"Welcome to the Pleasuredome" is the title track to the 1984 debut album by English pop band 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 abridged and remixed for release as the group's fourth UK single. While criticised at the time of release and afterward for being a song that glorifies debauchery, the lyrics (and video), just as Coleridge's poem, were about the dangers of mindless indulgence. This song, along with "Relax", made Frankie Goes to Hollywood even more controversial than they already were. Billboard compared it to "Relax", saying that "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" had "less hook, less controversy, more drama."

Original 1985 single

Despite the group's record label (ZTT) 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 on 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 fail to emulate their past chart success 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 ("Real Altered") is by Gary Taylor, whilst that on the second 12-inch ("Fruitness") 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. "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-inch 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-inch (matrix 7 A 1 U) carried the normal 7-inch single mix, which was guitar driven. However, the "secret" alternative mix (matrix 7 A 7 U or 7 A 8 U) was quite different, and featured on the apple-shaped picture disc. The subtitle for that disc was 'alternative reel' but on the 7-inch single the subtitle remained unchanged as 'altered real'.

B-sides

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

Music video

The music video for "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" was directed by Bernard Rose. It features the group stealing a car whilst Holly is flying in a helicopter chasing them, 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. Three edits were made, the regular 4:55 version with the regular 7-inch mix, a 5:45 version matching what was included on the cassette single and a 7:52 version with a longer, different intro.

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 (Pleasure Fix)", along with a similar early instrumental of "The Only Star in Heaven" (subtitled "Star Fix"). 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:

Track listings

7-inch: ZTT / ZTAS 7 (UK) 7-inch: ZTT / ZTAS 7 (UK) 7-inch: ZTT / PZTAS 7 (UK) 7-inch: Island / 7-99653 (US) 7-inch: Island / 107 199 EP (Germany) 12-inch: ZTT / 12 ZTAS 7 (UK) 12-inch: ZTT / 12 XZTAS 7 (UK) 12-inch: Island / 0-96889 (US) Cassette: ZTT / CTIS 107 (UK)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Reissues

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 (and effectively the other group members) from their contract with the label.

1993 reissues

(Track 4 is mislabelled. It's the "Real Altered" version from 12 ZTAS 7.)

2000 reissues

2014 reissues

Other versions

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