Tag: Gerry & the Pacemakers

Controversy, “Two Tribes” and Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Last week I wrote about Liverpudlians Gerry and the Pacemakers, and how they were the first ever band to reach No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart with their first three releases. Roll forward 21 years and the next band to achieve the same feat also came from Liverpool – Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Back in 1963, Gerry and the Pacemakers had the good fortune of being managed by Brian Epstein who in turn took the band south to work with record producer George Martin at EMI. It is easy to forget now that Gerry and his band were the ones that started off more successfully than the Beatles, and the first single they released had originally been planned as a Beatles record. The year 1963 belonged to them with How Do You Do It? then I Like It and finally You’ll Never Walk Alone all reaching the top spot.

gerry

It is hard now to believe how quickly things had moved on by 1984. Frankie Goes To Hollywood didn’t make simple, twee pop songs – Their output was overtly sexual and controversial. That was 32 years ago and I don’t think a UK band has caused such a furore in the mainstream media since. A year full of outrageous pop music, but one that ironically ended with the biggest charity single ever – Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?

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I mentioned George Martin earlier as I have come to realise late in life, that most of the records I have enjoyed over the years would never have come about if not for a team of very clever people working behind the scenes. Frankie Goes To Hollywood had producer Trevor Horn as Team Leader as well as NME journalist Paul Morley (co-founder of their record label). The videos were directed by the masters of that new medium, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, and of course the most important person in the mix of all – Mike Read, the Radio 1 DJ who was so shocked by the lyrics to their first release Relax, that it was banned. Nothing sells records like a bit of controversy so needless to say it went straight to the No. 1 spot and stayed there for five weeks! Despite it being banned, I remember hearing it all the time in early 1984 and probably didn’t even take much heed of the lyrics anyway because the record’s appeal was mainly down to its thumping bassline, dramatic vocals and big production values. Yes, Frankie were the band of the moment. There were even T-shirts to prove it.

The team carried on unabashed, releasing two more records, first in the summer and then just before Christmas. This time the topics to cause controversy were not sex, but politics and religion. The threat of nuclear war was a very real one in 1984 and we had been bombarded by films and mini-series on the horror of it all. Two Tribes was a massive and opulent recording, drawing on all of Trevor Horn’s skills as a producer. It had the voice of Patrick Allen from his Protect and Survive public information films, the air-attack warning siren, American funk, Russian classical, Holly Johnson’s powerful vocals and again that thumping bassline. A wall of sound that stayed at No. 1 for nine weeks.

Their third release in 1984 was The Power of Love, not actually a Christmas song at all but released at that time of year so was married up with a nativity-style video, courtesy of Messers Godley and Creme. Again it reached the No. 1 spot which cemented their position as the most successful band of the year. After that they kind of dropped out of the limelight due to the usual infighting between band members and the departure of Holly Johnson. For one year however, they were the front men for an amazing team of people who had pulled together all their skills, and seemed to know exactly how to make hit records. This has happened before and will happen again – The sad thing is that when the band or artist at “front of house” start to believe their own press, they part company with those that “made” them and then the magic ends.

The Power of Love by Frankie Goes To Hollywood:

As for my memories of 1984, I was in my early twenties and doing a lot of partying with my friends and flatmates. I was enjoying the music of the day whilst out socialising, but not thinking about any of it too deeply. Also, when you are young you are not really shocked by much and you kind of enjoy when the generation in authority get uptight about “what the young people are listening to” – We were not parents yet so didn’t have to care about the moral welfare of our offspring and our adult lives had just begun so we couldn’t (or didn’t want to) compare with “how things used to be”.

So, another Liverpool band that dominated one single year in the charts then pretty much bowed out. I was recently pleasantly surprised however, to hear a new song by Holly Johnson called Ascension, from the movie Eddie the Eagle. We are only a week away from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest and it struck me that this could have been an amazing entry. He still has those great vocals, and a cheeky Liverpudlian smile!

Two Tribes Lyrics
(Song by Holly Johnson/Peter Gill/Mark O’Toole)

The air attack warning sounds like.
This is the sound.
When you hear the air attack warning, You and your family must take cover

Love’s gone, oh

When two tribes go to war
One is all that you can score
(Score no more, score no more)
When two tribes go to war
One is all that you can score
(Workin’ for the black mask)

Comrad number one
A born again poor man’s son
(Poor man’s son)
On the air America
I modeled shirts for Van Heusen
(Workin’ for the black mask)

Switch up your shield
Switch up and feel
I’m walkin’ out, lover hey
I’m givin’ you back a good time
I’m shippin’ out, out
I’m workin’ for the black mask

Tell the world that you’re winning
Nothin’ life, nothin’ life

Listen to the voice sayin’ follow me (x2)

When two tribes go to war
One is all that you can score
When two tribes go to war
One is all that you can score

You’ve got two tribes
(We got to part, we got to part)
Somethin’ this good died

(Spoken: Are we living in a land where sex and
Horror are the new gods?)

