Lubricated Goat were formed in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1986 by Stu Spasm (real name Stuart Gray) on lead vocals, guitar, synthesiser and bass guitar. Spasm had previously been a member of Exhibit A, Zulu Rattle, Salamander Jim, Beasts of Bourbon, James Baker Experience, Death in Vegas and Hot Property. The original band also included Martin Bland on drums and backing vocals (ex-Head On, Crawling Eye, Acid Drops, Bloodloss, Zulu Rattle, Salamander Jim, Primevils), Brett Ford on drums, and Pete Hartley on bass guitar and guitar (the latter two both formerly of the Kryptonics).
En route to Sydney after a visit to England, Spasm went via Perth to visit former Singing Dog drummer Ford, who was then playing in the Kryptonics with Hartley. While in Perth, Spasm recorded side 1 of the band's debut album, 'Plays the Devil's Music', at No Sweat Studios with Ford and Hartley. Side 2 was recorded in Adelaide on a 4-track with Bland.
Lubricated Goat signed to Red Eye Records offshoot Black Eye Records, established by John Foy, which released 'Plays the Devil's Music' in July 1987. In Sydney, Spasm recruited bassist Guy Maddison of Perth band The Greenhouse Effect (later a member of Mudhoney), Hartley switched to lead guitar. Most band members lived on Cleveland Street in an old, run-down three-story mansion which was dubbed Gracelands. The house was a haven for musicians and artists who hosted art shows and nude discos.
In July 1988 the group released their second album, 'Paddock of Love', which included the track "In the Raw".
On 2 November 1988, the band provided a nude performance, lip-syncing to "In the Raw", on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV program, Blah Blah Blah. The event created national media outrage. The criticism was met by ABC-TV's presenter, Tim Bowden of Backchat, who "appeared shirtless behind his desk so as to give an impression of nudity while discussing listener's letters about [that group's] appearance". A documentary film about the event, directed by Cousin Creep and also titled "In the Raw", explained why the band were nude for that performance. It premiered on 11 December 2009 at the 19th Meredith Music Festival. The lineup for the ABC performance included musician Peter Read (also of the band Thug), who was brought in on a temporary basis when another band member felt uncomfortable about appearing nude.
In a line-up change, Hartley was dismissed and Ford quit, replaced respectively by guitarist Charles Tolnay (ex-Grong Grong, King Snake Roost) and drummer Gene Revet (ex-Ragdoll, The Space Juniors). In May 1989, they issued the 'Schadenfreude' EP.
Lubricated Goat's back catalogue was reissued by Amphetamine Reptile Records in the United States and on Normal in Europe before the band embarked on its first US tour in mid-1989. Tolnay and Revet did not participate in the tour; Spasm and Maddison were joined by ex-Bloodloss member Renastair EJ (on guitar and saxophone) and Bland (on synthesiser as well as drums). Later, after Maddison's departure, this line-up recorded a third full-length album, 'Psychedelicatessen', with Lachlan McLeod (ex-Salamander Jim) on bass guitar and audio sampler.
In 1990, the group commenced its first European tour, one that was plagued with tragedy via the stabbing of Spasm in Berlin. The incident placed Lubricated Goat on hiatus.
Various incarnations of Lubricated Goat (often featuring only Spasm) existed in the early 1990s, documented on the 7" singles 'Meating My Head' (1990, part of the Sub Pop Singles Club), 'Shut Your Mind' (1992, Sympathy for the Record Industry) and 'Play Dead' (1993, Sub Pop). During this period, Spasm was also a member of grunge supergroup, Crunt, which featured his then-wife Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland as well as Jon Spencer Blues Explosion drummer, Russell Simins; Crunt released their eponymous debut in 1994.
Lubricated Goat resumed activity in the mid-2000s. Among the members were Australian drummer Hayden Millsteed (also a founder of New York post-punk band Bell Hollow), who performed on the band's 2003 album, 'The Great Old Ones', which featured re-recordings of previously released Lubricated Goat and Crunt tracks.
In 2007, a new line-up of Lubricated Goat started writing and performing new songs alongside their older ones. This ensemble included Anne Mette Rasmussen on keyboards, sound effects and backup vocals; Creighton Chamberlain (formerly of Heroine Sheiks) on bass; and drummer Rich Hutchins (formerly of Live Skull and Of Cabbages and Kings).
