Holly Johnson is an artist, writer and
musician (born William Johnson on February
9, 1960 in Liverpool, England; name on
passport William Holly Johnson). Some sources
erroneously suggest he was born in Khartoum, a myth Johnson himself apparently
started during an interview.
Actively involved in the Liverpool punk rock/new
wave scene, Johnson played bass with Big
in Japan and released several solo singles on the Eric's label, before finding fame as the lead
singer and lyricist of Frankie Goes to Hollywood,
who enjoyed considerable controversy and commercial success during
their heyday in the early 1980s.
Holly left the group in 1987 after growing increasingly
unhappy with their musical direction, but was immediately the subject
of an injunction from the group's record company, ZTT
Records, which cited his prior recording agreement and effectively
barred him from releasing solo material with new label MCA
Records.
Johnson famously embarked on a protracted legal battle with
ZTT, the case finally being settled in Johnson's favour in 1989, the judge ruling
that ZTT's original contract had constituted an unreasonable restraint
of trade. The result represented a landmark legal outcome within the
music business. Johnson's relationship with ZTT owners Trevor
Horn and Jill Sinclair apparently broke down
irretrievably due to the court case.
Johnson finally released his first solo
album, Blast, in 1989, which reached number
one in the UK and spawned four hit-singles, "Love train", "Americanos",
"Atomic City" and "Heaven's here". The album went Platinum.
However, relations with MCA cooled over dissatisfaction with
promotional budgets for his second solo album, Dreams That
Money Can't Buy, released in 1991 after Johnson had left the label.
In November of that year, Johnson discovered he was HIV
positive. This triggered a temporary withdrawal from the music business
and public
life in general. His condition was made public in April 1993. In 1994 his critically
acclaimed autobiography, A Bone In My Flute, was
published.
Since the mid 1990s,
Johnson has worked primarily as a successful painter. His works have
been exhibited at the Tate Liverpool, and The
Royal Academy. He has contributed to Modern
Painters magazine and the Paul Smith sponsored CARLOS magazine. He has
continued to make music via his own Pleasuredome label, such as 1999's Soulstream,
an album that includes a re-recording of "The
Power Of Love", Johnson's de facto signature
song.
Books
- A Bone In My Flute; hard cover Century
UK ISBN
0-7126-6145-X, 17 March 1994; soft cover Arrow UK ISBN
0-09-939341-7, 6 April 1995
External links
Notes
-
