A relic of the 80’s British Band Frankie Goes to Hollywood would be best known for the hit
songs ‘Relax’, Two Tribes and the Power of Love. The band would breakup in 1987 before
reforming in 2004. It was during the band’s hiatus that an imposter version of the band
sprouted up and soon made headlines. That’s what we’re going to discuss in today’s video.
In
2000 it was reported that an imposter version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood
had been touring America for at least several years. It should have been
pretty obvious given that the imposter band was from Alabama and not England.
The real Frankie Goes to Hollywood was fronted by Holly Johnson, while the imposter group was
fronted by Davey Johnson. Despite sharing the same last name They had no relation to one another. To
lend legitimacy to the group, Davey contended he was the brother of Holly Johnson who he claimed
had passed away and claimed himself and his guitarist Will Martin played on the group’s
1984 debut album welcome to the pleasuredome. That didnt appear to be true. Spin magazine
would write ‘there are plenty of bands on the retro circuit whose claim to authenticity is the
second drummer and the lead singers cousin on bass but this one really takes the proverbial cake.
The synth pop group Frankie Goes to Hollywood would be formed in Liverpool in the early 80’s
and the classic lineup consisted of frontmen Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherfords and drummer
Peter Ped Gill, basist Mark O Toole, and guitarist Brian Nasher Nash.The group’s 1984 debut record
welcome to the pleasuredome topped the UK charts and spawned a few big hits in Relax,
Two Tribes and The Power of Love all of which topped the singles charts making the synth pop
the second act in UK history to have their first three singleshit number 1. However the
BBC almost stalled the bands career when they refused to play Relax due to its overtly sexual
lyrics. Despite that the controversy was enough to garner publicity for the band and push the song
to top the charts in their home country along with the song charting in 21 other countries.
Soon enough the band’s t-shirts took off with slogans like frankie say relax and frankie say
arm the unemployed the later of which sees Ross from friends wear one of the shirts.
The band managed to put out another album in 1986 but disputes over songwriting royalties
and problems with their label led to an ugly split of the group.
The imposter band would play more than 200 shows a year everything from stakehouses to county fairs.
The imposter band were even selling Frankie Say Relax t-shirts on their website forr $20.00
eventually the fake band got on the radars of the real members of the group. Frontman
Holly Johnson and Mark O’Toole both of which now resided in Florida in 2000 would hire a lawyer,
learn where the imposter band was playing and warn venues about the
imposter band telling venues no original members are in the band.
The imposter group’s anager Richard Lustig thought what he was doing
was perfectly legal and legit telling Q magazine:
“These guys are a good band,” he says. “I’ve had them playing in Singapore on New Year’s
Eve in front of 2000 people and across the United States, and plenty of venues have had them back.”
However the magazine would interview one booking agent who hired the band to play at Chicago’s
Elbo Room, who was deeply unhappy revealing. “The band I believed to have hired and the
band that did show up were not the same thing,” “They were using the name in a very manipulative
way. They definitely gave the impression they were related to the original band.
I would never have them here again.” Even some fans who saw the band back in their 80s heyday
took their complaints to a fan site run by a man in Sweden who wrote on their website
“There is a fake Frankie goes to hollywood touring the USA don’t waste your dollars. ”
Frontman holly johnson would end up contacting publication pollstar letting them know that the
version of frankie goes to hollywood touring the US wasn’t authorized. Once pollstar published
the news the booking agent for the imposter band severed ties with the group and In response the
imposter group rebranded themselves ‘The New Frankie Goes to Hollywood Featuring
Davey Johnson” Meanwhile, some clubs and venues didn’t care and still continued to
book the group and would advertise them as the original band according to spin.
The group’s original guitarist would get in touch with the imposter band through their
website and they would try to appease the guitarist and offer to sell his solo CD at
their shows iwthout taking a cut. He’d still be pissed off at what they were doing. At one point
the new frankie goes to hollywood managed to get an opening spot for 80’s nostalgia group A
Flock of Seagulls. A Flock of seagulls frontman Mike Score would tell Spin “the new frankie are
laughable. They’re not even a passable cover band. They might as well call themselves Cleatus goes
to alabama. After becoming suspicious Score would drop the group from their opening slot.
It appeared the new frankie goes to hollywood stopped performing shows
by late 2000 while the real frankie goes to hollywood would reunite in 2004 until 2007.