the more enthusiastic readers of this blog will no doubt recall i threw out a general question as to whether or not anyone had an unusual, recently released but apparently not released 2 CD best of Frankie Goes To Hollywood thing that came with a free poster. well, free if you bought the CD set i suppose. no one answered, but it does not matter, i now know someone that owns it.
yes indeedy, a copy of it that i ordered off of that amazon marketplace thing arrived in the post today. i am not sure which is the most impressive, really - an order from overseas (the US, i believe) arriving in 12 days, or getting any sort of post on a Friday. a bit more on ordering it from the UK amazon site just now, by the way.
yes, keen observers, that is indeed one of them Marlboro Premium Black things i have on the go. we still have a few packets, as neither myself nor my (considerably) better half are all that bothered about them. they are OK, and in no way offensive (assuming you are not offended by smoking, which many of you are), just not all that great.
but anyway, Frankie. and OK then, the pack of Marlboro.
i have the first disc of this set on the go now, and so far so good. it is the music of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, the music that, no matter what great and incredible music came before or after, remains the music that i love the most.
a lot of us in the world of Frankie fans were tyring to work out just what the point of this set was, to be honest. the tracklisting offered no unique mixes (that we are aware of) and no rare or unreleased things at all. depending on how you feel about the Annihilation mix of Two Tribes, that is - i think this is only the 10th time i have got this remix on CD. let me never be short of it, then.
why it exists, up to track 9 of disc 1, is because it's a really good compilation. it's also very pretty. i would speculate that the discs themselves are the best designed looking Frankie discs to be released.
for the collectors out there, most of them know me and know i get confused about which version is which of the songs. as far as i can tell, Relax is the 7" mix, Two Tribes is the celebrated 7" picture disc mix and Rage Hard is the one that starts off with Holly doing the "rats in a cage" speech. things that most fans will probably already have, but things also that some people may not have.
the best thing about this is the pricing. amazon themselves sell it for just under £5, and the marketplace sellers have it new & sealed for even less, allowing for shipping costs of course. on amazon itself it is listed as "temporarily unavailable". well, i have a copy on the way from them (yes, a second one). it seems that if you place an order, they "source and send" as soon as they can.
further reasons for considering a purchase? it has pretty pictures in it. well, two. black and white ones.
i am pretty sure i have seen that one of Holly & Paul on my travels, but the band shot is a new one to me. nice one!
the big selling point on the cover of the disc, rather than just simply the music, was that the set features a "fold out poster". this, ladies and gentlemen, turns out to be a poster that you fold out.
want to see it? sure you do, it's an image of Frankie, who would not want to see it? also it's one that i had never seen before, which is even better.
i have no idea of the circumstances or the reason for the above photoshoot, but it does look like a quite class one. as Paul has his moustache, it's clearly a Welcome To The Pleasuredome era one.
yes, OK, i know, you would rather see the poster without me being in the picture. here you go.
oooh, just got to Born To Run, and it's the relatively rare version that starts off with Holly going "HA!" rather than the one that starts with the conversation in the dole office. Frankie Said had the fake-live version of the song, where they dubbed the sounds of Europe A Go-Go over the studio version for some bizarre reason.
on the back of the poster is the sort of booklet, info type thingie, including some adverts for other products you may quite like to buy.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood releases in the 21st Century are rarely, if ever, problem or error free affairs. this set, sadly, keeps up this dubious tradition with a glaring error in the booklet. i have tried to take a pic of the error, but i suspect it's not too clear.
hmn. it says Frankie's farewell was a performance on Saturday Live. if only that were true. they in the end did not appear on it due to them splitting up about a day before the show. i know this because i sat and watched the whole of that episode at the time, since Frankie were advertised, and no word was given that they were not to appear.
i can understand why the writer wanted them to appear live, as they try to make a nice "bookend" with their last public appearance being along the lines of their first. sadly, it didn't work out like that.
will Frankie ever say anything again? probably not. Nasher, in an interview in Mojo recently, suggested that they might if the band ever got control over their own music again. the harsh reality of the world, sadly, is that Frankie make very little out of their own music. if one day they just owned what they did, never mind how much it is worth, that would be great.
and that's disc one finished. very good, very good indeed.
if you decide to splurge on this set, you have two CDs of some amazing music!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
amazing! my favourite group of 80's
ReplyDelete