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Frank Collins

FrankProfileOn 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 / Interviews

Intervew with Dyan and Frank, Sounds

ON AND off group Kokomo have at last breached the charts with ‘A Little Bit Further Away’, in at number 68. The band have broken up and reformed more times …

Archive / Photos

The Venue, London, 1982

[Show slideshow] A blast from the past….. Early 1982 somewhere in London…probably The Venue, Victoria. With thanks to Anita Corbin

Video

A Little Bit Further Away

From the third album – a big hit in Holland

Photos

Roundhouse 1980s

[Show slideshow] Thanks to Julian Crook

Archive

It’s Love That Really Counts, Live from Blandford Forum 1992

Live recording from Blanford Forum in 1992, with Paddie singing lead vocals on the Bacarach/David song, It’s Love That Really counts

Uncategorized

I Can Understand It, Live at the Venue ’81

Live at the Venue '81 by Kokomo

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About Kokomo

British soul pioneers, Kokomo, built their reputation and loyal following with awesome live shows. A series of packed reunion gigs since 2014 proved that the band is grooving as well as ever. This led to the "Soul Summit", with old touring partners the Average White Band, that sold out the Royal Festival Hall in 2015.

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Timeline

Interviews

Tony O'Malley

A 2015 interview with Craig Chaligne of the 'Louder Than War' site, timed for the release of his Back in the Bag album, and including some Kokomo insights.

In conversation with Keef Trouble in 2010 (video)

Frank Collins

Frank talks about his life and times in music (video)

Neil Hubbard

A backstage video interview

Jim Mullen

Jim's unusual guitar technique explained

Mel Collins

Mel talks about his career to Chris Groom.

Credits

Thanks to Steven Cropper, John 'Ziggy' Parkes, Anita Corbin and Neil Holmes for their photos, Peter Hubbard, Doug Dean and David Bird for doing the lots of leg work on the gig dates and the reviews/clippings.

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