Welcome to The Holly Johnson Story at Museum of Liverpool

The life, legacy and cultural impact of Frankie Goes to Hollywood frontman Holly Johnson is being explored in a new exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool.

The Holly Johnson Story takes visitors on a journey through the musician, writer and artist’s rise to fame where he became one of the first openly gay and openly HIV positive high-profile artists in history.

The exhibition, supported with a £142,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and marking 40 years since Frankie's seminal Welcome to the Pleasuredome album, is a partnership between National Museums Liverpool, Homotopia and DuoVision Arts and has been designed in collaboration with Johnson who has loaned several of his own personal items.

They include half-a-dozen specially designed suits worn on videos including The Power of Love, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, Americanos and Love Train, and a wall of his own striking artwork created from the 1990s onwards and showing a number of different influences.

The exhibition also features record albums, childhood photos, posters, and a mixed media collage of Johnson by Liverpool artist Ben Youdan.

Meanwhile many of the other pieces of memorabilia on display have come from Wirral-based Frankie superfan Terry Reed, including T-shirts, concert programmes and fan club newsletters.

Co-curator Kay Jones says: “Terry remembers taking 13 Frankie T-shirts on a seven-day school trip to France!

“She donated the T-shirts to the museum about 10 years ago, but this is the first time we’ve displayed most of them. She was also in two different fan clubs and went to a lot of concerts.”

Above: A gallery of images from the Holly Johnson Story.

Born William Johnson in Wavertree in 1960 and growing up in Rathbone Road, Holly Johnson started acting, writing poetry and composing songs while still at primary school, later attending the Liverpool Collegiate.

As a teenager he was inspired by the music and aesthetic of Marc Bolan and David Bowie and in the late 70s became the bassist in punk band Big in Japan, replacing Ambrose Reynolds. Fellow members included Jayne Casey, Bill Drummond and Ian Broudie.

He later released two solo singles on the Eric’s label.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood – named by Johnson after an article he read about Frank Sinatra – was first formed in 1980 but it took almost three years to finalise the line-up which would go on to dominate the UK charts.

They became the first act to be signed by Trevor Horn’s ZTT Records label and Relax was released in October 1983. Its video was shot in an S&M club. It was the BBC banning the single as obscene in early 1984 which helped boost it to the top of the charts for a month.

The song went on to win a Brit Award for best British single, and formed the basis of a famous line of ‘Frankie Says’ T-shirts designed by Katherine Hamnett.

Above: An image of Frankie Goes to Hollywood in the exhibition

Frankie followed Relax with a run of massive hits, with Two Tribes and The Power of Love both UK number ones (equalling Gerry and the Pacemakers’ record of three consecutive chart-toppers) while their Welcome to the Pleasuredome single reached No2 in spring 1985.

Johnson went on to forge a solo career with songs like Americanos and Love Train.

One of the earliest openly gay musical artists, in 1993 Johnson revealed his HIV+ status in a newspaper interview.

Kay Jones says: “Holly is a Liverpool legend and his is a fantastic story to tell which will appeal to so many different people.

“The story takes in growing up in Wavertree, Big in Japan and the Eric’s scene, the early days of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the legacy of their slogan T-shirts, his solo career and then on as far as the band’s appearance in Liverpool last year as part of Eurovision.

Above: Members of Frankie Goes to Hollywood who performed together on St George's Plateau in 2023 as part of Liverpool's Eurovision celebrations. Photo by John Johnson

“He was an out and proud gay man, and his HIV activism is also a very important part of the story. The exhibition brings in local people’s stories in relation to that, and there’s a Sahir (formerly known as Sahir House, which has been supporting gay communities and people living with HIV since 1985) display case and exhibits which show local people’s grassroots activism.”

The Government launched its Don’t Die of Ignorance campaign in 1986, accompanied by fliers put through every door in the country, and the curator says: “Liverpool’s reaction was to ‘fight the fear with facts’ and its public health campaign message was adopted nationwide.”

Speaking about the exhibition Johnson says: “The opportunity to mount this exhibition is actually like winning the National Lottery for me.

“As a teenager music and art were my passion - reading Jean Genet, William Burroughs and listening to the music of The Beatles, Marc Bolan, David Bowie and The Velvet Underground: seeing the films of Derek Jarman and Andy Warhol along with his supercharged colour paintings.

“Pondering over Peter Blake’s Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band artwork as a child led me ultimately to Hollywood and back again.

“Everything I was ever drawn to, through a lens of Queerness and controversy I brought with me into the future we live in now.” 

The Holly Johnson Story is at the Museum of Liverpool until July 27, 2025 and entrance tickets are £5. More details HERE