I’ve been asked a million times “why did I call my band Frankie Goes To Hollywood.”
The image you see was a painting on a page of a book published in the 1970’s called Rock Dreams by Guy Peellaert, Nik Cohn, Kathrin Muir (Editor). Guy Peellaert was a Belgian Painter who had painted the gatefold cover of David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs LP, which was a huge influence on me and part of my teenage vinyl collection. This particular page from the book was stuck onto the wall of a rehearsal room in Liverpool which was about to be transformed into a recording studio Called THE PINK. The room was owned by Hambi singer of a band called Hambi and The Dance. I was rehearsing with Steve Lovell, Ambrose Reynolds and a drummer called Phil Renshaw, it was a band that had to come up with a name quickly in order to Play a gig at The Masonic, a pub / music venue in the centre of Liverpool . I looked at the page stuck to the wall added the word TO and the name was born. The Show didn’t actually happen but a few years later the name entered the mythology of Pete Frame’s Rock Family Trees : Eric’s Progeny. When I was again looking for a name for a band in 1981/2 , this particule Rock Family Tree was published in SOUNDS: a national music newspaper now, defunct. There again was this band name, on a branch with my name on it “HOLLY”, A branch of the Tree connected to Big In Japan the first group I joined when I was 16 years old , part of the post punk Eric’s Club Scene. The search for a name, serendipitously , was over.
