Pet Shop Boys Community

Cliff Richard.

Even my mum hates Cliff Richard, which I'm particularly glad about. She's always had ace music tastes. I must have got it from her.

Unfortunately, my dear old gran left behind a few CDs and one of them was Cliff's 'greatest' hits. I think she won it. That's the official line, anyway.

That reminds me (!): Another (more PSB) part of my story of what happened to me when I wasn't posting here is that I moved into the flat just a couple of days before PopArt came out. On the week that its release they did a couple of UK radio inties on the same day (if I remember rightly).

First up was Simon Mayo's show on 5live. And who was the only fan to actually be put through to the studfio to ask PSB a question live (as opposed to the DJ reading some of the entries out)? Tis' true. I am guilty of that sin. It was all about which of their many collaborators was the most difficult to work with. As soon as I started speaking to them a horrible thought entered my head (and it wasn't Janet Street Porter's minge, or even worse, Techno in the nude, before you ask), 'you silly twit', I thought. 'You've already asked them this very question in Q's Cash For Questions last year!! Oh well. I have taken drugs since then......

Later that afternoon, they did the fabulous XFM session. Again, I phoned up to ask them a question, and to request a song (the full 9-minute version of This Must Be The Place, as it happens) and what happens? I get put through straight to DJ Lauren Laverne live on air, 'cos I was only half listening and it didn't really register that she was taking calls for that show's competition!

So once I realised I'm speaking live on air, she asks me who I am and I start laughing and tell her 'Oh, I was just phoning to ask the Pet Shop Boys a question actually!' and she quickly asks me what the question is and says, 'well, do you wanna enter our competition anyway?'

I almost said no, and then had a change of heart. 'Oh, alright then', said I, obviously full of enthusiasm (and the fact that I didn't know what it was all about or anything), so the question was who fathered Martina Topley Bird's daughter. Knowing her name as a vocalist with a certain Bristolian, I casually answered (not expecting to win in the slighest) 'Oh, I can only think of Tricky'. And of course, it's right and I win a Special Edition DVD of The Fifth Element. I'd never even heard of the bloody film.

To cap it all, when she got Neil back in the studio before they did another song she did in fact ask my question. Not one but TWO questions, as I'd told the researcher who took down my name and address afterwards to get another one in for me!

This led Neil to announce he was off to see Bowie that following night at Wembley.

I wonder if he met the Dame after. The last time they met at that place it resulted in the Spaceboy duet a few weeks later.......

to be continued.................

Not only pity, but also genuine concerns about the state of your logic...

But your story did remind me to get Maxinquaye out for listening again. Isn't this the typical radio show phone-in-and-win-a-price collection though?

We have as guests artist A
Ask a question about artist B
And you win a price related to none of them

Leaving both the guests in the studio and the person on the phone (who also never intended to compete anyway) in an obsolete state of confusion.

rags wrote: genuine concerns about the state of your logic...

care to elaborate?

bigboy wrote: Later that afternoon, they did the fabulous XFM session. Again, I phoned up to ask them a question, and to request a song (the full 9-minute version of This Must Be The Place, as it happens) and what happens? I get put through straight to DJ Lauren Laverne live on air, 'cos I was only half listening and it didn't really register that she was taking calls for that show's competition!

So once I realised I'm speaking live on air, she asks me who I am and I start laughing and tell her 'Oh, I was just phoning to ask the Pet Shop Boys a question actually!' and she quickly asks me what the question is and says, 'well, do you wanna enter our competition anyway?'

I almost said no, and then had a change of heart. 'Oh, alright then', said I, obviously full of enthusiasm (and the fact that I didn't know what it was all about or anything), so the question was who fathered Martina Topley Bird's daughter. Knowing her name as a vocalist with a certain Bristolian, I casually answered (not expecting to win in the slighest) 'Oh, I can only think of Tricky'. And of course, it's right and I win a Special Edition DVD of The Fifth Element. I'd never even heard of the bloody film.

To cap it all, when she got Neil back in the studio before they did another song she did in fact ask my question. Not one but TWO questions, as I'd told the researcher who took down my name and address afterwards to get another one in for me!

This led Neil to announce he was off to see Bowie that following night at Wembley.

I wonder if he met the Dame after. The last time they met at that place it resulted in the Spaceboy duet a few weeks later.......

that was you??
I remember that!! I had such a laugh when you sounded so unenthusiastic about the competition!
(might I just add how butch your voice is, almost dykie! )

PigletWildebeest wrote: that was you??
I remember that!! I had such a laugh when you sounded so unenthusiastic about the competition!
(might I just add how butch your voice is, almost dykie! )

LOL!

