Latest news with #FrankieGoestoHollywood
The Herald Scotland
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
He was married to punk princess Siouxsie. Here's how it all went wrong
Today he comes into the room still looking like the rock star he was. The hair is no longer bleached, there are a few more lines on his face, but he is recognisably Budgie - the drummer with Siouxsie and the Banshees, half of The Creatures, also with Siouxsie, and for a time, of course, Siouxsie's husband. But the man in front of me is less rock god today, more human being. He's soft-spoken, open, honest. Budgie is on a book tour which started in Glasgow last night. Yesterday morning he took his kids to school in Berlin, walked the dog and then caught a flight to Scotland to talk about his fine new memoir The Absence. Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie And The Banshees in 1980. She was known as Janet to her band (Image: Michael Putland)It's the story of a kid from St Helens who moved to Liverpool, became a member of the band Big in Japan alongside Jane Casey, Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford (later of Frankie Goes to Hollywood) Bill Drummond (The KLF) and Ian Broudie (The Lightning Seeds), then joined The Slits for a short time before becoming a Banshee. Almost inevitably, it's a book about rock and roll and excess in all its forms. But it's also the story of an 11-year-old boy who loses his mother and how that shapes all that follows. And it's about alcohol and substance abuse, and about the breakdown of his marriage to Siouxsie. As such, it's a book full of pain. But there's love in it too. He has rebuilt his life, remarried, become a dad, after all. But for a long time he was a lost boy. Pop music is full of them. Both on the page and in person it's clear that the death of his mother is the key event in Budgie's life. 'The trauma of somebody dying changed everything,' he admits. The whole world didn't feel the same. I had to figure out as a young boy what does all this mean? It meant less than anything. I was already going, 'God doesn't exist.' I thought, 'Well, sod it, I can do anything I want because she'll never know what I do.' And that left me feeling totally bereft.' Music was to become his attempted escape route. And a place to hide. In a band, he points out, 'you don't have to do anything that is too close to reality.' For a while at least. Reality, though, has a nasty way of catching up with you. It was Holly Johnson who gave him the name Budgie - a throwback to when the young Peter Clarke used to breed them. Now, he says, 'my wife calls me Peter. The people in Liverpool call me Pete, because I was Pete before I was Budgie. Mostly in the business they call me Budgie.' He joined the Banshees in 1979. The band had just imploded. Siouxsie and bassist Steven Severin were the only ones still standing at the time. Scottish guitarist John McGeoch was also hired and the new line-up set the course for the band's imperial phase on albums such as Kaleidoscope, Juju and A Kiss in the Dreamhouse at the start of the 1980s. McGeoch would later be fired because of his issues with drinking. He was initially replaced by The Cure's Robert Smith - who would call Siouxsie by her middle name, Janet. Budgie, meanwhile, had become an integral part of the band and eventually Siouxsie's partner in music - in side-project The Creatures - and in life. Read more Siouxsie, who had emerged from the Bromley Contingent at the beginning of punk, would become alt-rock's ultimate Gothy ice queen. But who was the woman Budgie met when he joined the band? 'Within the band she's Janet. And Robert picked up on that straight away. 'Oh, come on Janet.' And she hated it in a way, but she loved it because it's teasing. 'She would say things with all seriousness and tell people to f*** off and then go, 'Heh, heh, heh, they fell for it.' 'Some of the guys at Polydor, they loved it. 'You know what Siouxsie said to me? She told me to f*** off.'' And she clearly made an impression on Smith, Budgie suggests. 'He leaves with the hair different, crimped and make-up. He took the look.' But behind the make-up and the backcombed hair and the attitude, Siouxsie, like Budgie, was a child of grief. Her bacteriologist father had been an alcoholic and died when she was just 14. 'Siouxsie does say somewhere we both had that loss in common,' he admits, 'but what I realised was we never really talked about it. We never sat down and said what it was like. 'In her family they had a man killing himself. He was drinking himself to death. And everyone reacted in a different way. But it was pushing them apart, making them all isolated. 