When Two Tribes Go To Pledge: ZTT Crowdfunds Deluxe Frankie Goes to Hollywood Box

There was very little about Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s debut album, Welcome to The Pleasuredome, that wasn’t grandiose. From their outsized, obsessively cultivated image (thanks to ZTT Records, the No. 1 home for bizarrely cultivated musical images in the 1980s), to their peppy British dance-pop hooks and glistening production by Trevor Horn to their stunning two-year run of hit singles, including the No. 1s “Relax,” “Two Tribes,” and “The Power of Love” (and the spectacular title track, a near career-ender at “only” No. 2), Frankie did it in a big way for quite some time.

Now, 30 years later, ZTT are making Frankie big again with an exhaustive deluxe box set edition of the band’s first album planned for release. This 5LP box features bonus material in the form of a cassette, a DVD and digital FLAC files, too, and should theoretically offer the last word on the album (the most recent words of which was a deluxe reissue issued by Salvo/Union Square Music weeks after The Second Disc started).

Inside The Pleasuredome will feature:

• The original album, newly remastered on 12″ 180-gram vinyl by Trevor Horn at SARM Studios
• Three 10″ EPs of unreleased sessions, alternate takes and remixes
• A C90 cassette featuring 14 versions of iconic hit “Relax,” six of which are unreleased
• Original promo videos and new surround mixes on DVD
• Digital FLAC files of all the vinyl as well as an EP of unreleased instrumentals
• Various paper goods and book content
• All housed in a custom lidded box

A set this expansive is also likely to be expensive; in fact, it’s being fundraised/sold through PledgeMusic, a crowdsourcing music service. The whole box goes for about $200 in U.S. dollars – sort of ironic, considering licensing restrictions prevent the set’s release in America, Canada or Japan. (The box has still been well-received; with 40 days to go as of this writing, the project has been 92% funded.)

Sound enticing? Head to the PledgeMusic link to reserve your copy, and hit the jump for full specs on what’s inside, including the just-announced track list!

Inside The Pleasuredome (ZTT, 2014)

• “Come Inside”: flipbook of Lo Cole’s Welcome To The Pleasuredome artwork
• “Tumbometer Nine”: info sheet of contents/sources of all tracks + Element Series discography
• And Suddenly There Came a Zang! The Art of Frankie Goes to Hollywood: 48-page hardbound book “with contributions from Paul Morley, designers David Smart, Lo Cole and photographers Anne Yvonne Gilbert, John Stoddart, Steve Rumney, AJ Barratt and Peter Ashworth”

LPs 1-2: Welcome to The Pleasuredome (originally released as ZTT IQ1 (U.K.), 1984)

1. Well….
2. The World is My Oyster
3. Snatch of Fury (stay)
4. Welcome to the Pleasuredome
5. Relax (come fighting)
6. War (….and hide)
7. Two Tribes (for the victims of ravishment)

1. Ferry (go)
2. Born to Run
3. San Jose (the way)
4. Wish (the lads were here)
5. Including The Ballad of 32
6. Krisco Kisses
7. Black Night White Light
8. The Only Star in Heaven
9. The Power of Love
10. Bang

LP 3: “Lovers and Haters” – Studio Sessions (previously unreleased)

1. Relax (9/4/1983: Rough Mix)
2. Relax (9/10/1983: CMI Backing Track)
3. The Only Star in Heaven (8/29/1984: ’Gary’s Mix’ with Keys and BD)
4. The Only Star in Heaven (8/29/1984: ’Gary’s Mix’ Dub Bits)

LP 4: “Cowboys and Indians” – Alternate Takes (previously unreleased)

1. Two Tribes (10/4/1984: Bit 4)
2. War (10/4/1984: Man Has a Sense for the Discovery of Beauty)
3. Two Tribes (5/31/1984: Rough 12” Mix)
4. Two Tribes (6/1/1984: Rough 12” Mix)

LP 5: “Doctors and Nurses” – Mix/Remix (previously unreleased)

1. War (5/17/1984: ‘War! III’)
2. Welcome to the Pleasuredome (8/10/1984: ‘Pleasuredome II’)

C90 Cassette: “Suck It Up”: “Relax” Singlette (* denotes previously unreleased material)

