#59: Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: October 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #29
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #43
YouTube: “Two Tribes”
Lyrics: “Two Tribes”

William Johnson was born in 1960 in Liverpool, UK. Growing up, his nickname was Billy. In 1965 he wrote his first song on a glockenspiel. At the age of 13 he got the nickname Joyful Johnson and dyed his hair. He attended school with less frequency due to being bullied in response to his androgynous appearance. He was influenced by David Bowie, Marc Bolan, the Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol and bought a guitar through the sale of cigarettes. At the age of 14 he took the name Holly Johnson in tribute to the actress Holly Woodlawn, a Puerto Rican transgendered actress and friend of Andy Warhol. In 1976 Holly Johnson became part of the Demi Monde in Liverpool’s hedonistic counter-culture. In 1977, Johnson became part of the punk/new wave band Big In Japan. After that band split in 1979, Johnson continued to pursue a musical career. In 1980 he was invited to join Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood formed in 1980. In addition to Holly Johnson there was Peter Gill on drums and percussion, Brian Nash on guitar and vocals and Paul Rutherford on vocals. Gill was born in Liverpool in 1964. Brian Nash was born in 1964 in Liverpool. In 1979 Johnson, Gill and Nash were members of a punk band named Sons And Egypt. Paul Rutherford was born in Liverpool in 1959. He became a member of the Liverpool punk band The Spitfire Boys from 1979-80. Johnson and Rutherford also were briefly part of a band called The English Opium Eaters who opened a few times for The Clash. Rutherford joined FGTH after seeing them perform in 1980. Rutherford and Johnson had first become acquainted at outside gay bar in Liverpool in 1976. Rutherford remembers Holly “was lying on a car bonnet, in a doctor’s coat with a silver mask on, singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow.” There was a fluid period of lineup changes, and Mark O’Toole became the bass player for Frankie Goes To Hollywood. While Jed O’Toole played guitar. Mark was born in Liverpool in 1964. While his brother Jed (born in Liverpool in 1962) was in the band from 1980 to 1982, and replaced by Brian Nash in 1982. Jed O’Toole returned to the band in 2007.

Paul Rutherford recalls the gigs where the band played in Liverpool. “…we employed two girls, sisters, who we called The Leather Pets, and we used to chain them up on stage in all the kind of S & M gear, and they were beautiful. We had a girl called Elise Farber who brought real Hollywood glamour. She was from LA and she wore fifties clothes and she had a bleached David Bowie quiff and she’d come on an introduce us and just hang out because we created this little kind of gang. We wanted it to be like ‘a happening’. What are we going to do today? Let’s fill the drum with glitter, or we are going to hang fishnets from the wall. Or a theme with guns everyone would have a gun. We’d have drag queens and motorbikes. It was spontaneous and the crowd loved it they’d be wondering what we were going to do next. Suddenly, the music press got hold of it. The NME reviewed a gig and said ‘these are the new ones to watch’.” At some of the concerts audience members got free Frankie Goes To Hollywood condoms.

With the release of their first single, Holly Johnson divulged that the origins of the group’s name was owed to a poster from The New Yorker magazine. A headline in the poster read “Frankie Goes To Hollywood,” with a picture of Frank Sinatra below the headline. The poster was the work of Belgian artist Guy Peellaert.

“Relax” was released in October 1983. It slowly climbed up the UK singles chart.

Peter Gil, Holly Johnson and Mark O’Toole wrote “Two Tribes”. Presenting a nihilistic, gleeful lyric expressing enthusiasm for nuclear war, it juxtaposes a relentless pounding bass line and guitar riff inspired by American funk and R&B pop with influences of Russian classical music, in an opulent arrangement produced by Trevor Horn.

“Two Tribes” became the #1 song in the UK on January 22, 1984, where it remained for five weeks. Their next single release was an anti-war song titled “Two Tribes”. The single was released at a time when the Cold War had intensified and fears about global nuclear warfare were at a peak. Johnson latter offered in a 1984 radio interview that the “two tribes” of the song potentially represented any pair of warring adversaries (giving the examples of “cowboys and Indians or Captain Kirk and Klingons”). He stated the line “On the air America/I modelled shirts by Van Heusen” was a clear reference to then United States President Ronald Reagan. Reagan had advertised for Phillips Van Heusen in 1953 (briefly reviving the association in the early 1980s). The title of his first film had been Love Is on the Air.

