thirty

hello there


yeah, it's one of them posts again. the kind that you can, look you see, count on certain things being a given. i can assure you, for a start that it's the music of one band in particular that i shall be listening to. my favourite band, like totes ever? when all is said and done, without no doubt or even the shadow of it, of course, to be sure.

thirty years ago today, then. Saturday January 10 1987. Manchester G-Mex Arena. Frankie Goes To Hollywood started their second, and as it turned out final, tour. and i was there.

the above represents what remains of the tour jumper that i got at the gig. the t-shirts are all long since gone, but at least one of the other jumpers off of it (ordered at a later date) survived, as we shall see.the front of the jumper had the colourful fists off of the Rage Hard cover on display, with the name of the band as you can see at the top running down the side of it.

my Gran did indeed add the back part and the name front part off of what was left of the jumper onto my boss black denim jacket for me. the skulls were added, somewhat painstakingly, by me after i bought them off of a sort of goth store down town; the name of which escapes me.

why the skulls? well, they looked very Bad News, and so very metal and very smart. but we are not here to discuss the wonders of Bad News as such.

i would suspect i don't need to say as such, but the above is indeed a smart word search sort of thing you are welcome to save, print and complete. it is out of some suspiciously unofficial looking Frankie Goes To Hollywood annual off of 1985, no less.

another thing off it is to come just now, and the answers if you can't be bothered to do it yet for some reason wish to have the solution. more memorabilia first, though.

that's the other jumper, then, the one that i ordered. if i may say so, it's held up rather well over the years, considering it has travelled the world a couple of times and i did, in my more slender days, wear it very frequently.

this jumper has featured on this blog before, and indeed i have been approached with an offer to purchase. no, just no. whilst i like to be generous, and have parted with items such as my Wild At Heart poster, i can't part with this. it's not terminology i would often use, but there's no other way - parting with this would be to carve up and cast aside some of my soul, it would be to give away some of the essence of what made me.

yeah, i know, less of me would be a very good thing for some of you out there, but hey ho.

cor, blimey, the fun and excitement in activities just do not stop on this particular post, do they? sorry that there's no interactive element and that you'd have to answer to yourself or print or what have you; i would not have a clue as to how to "code" or add an actual game you can play here on the blog.

yeah, some of those questions are a doddle, some are tricky. answers in a bit

as is customary on this day, once again a big, big thanks to Uncle Colin for taking me along, all the way to Manchester on a bus, to see my most beloved band. whereas i suspect he probably does not celebrate the anniversary as much as i do, one can but hope he retains fond memories of it.

for Frankie were, no matter what certain parties say, an absolutely amazing proper band, and really well and true "kicked it" live.

yes, that is the front of the jumper. looking rather more faded than the back, and to the right (or maybe the left) there's some sort of streak of a red paint stain on it. can't remember where or when exactly i picked that up, but i do recall being most annoyed by it.

no, i am not going to run through the whole gig again, done that enough times here. i can't even single out highlights for you, because every single damned moment of it is one that i have, evidently, treasured ever since.

well, OK, Ped's laser red light drumsticks on the go for Lunar Bay. doing one of my favourite non-single tracks, The Only Star In Heaven, early on (i think 2nd or 3rd in the set). Paul Rutherford feeling like he was staring straight at me. the heat off of the flame throwers that went off during War. and, well, on and on and on.....

answers? answers.

the annual also featured a competition. you had to draw a Frankie picture and post it in to stand a chance of winning a copy of their album. an album the annual called The Pleasure Dome, which is why i remain somewhat sceptical about just how official the book was. but still, nice puzzles and lovely pictures in it.

by the way, "Frankie Say" is correct. "Frankie Says" is not. Frankie was the group, i.e. a collective, which is to say that the pluralised version was spot on. you could always spot a bootleg t-shirt as it said "says" rather than "say".

a look at my denim jacket in my preferred Commodore 64 mode? of course.

thanks again Gran. i love and look after the jacket, even if it's unlikely that it fits me any longer. no, i have not dared try it on for a while, probably not since the early 90s.

i wish the world still loved Frankie Goes To Hollywood as much as i continue to. they made the world a better, more interesting place. that said, i hope that all of you out there have a band or musician gave you all that which the Frankies gave me.



switch off your shield, switch off and feel...................