ZANG TUMMM TUMB ARTICLES “the first draft of history”

Hype of the year

FRANKIE SAYS

IN fact, anything to do with ZTT. Those tee-shirts were the worst, though, symbolic of an outrageously hot summer, trendy secretaries from Hemel Hempstead, bronzed Scandinavian tourists and the fact that an NME hack is making enormous amounts of money while weve just had our bank accounts frozen. Morleys Frankie hype was, admittedly, a cut above — but the legend had the perfect launch pad with the Mike Read Affair and next year Frankie may well feel the consequences of such overkill. For a couple of months, though, wearing a tee-shirt became a token of political trivia — thats hype as a master-stroke. Eventually, of course, Frankie had to put out an album and blew it all. Mind you, without it we would have been stuck for headlines.

RUNNERS-UP: The American elections; gender bending; Spandau as sex symbols; Randy Andy; Ghostbusters; the National Coal Boards argument; Trivial Pursuit; Prince; The Young Ones; Prince Harry; Tracey Ullman videos; Andrew Ridgeleys nose-job; Sun exclusives.