknown whether Palmer’s conclusion “Welcome To The Pleasuredome” was a genuine mistake or a deliberately scripted one.

All releases featured an edited version of “Get It On”, originally recorded for a BBC Radio 1 session in 1983 (a full-length version was included on the cassette release), plus a faded or full-length version of “Happy Hi!”, a non-album track.

The video, by Bernard Rose, features the group stealing a car, going to a carnival, and encountering all manner of deceptively “pleasurable” activities. The audio soundtrack of the video was included as part of the cassette single.

ABOUT THE TRANSFER

On the cassette “Welcome To The Pleasure Dome (The Soundtrack From Bernard Rose’s Video)”, and “Get It On” are sequenced into one track to preserve the integrity of the original cassette release I chose not to split the tracks. DOLBY NR was used for this transfer.

All In The Body
Happy Hi! 1:22
Welcome To The Pleasure Dome (The Soundtrack From Bernard Rose’s Video)/Get It On 9:48

All In The Mind
Welcome To The Pleasure Dome (How To Remake The World) 9:32
Happy Hi 1:12

CASSETTE GRADE:
Cassette: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1985	Welcome To The Pleasuredome	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#48
1985	Welcome To The Pleasuredome	U.S. Billboard Dance Club Songs	#31

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: ZTT – CTIS 107
Series: Action Series – 7, Incidental Series – 95
Format: Cassette, Single
Country: UK
Released: Mar 18, 1985
Genre: Electronic, Rock, Pop
Style: Synth-pop

CREDITS:

Compiled By – Sunday Morning Broken Spirits*
Composed By – Nash* (tracks: A1, A2, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5), Johnson* (tracks: A1, A2, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5), Bolan* (tracks: A3, B3), O’Toole* (tracks: A1, A2, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5), Gill* (tracks: A1, A2, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5)
Design [Cassette Packaged By] – XLZTT
Performer – Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Photography By – Anton Corbijn
Producer – Dale Griffin (tracks: A3, B3), T. C. Horn* (tracks: A1, A2, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5)
Producer [Assisted By] – S. J. Lipson* (tracks: A1, A2, A4, A5, B1, B2, B4, B5)
Voice Actor [Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Played By…] – Geoffrey Palmer

NOTES:
Plays the same tracks on both sides. Issued as a grey cassette with white text on black paper labels. On some copies, it is apparent that there is red/pink print directly on the cassette under the paper labels.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood in the Pleasure Dome, a two-part cassette celebration of their fourth number one. There is, unquestionably, a stringent honesty in all this – but can it be carried too far? Ask your friends.

This singlette is number ninety-five in the imperfect Incidental Series. It is also part of number seven in Zang Tuum Tum’s professional Action Series. Fans of Frankie Goes To Hollywood must also know it is all part of Number One in Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s 1985 Escape Act… ‘from the wasteland to the artificial paradise.’

Friedrich Nietzsche appears as “Friedich Wilhelm Nietzsche” on release

Dolby System

Buy the Cassette at DISCOGS

CASSETTE TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

RESTORATION NOTES:
Cassette transfer was recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!

Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.

January 7, 2020

Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Two Tribes (Keep The Peace) (UK Cassette)

“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

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

Username: btg
Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.

December 20, 2018

Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Japan 12″)

BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1984

Originally posted December 17, 2012

Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 to raise money for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The original version was produced by Midge Ure and released by Band Aid on 29 November 1984.

In October 1984, a BBC report by Michael Buerk was aired in the UK, which highlighted the famine that had hit the people of Ethiopia. Irish singer Bob Geldof saw the report and wanted to raise money. He called Midge Ure from Ultravox and together they quickly co-wrote the song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”.

Geldof kept a November appointment with BBC Radio 1 DJ Richard Skinner to appear on his show, but instead of discussing his new album (the original reason for his booking), he used his airtime to publicise the idea for the charity single, so by the time the musicians were recruited there was intense media interest in the subject. Geldof put together a group called Band Aid, consisting of leading British and Irish musicians who were among the most popular of the era. On 25 November 1984, the song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, and was released four days later.

The 1984 original became the biggest selling single in UK Singles Chart history, selling a million copies in the first week alone. It stayed at Number 1 for five weeks, becoming Christmas number one, and has sold 3.69 million copies domestically. It remained the highest selling single in UK chart history until 1997, when Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997” was released in tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, which sold almost 5 million copies in Britain. Worldwide, the single had sold 11.8 million copies by 1989.

Following the release of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in December 1984 and record sales in aid of famine relief, Geldof then set his sights on staging a huge concert, 1985’s Live Aid, to raise further funds.

The song was re-recorded in 1989 by Band Aid II and in 2004 by Band Aid 20, again raising funds for famine relief. The 2004 version of the song sold 1.16 million copies.

SIDE A:
Do They Know It’s Christmas? (12″ Mix) 6:14
Remix –Trevor Horn

SIDE B:
Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Standard Mix) 3:52
Feed The World 4:17

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

CHARTS:

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1984	Do They Know It’s Christmas?	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	#13
1984	Do They Know It’s Christmas?	U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	#32

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Phonogram ‎– FEED 112
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: Japan
Released: 1984
Genre: Electronic, Pop
Style: Synth-pop

CREDITS:
Engineer – Steve Lipsom*
Producer – Midge Ure, Trevor Horn
Written-By – Geldof*, Ure*

NOTES:
Many thanks to all the fine artists who kindly donated their time and effort in the making of this record.

All proceeds of this record are to assist famine relief in Ethiopia, this includes merchandise, sales, publishing & performance contributions.
Many thanks for the aid in manufacturing this record go to: Graphic Origination, Peter Blake, Torchlight, Robert Stace.

Find the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL RESTORATION BY:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (DC)
Cartridge: Ortofon 2M
Stylus: Ortofon 2M Bronze
Isolation: Auralex Acoustics ISO-Tone Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Schiit Mani
Soundcard: Novation Audiohub 2×4 Audio Interface
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling: iZotope RX Advanced 2, ocenaudio
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)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

Username: btg
Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.