Holly Johnson says new exhibit like ‘actually like winning the National Lottery’

The LGBTQ+ icon, Holly Johnson, has said a new exhibit about his life is “actually like winning the National Lottery.”

A new exhibit from Homotopia and DuoVision will present The Power of Holly in 2024. The show will look at the life and career of Johnson, once the frontman of Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

As per the BBC, Johnson has said: “Everything I was ever drawn to, through the lens of queerness and controversy, I have brought with me into the future we live in now.”

“[A] trailblazing singer, musician, and artist” – James Lawler on Holly Johnson

Among his inspirations, Johnson named David Bowie, Derek Jarman, and Andy Warhol. He said their work had led him “to Hollywood and back again.” Of the new exhibit Johnson said it was “actually like winning the National Lottery for me.”

Homotopia’s Olivia Graham also told the BBC that Johnson was a “monumental” LGBTQ+ “icon,” who had been a pioneer of queer fashion and culture in the 1980s. She added: “We hope that as we look back on [that] heritage, it gives us an opportunity to look towards the future.”

Meanwhile, James Lawler, a curator at DuoVision, echoed these sentiments adding Johnson was a “trailblazing singer, musician, and artist” who had been “so open and positive at a time when homophobia was endemic”. Lawler has also said that John’s unapologetic openness about sexuality “helped shift mainstream understanding and acceptance.”

Supported by £142,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund the project will also highlight other local LGBTQ stories.

Johnson was born in Liverpool in 1960. He helped form Frankie Goes to Hollywood in 1980 with Paul Rutherford, Mark O’Toole, Brian Nash, as well as Peter Gill. Their debut album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, was released in 1984 and featured the iconic and controversial hit ‘Relax’. Johnson later left the band in 1987 before starting a solo career.

In May, a biopic based on Frankie Goes to Hollywood was announced. It was also confirmed that Callum Scott Howells is set to play Johnson.

Relax is based on Holly Johnson’s memoir: A Bone in My Flute. The autobiography charts his Liverpool childhood right up to his HIV diagnosis in 1991.