In 2004, Frankie Goes to Hollywood reunited without Johnson and Nash to perform at a Prince's Trust charity concert, with Ryan Molloy on vocals, and held a tour in 2005.

He formed the first version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood with Phil Hurst (drums), Ambrose (bass), Steve Lovell (guitar), but the group soon split.

[10] In 1982, Johnson restarted the group with Peter Gill (drums) and the brothers Mark (bass) and Jed O'Toole (guitar).

[7] Frankie Goes to Hollywood played their first gig at a Liverpool pub, Pickwick's, where they recruited the dancer and backing singer Paul Rutherford.

After recording several versions, Horn created a dramatically different arrangement without the band, using electronic instruments such as a drum machine and the Fairlight, an early sampling synthesiser.

[17] The ZTT co-founder Paul Morley devised a promotional campaign involving "advertising-based slogans, playful propaganda and pseudo-philosophy".

[22] In June, Frankie Goes to Hollywood released their second single, "Two Tribes", featuring an "annihilating" bassline and lyrics about the Cold War.

[23] Frankie Goes to Hollywood held the top two spots of the chart simultaneously when "Relax" rose back to number two that August.

[citation needed] This made Frankie Goes to Hollywood the second act in the history of the UK charts to reach number one with their first three singles, after another Liverpool band, Gerry and the Pacemakers, in the 1960s.

[citation needed] Writing in the Guardian in 2014, Paul Lester wrote that "no band has dominated a 12-month period like Frankie ruled 1984".

[7] That year, Ocean Software published a Frankie Goes to Hollywood game for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum.

The player completes a series of minigames to solve a murder mystery, with references to the band's lyrics, videos and artwork.

[citation needed] Horn spent three months creating remixes of "Watching the Wildlife" and "Warriors of the Wasteland" for the single releases, spending an estimated £50,000.

Johnson's team argued that ZTT had been financially irresponsible when recording Liverpool, and that their contract constituted an unreasonable restraint of trade.

[38] Gill toured as part of an Australian soap actor's band, and formed a music production company, Love Station, which released singles featuring vocalists including Lisa Hunt.

[39] The Flock of Seagulls frontman Mike Score, who had been a Liverpool acquaintance of the members of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, removed the impostor band from his tour.

[39] In 2000, ZTT released a Frankie Goes to Hollywood greatest-hits compilation, Maximum Joy, featuring remixes by acts including Apollo 440.

[11] On 11 November 2004, Frankie Goes to Hollywood reunited without Johnson and Nash to perform at a Prince's Trust charity concert at Wembley Arena celebrating Horn's 25 years as a record producer.

[46] PopMatters wrote that the Wembley performance had "unstoppable 1984 pop glory" and that "even strong detractors of the group would likely be won over by energy the band members radiate".

[48] Writing in The Guardian, Alexis Petridis wrote that the show "ultimately underwhelms" and that the songs "were designed as studio-bound production extravaganzas, not live showstoppers".

[32] The Wembley performance was followed by a series of concerts across Europe in 2005,[50][51][52] including at Northampton Balloon Festival,[53] and Big Gay Out in Finsbury Park, London.

[57] In April 2004, Johnson attempted to register the name Frankie Goes to Hollywood as a trademark for his exclusive use, arguing that it was his intellectual property as he had used it for a previous band.

In 2007 it was blocked by an Intellectual Property Office judge, who ruled that Johnson had acted in bad faith in an attempt to prevent the band performing without him.

[60] On 7 May 2023, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, including Johnson and Nash, reunited for a concert featuring multiple acts celebrating Liverpool music for the Eurovision Song Contest.

[61][62][63] The Telegraph gave the whole concert three out of five, writing about the segment by Frankie Goes to Hollywood that Johnson remained "a commanding presence" but that the short set was disappointing.

[63] The BBC wrote: "Maybe one song is as much time as the five band members can bear to share a stage for—but at least they proved that they and their music can still sound compelling and fresh.

A 1984 article in the Washington Post described them as "a modern-day Monkees, a post-punk Village People sprung forth fully armed from the brow of junk culture".

[22][31] As only Johnson performed on the studio version of "Relax", and the band did not tour during 1984 at the height of their popularity, rumours spread that they could not play their instruments.

He said the band were "better than people gave them credit for", and cited "The Power of Love", "Born to Run" and "Krisco Kisses" as examples of their playing on Welcome to the Pleasuredome.

[15][67] In 2014, the music journalist Paul Lester wrote that although Frankie Goes to Hollywood were "arguably the last great British pop sensation", they were rarely cited as an influence on other artists.