1. Relax (Bit 1) *
2. Relax (Sex Mix) (12″ A-side – ZTT 12 ZTAS 1 (U.K.), 1983)
3. Relax (New York Mix) (12″ A-side – ZTT 12 ISZTAS 1 (U.K.), 1983)
4. Relax (Greatest Bits) (from ZTT cassette single CTIS 002 (U.K.), 1983)
5. One September Monday (Bit 1) *
6. Relax (Bit 2) *
7. Relax (Sex Mix, Edition 2)
8. Relax (Sex Mix, Edition 3)
9. Relax (Video Version) *
10. One September Monday (Bit 2) *
11. Relax (Greek Disco Mix) (12″ A-side – ZTT 200 086-6 (GR), 1983)
12. Relax (The Last Seven Inches!) (from ZTT promo 7″ single ZTAS 1 (U.K.), 1983)
13. Relax (Bonus, Again)
14. Relax (Bit 3) *

DVD: “Brothers and Sisters”

Features the Pleasuredome promo videos and 5.1 mixes of key tracks. The disc will feature NTSC region 0 on one side and PAL region 0 on the other.

Promo videos:

1. Relax (Version 1)
2. Relax (Live Version)
3. Relax (Laser Version)
4. Two Tribes (Version 1)
5. Two Tribes (Video Destruction)
6. The Power of Love (Version 1)
7. The Power of Love (Version 2)
8. Welcome to The Pleasuredome (An Alternative to Reality)
9. Welcome to The Pleasuredome (The Escape Act)
10. Relax – No. 1 and Guiltless (Version 1)
11. Relax – No. 1 and Guiltless (Version 2)
12. The Power of Love (Win Hearts and Minds)
13. Welcome to The Pleasuredome (The Event of the Decade)

5.1 mixes:

1. Relax
2. Two Tribes
3. Ferry Cross the Mersey
4. The World is My Oyster
5. Welcome to The Pleasuredome
6. San Jose
7. War
8. Born to Run
9. The Power of Love

FLAC EP: Voiceless, Vol. 1(previously unreleased)

1. Welcome to The Pleasuredome (A Remade World – Voiceless)
2. War (Hide Yourself! – Voiceless)
3. Two Tribes (Carnage 7″ – Voiceless)
4. Relax (Come Fighting – Voiceless)
5. The Power of Love (Voiceless)

Release Round-Up: Week of October 15

Eric Clapton, Unplugged: Expanded and Remastered Edition (Reprise/Rhino)

The guitar god’s ’90s comeback was done on an acoustic. The Grammy-winning, best-selling album and the acclaimed episode of MTV Unplugged from which it was taken are paired up and considerably expanded, more than two decades later. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

King Crimson, The Road to Red (Panegyric)

Holy crumbs, this 21CD/1DVD/2BD set is a massive tribute to King Crimson’s Red album, including new stereo and surround mixes of the album and 16 soundboard-quality live sets in a box that puts the deluxe edition concept in its place. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Paul Simon, The Complete Albums Collection / Over the Bridge of Time: A Retrospective (1964-2011) (Legacy)

American tunes shine on both this exhaustive box set of Simon’s solo career, featuring expanded editions of all of his studio albums (including the U.K.-only The Paul Simon Song Book from 1964 and both Rhino and Legacy-era bonus tracks on Graceland), as well as the double-live Paul Simon’s Concert in the Park and 2011’s acclaimed So Beautiful or So What. A single-disc compilation boils his career down to its basest elements, from Simon & Garfunkel to the present.

The Complete Albums Collection: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Over the Bridge of Time: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

James Booker, Classified: Remixed and Expanded (Rounder)

One of only two releases in the short but incredible lifetime of this New Orleans pianist, the man who mentored Dr. John and Harry Connick, Jr. is the focus of a new documentary – and this, his last proper studio album, is greatly expanded and remixed for a new generation to enjoy.

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

ABBA, Ring Ring: Deluxe Edition (Polydor/Universal U.K.)

The legendary dance quartet’s first album gets expanded with a DVD of rare performances and a host of even rarer pre-ABBA songs. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Various Artists, The Organization of Pop: Music from the First Thirty Years of ZTT Records (ZTT/Razor & Tie)

A double-disc compilation – the first in ZTT’s new U.S. distribution deal with Razor & Tie – featuring hits from Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Buggles, The Art of Noise, Seal and more. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Al Hirt, The Sound of Christmas (Friday Music/Relayer)

The trumpet virtuoso’s 1965 holiday album, expanded and remastered by Friday Music, its first time on CD in over two decades. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Basia / Deborah Cox / Taylor Dayne / Exposé / Lita Ford / The Jeff Healey Band / The Jimi Hendrix Experience / Incubus / MercyMe / Mobb Deep / The Alan Parsons Project / The Partridge Family, Playlist: The Very Best Of (Legacy)

Another wave of the ol’ reliable series from Legacy. Key points: rare original single mixes abound on Basia, Deborah Cox, Taylor Dayne and Exposé’s volumes; Hendrix’s is a converted version of the famed Smash Hits compilation, and Partridge fans will enjoy the first-ever release of “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” in stereo. All Amazon U.S. links are posted above!