The lyric “working for the black gas” is, according to Johnson, “About oil surpassing gold. How you might as well be paid in petrol.”And the line “Are we living in a land where sex and horror are the new gods?” was inspired by the 1959 British film Cover Girl Killer. Johnson explained, “The TV was on in the background while I was doing me ironing and suddenly this character came out with that statement.”

The track featured samples of narration from actor Patrick Allen, recreating his narration from the British Protect and Survive public information films about how to survive a nuclear war. The “Two Tribes” music video featured figures representing Ronald Reagan and USSR leader Konstantin Chernenko having a wrestling match. The song’s title was inspired from the line “two mighty warrior tribes went to war” from the film Mad Max 2.

“Two Tribes” climbed to #3 in Montreal, #5 in Hamilton (ON), and Ottawa, #6 in San Francisco, #8 in Sherbrooke (PQ), and Boston, #10 in Los Angeles, and #13 in Kamloops (BC).

Internationally, in the summer of 1984, at the height of the Cold War, “Two Tribes” spent nine weeks on the top of the UK singles chart. It also climbed to number-one in Belgium, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and West Germany. It reached #2 in Finland, #4 in Australia, Norway and Switzerland, #6 in Denmark, #8 in Iceland, South Africa and Spain, #9 in Canada and Sweden, and the Top 20 in Austria, Italy, and Zimbabwe.

FGTH’s next single release was “The Power Of Love”. Subsequently, “Welcome To The Pleasuredome” climbed into the Top 20 in both Montreal and Toronto, but didn’t enter the singles chart in Vancouver. The single stalled at #2 on the UK charts. And in 1986 FGTH had a #4 hit with “Rage Hard”. The song’s title came from the poetry of Dylan Thomas when he wrote “do not go gentle into that good night.” In 1987 Frankie Goes To Hollywood disbanded. Their last gig was before a crowd of 65,000 at Wembley Stadium in 1987. Their biggest selling singles from the 1980’s were re-released in the 1990’s.

In 1989 Holly Johnson was featured along with Paul McCartney, The Chieftains and Gerry Marsden in the Charity for the Hillsborough Disaster Fund recording of “Ferry Cross The Mersey”. The Hillsborough Disaster involved a fatal human crush of British football fans at a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in Sheffield, England. Ninety-six people died and 766 fans sustained injuries.

In 1991, Holly Johnson was diagnosed with HIV and did not anticipate having much time left to live. he wrote his autobiography, A Bone In My Flute, where he discussed his struggle to accept his same-sex attractions. He came out to the press in 1993 and published his autobiography in 1994. Jimmy Sommerville of Bronski Beat presented Holly with a legendary handbag at the book launch. In 1995 Johnson hosted Live At The Lighthouse on TV. The telecast was a fundraiser for the an AIDS hospice named the London Lighthouse. During the TV special Holly sang “The Power Of Love” in a duet with Ann Dudley of the Art Of Noise. In 1986 Johnson began to spend more time painting and from the mid-90’s has pursued painting as his principal artistic outlet. His paintings have been exhibited in the Tate Liverpool and the Royal Academy of Arts near Piccadilly Circus.

Between 1979 and 2016 Johnson had released 16 singles. Of these, both “Love Train” and “Americanos” climbed to #4 on the UK charts in 1989. Both were tracks from his album Blast. In 1999 Johnson’s solo version of “The Power Of Love” from his Soulstream album climbed to #56 on the UK singles chart. In 2014 Holly Johnson released his fifth studio album, Europa. The album coincided with a 17-date Dancing With No Fear tour. That same year Johnson released his first live album, Unleashed From The Pleasuredome. In 2016 a song Johnson co-wrote was featured in the film, Eddie The Eagle, about the British skier Michael Edwards who represented his country in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta.

