Whispers
Frankie fans looking forward to their LP ‘Welcome To The Pleasure Dome’ are in for a BIG surprise. It’s a double album in a gatefold sleeve with caricatures of the group on the cover. The lads hate most of the art work but are v. please with the trax they produced —
Noted photographer Bruce Weber may snap the next single bag for ‘The Power Of Love’. Jed O’Toole, Mark’s bro joins the band as second guitarist when they play their American tour soon. Surprise guests on the album include Yes axeman Steve Howe and girl singers Sylvie and the Sapphires.
Whispers sent its roving girl reporter to a recent Rolling Stones’ reception where she collared Bill Wyman and asked him his opinion of Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Were they as raunchy as The Stones in their heyday, she pouted breathlessly? “Hah, hah” replied Wyman. “They’re nothing like as wild as we were in our youth.”…
No.1 snapper John ‘Sureshot’ Stoddart was recently the victim of a shock-horror story by one of the scuzzier Sunday newspapers. A hack took one of John’s early Frankie shots to a fire-and-brimstone Liverpool vicar, who was so incensed that he roared “filth” and referred it to the local constabulary. Ironically the picture had just been singled out for fullsome praise by art critics after it appeared in the prestigious Rock Photography exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
John was more upset by allegations that he peddled the picture around Fleet Street. “Why should I do that?” he told Whispers. “The photo’s two years old and it’s already all over London. I think it’s dead funny, and it’s not a bit obscene. I also think it’s the truest picture of Frankie that’s ever been taken.”
Are Frankie sophisticates Paul and Holly getting a mite sensitive about their early “controversial” image? Surely not. After all, it did give them their big break…
Whispers adores outrage, so here’s a memory jogger from the paper that supports our boys…
- …a shaven headed Holly… Photo: John Stoddart
- …the offending snap… Photo: John Stoddart
- …and Paul and Holly relaxing in the banned video. Mark wonders why they’ve strapped themselves to the sofa…