Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Paul Rutherford to play The Original State Celebration at Garlands

Good Friday - 29th March - Liverpool
The Original State Celebration presents at Garlands
Paul Rutherford Live PA, Scarlet Fantastic Live PA 
2 Rooms - Acid House - Alternative Dance with DJS - Andy Carroll, Mike Knowler, Pluto
with hostess Margi Clarke
Tickets £12.00 more otd, 10pm till late.  Tickets from www.skiddle.com/ www.fatsoma.com or
3B Records, Slater St, Liverpool


Scouser Paul Rutherford is best known as the flamboyant backing vocalist, dancer and keyboardist in the hugely successful and equally controversial Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Now based in New Zealand, he will be returning to Liverpool on Good Friday, 29 March to perform a live PA at Garlands as part of The Original State Celebration night.

Following the bands split in 1987 he became their first member to launch a solo career a year later with the seminal acid house anthem Get Real produced by  Sheffield popsters ABC and his debut album Oh World in 1989.

Before finding fame with Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Paul studied fine art at college and worked in a San Francisco antiques shop before he became a regular on his hometown's live circuit, performing in bands the Spitfire Boys, the Opium Eaters and Hambi & the Dance.

In February 1983, Frankie Goes to Hollywood were invited to record a video for Relax by The Tube, the key music show on fledgling network Channel 4. The iconic clip was shot at the State Ballroom in Liverpool.  After the broadcast, their John Peel session was repeated on radio and a new session recorded for the BBC. These performances, along with a repeat of the Tube video, convinced Trevor Horn to sign the group for his new label, ZTT Records, in May 1983.

After emigrating to New Zealand, Paul released his belated second solo album in 2010, The Cowboy Years, under the guise of Paul Rutherford/Butt Cowboys, while a year later his debut was reissued with several B-sides and remixes.

The State Ballroom was one of the most important nightclubs in Liverpool history, situated on Liverpool’s Dale Street. In 1982 Bernie Start in partnership with John and Sandy Hewson opened The State as Liverpool’s first Laser nightclub. The original music policy was Alternative Dance eg Kraftwerk, Heaven 17, New Order, DAF, ABC, Soft Cell, A Certain Ratio and the like. The resident DJs where Frank Cookson and Steve Proctor.

On a Thursday evening local celebrities such as Pete Burns, Jayne Casey, Holly Johnson and Pete Wylie could be seen strutting their stuff at the State. Steve Proctor then moved to London and started to work for Polydor Records,setting up the rare groove orientated 'Urban Dance' label and later joined the acid house scene early in the embryonic days DJing with Danny Rampling at The Fitness Centre at one of London's coolest clubs of the day 'Shoom'.

The State also had live gigs and PA's,many of these were booked and promoted by Steve Proctor and the occasional outside promoter. Particularly note worthy were appearances by Animal Nightlife , Big Audio Dynamite, New Order, Divine, A Certain Ratio and Zigue Zigue Sputnik. The State Ballroom also featured in the film “A Letter to Breznev” and Frankie Goes to Hollywood also filmed their video for their number one hit record Relax .Later on, Andy Carroll booked various live performances at the club including Mark 'the 45' King and A Guy Called Gerald .

October 1984 Mike Knowler and Andy Carroll became the new resident DJs .  At that time the music played included Blancmange, Talking Heads, Simple Minds, U2, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Dead or Alive, King Trigger, Echo and the Bunnymen and New Order, Stray Cats, Gene Vincent, The Waterboys, The Sisters of Mercy and James Brown to name a few from the eclectic selection of groups all mashed together into one great musical sound-scape. Ever being influenced by the latest club sound Mike and Andy also introduced an element of Hip Hop into their DJ sets featuring the likes of The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Eric B and Rakim, L L Cool J and Stetsasonic. This would be 1986 to 1988.

Musically Andy and Mike had always leaned towards the extended club mixes of many of the newer groups we played eg Francois Kevorkian's New York mix of The Smiths, Arthur Baker mixes of New Order , Dub mixes of Simple Minds and The Human League blended with the vocal versions . In 1986 Mike Knowler went to the New Music Seminar in New York city and experienced the latest club sounds of 'House' music . Mike and Andy remained at the State until it closed in November 1989.