'When my mum died we did a similar thing. But it wasn't aggressive because she hadn't done anything, so we were tender. But we didn't know how to embrace and help. We were also isolated. 'When Siouxsie came up to see my family in St Helens, she'd say, 'You're all so quiet and placid.' When I'd go down to their house it was crazy, it was Abigail's Party gone mad. And Siouxsie loved Abigail's Party because she could relate to it.' Budgie married Siouxsie and the couple moved to France - with disastrous consequences for their relationship (Image: Redferns)The problem for both of them was that they carried their traumatic pasts with them and a relationship that started in passion evolved into an unhealthy form of co-dependency, a situation exacerbated when they moved to a French chateau in the early 1990s. 'We were told it was a dangerous place to be,' Budgie acknowledges. 'We were isolated. My drinking was getting worse.' Dangerous even. 'Yeah, I had to take risks. I didn't understand how to just be. I enjoyed walking the knife edge, literally and metaphorically. I took risks physically, as everybody does if they have a binge drink. But then you have to grow up. You have to lose all the things that you think you need and see what it feels like to start again.' It would take a while for him to get to that point. He and Siouxsie had been in France about three years when he finally stopped drinking. In its wake, he essentially became a househusband. 'I looked after the garden, I did all the driving, I did the shopping and then I learned skills on the computer making Anima Animus [the second album by The Creatures, released in 1999].' Whatever issues the couple were facing they never addressed them. 'We didn't discuss or talk, we just got on with the next album, the next project. I think I just burnt out.' More than that, he adds, 'I had actually ceased to be anything in the relationship.' And though he had stopped drinking, Siouxsie hadn't. It's almost inevitable that it would end badly. The book climaxes with an account of Siouxsie loudly demanding to be let into his room at four in the morning, then physically attacking him while screaming 'I'll f****** kill you.' It's maybe significant that these few pages are written in the third person. When I bring it up he shifts between trying to understand and explain what happened while also wanting to acknowledge that it did. 'I don't blame Siouxsie. If I look at it and I examine it I'm in danger of condoning it and denying my right to speak about it. My nature is, 'I shouldn't talk about that.' But I feel I had to give voice to myself in that situation.' You were being attacked, Budgie. 'And yet I was still being careful that she didn't injure herself. I wasn't sure when it was going to stop, and then it stopped. And it wasn't just one night. That particular incident was one night, but there were other …' Read more He pauses, resets, tries to tell the other side of the story. 'The voice outside the door was from someone who was also lost. It's not that she was an ogre prowling on me. 'I've been that drinker. And then living with it, living with the drink, its unpredictability, you're on eggshells.' The couple divorced in 2007 and he admits he was lost for a while. But he's built a new life in Berlin. Writing the book, he says, has been both traumatic and therapeutic. And somewhere in the middle of all this, he adds, 'my mum came back. That's what happened. In terms of … I felt like she's not gone anywhere. 'It's nothing strange. It's just a very reassuring, comforting thing. How could the love die?' Which means? The lost boy has been found, perhaps. 'I was in danger of losing myself," Budgie admits. ' I realised I didn't need to risk losing myself anymore.' The Absence by Budgie is published by White Rabbit, £25
The Herald Scotland