The line-up changed again in 2009, with Chamberlain replaced by Jack Natz, formerly of the 1980s New Jersey punk band The Undead as well as Black Snakes, Cop Shoot Cop and Red Expendables. Natz had previously played bass in Lubricated Goat intermittently from the late 1990s through to the mid-2000s. Rasmussen left to form her own band, LoveStruck, which also included both Spasm and Hutchins.
Spasm later headed the Art Gray Noizz Quintet with Hutchins, Ryan Skeleton Boy (formerly of Woman) on bass, Andrea Sicco (of Twin Guns) on guitar, and rotating fifth members such as metal percussionists, sax or trombone players. Temporary 1988 member Read died in Melbourne in 2016 after battling liver cancer. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
When attempting to describe what Keiji Haino does to a guitar, the verb "play" seems terribly insufficient. Mauling might be a more appropriate choice, maybe even destroying. Regardless, whether as a solo performer, a collaborator, or leading his tremendous trio Fushitsusha, Haino has been leading the loud, free-form, noise-loaded guitar movement in Japan for well over four decades. He remains virtually unknown to mainstream audiences or to the average guitar enthusiast, but his music is beautiful, coruscating, and jarring. His many recordings are unpredictable and well worth hearing, especially by those enamored of those on the fringes of music performance.
Affecting a rock star pose (long black hair, ever-present sunglasses), Haino is an accomplished player who enjoys experimenting with undulating sheets of metallic sound. His solo recordings are frequently recorded live with no overdubbing, and Haino adds to the frenetic improvisatory mood by emitting shrieks and yelps as he strangles the neck of his Gibson SG. (In fact, he refers to himself as a vocalist first and foremost, rather than a guitar player.) If you need a familiar example, think of the more extreme moments of the late, great Sonny Sharrock, or Pete Cosey's envelope-pushing soloing with Miles Davis in the mid-'70s. With Fushitsusha, however, Haino's playing is more nuanced and restrained, kind of like Bill Frisell or an introspective Fred Frith. However, that doesn't mean that Haino and Fushitsusha are afraid of cutting loose and tearing it up. They are well-known (hell, revered) for turning up the volume and kicking out the jams, and the aural chaos is frequently stunning. Not for the faint of heart or those who compare every guitar player to Eddie Van Halen, Keiji Haino is a tremendously exciting player. Granted, his entire output is not essential (some of his solo recordings are repetitive), but when it comes to pushing the boundaries of music, noise, and where the guitar fits in this discourse, he has few peers.
Initially interested in theater, Haino started making music as a teenager after he first heard The Doors. He eventually became enamored with early blues music, especially Blind Lemon Jefferson, as well as jazz, musique concrète, traditional Japanese music, and countless other styles. He formed an improvisational jazz group called Lost Aaraaf in 1970, and their chaotic performances, marked by Haino's frenzied screaming, were met with derision from audiences. Japanese national broadcaster NHK banned Haino from the airwaves for several decades starting in 1973. After leaving Lost Aaraaf in the mid-'70s, Haino worked with Japanese psychedelic musician Magical Power Mako before forming Fushitsusha in 1978. Initially a duo including synthesizer player Tamio Shiraishi, the group eventually became a trio rounded out by bassist Jun Harmano and drummer Shuhei Takashima. Influenced by Krautrock and British psychedelia, the group shifted lineups numerous times, and didn't release any records until 1989, when influential Japanese underground label PSF Records issued a double-live album. John Zorn's Avant label released the group's debut studio effort, 'Allegorical Misunderstanding', in 1993, gaining them an increase in exposure and setting the stage for a steady release schedule throughout the coming decade.
Haino became highly prolific as a solo artist as well. Even though he had released one prior solo album (1981's cathartic, nightmarish 'Watashi-Dake?'), he re-emerged with 1990's 'Nijiumu', a bleak, droning album partially inspired by medieval music. Further albums appeared on PSF as well as on Zorn's Tzadik, Table of the Elements, Blast First, and many other experimental labels, and he became one of the noise genre's most influential artists. While he remained best known as a guitarist, he also explored other instruments on his recordings, including hurdy-gurdy, percussion, and tape loops. He recorded albums with several highly regarded experimental musicians, including Loren Mazzacane Connors, Alan Licht, and Derek Bailey. He also started several collaborative projects, many of which only lasted for one or two albums or a handful of performances. Aihiyo, for example, formed in the late '90s and released two albums of extremely unconventional covers of pop songs. One of his more prolific projects was Vajra, an improvisational trio with guitarist / folk singer Kan Mikami and drummer Toshiaki Ishizuka.
