Holly Johnson Insulted Prince With Phone Sex Gag

Holly Johnson picked up a prize at the Q Awards two weeks ago, an award celebrating the 25th anniversary of his landmark single 'Relax' from his old group Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

A pretty out-of-the-ordinary experience for the quietly-spoken Johnson, who by his own admission usually avoids these kind of back-slapping industry events.

'Relax' was arguably the biggest pop song of 1984 in the UK -- despite being banned by the BBC's Radio 1 for its sexually provocative lyrics. It's believed to have sold at least 1.9m copies in the UK alone that year.

Johnson tells Spinner, amid the clatter of a west London cafe near his house, the last time he accepted an award for the song, he got himself in trouble with one of the biggest stars of the 1980s...

"The last time I picked up the award for 'Relax' was at the BPI Awards in 1985, which later became the Brit Awards, and we got the BBC Radio 1 Listener's Award, even though they weren't able to listen to it. And it was the only award voted by the public. I think we also got best band that year," he says.

"I had to hand out an award to Prince for Best International Act, but I ended up offending Prince. At the time, the Village People had just released a record, and that had been banned, strangely.

"I said, 'I've never met this guy, but we've had sex over the phone.' That was the title of the Village People track, and it was my attempt at humour. But obviously Prince's face on the big screen dropped a million miles, and his big bodyguard came walking towards me. He wasn't best pleased. He felt he'd been treated with utmost disrespect."

Twenty-five years on, Spinner can report Johnson is suitably contrite. "I do apologise, Prince. It was never my intention to offend you in any way."