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Review: Holly Johnson at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Backed by a tight band, including keyboardist and backing vocalist Daisy May Khan – at 21, quite possibly the youngest person in the room – and led by a guitarist in David D'Andrade who clearly saw himself as part of the spectacle (never has the slicking back of hair looked more performative), Johnson gave us what was in effect an extended Rewind Festival set; a run-through of the hits and the best-of-the-rest tunes from his band days and his solo career – stretching from the mid-1980s to the start of the 1990s – concentrating, inevitably, on that fierce hot moment in 1984 – a moment that stretched out through the whole year – when Frankie Goes to Hollywood were the biggest band in the country. (The band's debut single Relax remains the sixth-best-selling UK single of all time, despite the fact that it was banned on Radio 1. Or more likely because of it.) Johnson came dressed for the party, in black leather jacket and black leather kilt which showed off his knobbly knees. Inevitably at one point he threatened to lift it up to show what was underneath. Read more: But then Johnson's personality has always been an endearing mixture of the sweet and the salty. This evening he reminded us of a story he has told before; that of his first visit to Glasgow when he 'shagged a postman'. Loucheness was always part of the appeal. Nostalgia doesn't really do surprise and so there were no real departures in the set list. It stuck pretty rigidly to the Frankie era and Johnson's early solo records, though there was the odd Frankie deep cut, like Happy Hi!, the B side of Welcome to the Pleasuredome which probably should have been left there. And it's fair to say that, ultimately, Johnson's songbook is a relatively slim one. There were a few longueurs between the sugar high of his more familiar songs. It's also true that the accompanying visuals were pretty basic, pretty budget, and at times frankly rather twee. Maybe only the half-naked musclemen dancing along on the screen to Relax seemed of a piece with the music. But in the end this show had two big advantages. The first was Johnson's voice. Back in 2019 Trevor Horn – Frankie Goes to Hollywood's producer and Johnson's bete noire – played the same venue with a crack cadre of session musicians and singers, singing some of the same songs. But when they did essay Frankie classics what was clearly, painfully, missing was the texture of Johnson's voice and his explosive vocalisations (that throaty 'huuh' at the, ahem, climax of Relax). Because, the truth is, Johnson was as essential to those Frankie records as the Fairlight sampler. And, it has to be said, the big tunes played tonight – Pleasuredome, Relax, Two Tribes – are frankly indestructible; epic confections of pop, full of sex and horror and the perfume of youth. They remain so all these years on. The evening inevitably ended with a performance of The Power of Love, Frankie's shot at a Christmas number one (seen off by Band Aid's Do They Know it's Christmas) and Johnson's favourite song. Certainly his best shot at posterity. 'We always say it's not for Christmas, it's for life,' Johnson, now wearing a crown and a sparkly jacket, reminded us. Time for the glitterball and a few minutes revelling in the sweet sadness of time passing. In the end we are our memories. As Holly says, make love your goal.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Voice Is Still Great': ‘80s Icon, 65, Dazzles Crowd With Timeless Voice
'Voice Is Still Great': '80s Icon, 65, Dazzles Crowd With Timeless Voice originally appeared on Parade. Holly Johnson, the campy, over-the-top lead singer of the iconic 1980s pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, has still got it. The 65-year-old showman put his unmistakable vocals on full display during a recent performance at London's Royal Albert Hall, leaving fans in awe of his timeless voice. And judging by Johnson's on-stage attire, the singer hasn't lost his flair for drama a video shared to social media, Johnson can be seen taking the stage in an oversized, sparkling black coat paired with a black leather crown. As he belts out the band's 1984 hit The Power of Love from their Welcome to the Pleasuredome album, it's clear his distinctive, rich baritone still hits all the right notes. Johnson has never sounded better—and Frankie Goes to Hollywood fans took note. Compliments came in fast. One fan wrote, 'He's still got that voice—strong as ever,' while another shared, 'Love his voice!' Yet another wrote, "It's good how his voice is Still Great."Fans also had something to say about Johnson's dramatic attire. One wrote, 'Love the coat,' while another summed up the performance perfectly: 'Only a few singers in 2025 sing like they did in the '80s—Mick Hucknall (Simply Red), Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode), and Jim Kerr (Simple Minds).' Alexa, play The Best of the '80s playlist, please. 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 'Voice Is Still Great': '80s Icon, 65, Dazzles Crowd With Timeless Voice first appeared on Parade on Jun 10, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 10, 2025, where it first appeared.
