pleasuredome

welcome

ok, this is a bit after the day of release when it came out, but then again my copy didn't arrive on that day either. also, as will become clear, being "a bit late" is somewhat fitting with all of this, look you see. with regards to "what" it (or this) is, that would be what they have called the 40th anniversary (!) edition of the album Welcome To The Pleasuredome off of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, released 41 years to the day that the original was unleashed. 

having done this blog for north (i think) of twenty years and further having used it to express my enthusiasm for various passions i am not all that sure there is anything else i can possibly say about one of the stronger of those, which is indeed Frankie. let me have a go. but, in a kind of short way for those who(m) are for some reason interested but also in a rush, this latest release is very much worth getting, for the extras (even on the modest set i opted for) are really good. 

i looked at the seven tape (disc) version of Welcome To The Pleasuredome they announced and saw that it offered rather good value for just south of £100, but went "no". mostly this was, in an oddly grown up moment, a financial thing, for i felt i could not justify such an outlay for discs that would not get played all that often. evidence for this was indulging the more expensive than that for (considerably) less (or if you will fewer) in it Ziggy Stardust box set last year (here). 

but also a sense of "enough". declare (or accuse) me of not being a "proper fan" if you will, but i have somehow reached a stage i never thought i would - one where i go "you know what, all these variations of the Frankie songs i have here are enough, i am not longing for more". which is also a strange throwback to the Flaunt It off of Sigue Sigue Sputnink box set i bought a few years ago. much to the surprise of teenage (and 20s) year old me it turned out 50 (!) year old me now felt yes, actually, there was such a thing as just too many remixes of Love Missile F1-11. 

yet a more modestly priced two tape (disc) version was wafted about. it had a much more agreeable price and a surprisingly generous track list. you got the album (again) plus a selection of the extras, with the extras striking me as being the most interesting of stuff on offer in the massive set. this is not far off what happened for the (i think 20th) anniversary edition of Achtung Baby off of U2. from memory the lavish box set involved you having to buy some Bono sunglasses, one of the discs was simply the Zooropa album and another was just instrumentals. indeed the two tape (disc) version of that sits on my shelf, for like this Welcome To The Pleasuredome set the extras there were superb on it. 

prior to delving into the extras, then, the album itself. here is "just" the pretty much same version of the album that has been re-re-re-rereleased goodness knows how many times. as in when my copy only turned up in the post on the Monday after the Friday release it wasn't that much of an issue, as in an emergency i am sure i could have played any of the 328 copies of it i already have. whereas i wasn't in all that much of a rush to hear it again, i did indeed play this latest version of it. 

quite likely the best, most honest review of the album is that it is gloriously, mind-blowingly, eccentrically and delightfully underwhelming. yes, i anticipate being exiled from the Frankie community for that, but still. objectively the vocals on the well known tracks are bewilderingly flat here. a slightly different version of Relax here just doesn't sound like it should and the record contains the least interesting version of Two Tribes ever. one can't but help note, with the passing of time, just how many covers are included on the album. sure, there is the epic take of Born To Run, but also there's a variation of War which is less Frankie, more a Ronald Reagan impersonator waffling on. still, that whole side of the original record dedicated to the magnificence of Welcome To The Pleasuredome remains an electric eclectic joy, and Only Star In Heaven was, is and always will be a truly brilliant song. 

my coins were invested mostly in the curiosity of the second tape (disc), then, and not a single one of however many coins i spent was wasted. this cross section of the rare and the unreleased are truly amazing, and well worth the purchase. part of me regrets not buying the full tilt version for yet more extras. whilst i reserve the right to buy it at some point, i am aware than if i did (or do) then i will not play the separate discs as much as this one disc is getting a spin. 

for the most part (or indeed mostly) tape (disc) two is "Frankie and Frankie only". previous special editions of Welcome To The Pleasuredome have, for the most part (or mostly) simply featured record label ZTT endorsed extras what have basically been bits of tape found ranging from "interesting" to simply being Trevor Horn going "what happens if i press this button". to this day a myth rages that Frankie were "not a proper (or real) band", that they did nothing, played nothing. absolutely it is true that Trevor Horn wove unbelievable magic and created (arguably) era defining music with what he did, but equally it is true this would only have been possible with the amazing, raw songs the band brought. 

just two versions of Relax feature here. first up is the (reasonably) widely heard "in heaven" demo, and heard mostly via their legendary, incendiary appearance on The Tube. new to me was a "rough mix" from September 1983, which must have been mere weeks before the classic version the entire world knows got unleashed. it has an ultra funk bass that is almost a p!ss take of a song which wasn't even famous yet. my area of fascination are the extra lyrics here. i had wondered where, exactly, all of the lyrics on the 16 minute Sex Mix of the song came from, and here's the source. 

you also get as close as you are likely to in regards of a "live" Frankie release, here in the form of two soundchecks from the Europe A Go Go session. other than that i think there's a live take of Relax which crops up here and there, certainly a tape (actual) of it came free with the Commodore 64 game. yes, some release feature a "live" Born To Run, but it's simply the studio take with some crowd overdubs. as for the remainder of the tracks, well, really play for yourself. i can assure you that this particular disc shall not be straying far from my stereo any time soon. 

exactly how many more times, i wonder, with the sadly sparse Frankie Goes To Hollywood tapes be in some way repackaged. still missing from any official release is their infamous take on Slave To The Rhythm, which the band in a rare moment of unity are adamant will never see light of day, or any proper live recordings. what kind of market would exist for either is not likely to be large. but, yes, if they release more stuff with Frankie on it, i will probably invest. 

to be stolen or bought.