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Holly Johnson: ‘I was never very good at sucking up — its just not my style

Thirty years after topping the charts in Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Holly Johnson is back with a solo album. He talks to Craig McLean about gay rights, jet-set stunts and the Georges

In the hushed galleries of the Royal Academy on Londons Piccadilly, Holly Johnson — smartly shod and neatly jacketed, hands clasped behind back — is considering Dennis Hoppers photographs. The former frontman of Frankie Goes to Hollywood is an art lover — his titanic 80s fame allowed him to meet Andy Warhol twice, and, after studying for an MA at art school in the early noughties, he even had his own paintings exhibited at the RA in 2001.

“Ooh, Jane Fonda in Chanel.” Johnson stops before Hoppers portrait of the actress on her wedding day in Las Vegas in 1965, when she married Barbarella director Roger Vadim. Further on he finds a portrait of Brian Jones. “I never really liked the Rolling Stones,” the singer murmurs, in his almost theatrical Liverpudlian drawl. Growing up in Liverpool in the 60s, it was mandatory to follow the Beatles rather than those hairy southern johnnies.

As for Johnson, this particular pop star has been missing in action for a long time. Three decades ago, Frankie Goes to Hollywood were at the peak of their 80s pop powers: their first two singles, “Two Tribes” and “Relax”, occupied the number one and two slots in the singles chart. This month Johnson released Europa, his first album in 15 years, and in October he tours this collection of electronic pop songs around the UK. The final show takes place the night before the 30th anniversary of the release of his former bands landmark debut album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome. Pure coincidence, insists Johnson. “You wouldnt believe how difficult it was for me to find an agent and promoter to take me on,” he admits in typically straight-talking style.

Given the current wave of anniversary excitement — and the fact that its his first-ever solo tour — surely hes a bankable ticket? “Well you would have thought so,” he replies, without rancour. But as Johnson knows better than anyone, nostalgia has its limits. For one thing, memories of Frankie can only be tinged with bitterness. “Im very good at burning bridges,” says Johnson. “Its a talent I regret, in a way.”

There was fun and games as the five-piece band dominated the pop landscape for 12 hectic months, a time of the ubiquitous Frankie Says… T-shirts, a BBC ban of both the song and the video for “Relax” and jet-set stunts. For Frankies American album launch the band — Johnson and backing vocalist Paul Rutherford, both gay, plus the squarely straight lads who played the instruments — were driven through Los Angeles in a tank. But in the classic music showbusiness model, huge success begat ruinous litigation. Johnson tried to quit the band after the release of their anti-climactic second album Liverpool, but ZTT, the label to which Frankie were signed, tried to prevent him signing with another label. A bitter two-year court case — Johnson versus producer/label owner Trevor Horn and his wife Jill Sinclair — followed. The judge eventually decided in Johnsons favour.

Earlier this year Sinclair died, eight years after suffering brain damage which left her in a permanent vegetative state. He pauses before telling me about the email he sent Horn, offering his sympathies. “I received a reply from his secretary that she would pass it on. But thats it.”

A bit cold, I suggest. “Well, thered been no communication between us since he took me to court.” He shrugs. “I wasnt really particularly trying to mend a bridge. It was just, she was a human being — even though she did try to have me kicked out of the band from as early as March 1984 because I was someone who she thought knew their own mind and was going to be trouble.”

She was right… “Well yeah, I guess so. Im not a bruiser in any sort of physical sense. But I suppose Ive got some kind of… bloody-minded aspect to me. Wanting something better, or more, or different, to the way things are. And I was never very good at sucking up. Its just not my style.” Thats perhaps whats got him where he is now. “Well its whats kept me alive!”

Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991. Hes been on combination therapy since 1996, since it became available on the NHS. “Even then, I didnt believe it was going to work.”

It appears to be working, I say. He looks in rude health.

“Well thanks very much!” he says, laughing. “A considerable amount of effort goes into it,” he continues, quieter now. “I live like a nun. I dont drink, I dont smoke, I havent done for years. I take copious amounts of vitamins and medications. I do everything possible to support my health.”

“But Im in the same boat with millions of other people who have other illnesses,” he continues. “Unfortunately the drugs have side effects. Ive developed Type 2 diabetes now because of that, and have to take more medication for that. But Im not whining about it, and I never will. Because Im so lucky in many respects. Many beautiful friends who were my gay extended family have gone. So Im kind of living for them also in some ways.”

