The Pet Shop Boys' first twenty singles...

but Tom's right, 'Home And Dry' sucks - its just a pointless Johnny Marr advert

1) The definitive image of them is with Neil in a suit and Chris in the background somewhere with a townie/b-boy wardrobe and a computer (first time i'd ever seen someone use an actual computer in their performance)...tho you may also consider the pointy hats phase

2) They never toured

3) The fact that Tenant used to be a hack but also went and showed people how to really do it - a remarkable achievement

4) They never seemed camp at all (avoiding stereotypes is cool)

5) Good album artwork

? They've done tours on and off since 1989.

Have we had any hatas on this thread yet? Are the PSB another one of those rare ILM groups that everyone likes (at least a bit)?

The Universal Ampitheatre and Irvine Meadows, to name two venues they've played around here over the moons, are very very hoary indeed.

i bought psb, kate bush + madness compos on the same day - their albums SUCK

("State Of The Nation" is a fantastic song; better than "Ruined In A Day", anyway.)

**Go West” – fuck the video and the extra levels, on the levels (foot, hip and heart) that hit you first this is the best hi-NRG track EVER MADE**

Tom - I salute you!

a) I'm not sure how well they ever worked as perfect Hi-NRG, or proper go-mental-on-the-dance-floor disco, cos of NT's weedy vocals - the closest they got was probably 'Was it worth it?' - but it would have been better with Taylor Dane/Hazel Dean/Pete Burns/Divine/Marc Almond singing. The PSBs could never do abandon .

b) There has never been such a dismal fall from grace as the PSB's 'Absolutely Fabulous' single. This, coupled with NT's godawful pretentious pronouncements on the state of pop on every comeback promo tour of the last ten years, make me wonder how fondly I will look back on them. They've kind of ruined the spell, a bit, for me. That said, the first record I put on when I moved house last week was 'Behavior'.

You are so right about "Absolutely Fabulous", and it did actually 'infect' their surrounding stuff - one reason why the other upbeat singles off Very didn't do it for me any more is that they suddenly sounded like cousins of AbFab.

"I never dreamed that I would get to be the creature I always meant to be - but I thought, in spite of dreams, you'd be sitting somewhere here with me."

My life, as of October 2002, in a nutshell.

The PSBs - I can't really talk about them right now. They belonged to both of us, not just to me, like Northern Soul, Joy Division, Dexy's, Cocteau Twins, etc. It was OUR music.

????? I don't think I've ever heard the original mix of "Absolutely Fabulous" then, because none of the _Very_ singles remind me of it at all. I'd go so far as saying "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing" is one of their best singles, particularly when remixed.

And for all my talk about lyrics and what they generally don't mean to me, Marcello's comment reminds me about how that line in particular always was suffused with...I don't want to call it a 'perfect' grief, but the combination of delivery and words speaks to my heart more than a thousand screams at an empty universe.

Big surprise: John Peel show:

Thursday 10 October - Pet Shop Boys ! Is this the most mainstream pop artist ever to record a Peel Session?

The boys have been having a quiet one since the end of their massive 'Release 2002 Tour'. The next single they are set to release from their album Release is 'London'.

The Pet Shop Boys have adopted a 'back to basics' approach towards tonights set with fully live guitars, bass and drums on stage. They recorded two songs which they wrote back in 1983 but never got down to recording and they also recorded an old Bobby O song from the early 80's. Their next single is 'London' which has also been recorded for tonight's session.

The lads have tried to approach this Peel session with a view to doing something different and they hope that's what comes across.

I only have listened to "Please" and "Disco", taped "Actually" off my sister years ago back in the 80s. After that not listened to any PSB (albums) apart from a few chart singles on the radio that have not interested me.

The production on Disco - is superb.

I still don't like the descent into balladry, though, for me Behaviour was when they turned from the coolest band on the planet into a decent duo turning out one or two good singles per album. Those singles could still be astonishing, Tom says everything that needs to be said about "Can You Forgive Her?" far more eloquently than I ever could, but "So Hard" was their perfect single. The KLF remixed it while they were at their glorious best and the result is a pop Field Of The Cloth Of Gold, two titans in their pomp competing in splendour.

Random thoughts: Chris Lowe should release a hi-nrg spoken word album (cf "Paninaro", "One Of The Crowd") and promote it standing motionless on Top Of The Pops. I saw them play from the back of Wembley Arena, hoary rawk venue par excellence, and it was great, especially the baroque freakshow accompanying "It's A Sin". Introspective is perfect. Can you get the dance album that came with initial copies of Very anywhere?

I could go on.

In that sense, if no other, I am the inverse of the Nipper.

Ta!

Vaguely more seriously...well, this might be a dumb question, but what songs on Discography do you especially like? That'll help in determining a good starting point. :-)

Is it worth getting the rereleased versions of their older albums if you already have _Alternative_?

Nick, I got the piss taken out of me for having them, if that is any kind of barometer.

(This thread made me remember to download 'I'm not scared' by 8th Wonder - which, combined with the Minnelli lp, makes me think so much of their best work was with other people [see also: 'Getting away with it'].)

Was out doing some quick grocery shopping this afternoon when I heard a familiar voice and keyboard lick playing faintly over the speakers, and after listening intently for a while to figure out what it was, it turned out to be...

...'DJ Culture'

dance with me

I always find myself forgetting about 'DJ Culture' for some reason. I think it's because I very rarely put Discography on, but then I don't have a similar issue with 'Was It Worth It?' ... it's not a song I ever hear out "in the wild" anyway, so it was a real surprise.

"Was It Worth It" is by far the best song and one of their least heralded great songs -- Tennant's unofficial coming out record.