Aye, indeed it was macho me live on da radio. I wish I could remember exactly what my questions were. I do have the PSB inty and live session on tape somewhere but when it came to my being put through live on air I was so taken by surprise that I completely forgot to take my finger off the pause button!

bigboy wrote:...."We need him", you said.

Listening to so many cast-iron classics one after another rekindled my PSB fandom. I'd say it's up there with Best Of Bowie, Beatles 1 and Abba Gold as one of the most important collections of singles in the history of popular music.

As well as Queen Greatest Hits 1

Anyway, part two is:

They were running these Fifth Element comps for the first four days of that week, and the four winners of each day were all put thru to a grand final on the Thursday evening to win a DVD player.

The researcher asked me if I was gonna be at home again on Thurs 27th between 5 and 6, and suddenly I thought, 'Shit, that's the day of the PSB HMV signing. What am I gonna do?' It occured to me that at that particular time I would (hopefull) be somewhere in the queue, as the signing was set to start at 6.

I thought about either pulling out of the competition or not going to the signing, then suddenly I had a brainwave. I'll do it on one of these new-fangled mobile phone thingies. The guy duly took doen my mobile number and told me to expect the call on Thurs between 5 and 6 and make sure I've got my battery fully charged.

Thurs comes and I get to HMV around 4:40 and I make my way to the back of the queue outside in the freezing cold. I eventually get talking to a couple of girls next to me and later on I tell them 'I'm gonna be live on the radio in a few minutes'. Once they take in this obviously incredulous news, one of them asks me if I know what the theme of the questions is. I don't. XFM wouldn't reveal that until they phone me, as it gives people an unfair advantage.

The other girl, a lovely lass from Liverpool, then tells me 'Oh, well my friend Richard knows a lot about things. He's just gone to pay for his signing stuff now, he'll be back in a minute'.

When he comes back we start chatting and he agrees to help in any way he can. Nice guy he is, and from Nottingham. But don't hold that against him.

Mobile rings, and the researcher is just testing my signal and to make sure I'm ready for the comp in a few minutes time. I get worried when he tells me there's an awful lot of noise in the background (loads of PSB fans nattering up and down the queue - and probably all discussing Chris's hair, eh, PSB-Freak?), which will sound really terrible on the radio. Can I go somewhere quieter?

Erm, no I can't. I tell him I'm shopping in the west end but I'll try to find a quieter spot somewhere, I lie. Obviously I can't go anywhere or I'll lose my place in the queue.

'Oh, what's the questions gonna be about?' I ask him. Core compounds and the elements, he replies and hangs up.

When I tell Richard what the theme is, he can hardly control himself for laughing. 'I did pharmaceutical chemistry at university! It'll be a doddle!!

Hilarity over, and the four of us are split into two groups of two to compete against each other. I was up against a girl who clearly was out of her league. The questions were all 'what does Pt stand for?' (platinum), 'what does Pb stand for?' (lead) etc.

I made sure that I re-read the questions out aloud so that Richard could hear them and then write down the answer on the paper I'd given him. It was very noisy anyway, so I was also effectively checking I'd heard Lauren Laverne correctly, even going as far as asking her 'Ni? As in Northern Ireland?' because I so wanted to win the competition (Ni is nickel). Some times I completely forgot I was live on the radio and I was suddenly reminded of the fact when she started to sound a little irritated I was taking so long!

If my memory serves me correctly, the last question was 'what is Au?'. Amazingly enough, I knew the answer to this one myself! But I waited to see what Richard wrote down just to confirm what I thought. 'And... the... answer... is........ Gold!' I exclaimed, using the pauses for maximum theatrical effect. 'Wow, you've won! How on earth did you know all all that?' cried Lauren! The girl I was up against didn't get one of the (same) questions right. Indeed it was a doddle!

I was really on a high now. I just won a DVD player and quite frankly I wasn't that bothered about the Pets signing now. The DVD player I used to use belonged to my (now ex) partner in Holland, tho most of the discs belonged to me. So I was thankful that I now had something in London to play them on. I wanted to have a boozy celebration.

But before I knew it, we were suddenly being ushered inside HMV, split into different queues and then all of a sudden, our group, which was at the back of the queue got led up to the counter to get out stuff signed first!

There was a few angry shouts, but did we care? No on your life, we got our stuff signed and we were out of there in 5 minutes. I took my new pal Richard and the girls for a few beers in a nearby pub and we promised to stay in touch.