Deep Purple, The Complete Albums 1970-1976 (Warner Bros./Rhino)

This ten-disc set compiles all of the band’s original Mk. II, Mk. III and Mk. IV-era studio and live albums. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Slaves to the Rhythm: ZTT Celebrates 30 Years with New Two-Disc Compilation (UPDATED 9/17)

To mark their three wild, wonderful decades on the bleeding edge of U.K. pop and rock, ZTT Records will release a new two-disc compilation in October.

The Organization of Pop: Music from the First Thirty Years of ZTT Records collects 28 tracks that run the gamut of ZTT’s influence, from Frankie Goes to Hollywood to Propaganda, 808 State to The Buggles, Grace Jones to Seal, The Art of Noise to The Frames. The huge hits – Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose,” Frankie’s “Relax,” The Art of Noise’s “Moments in Love” – come together on the first disc, while some of the lesser known cuts and buried treasures (The Buggles’ “We Can Fly from Here,” later covered by Yes in 2011, and The Frames’ “Say It to Me Now,” later re-recorded by band frontman Glen Hansard for the soundtrack to the acclaimed Once, in which he starred in 2007) appear on the second. That disc also includes three unreleased tracks by Nasty Rox, Inc., Das Psycho Rangers and The Art of Noise with guest raps by acclaimed MC Rakim.

The Organization of Pop, for now, is actually exclusive to the U.S., making it one of the first ZTT titles released in the States under their new licensing deal with Razor & Tie. A “London version,” entitled (what else?) The Organisation of Pop, has been promised by the label in 2014, along with another volume of The Art of the 12″ and a CD/DVD edition of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood compilation Frankie Said.

Expect The Organization of Pop in stores October 15. The Amazon U.S. link and track list (courtesy of Slicing Up Eyeballs) are after the jump.

Razor & Tie Hires a Bunch of Stiffs (and ZTT, Too)

“If It Ain’t On Stiff, It Ain’t Worth a F***!” declared a famous slogan for the venerable punk and New Wave label. This month, that worth-a-f*** spirit extends to catalogue label Razor & Tie, who today announced a brand-new licensing agreement in North America with both Stiff and equally iconic British label ZTT.

Stiff, of course, was best known for putting out early works by The Damned (their “New Rose” is considered by some scholars to be the first punk rock single), Kirsty MacColl (some of her early singles appeared on the recent compilation A New England), Ian Dury and, of course, Elvis Costello. (Costello famously controls his own masters, having distributed them in the United States on the Columbia, Rykodisc, Rhino and UMe labels between 1978 and the present, in varying configurations of “deluxe.”)

Just as exciting, of course, is Razor & Tie’s partnership with Zang Tuum Tumb Records, the quirky U.K. dance-pop label celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Early singles “Relax” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and “Moments in Love” by The Art of Noise redefined pop music for the 1980s (the former was famously banned by the BBC for its saucy lyrical content), and latter-day bands like 808 State and Propaganda remain favorites by discerning rock lovers to this day.

ZTT has seen a great deal of U.K. catalogue work since The Second Disc started in 2010, with expanded reissues of works by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Art of Noise and others earning general acclaim among catalogue connoisseurs.

While exact details for either label’s physical reissue plan have yet to be ironed out, Razor & Tie’s strategy, according to a statement, includes “newly expanded editions this year,” “licensing opportunities for the catalog” and “new, direct to consumer ZTT Records and Stiff Records online merch stores which will feature an array of newly created, limited-edition items including classic logo shirts and much more to be announced soon.”

In Case You Missed It: “Frankie Said” is a Force from Above

Two albums and seven singles might not seem like enough to base a whole compilation from – unless, of course, you’re Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The barrier-breaking Liverpudlian quartet haven’t been active in their original form for some 25 years, but their legacy on ZTT Records has been kept alive through various compilations, remixes and reissues – the most recent of which is Frankie Said, released this week in England.

Frankie Said is the first FTGH compilation released under ZTT’s distribution deal with Union Square Music/Salvo Records. (The last such set was Frankie Say Greatest, released by Universal in 2009.) Frankie Said includes just about everything you’d expect on such a compilation, including the Top 5 hits “Relax,” “Two Tribes,” “The Power of Love,” “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” and “Rage Hard,” as well as key cuts like “War,” “Ferry Cross the Mersey” and  “Warriors of the Wasteland.”

