Pet Shop Boys Community

A quick shuffle, or maybe a good movie, or, even, an early night... and I'm sure you'll feel right as rain in the morning

Ghost within this house wrote:A quick shuffle, or maybe a good movie, or, even, an early night... and I'm sure you'll feel right as rain in the morning

And that, incidentally, is my greeting to Neil, as well as my advice for Parkol.

Parkol, just because you once bought a Pet Shop Boys album doesn't give you any right to 'own' them. It's like when Disco 4 came out, people were offended by the product because they felt they were 'owed' something more.

I do miss the questions and answers section from the old official site because you would often learn something interesting from the answers but I don't feel that any artist owes their fans anything.

Neil Tennant (happy birthday):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmXdQ7qQcrc

Parkol wrote: Fans. are there many Pet Shop Boys forums in the net?
I mean big International forums.
No, just 2 really big.
Community and Tennant-Lowe.
i think it's not difficult to come and answer 30-40 questions.

Neil *did* do a fairly large Q&A session with the Tennant-Lowe forum a year or two ago.

I don't really know what you expect from the Pets. Their relationship with their fans seems pretty normal to me. It's always going to be a fairly one-sided relationship, whoever you're a fan of.

I also think a lot happens behind the scenes that we don't necessarily get to know about. For example, I know of several Japanese fans who received hand-written letters from Neil during last summer's short Japanese tour. He didn't have to respond to the letters they sent to his hotel, but he did.

Patrick Bateman wrote:

Parkol wrote:Let's remeber Erasure official forum.
They did remix competitions for fans, they always THINK about people who BUY their music. And it's very good. People come to the Erasure forum and see how they record songs in the studio, how they made their own videos... Everytime.
I am not Erasure fan, but I see how it would be... yes.

Erasure can afford to be on first-name terms with their fans because there aren't actually very many of them. Andy even sends each fan a hand-made birthday card every year.

That is news to me, back in the day some type of card was sent to fan club members from the fan club. But Andy has never sent a personalised card from himself to any fan. But what does all of this have to do with two guestbooks for Neil's birthday?! Nothing. Lets stay on topic. Whether Neil reads his thousands of messages in one day or in a month is not something that we should be concerned with. He may read them all like a book, in weeks or months. But its not up to us to dictate if he cares for his fans or not. Have a good reason to complain about PSB, don't just complain for the sake of it. If Neil & Chris have done something terribly wrong to you personally, then there is a good reason to complain. Another words be a rebel with a cause, not one without a cause.

(This last part is not directed at you Patrick, its for the other folks)

Patrick Bateman wrote:Parkol, just because you once bought a Pet Shop Boys album doesn't give you any right to 'own' them. It's like when Disco 4 came out, people were offended by the product because they felt they were 'owed' something more.

I do miss the questions and answers section from the old official site because you would often learn something interesting from the answers but I don't feel that any artist owes their fans anything.

I bought one CD?
I have more than 150 CDs of PSB (singles, promos, albums and etc), few vinyl records and few cassettes. Also I have few t-shorts, booklets and other stuff.
I don’t want to own them. You don’t understand what I meant.
Why do I need to write so much text if you understand nothing after that?

I met PSB few times and they seemed to me very good people.
They never said rude words or smth… They were polite.
I see that Erasure updated their news often, they put videos and did remix competition.
It attracts. If you are too far away from fans, one day you will see that even if you try to be closer – it won’t work. They won’t need your attention.
Every time we dream that PSB will release something for fans, not for themselves as Disco 4 was. No…They think about the Killers or Madonna.
They probably know that people felt in love with Fugitive and they would release a single for fans. No, they think NUMB will be better, but they released that only for that woman who wrote that awful song, not for us – fans who really buy their product.
Would be so bad to release 8 tracks single Fugitive?
Would it be worse than Numb in charts?
I think no, if so many people like it – it would be the hit in the charts.
They don’t hear us, they release Cubism DVD instead Concrete DVD, they release Disco 4 instead Relentless 2. So if they are sure they do right things, maybe they don’t need us?
Maybe they should re-release Nightlife with Release and stopped.

Neil absolutely ignores fans. That’s why I don’t send any messages.
Just good manners. You met someone and ask him: How are you? But… you don’t really care. Two times in 1 year – they “need” our attention only when they are getting older.

I don't understand what your objection is to the Concrete CD or the Cubism DVD. Also, the Pets don't have free rein over what they release - what EMI think counts for an awful lot. As a consumer you can choose to buy or not. It is Neil and Chris's career - it's up to them what path they take.

