"Two Tribes" is an anti-war song by British band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, released in the UK by ZTT Records on 4 June 1984. The song was later included on the album Welcome to the Pleasuredome. Presenting a nihilistic, gleeful lyric expressing enthusiasm for nuclear war, it juxtaposes a relentless pounding bass line and guitar riff inspired by American funk and R&B pop with influences of Russian classical music, in an opulent arrangement produced by Trevor Horn.
The single was a phenomenal success in the UK, helped by a wide range of remixes and supported by an advertising campaign depicting the band as members of the Red Army. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number one on 10 June 1984, where it stayed for nine consecutive weeks, during which time the group's previous single "Relax" climbed back up the charts to number two. It was the longest-running number-one single in the UK of the 1980s. It has sold 1.58 million copies in the UK as of November 2012, being in the Top 30 best-selling singles in the UK as of 2022.
Songwriters Johnson, Gill and O'Toole received the 1984 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. In 2015 the song was voted by the British public as the nation's 14th-favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.
Music
A version of "Two Tribes" was originally recorded for a BBC John Peel session in October 1982. The basic structure of the song, including its signature bass-line, percussion arrangement and idiosyncratic introductory and middle eight sections, were already intact prior to any involvement from ZTT or eventual producer Trevor Horn. Further work was conducted at Producer's Workshop in Fulham, which Stephen Lipson selected as a cheaper alternative to Sarm Studios, where Frankie Goes Hollywood recorded their song "Relax". Horn identified "Two Tribes" as the band's next single due to its bassline despite reservations from Lipson, who was not impressed with the demo and thought that "there wasn't much to the song." The band recorded their parts, which was not deemed satisfactory, so Horn, Lipson, J.J. Jeczalik, and Andy Richards redid the parts themselves. From those sessions, Lipson's guitar was the only instrument retained in the final mix.
After their time at Producer's Workshop, the four moved back to Sarm Studios to further develop the song. A considerable amount of attention was placed on the bass part, particularly with the articulation of each note. In an adjacent studio, Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley were in the process of mixing an album, which they temporarily left to work on a different record. By the time Langer and Winstanley returned back to Sarm Studios, the bass part was still receiving adjustments. The final programmed bass pattern included a note that dropped down an octave whereas the original lacked this element. Lipson programmed some parts on a Synclavier, including the drum break at the end of the first chorus. He recalled that Horn "thought it was the weirdest fill he'd ever heard — a jazz fill in the middle of a pop song. However, I told him I thought it was great, so he went along with it, although begrudgingly, and that was indicative of how we worked together." The LinnDrum programming was added by Horn late into the song's production. And the line "Are we living in a land where sex and horror are the new gods?" was inspired by the 1959 British film Cover Girl Killer. Johnson explained, "The TV was on in the background while I was doing me ironing and suddenly this character came out with that statement."
Critical reception
American magazine Cash Box called it "a more scintillating anti-war track than ["The War Song"]", saying it is "both an effective dance cut and a piece of modern art." Richard Harris from NME wrote, Two Tribes' is a fine example of why over-production is a musical virtue, not least when it ceases to be a pop song and tries to disco-ise Tchaikovsky."
Release
ZTT released "Two Tribes" on 4 June 1984, with the 7-inch single including "One February Friday" as its B-side. "One February Friday" was an interview between Morley and the group's three musicians, Mark O'Toole, Brian Nash and Peter Gill, over an otherwise untitled instrumental track. A similar track had been included on the B-side of "Relax", with the title "One September Monday". The principal B-side to the original 12-inch single was a cover version of "War", which became the subject of an extended remix (subtitled "Hidden") on the single's third UK 12-inch release, where it was promoted as a double A-side with "Carnage".
ZTT aggressively marketed the single in terms of its political angle, promoting it with images of the group wearing American military garb in combat, as well as Soviet-style army uniforms set against an American urban backdrop. The UK cassette single featured a cut-together combination of "Surrender", "Carnage" and "Annihilation", plus Reagan snippets and interview sections not included on any other release.
The original cover art featured a Soviet mural of Vladimir Lenin in St Petersburg, and images of Reagan and then-UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The sleeve notes, attributed to ZTT's Paul Morley, dispassionately reported details of the relative nuclear arsenals of each superpower.
Videos
The Godley & Creme-directed video depicted a wrestling match between then-US President Ronald Reagan and Konstantin Chernenko, then Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in front of group members and an assembly of representatives from the world's nations. The match eventually degenerates into global destruction. Certain violent moments ("Reagan" is seen, for example, biting "Chernenko's" ear) were edited from the version shown on MTV.
A longer version of the video (based on the "Hibakusha" mix) included an introductory, heavily edited monologue by Richard Nixon taken from an ad from his 1960 US Presidential campaign ("No ... firm diplomacy ... No ... peace for America and the world"), plus similar contributions from other world leaders, including Lord Beaverbrook, Yasser Arafat and John F. Kennedy. The complete soundtrack to the extended video was eventually released as "Two Tribes (Video Destructo)" on the German version of the Twelve Inches compilation. A third version of the video, included on the band's From An Wasteland to an Artificial Paradise VHS, retains the introduction, but omits most of the inserted clips in the main wrestling sequence.
Personnel
Credits sourced from Sound on Sound.
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!scope="row"|Denmark (IFPI)
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!scope="row"|Europe (European Hot 100 Singles)
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!scope="row"|Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)
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!scope="row"|France (SNEP)
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!scope="row"|Greece (IFPI)
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!scope="row"|Iceland (RÚV)
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!scope="row"|Italy (Musica e dischi)
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!scope="row"|South Africa (Springbok Radio)
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!scope="row"|Spain (AFYVE)
| 8
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!scope="row"|US Cash Box Top 100
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!scope="row"|Zimbabwe (ZIMA)
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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
!Chart (1994)
!Peak<br>position
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!scope="row"|UK Airplay (Music Week)
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!scope="row"|UK Club Chart (Music Week)
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Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+1984 year-end chart performance for "Two Tribes"
!Chart (1984)
!Position
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!scope="row"|Australia (Kent Music Report)
| 20
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!scope="row"|Belgium (Ultratop)
| 2
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!scope="row"|Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)
| 6
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!scope="row"|Netherlands (Single Top 100)
| 14
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!scope="row"|New Zealand (RIANZ)
| 12
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!scope="row"|Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)
| 22
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!scope="row"|UK Singles (Gallup)
| 4
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!scope="row"|US Hot Dance/Disco (Billboard)
| 34
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!scope="row"|West Germany (Media Control)
| 10
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