"Warriors of the Wasteland" is the sixth single from Frankie Goes to Hollywood, released on 10 November 1986. It was taken from the album ''

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

''. Having already referenced literary heavyweights such as

Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...

in "

Welcome to the Pleasuredome ''Welcome to the Pleasuredome'' is the debut studio album by English synth-pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, first released on 29 October 1984 by ZTT Records. Originally issued as a vinyl double album, it was assured of a UK chart entry at n ...

" and

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

in "

Rage Hard "Rage Hard" is the fifth single by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. It was released on 25 August 1986. Background Having topped the charts around the world with ''Welcome to the Pleasuredome'' and its accompanying singles, Frankie Goes to Hollywood t ...

", for "Warriors of the Wasteland" Holly Johnson turned to

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biogr ...

for inspiration. Johnson cited Eliot's ''

The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...

'' poem, the 1981

Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocaly ...

film, ''

Mad Max 2 ''Mad Max 2'' (released as ''The Road Warrior'' in the United States) is a 1981 Australian post-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller. It is the second installment in the ''Mad Max'' franchise, with Mel Gibson reprising his role a ...

'', and the 1979 film, '' The Warriors'' as inspirations. Even though it featured 3 different 12" singles, "Warriors of the Wasteland" reached number 19 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

(making it the group's first UK hit not to go Top Five), #7 in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

(for two weeks) and #13 in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Critical reception

On its release, James Brown of '' Sounds'' described "Warriors of the Wasteland" as a "predictable piece of rock junk" which he believed showed how Frankie Goes to Hollywood had become "appallingly tame and useless" and "so bloody obviously boring that they have resorted to making competent rock records". ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' said of it that "art-rock megaproduction waxes critical of society's inequalities."

Track listings

(All discographical information pertains to UK releases only unless noted) ;7": ZTT / ZTAS 25 # "Warriors of the Wasteland" (Twelve Wild Disciples Mix Edit) - 3:55 # "Warriors (Of the Wasteland)" - 5:00 *The single version (A-side) is a remix by Trevor Horn, recreated digitally using samples and synths. The AA-side is the album version, with the spoken intro to Rage Hard tagged onto the end. The titles were swapped on most overseas releases, thus causing confusion on most fansites. ;12": ZTT / 12 ZTAS 25 # "Warriors" (Twelve Wild Disciples Mix) - 9:45 # "Warriors" (instrumental) nlisted/small> - 4:50 # "Warriors" (return) - 1:22 # "Warriors" (end) - 3:29 *As with many ZTT releases, unlisted tracks have created confusion as to which track has which title. "Warriors" (return) can be taken to be the full 6:12 instrumental track, or just the 1:22 reprise. The 2014 digital reissue labelled both pieces as "Warriors" (return). *"Warriors" (end) began life as an unreleased track called "Pocket Vibrator". *On the sleeve notes to this release, producer Trevor Horn noted: "On ''Liverpool'' the members of Frankie Goes to Hollywood played ''Warriors'' with their own notoriously fair hands ... This so-called 12" is in fact a total cheat ... No-one played anything, in any orthodox sense. It was all done by computers, very powerful computers ... juggling and organising pre-recorded sounds." ;12": ZTT / 12 ZTAX 25 # "Warriors" (Turn of the Knife Mix) - 8:09 # "Warriors" (instrumental) nlisted/small> - 4:50 # "Warriors" (return) - 1:22 # "Warriors" (end) - 3:29 ;12": ZTT / 12 ZTAK 25 "Heavy Mental" # "Warriors" (attack mix) - 6:30 # "Warriors" (instrumental) nlisted/small> - 4:50 # "Warriors" (return) - 1:22 # "Warriors" (end) - 3:29 *The "Attack Mix" featured additional guitar parts by

Gary Moore Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 19526 February 2011) was a Northern Irish musician. Over the course of his career he played in various groups and performed a range of music including blues, blues rock, hard rock, heavy metal, and jazz ...

