Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax (ZTT Demo with The Blockheads)

The making of Relax has gone down in the annals of tortuous recording. The song went through four discrete versions before it became the monster that ate 1984. In the first version Horn tried to record it as the band (FGTH) played it live. "It was pretty awful," he says, "because Nasher couldn't really play." For the next attempt Horn assembled a group of session players, including Ian Dury's band The Blockheads, which was "OK but kind of tame", as you'll hear in this video. The third attempt at Relax took weeks and led Horn into misery, however Horn and keyboard player Andy Richards had stumbled on a low-end pumping rhythm on the Fairlight computer. "And then a bunch of things all happened at the same time." says Horn.

A friend had given Horn a Nepalese Temple Ball - a lump of dope - which he smoked, getting "quite a bit further out than I usually get" and experiencing a moment of clarity. Yes, the third version of Relax was rubbish, but he had quality musicians with him. The band had gone home to Liverpool. They might as well have another go, and they might as well base it around that pelvic-thrust rhythm that was sitting on the Fairlight. In his enhanced state Horn perceived a counter-rhythm in the song that conjured up a traditional English country dance - in amongst the massive pop orgy, a group of Morris dancers. Andy Richardson was an absolute nut with the Jupiter 8 synth. Incredible noises. I told him I wanted a massive orgasm on there and Andy gave us those noises. The irony is that there's nothing on there that The Lads couldn't play. It's sad that they weren't there to play it themselves but that's the way it goes sometimes."

In the end they completed Relax in a single take. At 11pm Holly Johnson arrived at the studio. "It's changed," Trevor told him. "How much?" "Completely." "Oh no. Not again." said Johnson.