Holly Johnson

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Holly Johnson
Holly Johnson2014.jpg
2014 in Berlin
Background information
Birth name William Johnson
Born (1960-02-09) 9 February 1960 (age 64)
Liverpool, Merseyside, England
Genres Pop, dance, new wave
Occupation(s) Musician, painter, writer
Instruments Vocals, bass guitar
Years active 1977–present
Labels Uni Records, MCA Records, Eric's Club, ZTT Records
Associated acts Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Big in Japan
Website www.hollyjohnson.com

Holly Johnson (born William Johnson, 9 February 1960; legal name William Holly Johnson[1]) is an English artist, musician and writer, best known as the lead vocalist of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who achieved huge commercial success in the mid-1980s. Prior to that, in the late 1970s he was a bassist for the band Big in Japan. In 1989, Johnson's debut solo album, Blast, reached number one in the UK albums chart. Two singles from the album – "Love Train" and "Americanos" – reached the top 5 of the UK Singles Chart. In the 1990s he embarked on a painting career.[2]

Biography

Johnson was born in Liverpool and actively involved in that city's punk rock/new wave scene of the late 1970s, Johnson played bass with Big in Japan and released two solo singles on the Eric's label. Both "Yankee Rose" and "Hobo Joe" made no impact on the market. Johnson later found fame as the lead singer and lyricist of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who experienced both controversy and phenomenal commercial success during their heyday in 1983 and 1984.[3]

Johnson left Frankie Goes to Hollywood in 1987 due to disagreements regarding their musical direction. He became the subject of an injunction from the group's record company, ZTT Records, and its sister publishing company, Perfect Songs, which cited a breach of his prior recording and publishing contracts, thus barring him from pursuing a solo career with any other new label.[4] He embarked on a two-year legal battle with ZTT, the case being settled in Johnson's favour on 10 February 1988, the judge ruling that the original contracts had constituted an unreasonable restraint of trade, remarking that "Mr. Johnson could be 70 years old and still be bound to this contract".[4]

ZTT unsuccessfully appealed against the judge's decision, the Appeal Court concluding on 26 July 1989 that the original recording and publishing contracts were "not a fair bargain".[5] The result represented a landmark legal outcome, contemporary press reports stating that the result "set a legal precedent which rocked the music business", adding that ZTT had by this time released most of its artists from their original contracts.[4]

Johnson's relationship with ZTT owners Trevor Horn and Jill Sinclair broke down irretrievably due to the court case: "They, [Horn and Sinclair] have never really forgiven me for winning my freedom in the law courts", the singer said in 2001, adding that the worst part of being in FGTH was "the contract we signed with ZTT."[4]

In 1989, Johnson finally made his first solo debut with the album Blast, for MCA Records. Singles "Love Train", "Americanos" and "Atomic City" met with warm reception, the former two both charting in the UK's top 5. Johnson took part in a charity project for the Hillsborough disaster fund and recorded a popular single "Ferry Cross the Mersey" with Paul McCartney, the Christians and others. The single reached number 1 in the UK and Ireland.[6]

After the 1990 remix album Hollelujah, Johnson released his second solo album in 1991. Dreams That Money Can't Buy was a commercial failure and didn't chart in the UK, while the singles "Where Has Love Gone?" and "Across the Universe" performed very poorly on UK singles chart. In November 1991, Johnson learned that he was HIV positive. This triggered a temporary withdrawal from the music business and public life in general, with one of his last TV performances around the time being at the Diamond Record Awards, Antwerp, where he performed "Americanos" and "Where Has Love Gone?".[7] His HIV status was made public during an interview with The Times in April 1993.[4]

In March 1994, Johnson's critically acclaimed autobiography A Bone in My Flute was published, in which he discusses his struggle with, and acceptance of, his homosexuality.[8][9][10] The same year, he recorded a new single, "Legendary Children (All of Them Queer)", whose lyrics referred to famous LGBT people throughout history. During 1994, he performed live at London's Gay Pride show, where he performed "Relax", "Legendary Children" and "The Power of Love".[11]

In April 1998, he performed "The Power of Love" live at the Easter Gay Happening in Krefeld, Germany at Club Königsburg.[12]

Since the mid-1990s, Johnson has worked primarily as a painter. His works have been exhibited at the Tate Liverpool and the Royal Academy. He has contributed to Modern Painters and the Paul Smith-sponsored Carlos magazine. He made a musical comeback in 1999, with an album called Soulstream, preceded by the 1998 single "Hallelujah!". The video for his next single "Disco Heaven" featured a cameo performance from Boy George. However, the album passed fairly unnoticed and didn't chart. The only charting single from Soulstream was the new version of "The Power of Love". For the release of Soulstream, Johnson appeared on the Jools Holland Show performing "The Power of Love" and performed the song again in 2004 for ZDF Love Songs.[13]

In August 2009, Johnson presented an hour-long show "In the Beginning" on BBC Radio 2 about the Beatles, whilst he also appeared in the new video for Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" as the DJ. Since then, he has performed The Power of Love twice in Germany, also performing the song at the opening of Life Ball 2011 in Vienna. In an interview at the Q Awards, Johnson announced plans for an album of new material. In 2010, Johnson performed "Americanos" on German TV,[14] and "Relax" on French TV. During February 2011, Johnson joined Jools Holland and his band for a version of the Animals' "The House of the Rising Sun" song, a track that Johnson covered on his Soulstream album. In August 2011, he performed a full set live at the Rewind Festival, using a mix of Frankie Goes to Hollywood songs together with some of his solo hits "Americanos", "Heaven's Here" and "Love Train".

