Tuesday, April 28, 2015

bus vibes #6 - frankie goes to hollywood

hello there

well, there you go - another week, another set of vibes it would appear, look you see. i was considering a return to reading, indeed i had a suitable paperback with me, but then i thought no, why not listen to some more tunes. will i be doing so for the week entire? no idea at this stage, but it's possible.

today, as shall be commented on later - most likely tomorrow, if i can muster the energy - it was Guns N Roses. this is, however, yesterday i write of, and yesterday i wanted the boost of my all time favourite band of all time, which would be Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

yeah, i think that somehow i have been doing this blog for 11 years now. which means that there are 11 years of sporadic, random and no doubt overzealous celebrations and worshipping of all thinks Frankie here for you already. i will try and curtail all that somewhat here.

why, of all the many artists that i love so dearly, are Frankie number one? everyone has that "one band" or "one singer" that really just did it for them as they grew up, yeah? mine was Frankie.

i could, and probably have, get all philosophical and that about it; seek to understand and explain. the, like, totes simples version, however, is that they created a staggeringly amazing sound that is just as awesome now as it was 30 years ago.

what Frankie did i listen to? i just skipped through selected favourites from some of the compilations i have loaded onto the ipod, specifically Sex Mix Volume 1 (with volume 2 seeming unlikely to ever happen), Frankie Said and a really strange, we (with we being Frankie fans) think originating in Germany 2 CD set called The Best Of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, which came with a smart poster. i see yet another compilation, this time putting the same songs on disc but with the novelty of them being housed in a tin,  is due out later this year. yeah, probably would be the answer to if i will be buying it.

a snippet for you? well, why not. as i would imagine that you have all heard the likes of Relax and Two Tribes again and again, here's a taste of something different. it's a superb cover of Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? that was intended as a b-side but never, for a number of reasons, got released at the time. it has since appeared on a couple of compilations.


why did i want to have Frankie on? well, i knew i had a pretty tough sort of tele-conference thing at verk that day. i suppose they went on as a sort of "go to my happy place" type of thing, then. did it work? well, the tele-conference could have gone better, but hey ho, i am still here, the world's not stopped.

it's a bit hard, you know, for me to say "go and buy Frankie's music", because the band get very little money for their hard work. the deal they signed - which they confess they did with eyes wide open and blame no one for it - means they get something like 1/8th of 1p of all sales, after "costs". the record label rather ruthlessly enforces this, which they are entitled to i suppose, but it would maybe have been nice if they had said "thank you for making us millionaires several times over, please let us renegotiate a fairer deal for you". but it's none of my business.

instead, then, i would wholeheartedly encourage you to invest in the solo careers of Holly, Nasher and Paul, if you are in LA (man) go and support Mark in his musical endeavours, and understand and respect the fact that Ped values his privacy and, whilst is happy to have created many memories for millions of fans, doesn't really like to dwell on it all.

will Frankie ever get together again? well, if they took ownership of their own music i'd like to think they would want to sit down and present their music and their story properly. beyond that, i very much doubt it. which is not really a shame, as it's not something they want to do, and it would be terrible to see a band you have loved most of your life feel obliged to be together rather than wanting to be.

Guns N Roses, then, in the next bus vibes update.




to be stolen or bought.

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