As the 21st century began, Fushitsusha became largely inactive, but Haino remained prolific as ever, releasing solo albums on labels like Alien8, Turtles' Dream, and Swordfish Records, in addition to collaborations with the likes of Boris, Peter Brötzmann, and Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida. In 2004, he recorded two different versions of the blues covers album 'Black Blues', an acoustic 'Soft Version' and an electric 'Violent Version'. He began a fruitful, long-running collaboration with Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi, releasing numerous albums on Ambarchi's Black Truffle label. Haino, Ambarchi, and Stephen O'Malley also formed an improvisational trio called Nazoranai after the three collaborated during a 2006 performance of O'Malley's drone metal group Sunn O))). Haino also released albums with Finnish electronic duo Pan Sonic and German avant-garde classical ensemble Zeitkratzer. In 2011, Fushitsusha began performing and recording again, and as before, the group's lineup continued to fluctuate frequently. The group released four albums on the Heartfast label in 2012 and 2013.
Matthias Schuster (Geisterfahrer, Im Namen des Volkes, Bal Pare, Das Institut) produced about 150 bands in his studio from 1980 until today including artists like Andreas Dorau ("Fred vom Jupiter"), Kosmonautentraum, Abwärts, Brosch, Saal II or The Red Crayola. He produced several Movie Soundtracks, especially "Fraktus", starring Rocko Schamoni, Jaques Palminger and Heinz Strunk. Matthias toured in Canada, The United States, UK, France, Belgium and many more countries and is still active on Tour with his projects Im Namen des Volkes, Bal Pare and Das Institut and producing new records until today. [SOURCE: YOUTUBE]
Aus Lauter Liebe was a Minimal Wave band formed in Hamburg. They released two singles on the Zickzack Platten label, ‘Ein Herz Und Eine Krone / Hot Lover’ (1980) and ‘Pingelig’ (1981). Among their members were Herr Niki, which used to be in a project called Who Killed Rudy? with Jäki Eldorado. They were supposed to go on tour with Nina Hagen and Ohne Unter Titel in 1980, but the tour was cancelled after their first gig in Hamburg due to poor response. Collaborators included Leffy Leffringhausen, co-founder of Das Cassetten Combinat and co-owner of Combinatsstudio; and Kiddy Citny, founder of Sprung Aus Den Wolken.
Ausserhalb was a West Berlin lesbian new-wave band active from 1978 to 1983 and formed by members Tina Thürmer-Rohr (piano, organ, synthesizer, vocals), Margaret Diehl (saxophone, vocals), Melanie Beyer (guitar, bass), Hucky Porzner (drums) and Yatzuba (bass). They released one sole album, ‘Rock Experimentell’, recorded between 21st and 26th of May and 11th and 12th of September 1983 at Tonstudio Funk Berlin West, firmly in the dark NDW tradition with rollicking rhythmic lines colliding with each other and dispassionate female vocals engaging into some kind of doomy soliloquy on top of that.
Leben und Arbeiten was a West-Berlin Neue Deutsche Welle band from the early 1980s. Members: Klyke (Mike Becker; vocals, guitars), Matratze (drums and backing vocals), Rumme Beck (also in Die Ich's, Die Schlampen, Jever Mountain Boys and Mekanik Destruektiw Komandoe; bass) and Stezelczyk (Jochen Arbeit, guitar). They released three cassettes shared with Die Ich’s, another cassette in the Das Cassetten Combinat label and a 12’’ in the Zickzack label.
I'm So Hollow was a post-punk band from Sheffield, England, active from 1978 to 1981. They were part of the Sheffield scene in England, alongside such bands as Clock DVA, Comsat Angelsand Vice Versa. The band's line-up was: Jane Wilson (vocals, keyboards), Rod Leigh (vocals, guitar), Gary Marsden (bass), and Yosef Sawicki (drums).
I'm So Hollow played their first gig opening for Clock DVA in Sheffield's Penthouse Club. Their highest profile gig was at the Leeds Futurama festival in 1980. They perform "Touch" in Eve Wood's documentary film "Made in Sheffield" (2001).
