Pet Shop Boys

"Two Divided by Zero"

I thought this was an erronous eBay listing at first, but no, it is being sold as a valid bit of PSB history:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PET-SHOP-BOYS-Dairy-Book-Of-Home-Management-1980/113637460627?epid=1805382223&hash=item1a75520a93:g:BLkAAOSwBPxcZAFU

Ha! I mean, yeah, I knew Tennant was involved in stuff like this just before (and around the time of) his stint at Smash Hits, but I never thought I'd see this stuff being sold as PSB memorabilia. The seller's obviously trying to make more money by pointing out the PSB connection... I suppose there are a lot of opportunities if you know when to take 'em...

I was on the lookout for PSB books beyond Literally and Vs America. I suppose this will have to do.

Thanks for pointing this out! I just bought a copy via Amazon for a friend who's a big fan. Not bad: $15, free shipping, supposedly "very good" condition.

Seems like I mostly just listen to Pet Shop Boys on Thursday mornings when I'm getting ready for work.

And they have a song called "Thursday "!

Glad to be of assistance

that's why I only seem to listen to them on Thursday, Alfred. I assumed the connection would be made. good way to kick off the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=angHvxq1XLU

Surely there's not just me thinking that we should have heard something more about a new album by now.

We got an answer! A new track featuring Years & Years (for their forthcoming album, I assume):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RokbHjyPbyk

S'alright.

Nice enough and certainly better than anything on that recent EP. I just wish the chorus hit harder. It seems quite uneventful.

Kinda generic but I like it fine.

I don’t know much about it, but I saw posters for this when I was up in Edinburgh:

https://petshopboys.co.uk/theatre-film/musik-2019#1

Dont like being cruel and hey we all get old but this would sound better if Olly Alexander sang solo

This song is a non-entity to me, much like everything else I've heard involving Years & Years

This song is a non-entity without Y&Y.

mind you, I'm not saying that taking Y&Y off would change anything

new video for single "Monkey business" ft. a dancing Chris at the end (which makes it a must-watch):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPx8P8pcrdA

It's a mediocre album, alas, thanks to tracks like this.

i like it

the way he says PAAH-TEE is enough to hate champagne and margaritas

yeah but Neil pronounces a lot of words in obnoxious ways, its part of the Pet Shop Experience

Makes me think I’d like to hear them cover “Margaritas at the Mall.”

Otm

Feels like either taking seven years to get around to finishing the JLC trilogy was a bad idea, or they should have made sure to do a boring album in between each one to refresh their banger tank.

Huh: turns out they have also been filling up the tank with other material to pump out later.

They wrote two songs and four pieces of score for a new stage version of My Beautiful Laundrette that was staged last year, and they plan to release the soundtrack this year - one song was used as a Dreamland B-side.

They wrote four new songs for a cabaret sequel to Closer To Heaven that ran at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, which they intend to release "at some point."

An extended orchestral production of their Turing musical is planned, which would provide an opportunity to finally release a recording.

And Neil has suggested a Disco 5 comp would be due once the Hotspot cycle is over.

They should have gone away for 10 years. Greatest Hits tour sounds.. ominously like a last hurrah.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/24/pet-shop-boys-the-acoustic-guitar-should-be-banned

Fabulous interview.

Mediocre is the word... at least there was entertainment value in the flat-out terrible songs on Elysium

Well, I like monkey business quite a lot, so that’s one up on Elysium and the last EP

I'm still not sold on Burning The Heather which is a bit too similar to some of the more boring songs on Elysium and Wedding In Berlin is a bizarre closer. I enjoyed the first eight songs though. I'm surprised how much I liked the ballads.

xxxp hilarious interview. PSB bringing the zings.

The album pretty much bored me as dog-walking music this morning. I'll see how it does as writing music in a few days.

One sorta "West End Girls"-ish song towards the beginning sounded ok. "Wedding in Berlin" is uniquely terrible.

Story from a UK writer via a friend's feed:

They DJ’d at some electroclash night in Liverpool Street once, donkey’s years ago, and they just stood there drinking champagne and telling Pete Gleadall what records to play. 'That’s not really DJ’ing, is it?' I submitted to them some years later and they said that’s the way Afrika Bambaataa used to do to it, so they were doing it right and everybody else was doing it wrong. There’s no answer to that, is there?

Madonna telling Stuart Price which records to play, Annie putting on records for Timo Kaukolampi to mix, Tim Goldsworthy telling Tim Sweeney which records to mix, Casey Spooner waving his hair & sleeves while a tiny lady puts the records on...

“I’m quite looking forward to that actually,” nods Lowe. “Running out of ideas.” He grins. “Because that’s when you go and work with Brian Eno.”

damn

Diana Ross 'djing' at Studio 54...

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fe/34/40/fe3440e97c6fe77d877e7a21c9f00f2e.jpg

Diana Ross otm

Diana Ross otdj

Bernard Butler is playing on the new album:

https://i.imgur.com/yiV5D8G.jpg

(his twitter bio reads "In a secret life I was a randy general.")

Perfect time to reintroduce You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk to the set

From the interview, I love “authenticity is a style, and it’s always the same style”

Australian newspaper interview with some interesting tidbits. They're considering Where The Streets / Can't Take medley, Losing My Mind and Hallo Spaceboy for the upcoming Greatest Hits tour. The next b-side is a song called New Boy that was written on the same day as Rent. The BFI have done a restoration of It Couldn't Happen Here, coming out in June.

Any chance you can C/P it?

This is the first time in years that I've wanted to read something behind the Herald-Sun paywall.