Holly Johnson 'felt there was homophobia involved' in Relax banning
Holly Johnson "felt there was homophobia" involved after the BBC temporarily banned 'Relax'.
The Frankie Goes to Hollywood frontman believes it was "a bit of a storm in a teacup" when the then-BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Read branded the lyrics of the gay anthem as scandalous.
The corporation then banned the song from playing on the radio and TV for a few weeks in early 1984, before eventually lifting the censorship as the track rose to number one on the UK Singles Chart, where it stayed for five weeks.
Holly, 65, told The i newspaper: "I felt there was homophobia involved, and they let their imaginations run wild with themselves thinking, because I'm gay, 'It's all about gay sex, and we can't have that.'
"There's no reference to gay sex, really, in the record."
Holly believes the situation was totally overblown by the BBC.
The music star said: "I thought it was a bit of a storm in a teacup."
'Relax' was a massive hit, and the band - formed of Holly, Paul Rutherford, Mark O'Toole, Brian Nash and Peter Gill - continued their success with the release of 'Two Tribes' later in 1984.
The track spent nine weeks at number one in the UK Singles Chart, and the group's feet "didn't touch the ground" with the constant touring and TV interview appearances.
But looking back at that time, Holly thinks there was "no consideration" for the boys' "physical and mental health".
The star - who quit Frankie Goes to Hollywood in 1987 - admitted: "There was no consideration for our physical and mental health.
"It was just, 'Get those boys over there. Sell, sell, sell.'"
Frankie Goes to Hollywood reunited and sang their 1984 song 'Welcome to the Pleasuredome' at the opening ceremony of the Eurovision Song Contest in their hometown of Liverpool in 2023 - but Holly has cast doubt on whether there will be a full get-together in the future.
He said: "I entertained the idea for a while after, but it seems to have gone away now."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
a day ago
- Perth Now
Andrew Scott joins A Place in Hell opposite Michelle Williams and Daisy Edgar Jones
Andrew Scott has joined the cast of legal thriller 'A Place in Hell'. The 48-year-old star is set to star opposite Michelle Williams and Daisy Edgar Jones in the Chloe Domont movie, according to Deadline. Domont is to direct the motion picture, and she has penned the screenplay for the film. It will tell the story of two women who work at a high-profile criminal law firm. Scott is best known for starring in 2023 romantic drama movie 'All of Us Strangers', alongside Jones' 'Normal People' co-star Paul Mescal. Like Mescal, Scott also appeared in a hit BBC TV series, 'Fleabag', and he has led the cast of Netflix thriller series 'Ripley'. Scott recently told how he credits acting for helping him overcome a speech impediment. He explained to The Times magazine: "I had a speech impediment as a child and acting helped me be less self-conscious and shy. "I had a strong lisp and in elocution lessons I practised improvisation and verbalising phrases like, 'She sells seashells on the seashore.' "I still find acting helpful." Away from appearing in front of the camera, the actor, who is due to star in 'Wake Up Dead Man', the next Knives Out mystery, takes pleasure in painting. He said: "I love painting people, and my mother [who was an art teacher] was very influential. She made sure that I drew from observation. "She always said, 'Draw something that you see, not something that is in your mind', and that's always stuck with me. "I don't have a life you'd describe as unusual. I live in the city, and I go home to Ireland and see my loved ones. "I go to the gym and, honestly, I just love going to the movies. And galleries. All of that artsy stuff gets my heart beating. "Nature is increasingly important to me. I love the coast particularly. And mountains. And spectacular canyons. All of it is pretty amazing."