In May 2014, Johnson announced his first UK solo tour, named "Dancing with No Fear". The seven date tour was preceded by a new solo album, released on 15 September.[15] The album, titled Europa, was preceded by a lead single, "Follow Your Heart".[16] The song was given its first play on Ken Bruce's BBC Radio 2 show on 20 June 2014. The second single from Europa, "In And Out Of Love", was released on 4 September 2014 with a special pop promo directed by Chris Shepherd.[13] In October 2014 Europa entered the UK Album Chart at # 63, becoming Johnson's first album to chart in the UK since his debut Blast.[17]

Discography

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See also: Big in Japan discography and Frankie Goes to Hollywood discography

Albums

Year Title Peak chart positions Certifications
UK
[18]		 AUT
[19]		 GER
[20]		 ITA
[21]		 NLD
[22]		 NOR
[23]		 NZL
[24]		 SWE
[25]		 SWI
[26]
1989 Blast 1 12 5 10 27 10 11 11 10
1989 Hollelujah — — — — — — — — —
1991 Dreams That Money Can't Buy — — — — — — — — —
1999 Soulstream — — — — — — — — —
2014 Europa 63 — — — — — — — —

Singles

Year Title Peak chart positions Album
UK
[18][29]		 AUS
[30]		 AUT
[19]		 CAN
[31]		 GER
[20]		 IRE
[32]		 ITA
[33]		 NLD
[22]		 NOR
[23]		 NZL
[24]		 SWE
[25]		 SWI
[26]		 US
[34]
1979 "Yankee Rose" — — — — — — — — — — — — — single only
1980 "Hobo Joe" — — — — — — — — — — — — —
1989 "Love Train" 4 35 17 56 4 5 21 12 10 20 14 8 65 Blast
"Americanos" 4 77 1 — 2 6 10 8 6 10 7 4 —
"Atomic City" 18 — 19 — 16 9 29 40 — 20 — 10 —
"Heaven's Here" 62 — — — 58 22 — — — — — — —
1990 "Where Has Love Gone?" 73 — — — — — — — — — — — — Dreams That Money Can't Buy
1991 "Across the Universe" 99 — — — — — — — — — — — —
"The People Want to Dance" — — — — — — — — — — — — —
1994 "Legendary Children" 97 — — — — — — — — — — — — single only
1998 "Hallelujah!" — — — — — — — — — — — — — Soulstream
1999 "Disco Heaven" 89 — — — — — — — — — — — —
"The Power of Love" 56 — — — — — — — — — — — —
2014 "Follow Your Heart" — — — — — — — — — — — — — Europa
"In and Out of Love" — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Guest appearances

Year Title Peak chart positions Album
UK
[35]		 AUS
[30]		 AUT
[19]		 GER
[20]		 IRE
[32]		 ITA
[33]		 NLD
[22]		 NOR
[23]		 SWI
[26]
1989 "Ferry 'Cross the Mersey"
(with The Christians, Paul McCartney, Gerry Marsden and Stock Aitken Waterman)		 1 45 15 5 1 15 21 4 11 Non-album single
1994 "Love & Hate"
(with Ryūichi Sakamoto)		 — — — — — — — — — Sweet Revenge
2012 "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"
(as part of The Justice Collective)		 1 — — — 4 — — — — Non-album single

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ http://www.hollyjohnson.com/dispatch/?page_id=43
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Cited in Southall (2008), p. 119.
  6. ↑ http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1989-06-10/
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2MEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA78&dq=%22holly%20johnson%22%20openly%20gay&pg=PA78#v=onepage&q=%22holly%20johnson%22%20openly%20gay&f=false
  9. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=xk4PDUiJ_fsC&lpg=PA131&dq=%22holly%20johnson%22%20comes%20out&pg=PA131#v=onepage&q=%22holly%20johnson%22%20comes%20out&f=false
  10. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=TF0Y4uACdMkC&lpg=PA242&dq=%22holly%20johnson%22%20openly%20gay&pg=PA242#v=onepage&q=%22holly%20johnson%22%20openly%20gay&f=false
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAH7pUUPtjA
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ http://www.officialcharts.com/albums-chart/
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Australian (ARIA Chart) peaks:
    • Top 50 peaks: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
    • "Americanos": Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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