Edinburgh Live
10-06-2025
- Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh friend of Mark Richardson taunted 'come and get me' before latest attacks
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info An associate of Mark Richardson is understood to have been targeted for a third time by henchmen working for Dubai-based gangster Ross McGill. A Transit van linked to Richardson's associate, Paddy Beatson, was torched in the early hours of Monday morning. The incident happened outside his home on Niddrie Marischal Crescent, reports the Daily Record. Only days before, Beatson taunted his rivals - known as Tamo Junto (TMJ). In a post online, he urged them to 'come and get him'. He wrote: "I'm home, if anyone's looking for me. I've never once ran. I've never even left my bit, other than to take my boy on a holiday. "If anyone wants it with me today, get on me. I won't be roped into a slagging match or arguments with fake accounts. I don't do that." (Image: Daily Record) The Ford van at Beatson's home was torched at around 4am on Monday. Half a mile away - and at the same time -a Range Rover believed to be owned by another associate of Richardson's was firebombed at a property on the capital's Campion Road. Cops are treating both incidents as suspicious. Images taken in the aftermath show the burnt out shells of both vehicles. Tamo Junto were quick to claim responsibility for the attacks in a video. Footage shared by the gang shows flames bursting out of the Range Rover and the Transit van. In one clip a hooded figure can be seen standing with an accelerant canister before he backs away from the fireball. The video plays the song Two Tribes by 80s pop group Frankie Goes to Hollywood and it ends with emojis of a black pawn chess piece and a sand timer appearing side by side. Beaton's home has been attacked twice previously in recent months. Sign up for Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox On April 17, cops were alerted to possible fire damage at the property - and on March 20, shots were reportedly fired at the home by a masked gunman. The property on Campion Road, where the Range Rover was torched, was also on attacked before on May 10 - the same day Ross McGill "rejected a truce offer" with his enemies. Pictures taken at the time showed windows boarded up in the wake of the attack after men were filmed kicking in the door. McGill has been waging war on Richardson and his cronies in a series of violent attacks since March. We previously told how the pair are locked in a bitter feud after McGill was ripped off in a £500k cocaine deal. Homes, cars and businesses belonging to associates of Richardson have been hit in a series of firebombings and shootings. Machete thugs also pounced on his close ally David McMillan Snr at his home on Pitcairn Grove in the city last month. Police said they are treating the attack on the 56-year-old as attempted murder. It was the third time McMillan had been targeted in recent weeks. On April 17, two masked thugs set fire to his front door while children slept inside. (Image: Daily Record) The culprits torched the property before fleeing the scene. Just three weeks later on May 8, a white Land Rover SUV in his driveway went up in flames after his family returned home from a shopping trip. McGill's enforcers have also gone after the notorious Daniel crime clan during the feud due to their association with Richardson, with properties linked to the clan torched as violence spread to Glasgow. In April, a carpet and flooring unit owned by Daniel enforcer Craig "Rob Roy" Gallagher was torched in Bishopbriggs. And in Milton, a female pensioner and 12-year-old boy were injured after hoods stormed their home looking for a high-ranking member of the Daniel family. McGill's men went on to target the home of Steven 'Bonzo' Daniel, as well as the properties of his mum Annette, uncle Norman and sister Kelly 'Bo' Green. Last month, two men were attacked with a machete at a garage owned by Robert Daniel in East Kilbride. Last Saturday night, key Lyons clan lieutenants Eddie Lyons Jnr and Ross Monaghan were assassinated outside Monaghan's bar in Fuengirola. Join Edinburgh Live's Whatsapp Community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages. Police Scotland later released a statement to say the force currently has 'no intelligence' to link the shootings in Fuengirola to the ongoing turf war, or that the shootings were organised from within Scotland - but underworld sources have claimed that is not the case as fingers were pointed at rival hoods. Just minutes after the double assassination, a posh mansion in the Renfrewshire village of Bridge of Weir was torched. Last week TMJ - who have been known for showcasing their attacks online - took credit for the firebombing as they released a picture of the blaze alongside a chilling threat. The gang wrote: "If you write stuff about us online or try to organise violence against us. "We will target you and your family. Don't steal from us. Don't threaten us. Don't switch on us. Or we will relentlessly come after you." Police Scotland has arrested 42 people in connection with a series of linked incidents relating to the war across the country in an investigation called Operation Portaledge.