It's very cleverly done because it's only apparent if you're really paying attention. Like the second verse in which he acknowledges that he's in love with a guy and it's changed his life and he regrets it not happening much sooner, or later on in the song with "I reserve the right to live my life this way and I don't give a damn when I hear people say I'll pay the price that others pay" ...

It sure sounds to me like "then he smiled and I was lost" instead of you, too.

that's how I heard it for years

I think it's a better lyric/song than the later and similarly themed 'Metamorphosis', which is really on the nose. I dunno, Tennant must have thought he needed to address the subject as directly as possible after many missed it on 'Was It Worth It?' ... although there was a lot that went over people's heads as far back as Please, really.

"Later Tonight" is explicit as he was before 1991, and no straight man would have written "Why Don't We Live Together"

Yeah, 'Later Tonight' is so blatant!

or later on in the song with "I reserve the right to live my life this way and I don't give a damn when I hear people say I'll pay the price that others pay" ...

...all of these lines rhyming with (a very implicit) “gay”

since nobody ever got around to it back in 2003, a poke through Discogs suggests these were Chic's first 32 US commercial A-sides:

1977 Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)
1977 Everybody Dance
1978 NORMA JEAN - Saturday
1978 NORMA JEAN - Having A Party [Cooke] b/w So I Get Hurt Again [Nile/Bernard]
1978 NORMA JEAN - Sorceror
1978 Le Freak
1978 I Want Your Love
1979 SISTER SLEDGE - He's The Greatest Dancer
1979 SISTER SLEDGE - We Are Family
1979 SISTER SLEDGE - Lost In Music
1979 NORMA JEAN - High Society
1979 Good Times
1979 My Forbidden Lover
1979 My Feet Keep Dancing
1979 SISTER SLEDGE - Got To Love Somebody
1979 SHEILA & B. DEVOTION - Spacer
1980 SISTER SLEDGE - Reach Your Peak
1980 SISTER SLEDGE - Let's Go On Vacation
1980 SISTER SLEDGE - Easy Street
1980 SHEILA & B. DEVOTION - Your Love Is Good
1980 SHEILA & B. DEVOTION - King Of The World
1980 DIANA ROSS - I'm Coming Out
1980 DIANA ROSS - Upside Down
1980 DIANA ROSS - My Old Piano
1980 Rebels Are We
1980 Real People
1981 Stage Fright
1981 DEBBIE HARRY - Backfired
1981 DEBBIE HARRY - The Jam Was Moving
1982 Soup For One
1982 CARLY SIMON - Why b/w CHIC - Why
1982 Hangin'

I can hear what Tennant is on about when he says it's PSB doing SAW, because the verses of 'Was It Worth It?' remind me of late '80s Kylie stuff melodically, although not so much the chorus. I could totally imagine '80s Kylie doing a rendition of it.

so I rank the first twenty-five to thirty...

https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2019/04/23/ranking-pet-shop-boys-british-top-forty-singles-1985-1999/

Conspicuously, no Hague! (But yes Stephen Hague!) Knowing that none of those songs are necessarily bad, I can totally get with your grouping.

Not one is less than meh, and only after a certain year. What a run.

Just about to be live on BBC2 for their headline show at Hyde Park.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p07mddc9/radio-2-live-in-hyde-park-2019-radio-2-live-in-hyde-park

Chris's hat makes him look like odious pickup artist Mystery.

relistening to Bilingual and it's pretty much as i remember it - that is, not remembering much of it other than the stand out tracks. but rediscovered the closer, Saturday Night Forever and i think it didn't get the attention it really deserves.

that includes treatment from the boys themselves - it could be a proper disco anthem instead of what feels like an afterthought. Love To Infinity remix gets a bit closer - i wonder why it was never officially released:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kms6dlWs078

So many old videos look like they’re viewed through ground glass, nice to be able to view them properly. Hopefully others will be remastered.

Five Pet Shop Boys music videos that have been updated with improved high definition audio and video tracks are now available to watch in a new YouTube playlist at the link below.https://t.co/Eubo2IeaTd pic.twitter.com/qN181pujNa

— Pet Shop Boys (@petshopboys) June 26, 2020

I don't know exactly when or why this started happening, but whenever I hear the synthy intro to Bon Jovi's "Living On a Prayer," at exactly where you would expect it to be I hear a British voice intoning, "Sooner or later, this happens to everyone ..."

lol

Taking Sides on songs with short spoken intros: "Love Comes Quickly" vs "Livin' on a Prayer" vs "Caribbean Queen"

vs Modern Love.

Now imagine Neil Tennant starting "Love Comes Quickly" with "She's so awesome."

As they did fifteen of these twenty songs last night I hold Tom's original collective judgment of their worth to be fully accurate. (DJP is still wrong about "Domino Dancing" of course -- and that was a LOUD crowd singalong.)

Best bit about the news of yet another compilation;
a Blu Ray with 66 videos

https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/pet-shop-boys-smash-the-singles-1985-2020/

Great indeed, but my real hope is that they do a sequel/update to the amazing commentary track they did for the PopArt DVD -- and if that's not ported over somehow I'm holding onto my copy.

Hear, hear. A friend you and I have in common quote it all the time.

"Fabulous acting here."

"Unintentionally hilarious."
"As ever."

"Oh, look! We're doing choreography."

Chris Lowe's laugh at the end of the commentary for "Somewhere" lives in my head rent-free, as does "Ah...revenge" from the "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing" commentary.

SO many highlights but Chris’s drawling, sighing
“Urrgh GOD.. “ when he sees himself at the start of ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This?’ is the one that has entered my lexicon.

"I look TERRIBLE! Stupid hair. Dickie bow."

Here’s that old Pop/Art DVD commentary in full

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG9W0NbssnI