Frank Collins

On stage, Frank is Kokomo's flamboyant crowd-pleasing front man, vocal arranger and choreographer. Behind the scenes, he has written a many of the band's original songs, notably Forever, Sweet Sugar Thing, A Little Bit Further Away and Follow (The Stars Will Bring You Home),

Along with Dyan, Paddie and Tony, he was a member of Arrival, who had a top ten hit with Friends in 1970. I Will Survive (a Frank original, not the Gloria Gaynor song) reached the top 20 later that year.

Uncomfortable with being pushed into a pop-oriented style, the members of Arrival formed the nucleus of soul- and funk-oriented sessions in London, and Kokomo was born.

Frank (often with Dyan and Paddie) can be heard on backing vocals on tracks by Bryan Ferry, Terence Trent D'Arby, Marianne Faithfull, Ian Dury, Alvin Lee, Gloria Gaynor, Alison Moyet, Marc Bolan, B.B. King, Tom Robinson and Bob Dylan.

Archive / Reviews

Frank Collins

Rise & Shine album – review by Steve Clarke in NME

Kokomo 1

First album review: Sounds. “Five stars and a Nobel Prize”

BBC John Peel Session, broadcast 8 September 1975

Hyde Park

Reading Festival 1975