One of these friends is the inspiration for “Youre in My Dreams Tonight”, a soulful ballad that appears towards the end of Europa. He was born in Liverpool the day before Johnson. “I loved him,” says Johnson. “We werent boyfriends in the traditional sense. Maybe for a short period… But he was one of those people that you can love. Sadly, he only lived to the age of 31. And he appeared to me in a dream — he gave me a hug and said: ‘Everythings going to be all right.

The year of his death, 1991, was also the year Freddie Mercury died. “And he wasnt the only friend who died in 1991. Or 1990. Or 1985 even. It got closer and closer to me as the years went by. So I was fully expecting that I was next.”

To use his phrase, Johnson “outed” himself as having HIV in his 1994 autobiography A Bone in My Flute.

(cont.)
At the book launch, the Communards Jimmy Somerville “presented me with a handbag as a gift, and said he thought it was very brave of me, and he didnt know whether he would have been so brave. It was a really touching moment for me in actual fact.” Still, he wonders why he and Somerville never became friends. It might be to do with their differing political stances. “His particularly politicised form of gay activism was rather at odds with my fuck-you form of gay activism: ‘If you dont like it, fuck off,” he grins.

Boy George was another who didnt always see things Johnsons way. “George wrote a letter to Sounds saying [the “Relax” video] gave gay people a bad name. That set us up for a bit of sniping in the press throughout the 80s,” he says, still tickled by the silliness of it all. But he admits that, in 1984, it was a lonely time to be an out-and-proud leather-trousered gay man in pop. “None of the Georges were publicly out at the time,” he says, referring to Messrs Boy and Michael. “It was funny: although they were more obviously gay, they were less forthcoming about it — because they were signed to proper record labels that had publicity departments who guided them into trying to sell the most records that they could sell.”

Johnson attributes George Michaels seemingly ongoing troubles to his reluctance to be open. “I do think that was because he spent so much time in the closet that hes sort of over-compensating, being the über-gay man now in every positive and negative aspect of it. Its like he invented gay now,” he says waspishly.

Johnson would be the first to admit that, in terms of emotional ups and downs, he knows of what he speaks. For all his exuberance today, and for all the sparkling dance-flavoured pop on his new album, he readily admits that Europas opening song, ‘Follow Your Heart, with its lyrics about how “no one cares about your inner fears… abandon your neuroses”, isnt just addressed to listeners. “Im completely talking to myself! Getting out of bed in the morning takes effort for me. It really does. Im just one of those slightly…” He pauses to find the right word, “…slightly mental people that has a lot of jabbering voices in his head. And you learn to accept [it] over the years.”

Is he a depressive? “Ah, I would say theres definitely that element. Ive tried anti-depressants, but I find the disassociative, not-being-in-the-room aspect of them too much. For me it was just too hard to handle.

“But its part of being a creative person. Without that sort of reflective introversion, the songs would never have been written. So I kind of owe that part of me. Its just something you deal with. But maybe thats a bit of a pretentious mindset. If I was working down the mines or having to go sea as a cabin boy at 14…” he says, alluding to his own fathers experience.

He lives in west London with Wolfgang Kuhle, his partner of the past 30 years. Would Wolfgang say he were an easy person to live with? “No,” comes his immediate reply. “He calls me Street Angel/House Devil! Theres a German phrase that says that, actually, but I cant remember it.

“He gets the sharp end of my tongue. And if we have a row, Ive got a very loud, booming voice that youd never assume I had from talking to me. It comes from the diaphragm!” he laughs again. “You can hear me across the street.”

Next month Johnson will be putting his diaphragm to better use. Hes called his concert run the Dancing With No Fear tour. Its named after “the most upbeat song on the album”, but is also pointedly titled. As much for himself as for his fans, he wants to conjure “a sort of imaginary world where everything is all right and theres nothing to be scared of and the future looks bright. Its an unimportant yet also vitally important song on the album.”

And, of course, hell be singing Frankie Goes to Hollywoods timeless singles. “Two Tribes” tends to receive the wildest response, and hes most moved by hearing everyone sing along to “The Power of Love”. But which is most challenging to sing? He shoots me a look. “If youre asking what is the most challenging to sing now, being a 54-year-old man — I presume thats part of your implication?”

OK, fair cop. “Yeah,” Johnson smiles. “So I suppose challenging in the respect of not looking like a complete fool: it would be ‘Relax. You wont see me bumping and grinding while singing that particular song. Or getting my nipple tassels out.”

Europa is out 29 September. The UK tour is in October with a headline date on 28 October (hollyjohnson.com)