There are also a few tracks fans might not have enjoyed from other releases, including the original 12″ mixes of “Relax” and “Two Tribes,” as well as a “live” version of “Born to Run” taken from a performance on The Tube and released on the “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” single in 1985.

At six British pounds (and $13 on our shores), this might be the set to get if you’ve wanted to dive into the shallow but fun waters of Frankie’s discography. You can do that now by ordering from Amazon U.K. or Amazon U.S.; the track list is after the jump.

Release Round-Up: Week of August 7

The Beach Boys, Japanese 2012 Remasters (EMI)

Released last week across the sea, these new Japanese remasters of 12 of the boys of summer’s first LPs (spanning from 1963 to 1971 but, alas, incomplete) should be hitting our shores around now. Has anyone had the chance to hear them yet?

Roxy Music, The Complete Recordings 1972-1982 (Virgin)

This 10-disc set, kicking off a planned 40th anniversary celebration of the iconic New Wave pioneers, features new remasters of the band’s first eight albums and two bonus discs of non-LP B-sides and mixes, several of which are making their CD debut.

Johnny Cash, The Greatest: The Number Ones / Country Classics / Gospel Songs / Duets (Columbia/Legacy) / Various Artists, We Walk the Line: A Celebration of the Music of Johnny Cash (Legacy)

Lots of love for The Man in Black today: four themed compilations collecting some 60-plus Cash classics (a deluxe edition of The Number Ones features a bonus DVD of performances from The Johnny Cash Show), and a CD/DVD of an all-star 2012 tribute concert featuring Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams and more.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Sexmix (ZTT/Salvo)

A new double-disc set collating many of the U.K. popsters’ cassette singles and other rare mixes. (It should be noted that ZTT has apologized for the use of an alternate mono master of the “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” cassingle – buyer beware and all that.)

Sparks, Shortcuts: The 7 Inch Mixes (1979-1984) / Extended: The 12 Inch Mixes (1979-1984) (Repertoire)

Two new compilations from the diverse pop duo: one compiling the band’s second wave of chart hits in Europe, and another collating those songs and singles in their extended and remixed forms.

Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits (24 KT CD) (Audio Fidelity)

Bob’s classic first hits set, presented on gold disc.

Various Artists,Jesus Christ Superstar (Verve)

A new remaster of the original rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice that became an iconic Broadway hit. Featuring vocals from Ian Gillan, Murray Head and Yvonne Elliman.

Frankie Say “Sexmix” from ZTT; Rare Remixes Featured on New Compilation

The past few years has seen a flurry of catalogue activity from iconic U.K. label Zang Tuum Tumb. The ongoing Element Series, distributed by England’s Salvo Music imprint, has seen artists from 808 State and Propaganda to Frankie Goes to Hollywood and The Art of Noise expanded and remastered in lavish double-disc packages.

This summer, ZTT adds to the Element Series a compilation of rarities from the short but intricate discography of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The quartet’s “Relax” was one of the label’s biggest international successes, and England embraced their highly sexualized brand of dance-rock, taking “Relax,” “Two Tribes” and “The Power of Love,” the band’s first three singles, to No. 1 on the charts. (Subsequent singles “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” and “Rage Hard” were Top 5 hits.)

On the typically idiosyncratic Sexmix double-disc compilation cooked up in the ZTT vaults, some of Frankie’s rarest remixes are put on CD for the first time. The compilation primarily draws from cassette single programs, which often differed greatly from 7″ and 12″ track listings. The original U.K. “singlette” editions of all four singles from debut LP Welcome to the Pleasuredome (1984) can be found on Sexmix, along with CD single versions of “Rage Hard” and “Warriors of the Wasteland” from the band’s second and final LP Liverpool (1987). Rare versions of “Relax,” “The World is My Oyster” and “Watching the Wildlife” round out the set, along with a rare cover of Rod Stewart’s “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” which was first released in 2009 as a digital bonus track from the Frankie Say Greatest hits compilation.

August 6 is this set’s release date in the U.K., an Amazon placeholder page exists here. Hide yourself after the jump for the track list.

The Art of the 12-Inch, Part Deux: Unheard Paul McCartney Collaboration Included Among ZTT Treasures

What do you do?  No one else can dance like you!  So what’s all the fuss?  There ain’t nobody that spies like us! 