. A 7" edited version of this track also exists on white label. ;12": Island / 0-96799 United States # "Warriors of the Wasteland" (Twelve Wild Disciples Mix) - 9:42 # "Warriors of the Wasteland" (Turn of the Knife Mix) - 8:11 ;CD: ZTT / ZCID 25 "Warriors" (Compacted) # "Warriors" (introduction) - 2:25 # "Warriors" (Twelve Wild Disciples Mix) - 9:45 # "Warriors of the Wasteland" ewer lyrics/small> - 5:02 # "Warriors (Of the Wasteland)" - 3:57 # "Warriors" (Monopoly Re-Solution) rats in a cage'/small> - 2:21 *The CD is one track without a title list, and the titles above are for convenience of reference, apart from ''"Warriors" (Twelve Wild Disciples)'' and ''"Warriors" (Of the Wasteland)''. *"Introduction" starts with various vocal sounds, then sped-up samples re-edited, then slowed down samples, moving into what sounds like the Return Mix and some re-edited instrumental bits. *"Twelve Wild Disciples" is the first 12" mix - a reconstructed version with additional keyboards. *"Fewer Lyrics" is the album version with verse lyrics missing. *"Warriors (Of the Wasteland)" sounds similar to Twelve Wild Disciples, but a 7" edit. *"Monopoly Re-Solution" is a stand-alone track. "Warriors" (Compacted) was rereleased in 2012 on CD

Sexmix Sexmix (subtitled ''Archive Tapes And Studio Adventures, Volume One'') is a Frankie Goes to Hollywood remix album released on 3 August 2012. The set focuses on rare FGTH single formats, specifically the cassette releases ("singlettes") and CD re ...

Disk 2, Track 11. ;MC: ZTT / CTIS 25 "Warriors (Cassetted)" # "A Matter of Life and Death" - 0:04 # "Warriors of the Wasteland" nstrumental/small> - 2:59 # "Warriors (Of the Wasteland)" " version/small> - 3:09 # "Warriors" (Twelve Wild Disciples) nstrumental/small> - 8:32 # "we're rats" arious noises from 'Introduced'/small> - 0:43 # "Warriors" xcerpts from 'Return'/small> - 1:27 # "Warriors" (Monopoly Re-Solution) rats in a cage'/small> - 3:03 *As with the CD single, no individual tracks are listed on the sleeve, which simply states "... featuring Warriors (Twelve Wild Disciples Mix) and a phenomenon of megabytes". The latter phrase, which does not specifically refer to any tracks in the cassette, is a ZTT coinage meaning "

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

" or "collection of remixes" (i.e. remix album), and as such it was also used as a subtitle for ''The Art of the 12"'', a 2011 2-CD release featuring a selection of classic ZTT remixes, two more volumes of which followed in 2012 and 2014. *The opening voiceover and the instrumental version of the Twelve Wild Disciples mix were unique to this cassette, until CTIS25 was finally released on CD in 2011 as part of the ''

'' deluxe edition. ;Digital download: ZTT # "Warriors Of The Wasteland" (7" A-side) - 5:02 # "Warriors Of The Wasteland" (Twelve Wild Disciples Mix) - 9:45 # "Warriors Of The Wasteland" (Turn of the Knife Mix) - 8:10 # "Warriors Of The Wasteland" (Attack Mix) - 6:32 # "Warriors Of The Wasteland" (Return) - 6:18 # "Warriors Of The Wasteland" (End) - 3:36 # "Warriors (Of The Wasteland)" (7" B-side) - 3:56 * Track 1 is actually the "fewer lyrics" version.

Chart performance

References

External links

Zang Tuum Tumb and all that
- ''Warriors'' discography and sleeve images {{Frankie Goes to Hollywood Frankie Goes to Hollywood songs 1986 singles Song recordings produced by Stephen Lipson 1986 songs ZTT Records singles Songs written by Peter Gill (FGTH drummer) Songs written by Holly Johnson Songs written by Mark O'Toole (musician)