1984 is considered the pinnacle of pop music (Light, 2014), and while gender fluidity was somewhat common in the music industry (Clews, 2017) – and even briefly accepted by the public – in general, being out of the closet in mainstream society – or as a public figure – was not accepted. I am going to look at ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (FGTH), the story of how it became a hit, and how it helped to usher in a willingness by public figures and musicians to come out of the closet. The willingness of these public performers has had a significant positive impact on the general public’s attitude to homosexuality even at the time the AIDS epidemic was just beginning. While society at large was processing the horror of AIDS, Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford were openly gay in contrast to many others (except Bronski Beat and their track Smalltown Boy) within the music industry at the time.
You cannot talk about ‘Relax’ without also talking about it being banned by the BBC. Here I will look at the positive impact of the ban and how, as Oscar Wilde once said, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” This certainly held true for FGTH as the BBC ban “is doubly ironic that having been partially responsible for the huge success of ‘Relax’ through the imposition of the band the BBC subsequently had to relent and play the record because its very success confirmed a kind of ‘classic’ status to it.” (Warner, 2003).
Also central to this is the story is Trevor Horn, the producer on Relax, and the co-owner of ZTT records. It was his vision and production that created a track that was reported to have sold over two million copies in the UK alone. Paul Morley, co-owner of ZTT, who handled the marketing and promotion of the single, was also key to its success. He was one of the first in the industry to combine marketing with merchandising in a way that ‘Frankie Say Relax’ t- shirts are still used as a shortcut in film and TV to elicit the 80s.
Finally, I will also go into the production the track. This part will be focused on 1984 as a time that included digital technologies, including the Fairlight CMI, but was still a largely analogue process.
Background to the track
Trevor Horn was working in the studio while producing ‘90125’ for Yes and watching ‘The Tube’ on Channel Five, when a young band from Liverpool played ‘Relax’ (Cunningham, 1996, p. 274). While it had the beginnings of the track we know today, it was not the thumping anthem that we now know. Horn thought he could do something with the track, “I had fallen in love with Relax. I loved Holly’s voice. It had an excitement to it.” (Horn, 2022, p. 169).
After signing them to his new label ZTT Horn took on the production of ‘Relax’. ‘Relax’ took six weeks to record (Gilbert, 2021). It cost around £70k at the time (approximately £280,000 in today’s money).
Relax was released on 23 October 1983 to a lacklustre initial. However, it was after FGTH were on Top of the Pops that started to climb the charts. It was publicly banned by the BBC. The banning my Radio 1 DJ Mike Read was due to the nature of the lyrics and the cover artwork, as Horn states in his book, “To be honest I could see his point, because I was a bit shocked when I saw the artwork. I never get involved in the artwork for the bands I’m producing. Not then or now. But ‘Relax’ was one of those times where I wondered if it was the wisest policy.” (Horn, 2022, p.183). The video did not help, the original video for ‘Relax’ directed by Bernard Rose was filled with depictions of sadomasochism, in the United States the video was edited to only include the scenes with lasers to ensure airplay. Despite the BBC ban ‘Relax’ charted at Number 1 from 28 January 1984 to 25 February 1984 and remained in the top 40 for 37 consecutive weeks. This was helped by the release of ‘Two Tribes’ being released to give ‘relax’ more airplay.
This was the beginning of their rocket to fame. However, without the marketing and merchandising of Paul Morley, plus the many 12-inch remixes of the song it would not be the success it was.
Dave Robinson came up with the idea of multiple 12-inch mixes to prolong the life of the track (Johnson, 1995). The first 12-inch mix to be released was the ‘Sex Mix’ at 16 minutes long. It was badly received even in the gay clubs. “It was really Holly just jamming, as well as a bunch of samples of the group jumping in the swimming pool and me sort of making disgusting noises by dropping stuff into buckets of water! We got so many complaints about it — particularly from gay clubs, who found it offensive” (Buskin, 2008).
The ’New York Mix’ was Horn’s reaction to listening to music being played at Paradise Garage sound system. “You didn’t have to worry about it coming out of a tinny speaker. You weren’t concerned about getting the hook in by the first minute.”
How it was produced
After signing the band Horn set them up at “Manor Studios at Shipton-on-Cherwell in Oxfordshire. The Manor, as it’s most commonly known, was a residential studio, the third of its kind in the UK.” (Horn, 2022, p.171). It was here that Horn realised that the guitarist Brian Nash (a.k.a. Nasher) was not the guitarist on the original demo and had only been playing for a few months, “the problem was that at that particular moment in time, he couldn’t play.” (ibid., p. 171). The only part of this original recording session at the Manor that made it on to the final track was the sound of the band jumping into the pool which was put into the Fairlight CMI.
The backbone of ‘Relax’ is handled by the bass/drum on every quarter note that does not deviate from the same pitch for the entire track. The drums were taken care of by the Linn drum machine, “I had five drum patterns in the Linn and my favourite was pattern number 41. I soon found that by switching between pattern 40 (that was a straight four on the floor) to 41 in the verse started to give us a terrific gear shift.” (Horn, 2022, p.175).
The creative process for writing this track is best summed up by JJ Jeczalik:
“We were kind of getting nowhere really. It just didn’t feel right. I remember saying: ‘Let’s just put an eight-bar loop together’… We just started goofing around, literally goofing around, and cranked the volume up. We were really enjoying ourselves and started to realise that we actually had something… Trevor came back and said, ‘What’s on earth’s going on?’ or something. We went ‘It’s just a loop’. ‘No. No. No. It’s brilliant’.”
(Lacedelli, 2022)
The main instrument that you can hear on the track is the Fairlight CMI and the Linn drum machine. Programming of the Fairlight was done by JJ Jeczalik, keyboards were Andy Richards, and guitars were by Steve Lipson.
The Fairlight was an expensive machine that retailed at around $25,000 USD at the time. But was limited, “The original Fairlight could sample in 8-bit, 16 kHz, 8 voice polyphony and had a basic sequencer functionality.” (Nord, 2014).
The take that was used in the final version was after four hours practicing with JJ Jeczalik on the Fairlight, Andy Richards on keyboards, and Horn singing as a vocal guide directly to a 24- track analogue (Black, 1999). The mix was completed at Sarm West, “This would be at Sarm West, where an SSL E-Series console was supplemented by a couple of Studer A80 tape machines.” (Buskin, 2008).
Final thoughts
For me this track still stands up as an example of incredible production (while maybe not from a song writing point of view) that while timeless, sits larger than life in my memory of growing up in the 80s. However, without the team of people behind them including Trevor Horn, Steve Lipson, JJ Jeczalik, and Dave Robinson, ‘Relax’ may not have been the hit that it became.
FGTH were one of the first bands to have a large marketing and merchandising campaign attached to them. ‘Frankie Say Relax’ shirts are now considered a shortcut in film to show that something is set in the 80s.
Music has the power to change attitudes and I am thankful for the decisions that have empowered these early gay artists to come out at the time. This helped to normalise homosexuality and change both society and popular music.
Bibliography
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