When two tribes go to war
One point is all that you can score

Liverpool, Gerry Marsden and “You’ll Never Walk Alone”

A very big week for news as the inquest into the Hillsborough disaster returned a verdict that the supporters were unlawfully killed due to failures by the authorities in what should have been a duty of care. The inquest also found that the design of the stadium contributed to the crush, and that supporters were not to blame for the dangerous conditions.

I remember watching the events of 15th April 1989 unfold on television. I had returned from shopping, as was usual on a Saturday, and switched on the box. It was obvious that the football match being aired had been suspended but it took me a while to work out what was happening. As it became clear that fans were being crushed to death whilst we watched live, it became a deeply emotional experience. I remember not only shedding tears but also sobbing uncontrollably.

liverpool

As a wife and mother, I cannot begin to imagine how those poor women who had waved their husbands and sons goodbye that day, must have felt watching the same footage. 96 fans died as a result of the crush in the penned area from which there was no exit, and hundreds more were injured. At least now, having worked tirelessly for 27 years to get to the truth, these families have got justice for their loved ones. It doesn’t bring them back but they have been vindicated of being the cause of the disaster. Liverpool is a close-knit city with a unique history and I am glad that this tragedy is no longer laid at their door.

As an antidote to my last post, which was yet again about the premature passing of two of my heroes, I was going to write about a happier theme this time – “The Smiliest People in Pop”. That doesn’t seem appropriate now but as one of those people was to be Liverpudlian Gerry Marsden, of Gerry and the Pacemakers, it is perfectly fitting to include You’ll Never Walk Alone as today’s featured song. It was a No. 1 hit for them in 1963 and was subsequently adopted by Liverpool FC fans as their anthem, and has been sung on the terraces of Anfield now for over 50 years.

I have always loved this very stirring song, both Gerry’s version and the original from the musical Carousel. Sadly my husband is not a fan (he finds it over-sentimental and doesn’t “get” football) so I have to listen to it in private – A guilty pleasure. He was once duped however into coming with me to watch Carousel at the theatre. He stupidly got Cabaret and Carousel mixed up so thought he was coming to spend an evening watching the exploits of Sally Bowles at the Kit Kat Club. Anyway my daughter and I had a wonderful evening, the culmination being the reprise of this wonderful song in the final scene. Afterwards my husband did grudgingly admit that he might have been wrong in his judgment.

carousel-original-film-soundtrack.jpg

Gerry and the Pacemakers have been mentioned before in the blog as they were one of the many acts brought down to London by Brian Epstein in the early sixties to work with the producer George Martin. That fortuitous partnership meant that along with Cilla Black, The Beatles and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, they created Merseybeat.

gerry

And as for the other smiley people in pop whom I intended to write about today, they were to be Marti Pellow of Wet Wet Wet and Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17. The mean and moody look is one that has been universally adopted by many of our rock and pop heroes but I have a soft spot for those artists who just can’t suppress a massive smile – Yes they look like the cats that got the cream and why not? They were young, selling lots of records and adored by their fans so who wouldn’t want to smile (most of them apparently).

So another post on a somewhat sombre topic but about an outcome that will hopefully help people move on with their lives. As for our smiley friends pictured above, there will be time to return to them in more detail another day. I will leave you with another version of the song, this time from the Liverpool fans themselves. Rousing stuff – RIP the 96.

You’ll Never Walk Alone Lyrics
(Song by Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II)

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There’s a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown

Walk on walk on with hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
You’ll never walk alone

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown

Walk on walk on with hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
You’ll never walk

You’ll never walk
You’ll never walk alone

Postscript:

The last time I wrote about a song adopted by football fans it was “Sunshine On Leith” by The Proclaimers. I ended up including their version, the fans’ version and the version from the musical of the same name. In the interests of parity, I feel I ought to include a third version of You’ll Never Walk Alone, this time from the 1956 film. It features none other than Shirley Jones who to me, will always be David Cassidy’s mum in The Partridge Family, but that was to be about 15 years in the future. In Carousel she played Julie Jordan, a young millworker from Maine. This was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s second musical and many more were to come – I very much doubt however, when writing the song, that they could have imagined it would end up being sung in so many football grounds around the world, and all down to Gerry Marsden from Liverpool, and his Pacemakers.