"Warriors of the Wasteland" is the sixth single from Frankie Goes to Hollywood, released on 10 November 1986. It was taken from the albumLiverpool. Having already referenced literary heavyweights such as Coleridge in "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" and Thomas in "Rage Hard", for "Warriors of the Wasteland" Holly Johnson turned to T. S. Eliot for inspiration. Johnson cited Eliot's The Waste Land poem, the 1981 Mel Gibson film, Mad Max 2, and the 1979 film, The Warriors as inspirations. Even though it featured 3 different 12" singles, "Warriors of the Wasteland" reached number 19 in the UK Singles Chart, #7 in Germany and #13 in Switzerland.
The 5:01 side is the album version, featuring the band's original instrumentation with a new spoken outro; the 3:55 flip is a 7" mix recreated digitally using samples and synths. This release was a double A side single.
;12": ZTT / 12 ZTAS 25
"Warriors" - 9:45
"Warriors" - 4:50
"Warriors" - 1:22
"Warriors" - 3:29
As with many ZTT releases, unlisted tracks have created confusion as to which track has which title. "Warriors" can be taken to be the full 6:12 instrumental track, or just the 1:22 reprise. The 2014 digital reissue labelled both pieces as "Warriors".
"Warriors" began life as an unreleased track called "Pocket Vibrator".
On the sleeve notes to this release, producer Trevor Horn noted: "On Liverpool the members of Frankie Goes to Hollywood played Warriors with their own notoriously fair hands... This so-called 12" is in fact a total cheat... No-one played anything, in any orthodox sense. It was all done by computers, very powerful computers... juggling and organising pre-recorded sounds."
;12": ZTT / 12 ZTAX 25
"Warriors" - 8:09
"Warriors" - 4:50
"Warriors" - 1:22
"Warriors" - 3:29
;12": ZTT / 12 ZTAK 25 "Heavy Mental"
"Warriors" - 6:30
"Warriors" - 4:50
"Warriors" - 1:22
"Warriors" - 3:29
The "Attack Mix" featured additional guitar parts by Gary Moore. A 7" edited version of this track also exists on white label.
The CD is one track without a title list, and the titles above are for convenience of reference, apart from "Warriors" and "Warriors" .
"Introduction" starts with various vocal sounds, then sped-up samples re-edited, then slowed down samples, moving into what sounds like the Return Mix and some re-edited instrumental bits.
"Twelve Wild Disciples" is the first 12" mix - a reconstructed version with additional keyboards.
"Fewer Lyrics" is the album version with verse lyrics missing.
"Warriors " sounds similar to Twelve Wild Disciples, but a 7" edit.
"Monopoly Re-Solution" is a stand-alone track.
"Warriors" was rereleased in 2012 on CD Sexmix Disk 2, Track 11. ;MC: ZTT / CTIS 25 "Warriors "
"A Matter of Life and Death" - 0:04
"Warriors of the Wasteland" - 2:59
"Warriors " - 3:09
"Warriors" - 8:32
"we're rats" - 0:43
"Warriors" - 1:27
"Warriors" - 3:03
As with the CD single, no individual tracks are listed on the sleeve, which simply states "... featuring Warriors and a phenomenon of megabytes". The latter phrase, which does not specifically refer to any tracks in the cassette, is a ZTT coinage meaning "remix" or "collection of remixes", and as such it was also used as a subtitle for The Art of the 12", a 2011 2-CD release featuring a selection of classic ZTT remixes, two more volumes of which followed in 2012 and 2014.
The opening voiceover and the instrumental version of the Twelve Wild Disciples mix were unique to this cassette, until CTIS25 was finally released on CD in 2011 as part of the Liverpool deluxe edition.
