Frankie make the Beeb squirm
FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD celebrated the banning of their ‘Relax’ single by the BBC by getting to Number One and forcing the Beed to squirm its way through ‘Top Of The Pops’ without playing it — and this despite the fact that the band appeared on the same show three weeks earlier without complaint.
The Beeb’s corporate paranoia was not enhanced when the only record that could have stopped Frankie Goes To Hollywood getting to the top — Paul McCartney’s ‘Pipes Of Peace’ — slipped down after other authorities kept finding marijuana on or about McCartney’s person.
The Frankie ban came when DJ Mike Read suddenly decided the song was ‘overtly obscene’ on his morning show and with lemming-like efficiency Radio One followed suit two days later.
Island boss Dave Robinson said this week: “The record has risen to its rightful place: the best record in Britain in 1984. We thank both Radio One and BBC TV for their help. The best by test.”
The record is released by newly formed ZTT Records (through Island) and Paul Morley of ZTT said: “We’d like to express our gratification that even today in this year of years people are still allowed to make up their own minds.”
See Jaws, page 13; also more ZTT news, page 57.