Frankie goes to Hollywood - Relax banned version

Relax was released by ZTT in October 1983 and got a modicum of airplay, allowing it steady progress into the UK Top 40. Following a debut appearance on the BBC’s Top Of The Pops on January 5, 1984 while at number 35, the single shot to number six in the charts — and then would come the incident which propelled both song and band into pop notoriety forever.

On January 11, 1984, BBC Radio 1 disc jockey Mike Read was playing the record on his show when he noticed the front cover design (by Yvonne Gilbert), depicting a man and woman pressed against each other, back to back, with clothed upper bodies but bared buttocks, and including a somewhat salacious quote from the song’s lyrics. This prompted him to listen more intently to the words, and his reaction was such that he apparently removed the disc from the turntable live on air, branding it “disgusting”.

Two days later — almost three months after the single’s initial release, and just eight days after the group’s Top Of The Pops appearance — the BBC banned the record from all its TV and radio outlets.

Relax immediately shot to Number One in the UK charts and stayed there for five weeks, leading to the situation where the BBC could not feature the nation’s best-selling single on any of their flagship radio and TV chart shows for over a month (hence the traditional closing ‘number one spot’ on Top Of The Pops was filled by different, distinctly non-number-one acts for five consecutive weeks).

Here’s FGTH performing Relax on TOTP just before Mike Reid banned it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5v9ZVoGC2I