AU Financial Review
2 days ago
- AU Financial Review
BBC-owned Britbox renews big bet on the British niche viewer
The BBC is betting big on people paying more for first-run British content, adding three live channels and new shows in a relaunch of Britbox a year after taking full control of the niche streaming service and months after pulling channels from Foxtel. Britbox is vastly expanding the number of shows it has, adding three new live broadcasts – BBC First, BBC Entertain and BBC Select – and upgrading its user interface in the biggest overhaul since it arrived in Australia in 2020. It is hoping die-hard fans of British shows will pay to watch new seasons first on the platform.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Heads up, squirts: Lego Bluey is here – but not everyone is happy
'We knew this launch should be for preschoolers. That's why we took these decisions,' she said. 'We know there are a lot of adult fans out there, but that was a choice made from the beginning.' Unusually for the brand, the Lego Bluey sets, which went on sale on Sunday, June 1, come in two streams: for ages 4 and older, and in the Duplo range for toddlers. And looking at both, you do recognise the 'trifficult' design challenges. Bluey' s main characters – Mum, Dad, Bingo and Bluey – as sketched by creator Joe Brumm and his collaborators at Brisbane's Ludo Studio, mostly consist of a rectangle. Perfect for Lego bricks, you might think, but not at all in proportion to standard Lego 'minifigs', first designed by Jens Nygaard Knudsen and released in 1978. Cardazzo said her team worked hard to arrive at a 'sweet spot'. 'We started to sketch what could be the Bluey DNA direction, and then what would be the opposite extreme, with the Lego DNA. 'But then we tested with the preschoolers and tried to understand what were their expectations. And, definitely, playability is the number-one like for preschoolers. These characters need to be able to move, and to fit into the Lego system.' Hence: no tails (which are instead painted on the back of the figures). Cardazzo said her team of about 15 designers approached the task by watching as many episodes as they could. Key scenes from The Beach, Ice Cream, Keepy Uppy and more were identified, then pitched to BBC Studios. 'What really helps is when the partner that we work with really loves and knows the brand,' the BBC's Tai said. 'Even without us saying, they'd already put tiny little gnomes in there, or Chattermax, those things that fans really pick up on.' Justin Rouillon, co-host of the Bluey's Brisbane podcast, which identifies the real-life locations found in the series, said the Lego collaboration was no surprise, given the show's massive audience. ' Bluey is a huge global brand, it's worth billions,' he said. 'Also, Bluey ties in well with Lego from that imaginative play standpoint.' Loading While generally positive about the sets, he said he was disappointed the house was 'just a facade'. 'It'd be great if you could build the entire Queenslander house that Bluey lives in,' he said. Rouillon's co-host, Lou Bromley, liked the figurines, but agreed Brisbane viewers might be disappointed in the house. 'I think it'd be great if we could have had the verandah or the deck. They've gone for that old-school townhouse style. 'I love that they've got a dunny in there. They nailed the soft yellow of the faded paint. But the steps, the railings, the tin roof?' There is one aspect that Bromley said the brand definitely 'hasn't pulled off'. 'It's a woeful backyard tree, because here in Brisbane, we know that's not what a poinciana [looks like].' Jacen Carpenter, a Longreach-based Lego collector and builder who has created his own interpretations of Bluey 's characters, is concerned that the figurines look too tall. 'The figures might have looked better if the sculpted head fit over the torso slightly, like Ewoks in Lego Star Wars, to give Bluey and her family the squat, cylindrical look of the cartoon,' he said. While Cardazzo said no one from her team had visited Brisbane for the project, Tai said the team at Ludo were closely consulted and supplied drawings to assist the designers. Cardazzo had to keep her work top secret for many months. Her own five-year-old daughter was able to test prototypes, but had to play the 'Quiet Game' about it afterwards. The designer would not be drawn on whether Bluey would be a brand perennial (like, say, Lego Marvel) or a limited-run collector's item. One suspects that it's in the hands of kids – and the wallets of their parents. Loading At the Cannon Hill Kmart at 11am on Sunday, the Lego Bluey pickings were already looking slim. Manly mum Brittany and her two sons, 7 and 3, quickly grabbed the last box of Lego Duplo Bluey's Family House. 'It's such a historic brand, and then collaborating with Bluey, I thought, 'if you don't get in early, you won't get one',' she said.