The band appeared on several compilations and recorded a John Peel session in 1980. They released their first and only single 'Dreams to Fill the Vacuum' in 1980, and, feeling they had achieved their ambitions with the recording of the album 'Emotion / Sound / Motion', split up shortly before its release in 1981. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
The Haters are a noise music and conceptual art troupe from the United States. Founded in 1979, they are one of the earliest acts in the modern noise scene. The group is primarily the work of the Hollywood, California-based musician, artist, writer, and filmmaker GX Jupitter-Larsen, accompanied by a constantly changing lineup of other "members", usually local experimental musicians and artists in whatever town a Haters performance happens to take place.
The group began as Jupitter-Larsen realized he was more interested in making noise and destroying venues than in structured music. Soon The Haters established contacts with like-minded artists in what would become known as the noise music scene, including Merzbow, Maurizio Bianchi, and The New Blockaders. In the late 1970s GX Jupitter-Larsen was done with the Punk scene. At first, in 1979 in New York, the kind of noise he was looking for would not be audible through the ears, but through a kind of sociological transmission. A social distortion instead of sonic feedback was his personal post-punk mandate.
The Haters first performances did not involve any deliberate use of sound. Even if there were any sounds, the audio was secondary. Haters performances at the time were simple actions. Events such as hitting video cassettes with a video camera, watching dust form on a floor, or counting garbage cans along a street. The Haters only started using sound in live performances because of two necessities. One, the need of a stage curtain, and two, the need to keep track of time. Traditionally, the opening of the stage curtain signals the beginning of a performance, while the closing signals the conclusion. As nearly no place they performed had such drapery, The Haters needed to come up with something else that would duplicate this function. The Haters started using pre-recorded sounds on tape. The sudden start of the noise let everyone in the audience know that the performance had just begun. Likewise, the abrupt end of the soundtrack unmistakably marked the finale.
Haters performances typically consist of Jupitter-Larsen and one other performer, both wearing masks, creating extremely loud noise using various types of machinery, with the sound distorted and amplified until it is virtually unrecognizable. The Haters' many CD and record releases are usually recordings of these performances. Underlying all The Haters' output is Jupitter-Larsen's peculiar mix of aesthetic and conceptual obsessions, particularly entropy and decay, professional wrestling, and a self-created lexicon consisting mainly of personalized units of measurement such as "polywave," the "totimorphous," and the "xylowave."
A central aspect of The Haters' work is that the sounds they produce are not music. This is a frequently repeated idea among noise artists, if only to distinguish pure harsh noise from more musical related genres such as noise rock, but The Haters take the idea far more literally than most. The sounds they create are made not with musical instruments or even audio equipment, but with physical processes such as grinding, crashing, and other forms of destruction. At the same time, there is always a pronounced, often absurd conceptual element to the group's work.
Many of The Haters later performances involved whole audiences being led by inside agitators to actually ruin or destroy entire venues. Proprietors were not always informed of the choreography in advance. These were what The Haters called celebrations of entropy. The audience that was as much a part of the actual performance as the performers were. Without any conditioning beforehand, entire audiences would halt their mayhem the very instant the soundtrack stopped. It made no difference if the attendance was 20 or 200. When the sound stopped, so did the action. There is also an obvious subsequent utilization of having the extremities of the soundtrack utilized as the movement of a stage curtain. That is, that one can predetermine the length of a performance by choosing the length of the tape for the recording.
At first The Haters did not care what the sound on the tape was as long as it was constant. Otherwise they had no other interest in sound on their stage for years. This did not mean they were not interested in sounds at all. In fact, whenever The Haters were in the studio, they'd always give great detail to every aspect of the sound. A record or CD release, and a live performance are two different things; and they absolutely never saw any reason whatsoever why one had to sound anything like the other.
There were a few exceptions, namely, some conceptual "anti-records" they released in the late 1980s and early 90s. The first, from 1988, was entitled 'Wind Licked Dirt', and consisted of an uncut vinyl LP in a cover packed with a bunch of small pebbles, which are included to "play" the record with. A later edition of this was made with a "CD" (a clear protective disc from a spindle of blank discs), and it is currently available as a "C-0 cassette." The second was entitled 'Oxygen is Flammable', and was a broken piece of plastic packaged in a small box. Enclosed were instructions which state that the piece of plastic is a record, and that it's played by pouring water over it. The instructions also call attention to possible similarities between the sounds of water falling and fire rising. The third, 'Shear', was a ball of cotton batting packaged in a small box. Wrapped around the contents are instructions on three thin strips of paper, which informs the holder that the cotton batting is a recording, which is played by squeezing. The sounds this "record" gives are described by Larsen as being a "sharp fluffy slightness" and a "thin fluffy pressed". These three releases are, in and of themselves, a kind of performance piece. A self-released 7" single from 1983 worked on the same principle; it consisted of two blank grooves and contained instructions to "complete this record by scratching it...".
