Holly Johnson: A Liverpool Icon

Experience The Holly Johnson Story at the Museum of Liverpool, on display 14 September 2024—27 July 2025.

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2 min read

Any Beatles fan knows that Mathew Street, Liverpool, is a site of rich cultural heritage. If you journeyed down the steps of the Cavern Club in the early sixties, you might have caught the lunchtime concert of the biggest band in the world, The Beatles.

But fast forward to 1977 and head a little further down this famous street. You will stumble upon Eric’s, the city’s alternative music venue. There, you’ll find the rumblings of a new counter-culture – one from which Holly Johnson would soon emerge.

Holly Johnson’s career is a leather-cladded tale of fearlessness, activism, and Liverpool pride, laid out through the Museum of Liverpool’s latest special exhibition: The Holly Johnson Story.

 

Museum of Liverpool's exhibition, The Holly Johnson Story

The Holly Johnson Story exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool. Photo credit: Gareth Jones

 

Through artefacts and memorabilia from Johnson’s own collection, The Holly Johnson Story narrates his music, artistry and activism in gorgeous detail, from his beginnings on Mathew Street to worldwide fame as the front-man for iconic eighties band Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Although Frankie’s journey from the streets of Liverpool to the international stage likens them to the Fab Four, their music and image was vastly different. Against the backdrop of the social and political unrest of the 1980s, Frankie Goes to Hollywood spearheaded the UK’s cultural revolution with synth-pop sounds, raunchy visuals and provocative lyrics. Nevertheless, the band reached No.1 in the UK with their first three singles (“Relax”, “Two Tribes” and “The Power of Love”) – a feat only achieved once before by fellow Scouse band Gerry and the Pacemakers.

 

No band has dominated a 12-month period like Frankie ruled 1984

Paul Lester in The Guardian, 2014

 

Holly Johnson is also considered a pioneering LGBTQ+ icon, as one of the first openly gay and openly HIV+ high profile artists in history. To capture this part of Johnson’s legacy, the exhibition works with sexual health and wellness charity Sahir to explore Holly’s archive and capture the stories of local LGBTQ+ people in community workshops and oral history sessions. To mark the weekend of World AIDS Day (1st December), Axess Sexual Health will be at the Museum of Liverpool on Saturday 30th November between 10am – 2pm to provide free mobile STI testing, sexual health advice, and handing out sexual health packs.

 

Before it launches into Johnson’s decades-long career, the exhibition begins with Holly’s upbringing, just a stone’s throw away from the iconic Penny Lane. His sister’s bedroom walls were adorned with Beatles wallpaper, a piece of which now sits proudly framed in Holly Johnson’s house in London. Growing up in sixties Liverpool, Johnson was introduced to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by his aunt, something that he later described as pivotal on his journey of musical appreciation.

 

 

‘She’s Leaving Home’ on that album was the first song that made me cry, which I think is quite an important moment in your life, when a piece of music makes you cry.

Holly Johnson in The Quietus, 2014

 

 

The Beatles were just one part of Johnson’s lifelong appreciation for the city. Frankie’s highly-anticipated second album was named Liverpool, and liver birds perch proudly throughout Johnson’s paintings.

 

Museum of Liverpool's exhibition, The Holly Johnson Story

Paintings by Holly Johnson, on display at the Museum of Liverpool. Photo credit: Pete Carr

 

The Holly Johnson Story marks the 40th anniversary of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s breakout album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, which transformed Johnson into an internationally renowned superstar and LGBTQ+ icon. Explore Johnson’s legacy and embrace “the power of love” at Pier Head’s Museum of Liverpool until 27 July 2025.

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