It’s not often that we get the opportunity to write about Paul McCartney, forever fab, and Art of Noise, pioneering British synth-pop duo, in the same sentence.  But Salvo Records and ZTT are giving us just that chance with this week’s U.K. release of The Art of the 12-Inch, Volume Two.  Okay, it’s not that much of a stretch, as Art of Noise’s Anne Dudley contributed synthesizer to McCartney’s 1984 Give My Regards to Broad Street soundtrack album, and was later enlisted to write arrangements for his 1986 Press to Play.  And it was on that latter album where Dudley’s Art of Noise mates got involved.  McCartney wrote the title song to John Landis’ 1986 comedy Spies Like Us and planned to include it on Press to Play.  Macca’s interest in synthesizers, electronic sounds and avant-pop was nothing new; he would introduce many of those sounds into his McCartney II solo album and continue to explore that realm as late as 2008’s Electric Arguments, his third collaboration as “The Fireman” with the artist known as Youth (a.k.a. Martin Glover).

Ian Peel, curator of the new Salvo set, recalled, “McCartney called in the Art of Noise to remix the track [‘Spies Like Us’] in the summer of 1985.  It was a mad, cut-and-paste retake that turned the song – McCartney’s last U.S. Top Ten hit – into a left-field electronic collage.”  (Peel knows of what he speaks, as author of The Unknown Paul McCartney, a 2001 account of the musician’s more outré experiments.)  Paul and Linda McCartney joined Dudley, JJ Jeczalik and Gary Langan for what sounded like “a very experimental session,” in Peel’s recollection.  The 12-inch vinyl mix was released in November 1985 but has so far eluded any of McCartney’s archival projects.  McCartney gave his consent to the track to make its CD debut on the second volume of Salvo’s The Art of the 12-Inch, but then the plot thickened!

Hit the jump to continue!

Release Round-Up: Week of February 21

 

Various Artists, ZTT: The Art of the 12″: Volume Two (ZTT/Salvo)

A double-disc set of rare and unreleased dance mixes of vinyl classics, with a few rarities thrown in for good measure – and, as our post later today will explain, at least one Beatle!

Simple Minds, Simple Minds x5 (EMI)

The first five Simple Minds LPs – all pre-The Breakfast Club – expanded with vintage B-sides and remixes.

Gilbert O’Sullivan, Back to Front: Expanded Edition (Union Square Music/Salvo)

Gilbert’s 1972 sophomore album plus three bonus tracks, including hit single “Alone Again (Naturally).”

André Cymone, André Cymone / Surviving in the ’80s: Expanded Editions (Funky Town Grooves)

Blood, Sweat & Tears, In Concert / Phil Everly, Star Spangled Springer / Mel Brooks, Greatest Hits (Wounded Bird)

Some great LPs, all rare or new to CD, coming from Wounded Bird.

Various Artists, Complete Pop Instrumental Hits of the Sixties, Vol. 2: 1961 (Complete ’60s/Eric)

A three-disc set of every instrumental song that ever charted in 1961. The second in a volume of a series we’ve covered before.

Various Artists, David Merrick Presents Hits from His Broadway Hits (RCA Victor/Masterworks Broadway)

Ann-Margret joins John Gary and the Merrill Staton Voices in this vintage tribute to the legendary impresario behind such musicals as Hello, Dolly! and Gypsy.

Diana Ross, Diana Ross: Deluxe Edition (Hip-o Select/Motown)

The latest set from Select is a heavy-duty expansion of Miss Ross’ 1976 album, which featured “Theme from ‘Mahogany’ (Do You Know Where You’re Going To?)” and “Love Hangover,” two classic singles from a classic career. Alternate mixes, rare singles and early versions abound on this set.

Paul Rutherford Says “Oh World” Once More

Since The Second Disc has started, we’ve seen some pretty neat catalogue projects tied to Frankie Goes to Hollywood, namely reissues of the band’s original two LPs from ZTT/Salvo and a 12″ remix compilation featuring rare tracks from the band. Cherry Pop has another FTGH-oriented catalogue project coming out in U.K. next week.

Oh World was the first LP by Paul Rutherford, known as a backing vocalist and dancer with Frankie (and one of the two openly gay members of the band). In 1989, not long after the solo debut by FTGH lead singer Holly Johnson (whose work has been similarly expanded by Cherry Pop), Rutherford cut an LP for Island/4th & Broadway with massive input from ABC members and associates Martin Fry, Dave Clayton and Mark White. Despite their commitment to great pop-house-worthy songwriting (and a not-bad cover of CHIC’s “I Want Your Love”), the album was not a commercial success.

But Cherry Pop resurrects it for fans across the globe in a new double-disc set that adds single edits, B-sides and a whole bonus disc of remixes to the package. It’s coming out March 14 and can be ordered on Amazon U.K. here. A very special thanks to Jason of the pretty awesome The Mixes and The Dubs for the tip!

Check the track list after the jump.