Welcome to the Pleasuredome (song)


"Welcome to the Pleasuredome" is the title track to the 1984 debut album by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The lyrics of the song were inspired by the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
In March 1985, the album track was substantially abridged and remixed for release as the group's fourth UK single.
While criticized at the time of release and afterward for being a song that glorifies debauchery, the lyrics make clear that the point of the song, just as Coleridge's poem, is about the dangers of this kind of lifestyle. This song, along with "Relax", made Frankie Goes to Hollywood even more controversial than they already were.

Original 1985 single

Despite the group's record label pre-emptively promoting the single as "their fourth number one", an achievement that would have set a new UK record for consecutive number one singles by a debuting artist, "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" peaked at number two in the UK singles chart, being kept off the top spot by the Phil Collins/Philip Bailey duet "Easy Lover". The single spent a total of eleven weeks on the UK chart.
It was the first release by the group not to reach number one and, despite representing a creditable success in its own right, it symbolically confirmed the end of the chart invincibility that the group had enjoyed during 1984. Frankie Goes to Hollywood would not release another record for seventeen months, and they would ultimately fail to emulate their past glories upon their return.
The spoken-word introductions to both 12-inch mixes are adapted from Walter Kaufmann's 1967 translation of Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy. The recitation on the first 12-inch is by Gary Taylor, whilst that on the second 12-inch and the cassette is by actor Geoffrey Palmer. It is unknown whether Palmer's concluding "Welcome To The Pleasuredrome" was a genuine mistake or a deliberately scripted one.
This is the only single from the group that was not released on a CD single at that time, the other being "Watching The Wildlife". "Relax", "Two Tribes", "The Power of Love" and "Rage Hard+" all saw a CD-maxi release in Germany at the end of the '80s. "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" was not given such a release. However, the 7" vinyl single was released in two different mixes, and it was purely random as to which one you ended up with, as both mixes were in identical sleeve designs and carried the same catalogue number. Not only that, but the subtitle used to identify different mixes was identical on both record labels, with only the matrix number on the run out groove giving the game away. The first 7" carried the normal 7" single mix, which was guitar driven. However, the "secret" alternative mix was quite different, and featured on the Apple shaped Picture Disc. The subtitle for that disc was 'alternative reel' but on the 7" single the subtitle remained unchanged as 'altered real'.
In fact, although appearing to be identical sleeves, the two mixes were actually released in slightly different ones. The standard 7" mix came in a thick paper sleeve, whereas the "secret" one came in a thin paper sleeve.

B-sides

All releases featured an edited version of "Get It On", originally recorded for a BBC Radio 1 session in 1983, plus a faded or full length version of "Happy Hi!", a non-album track.
Both "Relax " and "Born To Run" are live recordings, based on an actual live appearance on The Tube's "Europe A-Go-Go" in Newcastle during early January 1985.

Video

The video, by Bernard Rose, features the group stealing a car, going to a carnival and encountering all manner of deceptively "pleasureable" activities. The audio soundtrack of the video was included as part of the cassette single.

Promotional releases

In 1984, a few months prior to the album's release, an early instrumental version of the album track was issued as a promotional 12-inch single, entitled "Welcome to the Pleasuredome ", along with a similar early instrumental of "The Only Star in Heaven". These tracks were subsequently given wider release as part of the B-side to the second 12-inch of "The Power of Love" single.
"Welcome to the Pleasuredome" was also used on several promotional records in the USA during 1985, featuring the following tracks in various combinations:

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Track listing

7": ZTT / ZTAS 7 (UK)

  1. "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" – 4:20
  2. "Get It On" — 3:28
  3. "Happy Hi!" — 3:47
  1. "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" – 5:05
  2. "Get It On" – 3:28
  3. "Happy Hi!" – 4:04
  1. "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" – 5:05
  2. "Get It On" – 2:32
  3. "Happy Hi!" – 4:04
  1. "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" – 4:20
  2. "Relax" – 4:26
  1. "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" - 4:22
  2. "Get It On" – 2:32
  3. "Happy Hi!" – 4:04
  1. "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" – 9:42
  2. "Get It On" – 3:28
  3. "Happy Hi!" – 4:04
  4. "Relax" — 4:51
; A : 'Fruitness'
  1. "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" – 12:15
; B : 'Fruitness and light'
  1. "Get It On" – 2:32
  2. "Happy Hi!" – 4:04
  3. "Born to Run" – 4:49
  1. "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" - 9:47
  2. "Get It On" - 2:32
  3. "Happy Hi!" - 4:02
  4. "Relax" - 4:51
  1. "Happy Hi!" – 1:18
  2. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" " – 5:37
  3. "Get It On" – 4:06
  4. "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" – 9:23
  5. "Happy Hi!" – 1:05
The track has periodically been reissued as a single, including during 1993 and 2000. Although these releases have some admirers, and have usefully made available various original mixes on CD for the first time, the accompanying A-side remixes by contemporary DJs have tended on the whole to bear little or no comparison to the spirit of the originals.
Reissues in the group's name have also tended to shun any overt reference to the identity of the original artists, and the reissue artwork has notably featured no images of the group. It has been suggested that this situation may relate to Johnson's successful but acrimonious court case against ZTT in 1989, which freed him from their unfair contract with the label.
1993 reissues

CD: ZTT / FGTH2CD United Kingdom

  1. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 4:22
  2. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 14:36
  3. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 6:06
  4. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 9:41
Track 4 is mislabeled. It's the "Real Altered" version from 12 ZTAS 7.

12": ZTT / FGTH2T United Kingdom

  1. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 14:36
  2. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 6:06
  3. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 6:02
2000 reissues

CD: ZTT / ZTT 166CD United Kingdom

  1. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 3:35
  2. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 8:00
  3. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 7:32

    CD: Avex / AVTCDS-296 Japan

  4. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 11:23
  5. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 10:18
  6. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 5:17
  7. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 11:22
  8. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 3:53
  9. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 7:32
  10. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 9:40

    12": ZTT / ZTT 166 T United Kingdom

  11. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 11:23
  12. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 10:18

    2x12": ZTT / ZTT 166 TP United Kingdom

  13. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 11:23
  14. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 10:18
  15. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 5:17
  16. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 11:22
  1. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 7:32
  2. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 5:17
  3. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" – 3:53
2014 reissues

Digital download (regular)

  1. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" - 4:23
  2. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" - 9:40
  3. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" - 5:08
  4. "Get It On" - 2:36
  5. "Happy Hi!" - 4:06
  6. "Relax" - 4:43

    Digital download (Fruitness)

  7. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" - 12:15
  8. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" - 8:05
  9. "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" - 9:44
  10. "The Only Star in Heaven" - 3:54
  11. "Get It On" - 2:36
  12. "Happy Hi!" - 4:06
  13. "Born To Run" - 4:54

    Other versions

The instrumental "Into Battle Mix" appears on the soundtrack to the film Toys, specifically utilized whenever the Tommy Tanks appeared.