Welcome To The Millennium Dome

When his partner Wolfgang answers the call, there s a brief silence and then that voice comes on the line. The voice that provided the most sublime pop subversions of the 80s. The voice that slickly pontificated upon themes as diverse as nuclear war and premature ejaculation, as the accompanying hi energy pop soundtrack stormed the charts. The voice that told us to relax, to orgasm, to make peace not war and to believe in the power of love. The voice that enabled Holly Johnson to become the biggest star in the pop firmament.
If the 80s were the decade when Johnson and his now defunct Frankie Goes To Hollywood band reigned supreme, the 90s have exacted a more modest existence. Having left the band in the late 80s and, after successfully fighting a legal battle to escape his recording contract with former label ZTT, Johnson s world was thrown into chaos when he was diagnosed HIV Positive in November 1991. Withdrawing from the music world, Johnson turned to painting and writing his autobiography, A Bone In My Flute. Following a succession of exhibitions, he s finally returned to music with a single, Disco Heaven and an album, Blast released on his own new independent label, Pleasuredome.
In the last couple of years health issues have prevented me from being active, says Holly of his absence from music. I was able to write and paint, and, with a recent improvement in my health I can now return to performance, which is my first love. At the moment, I m thinking about performing live; let s just say there is something in the pipeline. Unfortunately, so many people who interview me only want to talk about my health. There is a new sort of ambulance chasing element to the media. The newspapers can be very ghoulish, but it s what sells copies.
We discuss the current single, Disco Heaven , a retro-sounding yet endearing paean to the 70s, when disco music was still marginalised by sexuality. It s a musical period that Holly still has deep affection for, if the Disco Heaven video is anything to go by.
Yeah, Boy George plays Leigh Bowery and other gay icons like Divine and Sylvester are represented as well, he explains, before drawing a parallel with 90s innovations. The new single is like a look back to the golden age of disco and the musicianship of that era, to producers like Barry White and Dan Hartman, whom I was lucky enough to work with on the last album. These people were great, creative musicians. At the same time, if we look at what is popular nowadays Basement Jaxx and Daft Punk for example there s a high level of creativity going on there too.
More than anyone, Johnson must be aware of the timing and undoubted irony of releasing Disco Heaven in 1999. Having brought the dynamics of disco to a white, straight audience, Frankie were also the first pop act to get their releases remixed, repackaged and re-sold. Now, as the Top 40 becomes increasingly saturated with disco-derivative ditties, Johnson must feel like he s been vindicated.
It started with Frankie Goes To Hollywood Welcome To The Pleasuredome , Two Tribes and Relax were influential, because they began the whole concept of the multiple remix, he agrees. We took the culture of gay disco music and nightclubbing and brought it to a mainstream rock, heterosexual audience. It introduced heteros to dancing and disco music. I d like to think that we had much the same kind of effect as New Order.
So, while Disco Heaven evokes the 70s, the second single from Soulstream will send a shiver down the spine of anyone who was a teenager during the 80s. The Power Of Love was always Frankie s most straight-faced, sincere anthem.
The Power Of Love is a very special song to me, but it s also special for a lot of people. So many people have told me that they fell in love to it. I was always dissatisfied with the original version and I ve done an alternative unplugged one on the new album. I still wanted it to sound grand and I think I ve stayed faithful to the original.
With a new label and album helping him counteract a precarious existence, Holly s got every reason to remain optimistic. Charming yet pensive, candid but stoical, Johnson believes more than ever, his raison d jtre is inextricably linked to the music.
The new record revolves around the idea of pleasure and leisure, he offers. In my opinion, that s what we re here for: the world is the temple of pleasure. Throughout our life we experience different forms of pleasure. Over the years, and more than ever nowadays, my perception of pleasure has changed beyond recognition. In the past it might have been nightclubbing, but now it s simpler, less bacchanalian pleasures. In the past, when I went out clubbing the first place I headed for was the bar. Now, on the rare occasion I venture into a club I immediately look for the fire exit! n
Disco Heaven is out now. Soulstream is released on October 4th. Both are available on Pleasuredome.