Daily Record
10-06-2025
- Daily Record
"Come and get me" Mob boss Mark Richardson's pal taunted Mr Big's men before latest attacks
A Transit van was blown up at a home linked to Richardson's pal Paddy Beatson on Niddrie Marischal Crescent in Edinburgh in the early hours of Monday morning. Mob boss Mark Richardson's pal taunted henchmen working for Dubai-based gangster Ross McGill before he was targeted for the third time in a firebomb attack. A Transit van linked to Richardson's associate Paddy Beatson was blown up outside his home on Niddrie Marischal Crescent in Edinburgh in the early hours of Monday morning. Just days earlier, Beatson, 38, mocked McGill's enforcers - a faceless gang called Tamo Junto (TMJ) - in an online post as he urged them to "come and get him". He wrote: "I'm home, if anyone's looking for me. I've never once ran. I've never even left my bit, other than to take my boy on a holiday. "If anyone wants it with me today, get on me. I won't be roped into a slagging match or arguments with fake accounts. I don't do that." The Ford van at Beatson's home was torched at around 4am on Monday. Half a mile away - and at the same time -a Range Rover believed to be owned by another associate of Richardson's was firebombed at a property on the capital's Campion Road. Cops are treating both incidents as suspicious. Images taken in the aftermath show the burnt out shells of both vehicles. Tamo Junto were quick to claim responsibility for the attacks in a video sent to the Record shortly after. Footage shared by the gang shows flames bursting out of the Range Rover and the Transit van. In one clip a hooded figure can be seen standing with an accelerant canister before he backs away from the fireball. The video plays the song Two Tribes by 80s pop group Frankie Goes to Hollywood and it ends with emojis of a black pawn chess piece and a sand timer appearing side by side. Beaton's home has been attacked twice previously in recent months. On April 17, cops were alerted to possible fire damage at the property - and on March 20, shots were reportedly fired at the home by a masked gunman. The property on Campion Road, where the Range Rover was torched, was also on attacked before on May 10 - the same day Ross McGill 'rejected a truce offer' with his enemies. Pictures taken at the time showed windows boarded up in the wake of the attack after men were filmed kicking in the door. McGill has been waging war on Richardson and his cronies in a series of violent attacks since March. We previously told how the pair are locked in a bitter feud after McGill was ripped off in a £500k cocaine deal. Homes, cars and businesses belonging to associates of Richardson have been hit in a series of firebombings and shootings. Machete thugs also pounced on his close ally David McMillan Snr at his home on Pitcairn Grove in the city last month. Police said they are treating the attack on the 56-year-old as attempted murder. It was the third time McMillan had been targeted in recent weeks. On April 17, two masked thugs set fire to his front door while children slept inside. The culprits torched the property before fleeing the scene. Just three weeks later on May 8, a white Land Rover SUV in his driveway went up in flames after his family returned home from a shopping trip. McGill's enforcers have also gone after the notorious Daniel crime clan during the feud due to their association with Richardson, with properties linked to the clan torched as violence spread to Glasgow. In April, a carpet and flooring unit owned by Daniel enforcer Craig 'Rob Roy' Gallagher was torched in Bishopbriggs. And in Milton, a female pensioner and 12-year-old boy were injured after hoods stormed their home looking for a high-ranking member of the Daniel family. McGill's men went on to target the home of Steven 'Bonzo' Daniel, as well as the properties of his mum Annette, uncle Norman and sister Kelly 'Bo' Green. Last month, two men were attacked with a machete at a garage owned by Robert Daniel in East Kilbride. Last Saturday night, key Lyons clan lieutenants Eddie Lyons Jnr and Ross Monaghan were assassinated outside Monaghan's bar in Fuengirola. Police Scotland later released a statement to say the force currently has 'no intelligence' to link the shootings in Fuengirola to the ongoing turf war, or that the shootings were organised from within Scotland - but underworld sources have claimed that is not the case as fingers were pointed at rival hoods. Just minutes after the double assassination, a posh mansion in the Renfrewshire village of Bridge of Weir was torched. Last week TMJ - who have been known for showcasing their attacks online - took credit for the firebombing as they released a picture of the blaze alongside a chilling threat. The gang wrote: 'If you write stuff about us online or try to organise violence against us. We will target you and your family. 'Don't steal from us. Don't threaten us. Don't switch on us. Or we will relentlessly come after you.' Police Scotland has arrested 42 people in connection with a series of linked incidents relating to the war across the country in an investigation called Operation Portaledge.