The Haters would experiment with incorporating live sounds with the pre-recorded, but this was never a high priority for them until their 101st performance. There, live sound became a central component for their theatre. San Francisco on June 10 in 1990 saw performers each rubbing a calculator against very abrasive sandpaper. Another simple action, but this time a contact-mic had been mounted on the props. The sound of the rubbing was being amplified.
Sound finally became critical for The Haters on stage because GX Jupitter-Larsen wanted to tell a tale, and sound was needed for the narrative. This narrative was about one Ross Rhesymolwaith. Rhesymolwaith was a mathematician whose peace of mind was once said to sound much like calculators being rubbed against sandpaper. Calculation by disintegration as a reference to "a beauty resorting from the wearing down of numbers." Such strongly audible ideals required an equally audible medium. The Haters would perform this piece, which they called "The Thinking Ross Does", several more times in many different cities over the years.
In their 144th performance, in Zürich they used amplified electric drills to turn large wooden objects into sawdust. The piece was called "Building Empty Holes", but the action itself was still more important than the sounds involved.
It wasn't till their 155th performance, New York City on December 28, 1991 when they found their next major audio fetish. The Haters called it the "clici-clic"; a hand-held hole-punch mounted with a contact-mic for amplification. They would perform this action again and again, over the next ten years.
With their 174th performance, Paris, October 30, 1992, The Haters would slowly push a live microphone into a power grinder to gently wear it down to a stub. As GX has said in many an interview; "Erosion as penetration of the void. For erosion is the only way a solid object can truly penetrate the void." The audience cheered on. This action would become another recurring motif for The Haters for years.
During the 1990s The Haters developed many different recurring techniques using amplified gear. The only reason The Haters started incorporating live sound in performances was to re-emphasize the action taking place. Not for the sake of the sound itself. There's no linear progression here. There are also frequently no verbs, either. Themes and techniques would overlap back and forth, but overall, the performances were getting louder. By 1995 The Haters had ceased using pre-recorded soundtracks all together. They would now use any one of several theatrical devices to function as stage curtains.
Sound became a means of illustrating a narrative. For example, from 2000 to 2002, GX Jupitter-Larsen would balance an amplified calculator on top of the open grill of a small desk fan. This was his way to bring to stage an image. That of mathematician Ross Rhesymolwaith sitting by an open window so he could feel the wind against his face while he did his calculations. The piece was entitled "Dirwyn". The sound and action were the same.
The most eventful phase in The Haters use of sound in performance came when, instead of amplifying common tools, they started having their own costume devices built that were made solely for the purpose of making noise. By the late 1990s The Haters became obsessed with the idea of a contrast between what the sound was and how the sound was made.
Wrestling has always been a source of inspiration for them. Wrestling is the purest form of theatre of the absurd; one of non-confrontational violence where stereotypes are exaggerated beyond all recognition. Since its premiere in early 1999, GX's Untitled Title Belt has become a main sound source both on stage and in the studio. Just by looking at this belt, one would not necessarily be able to tell that this implement is a combination microphone, distortion-pedal, and noise generator. It was fashioned after the traditional championship wrestling belt.
Perhaps the only project of The Haters that is entirely sound based is a piece GX started doing in 2003. In this piece, entitled "Audiothecary", amplified balance scales are used as a performance-based utility for finding the weight of sound. The scales' beam with both of its two pans at either end are all wired to function as one large microphone. Any slight touch, even breathing on them, will produce a very substantial noise. The Haters latest performance entitled "Loud Luggage / Booming Baggage", first performed in 2010, has them operate amplified suitcases, shaking and banging them about till the luggage eventually breaks. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Geinoh Yamashirogumi (Japanese: 芸能山城組, Hepburn: Geinō Yamashirogumi) is a Japanese musical collective founded on January 19, 1974 by Tsutomu Ōhashi, consisting of hundreds of people from all walks of life: journalists, doctors, engineers, students, businessmen, etc.