In 2004, with Holly Johnson disinterested in a reunion, original band members Paul Rutherford, Peter “Ped” Gill and Mark O’Toole staged the audition to find “new raw talent” for a lead vocalist for the band to perform at a charity concert at Wembley Stadium in November 2004. The winner was Ryan Molloy aged 28. In 2005, the same lineup, without originals Johnson and Nash, went on tour to a number of continental European cities. Jed O’Toole, an original FGTH bandmate from 1980-82 joined brother Mark O’Toole, Paul Rutherford, Peter Gill and Ryan Molloy. The reformed FGTH also performed at the Big Gay Out in Hyde Park in London. By 2007 the reformed Frankie Goes To Hollywood disbanded.

Between 1999 and 2017 Brian Nash released four solo albums. After Frankie Goes To Hollywood split, Peter Gill formed a band named Ltd. Noise. Paul Rutherford was the other gay member of the band and he eventually moved to New Zealand with his civil union partner Perry Newton. Paul Rutherford released “Get Real” which made the Top 50 UK singles chart in 1989. It was the first single release from his debut album Oh World. In 2010 Rutherford released his second album, The Cowboy Years.

In response to the Hillsborough disaster, Frankie Goes to Hollywood participated as members of the 2012 Justice Collective recording of
He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”. The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the two standing-only central pens within the Leppings Lane stand allocated to Liverpool supporters. Shortly before kick-off, police match commander David Duckenfield ordered exit gate C to be opened in an attempt to ease crowding, which led to an influx of supporters entering the pens. This resulted in overcrowding of those pens and the fatal crush. There were a total of 97 fatalities and 766 injuries, making it the disaster is the deadliest in British sporting history. Judicial and political stonewalling over the next few decades resulted in the release of the record to fundraiser toward a truly independent inquiry into the events of that fatal day.

Finally, in 2016, the Hillsborough inquests jury concluded it was police – not fans – who caused or contributed to the deaths of 96 men, women and children who it said were unlawfully killed following a series of failures by police, the ambulance service, as well as defects in the stadium.

The behaviour of supporters, the jury said, played no part in the 1989 disaster. Funds raised with the charity single “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” contributed to a final push in the families campaign for the truth – which ended up lasting for 27 years – in the face of lies told by senior officers, slurs in national newspapers and an alleged police cover-up to deflect blame on to supporters.

In May 2023, Johnson and the other members of Frankie Goes to Hollywood reunited for a one-off performance at the opening night of Eurovision, in their hometown of Liverpool. They performed a single song, “Welcome to the Pleasuredome”. In May 2023 Working Title Films announced production of Relax, a musical biographical film about Frankie Goes to Hollywood, based upon Holly Johnson’s autobiography A Bone in My Flute (1994), and starring Welsh actor Callum Scott Howells as Johnson. From September 2024 to July 2025 the Museum of Liverpool hosted an exhibition called The Holly Johnson Story.

September 12, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
Paul Lester, “Frankie Goes To Hollywood: ‘No One Could Touch Us – People Were Scared’,” Guardian, August 28, 2014.
Holly Johnson.Biography, Holly Johnson Rocks.com.
Phil Taylor, “Frankie Goes to Waiheke,” New Zealand Herald, January 4, 2014.
Brian Nash Interview, Brighton Source, June 19, 2017.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood Mark O’Toole and Peter Gill Backstage Wembley, YouTube.com, January 1987.
Frankie’s New Vocalist Unveiled, BBC, October 31, 2004.
“The Holly Johnson Story,” National Museums Liverpool, September 2024.
Catherine Shoard, “Frankie Goes to Hollywood biopic Relax in the works,” Guardian, May 10, 2023.
Richard Turner, “Five Hillsborough myths dispelled by inquests jury,” BBC, April 28, 2016.
Dorion Lynskey, “The best No 1 records: Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Two Tribes,” Guardian, May 31, 2012.
Max Bell, “Chain Reaction,” Zttaat.com, August 4, 1984.

CKGM 980-AM Montreal (PQ) | October 10, 1984