How does Neil "absolutely ignore fans"? I have already written about the Japanese fans who received answers to their letters last year. What else is he supposed to do? Invite everyone over for tea?

Dipso wrote:What else is he supposed to do? Invite everyone over for tea?

Neil and Chris should definitely invite Parkol over for tea.

Parkol wrote:

Patrick Bateman wrote:Parkol, just because you once bought a Pet Shop Boys album doesn't give you any right to 'own' them. It's like when Disco 4 came out, people were offended by the product because they felt they were 'owed' something more.

I do miss the questions and answers section from the old official site because you would often learn something interesting from the answers but I don't feel that any artist owes their fans anything.

I bought one CD?
I have more than 150 CDs of PSB (singles, promos, albums and etc), few vinyl records and few cassettes. Also I have few t-shorts, booklets and other stuff.
I don’t want to own them. You don’t understand what I meant.
Why do I need to write so much text if you understand nothing after that?

I met PSB few times and they seemed to me very good people.
They never said rude words or smth… They were polite.
I see that Erasure updated their news often, they put videos and did remix competition.
It attracts. If you are too far away from fans, one day you will see that even if you try to be closer – it won’t work. They won’t need your attention.
Every time we dream that PSB will release something for fans, not for themselves as Disco 4 was. No…They think about the Killers or Madonna.
They probably know that people felt in love with Fugitive and they would release a single for fans. No, they think NUMB will be better, but they released that only for that woman who wrote that awful song, not for us – fans who really buy their product.
Would be so bad to release 8 tracks single Fugitive?
Would it be worse than Numb in charts?
I think no, if so many people like it – it would be the hit in the charts.
They don’t hear us, they release Cubism DVD instead Concrete DVD, they release Disco 4 instead Relentless 2. So if they are sure they do right things, maybe they don’t need us?
Maybe they should re-release Nightlife with Release and stopped.

Neil absolutely ignores fans. That’s why I don’t send any messages.
Just good manners. You met someone and ask him: How are you? But… you don’t really care. Two times in 1 year – they “need” our attention only when they are getting older.

I love Tesco's Custard Slices. I've bought literally thousands of them over the years. I tried writing to the Custard Slice maker, asking for a visit to the factory. No reply. I just hate being treated like dirt.... I'm never going to have a Custard Slice again, or I might get one from Waitrose, just to piss them off

Parkol wrote:
Neil absolutely ignores fans. That’s why I don’t send any messages.
Just good manners. You met someone and ask him: How are you? But… you don’t really care. Two times in 1 year – they “need” our attention only when they are getting older.

Well,When they get older we fans need to say something nice,that's why I made the guestbook for those fans that want to greet Neil.And it seems there are many!And they do express affection,it seems they do care about him.Neil doesn't ignore fans I know that... but it all depends on one's point of view ..what a fan expects from him!

Parkol You are a great fan I understand that you disagree with some things, and maybe someday you can write all this in a question for them about music or in the Literally,this was just a thread to invite fans or let them know about the guestbook...no one is obliged or forced to do that.I respect your opinion.I could have sent my guestbook to my petheads friends and then to the fan who sent it to Neil and he would have read only 50 messages (more easy and fast to read) and said "thank you" to us by mail...but no,I shared it because there are many who need to say something nice,they may have some disagreements like you but they just said a Happy birthday...that 's all.
If you don't want to greet him it's ok.

I think someone has 'issues'...

Stan wrote:Also I have few t-shorts

You've got to stop buying stuff from Technotrancemix.

I think Parkol saying all that is unnecessary. Why do you need to critisize to chance for other fans to say birthday wishes to Neil?!

You say it's a waste of time, well, when I wrote my wishes (it only took a few minutes), I was having a good time. I was thinking about Neil that moment and I could have spent my time in worse ways.

You might only be interested in their music, but I am interested in the books Neil reads or which city they are visiting certain day. As they said themselves, if you like the Pet Shop Boys, you are in their world. They also said that they make the records to please themselves, not the fans.

"Neil ignores fans": what?! How are you saying that, and how could you say that Chris is not ignoring fans compared to Neil? I don't even understand why they should have any direct contact with fans. It's supposed to be a one-way thing.

The very fact that PSB always create a decent song for the b-side of every single release, (something Madonna hardly ever does) says a lot for giving value to their fans.