and hello! somebody somewhere pressed the button what makes the improbability drive work, look you see. under no circumstances at all did i think that i would be so fortunate as to get to see Holly Johnson perform (live and in concert) ever again, in any form or guise. but then, i did.
quite likely that this shall be an awful lot of gushing, well intended waffle. yes, true, that is pretty much all what i would normally offer here, but i feel compelled to give fair warning. you may well wish to look at the (bad) pictures or play the (poor) videos and not worry so much of what it write.
that there above, then, is the best picture (i think) that i managed to get of Holly Johnson live at the London Palladium on 27 October 2023. not too happy or impressed with the quality of images off of this new phone with a camera welded to it, but then (as i have mentioned in other posts) it could be all down to me, the user. also, i was jumping up and down and screaming and shouting and singing a lot.
easily one of, if not the, most excellent parts of the whole experience was that i got to take Uncle Colin along to see it. as in, yes, the one and same Uncle Colin who took me to see Frankie Goes To Hollywood on January 10 1987. so, 36 years, 9 months and a few days (give or take) i got to return a favour of sorts. lovely stuff, and indeed here we are.
oh goodness me yes, i did (indeed) have the leatherman hat on all day down there in London, and throughout the gig. well, if i was not going to wear it then, then when? now it has gone, by the way, gifted to someone, since my journey and this hat reached a natural end. indeed i am aware this is all jumbled free flowing stuff.
some video then, and indeed the opening track of the gig. quality is appalling, and quite bouncy. also more likely you will hear me shouting rather than Holly Johnson, which is a shame. but i was there to thoroughly enjoy each and every moment, not to film it.
here's the improbability drive part, then. on the rare instances Holly has taken to the stage over the last few decades (!!) he has generally started off with either Atomic City or, of course, Welcome To The Pleasuredome. no, not in this instance. he began (commenced) with Warriors Of The Wasteland, which was the exact same song Frankie started with back in 1987. which, to repeat, myself and Uncle Colin were at. yes, there were tears in the eyes. totes unexpected and most happy.
do i even try and do some sort of review of the gig? yes, i suppose. just simply brilliant. wonderful. amazing to be in a venue with people projecting nothing but love towards Holly, and Holly giving back each and every reason for that love. his voice remains as it was, the songs as brilliant as they always have been. it was ninety exhilarating minutes.
for details of the set, well, exactly as he had promised, or stated, in all the interviews and what have you leading up to it. we got all seven (7) Frankie singles, the four (4) big hits off of his debut solo album, the wonderful Blast, and a few songs that should have been way more well known than how it all turned out. a surprise omission from that set of songs (yes to talk about one song he didn't do) was the ace Penny Arcade, which he has expressed regret about how it got overlooked. still, we got an absolutely belting, beautiful performance of This Was Me, which very much should have been a massive hit all over the world, man.
most who know me would think, assume or take as a given that a full tilt Frankie Goes To Hollywood reunion (and not just that Eurovision thing) would be what my heart yearns for. not quite so. i have come to accept that it was of its time, and know that certain members of the band would absolutely have no wish to be together again in that way. under no circumstances at all would i wish to see a group of people i hold so dear working together purely for coins, or because they felt obliged. always will be a spectacular shame that it ended, but the light which burns twice as bring, etc.
besides, a Holly Johnson solo gig gives one (specifically here, me) the very best of two rather wonderful worlds. it may well not be the same having a different band doing the Frankie stuff, but here is where we are, and getting the solo hits too is a massive, massive win. like, for instance, the above video (which is poor, i know) of Love Train.
a point i have made before, and shall (probably) make again, is that when they play a Holly song on the radio, right, 90% of the time it's Americanos, and 10% it's Love Train. make no error in judgement, as i quite like Americanos, but it is as straightforward as being that Love Train is one of the all time greatest ever pop singles of all time. if you have played the video this is a trifle late, but sorry for the bouncy video and me shouting along.
not sure in this day and age if i should post the above pic, but done with love. besides, i suspect the less than ace quality of my camera stops any image searches. some of the people i am with there i have known for (blimey) nearly 20 years, some i had met there. but this instance was the first time of me meeting them for real, as in live and in person. making the night all the more beautiful. indeed i did get to meet some other people, all ladies oddly enough, but in my merry state i placed those pics over on one of them social media things, if you are interested.
but of course, ultimately, everyone (ahem) came to Holly via one song. that would be the debut single off of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Relax. well, no, sure, he did indeed attract a whole new audience via that debut solo album, but still. i figured record a bit of it, try not to shout too much, and then get on with digging the song of all songs. here, see how that worked out........
uncertain if it comes out in this video, but the dude in the leather outfit on the screen behind Holly was like, wow, well, totes hot. brilliant dancer, too. who knows, perhaps this three quarter life crisis of mine is taking a different twist. or i was just drunk and merry and enjoying the moment and live and let live and dig what you dig, man.
going slightly away from the gig (if i have even said that much directly of it) and yes, indeed it was so that Uncle Colin and i got to "tourist". quite different from 1987, when we were on a bus trip to and from the Manchester G-Mex (as it was) for the gig and that was it. for the most part, or mostly, we wandered the parts where i have been during the year, like the wonders of Ealing. but, also (and yes into the class record shops), Soho. which is ace.
rather a shame no sort of (quasi) like for like images of the two of us exist from 1987, but it's not where you are from, it's where you are at.
yeah, go on then, a return to the gig. and the finale. which was, of course, The Power Of Love. it is this song what Holly has repeatedly stated he wishes to be remembered for, and it is his favourite. even my Mum loves this one, if she couldn't quite take it what was so spectacular about the rest. as a special treat for you all, indeed the below is filmed in VHS mode.
what a night, then. at the risk of melancholy, soppy or sentimental hygiene, an awful lot of life has happened between my first time of seeing Holly Johnson and this encounter. the same is no doubt true for Uncle Colin, but that is not my story to tell. it would have seemed, for decades, improbable that we would have been on the same side of the equator and a Holly tour would have been on the go. no, it is simply not so that anything is possible, but just sometimes the unlikely is very real. and beautifully so.
just the one more picture, then. taken off of (or by) Uncle Colin, who apparently has a much, much more better camera welded to his phone. not often that i like pictures of moi, even though i am quite aware and comfortable with the fact that i am overweight and out of date. even me, who doesn't particularly like or care for me at all, can see how happiness radiates off of me, so yeah, i do love this.
should it be so that Holly tours or plays some shows again and you get the chance, just for goodness sake go and embrace it. love every moment of it. allow the music, the vibe and the feeling take you wherever it will. i most certainly did, and would love to do so again.
to be stolen or bought.
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