ZTT, a label started up by journalist and professional Manc Paul Morley, producer Trevor Horn and Jill Sinclair, celebrate their thirtieth year of existence with this bunch of re-issues. Safe to say the label was at the peak of its powers in the mid Eighties, but as these releases attest, they released a fair few crackers in their time.

Thirty years after their still powerful debut “Relax” hit the charts, Frankie Goes to Hollywood hold a lofty position in the history of British pop. Brilliantly produced, four fantastic singles in a row (“Relax”, “Two Tribes”, “The Power of Love” and the supreme “Welcome to the Pleasuredome”) were expertly packaged and cleverly hyped up by a backroom team who knew how to get the most out of the little they had to work with. Alongside these tracks, they also kicked in sexual barriers by having two gay front men, quite possibly the first in the public eye to push aside the clichéd limp wristed Carry On/Larry Grayson take on homosexuality for something much more confrontational.

Their debut, 1984’s double Welcome to The Pleasuredome was however guilty of containing some filler, and its follow up Liverpool (released two years later) also managed to include its fair share of plod despite being only eight tracks long. It’s impressive then that they can still throw together these ‘Best of Frankie’ albums every seven years or so, yet the hard rocking “Rage Hard” remains their most under-rated beast, and deserves a wider audience (including an edited version of “Pleasuredome” however is as pointless as a chopped down“I Feel Love” or “Fools Gold”).

The other two re-releases take us through the vaults of ZTT. The Organisation of Pop is a straight-ahead collection of some of the labels’ finest moments. “Slave to the Rhythm” by a pre-hula hoop Grace Jones and “Duel” by German synth pop act Propaganda remain two of the very best pop songs of the Eighties; sleek, highly pretentious, production drenched in the smell of the cash, they’re timeless pop tracks. Avant-sample pop comes from Art of Noise with their ambient classic “Moments in Love”, and dance music gets acknowledged by the presence of rave staples “Extacy” by Shades of Rhythm and 808 State’s “Pacific”, which both elicit furious jacking of arms and shrieks of accccieeeddddd.

There are of course, big no nos included here: Hoodlum Priest’s goof-hop sounds like a bad Pop Will Eat Itself and Sun Electric’s cover of Cream’s “I Feel Free” is indicative of non-dance acts bandwagon hopping onto the rave bus (See also Candyflip, Soup Dragons); ‘blissed out’ vocals, wailing unnamed middle eastern singer sample, James Brown funky drummer beat thrown in, etc. There’s also pseudo sardonic pop from Sexus, sophisticated snorathons from Lisa Stansfield and Seal and a truly awful attempt at rap/pop from Tom Jones.

‘The Art of the 12” is more of the same, but longer. Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s fierce “Love Missile” is the last decent thing Giorgio Moroder put his name to, Propaganda’s “P-Machinery”, already an electro epic within the confines of its regular four minute length, is here in a preposterous 20 minute expansion, as is ABC’s “The Look of Love” – all undeniable stone cold pop gems. You also get forgotten post punk bands (Das Psych-Oh! Rangers), awful Gang of Four copyists (Electric Guitars), pure pop (The Belle Stars, Madness) and really crap jazz/beatbox fusions (Via Vagabond).

Something always rankled with ZTT, a general air of them being better than everyone else. With them, it was as if even releasing a horrendous Tom Jones rap/pop album was some kind of act of high art, or pop terrorism. But as these releases show, they were just a pop label after all.