They are known for both their faithful re-creations of folk music from around the world, as well as their fusion of various traditional musical styles with modern instrumentation and synthesizers. For example, in the 1980s, MIDI digital synthesizers could not handle the tuning systems of traditional Indonesian gamelan music, so the group had to teach themselves how to program in order to modify their equipment. The album that followed, 'Ecophony Rinne' (1986) was a new direction for the group: they had not previously incorporated computer-generated sounds into their work.
The success of this album brought them to the attention of Katsuhiro Ōtomo, who commissioned them to create the soundtrack of 'Akira'. The soundtrack is built on the concept of recurrent themes or "modules". Texturally, the soundtrack is a mix of digital synthesizers (Roland D-50 and Yamaha DX7-II, both of which could, by then, be tuned to the Pure-Minor, slendro, and pelog tuning scales), Indonesian chromatic percussion (jegog, etc.), traditional Japanese theatrical and spiritual music (Noh), European classical, and progressive rock.
Geinoh Yamashirogumi has reproduced over eighty different styles of traditional music and performances from around the world, but despite having performed internationally to a high degree of critical acclaim, they remain relatively unknown.
The group's name uses Ōhashi's pseudonym, Shoji Yamashiro, and translates roughly to "Performing Yamashiro Collective". Ōhashi took his inspiration from a postwar 1950s group of similar characters that lived as a commune. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
On the back of an enormous publicity campaign, Frankie Goes to Hollywood dominated British music in 1984. Frankie's dance-pop borrowed heavily from the then-current Hi-NRG movement, adding a slick pop sensibility and production. What really distinguished the group was not their music, but their marketing campaign. With a series of slogans, T-shirts, and homoerotic videos, the band caused enormous controversy in England and managed to create some sensations in the United States. However, the Frankie sensation was finished as soon as it was started; by the release of their second album, 'Liverpool', in 1986, the group's audience had virtually disappeared.
Based in Liverpool, Frankie Goes to Hollywood formed in 1980, comprising ex-Big in Japan vocalist Holly Johnson, vocalist Paul Rutherford, guitarist Nasher Nash, bassist Mark O'Toole, and drummer Peter Gill. Originally, the group was called Hollycaust, but they changed their name to Frankie Goes to Hollywood -taken from an old headline about Frank Sinatra's acting career- by the end of the year. The band didn't make anything of note until 1982, when they appeared on the British television program The Tube with a rough version of the video for "Relax." The appearance attracted attention from several record labels as well as record producer Trevor Horn. Horn contacted the band and signed them to his label, ZTT. Late in 1983, Frankie's first single, the Horn-produced 'Relax', was released. A driving dance number, "Relax" featured sexually suggestive lyrics that would soon lead to great controversy.
Around the time of the release of "Relax," Frankie's promotional director, Paul Morley, a former music journalist, orchestrated a massive, intricate marketing campaign that soon paid off in spades. Morley designed T-shirts that read "Relax" and "Frankie Says...," which eventually appeared across the country. The group began playing up their stylish, campy homosexual imagery, especially in the first video for "Relax." The video was banned by British TV and a new version was shot. Similarly, Radio 1 banned the single and the rest of the BBC radio and television networks quickly banned the record as well. Consequently, "Relax" shot to number one in January of 1984 and soon sold over a million copies. Frankie's second single, the political 'Two Tribes', was released in June of 1984. The single, which was also produced by Trevor Horn, entered the charts at number one; it went gold in seven days. "Two Tribes" stayed at number one for nine weeks and eventually sold over a million copies. While it was on the top of the charts, "Relax" went back up the charts, peaking at number two.
Frankie mania had taken England by storm, yet it took a while to catch on in America. "Relax" peaked at number 67 in the spring of 1984, while "Two Tribes" just missed the Top 40 in the fall. 'Welcome to the Pleasuredome', the band's Trevor Horn-produced debut double album, entered the U.K. charts at number one and their third single, the ballad 'The Power of Love', also reached number one. 'Welcome to the Pleasuredome' reached number 33 in early 1985 in the U.S., prompting the re-release of "Relax"; this time around, it made it into the American Top Ten.
'Rage Hard', the first single from their second album, peaked at number four in the U.K. during the summer of 1986. It was followed by the release of 'Liverpool', which reached number five on the British charts. Frankie Goes to Hollywood began their final tour in early 1987; by April, the band had broken up. Holly Johnson went on to pursue a solo career, which began in earnest in 1989, after a long legal battle with ZTT. Rutherford also launched a solo career, enlisting the members of ABC to produce his 1989 album 'Oh World'. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
