Long before the controversial videos of Madonna, Cher, Lady Gaga and dozens others, Frankie Goes To Hollywood was one of the pioneers of banned music videos. In 1984, their video Relax was forbidden fruit on BBC and MTV and in my home country. Apparently, men clad in black leather suggested homosexuality (rolls eyes). Another was bestiality. What was Holly Johnson trying to do to that cute tiger cub? Similarly, the follow up Two Tribes caused a stir by featuring two world leaders grabbing one another by the balls.
More than 20 years on, ZTT have to release something, so it's time to raid the vaults and see what they can find. Finally, we get the banned and other versions of Relax. Various versions of Two Tribes and The Power Of Love are here too. The videos for Two Tribes '93, Power Of Love Version 2 and Welcome To The Pleasuredome '93 are given some minor editing, the results being close to the 80s versions. Only The Power Of Love 2X and Two Tribes 2X are radically different from the originals and offer some impressive visual relief. Some interesting trivia, Rage Hard directed by Paul Morley was voted worst video of 1986. Another serious omission is the video for Relax Extended Mix. It's on YouTube though.
Since Frankie Goes To Hollywood has hits fewer than the fingers on your hands, this DVD comes across as very padded. The mediocre audio quality does not help either. So to make up they've added interviews with only ONE of the bandmembers, Paul Rutherford and producer Trevor Horn. Paul Morley and some magazine writers get plenty of airtime here (why them?) Shocker - no lead singer Holly Johnson! Well, since they were at it, they could have thrown in his solo videos.
A mixture of shorts about Frankie. High camp although it could have been edited a little better. Still I enjoy watching it.
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