The DVD player (and Fifth Element) eventually arrived only about 10 days ago. Nice JVC model too. Haven't watched the Fifth Element yet, but something caled PopArt has hardly been off it.

After all, it was all thanks to the PSBs that I won the the prizes, eh?

bigboy wrote:Anyway, part two is:

They were running these Fifth Element comps for the first four days of that week, and the four winners of each day were all put thru to a grand final on the Thursday evening to win a DVD player.

The researcher asked me if I was gonna be at home again on Thurs 27th between 5 and 6, and suddenly I thought, 'Shit, that's the day of the PSB HMV signing. What am I gonna do?' It occured to me that at that particular time I would (hopefull) be somewhere in the queue, as the signing was set to start at 6.

I thought about either pulling out of the competition or not going to the signing, then suddenly I had a brainwave. I'll do it on one of these new-fangled mobile phone thingies. The guy duly took doen my mobile number and told me to expect the call on Thurs between 5 and 6 and make sure I've got my battery fully charged.

Thurs comes and I get to HMV around 4:40 and I make my way to the back of the queue outside in the freezing cold. I eventually get talking to a couple of girls next to me and later on I tell them 'I'm gonna be live on the radio in a few minutes'. Once they take in this obviously incredulous news, one of them asks me if I know what the theme of the questions is. I don't. XFM wouldn't reveal that until they phone me, as it gives people an unfair advantage.

The other girl, a lovely lass from Liverpool, then tells me 'Oh, well my friend Richard knows a lot about things. He's just gone to pay for his signing stuff now, he'll be back in a minute'.

When he comes back we start chatting and he agrees to help in any way he can. Nice guy he is, and from Nottingham. But don't hold that against him.

Mobile rings, and the researcher is just testing my signal and to make sure I'm ready for the comp in a few minutes time. I get worried when he tells me there's an awful lot of noise in the background (loads of PSB fans nattering up and down the queue - and probably all discussing Chris's hair, eh, PSB-Freak?), which will sound really terrible on the radio. Can I go somewhere quieter?

Erm, no I can't. I tell him I'm shopping in the west end but I'll try to find a quieter spot somewhere, I lie. Obviously I can't go anywhere or I'll lose my place in the queue.

'Oh, what's the questions gonna be about?' I ask him. Core compounds and the elements, he replies and hangs up.

When I tell Richard what the theme is, he can hardly control himself for laughing. 'I did pharmaceutical chemistry at university! It'll be a doddle!!

Hilarity over, and the four of us are split into two groups of two to compete against each other. I was up against a girl who clearly was out of her league. The questions were all 'what does Pt stand for?' (platinum), 'what does Pb stand for?' (lead) etc.

I made sure that I re-read the questions out aloud so that Richard could hear them and then write down the answer on the paper I'd given him. It was very noisy anyway, so I was also effectively checking I'd heard Lauren Laverne correctly, even going as far as asking her 'Ni? As in Northern Ireland?' because I so wanted to win the competition (Ni is nickel). Some times I completely forgot I was live on the radio and I was suddenly reminded of the fact when she started to sound a little irritated I was taking so long!

If my memory serves me correctly, the last question was 'what is Au?'. Amazingly enough, I knew the answer to this one myself! But I waited to see what Richard wrote down just to confirm what I thought. 'And... the... answer... is........ Gold!' I exclaimed, using the pauses for maximum theatrical effect. 'Wow, you've won! How on earth did you know all all that?' cried Lauren! The girl I was up against didn't get one of the (same) questions right. Indeed it was a doddle!

I was really on a high now. I just won a DVD player and quite frankly I wasn't that bothered about the Pets signing now. The DVD player I used to use belonged to my (now ex) partner in Holland, tho most of the discs belonged to me. So I was thankful that I now had something in London to play them on. I wanted to have a boozy celebration.

But before I knew it, we were suddenly being ushered inside HMV, split into different queues and then all of a sudden, our group, which was at the back of the queue got led up to the counter to get out stuff signed first!

There was a few angry shouts, but did we care? No on your life, we got our stuff signed and we were out of there in 5 minutes. I took my new pal Richard and the girls for a few beers in a nearby pub and we promised to stay in touch.

The DVD player (and Fifth Element) eventually arrived only about 10 days ago. Nice JVC model too. Haven't watched the Fifth Element yet, but something caled PopArt has hardly been off it.

After all, it was all thanks to the PSBs that I won the the prizes, eh?

Do we get a part 3 or is this it.....?

Big Boy said :
But before I knew it, we were suddenly being ushered inside HMV, split into different queues and then all of a sudden, our group, which was at the back of the queue got led up to the counter to get out stuff signed first!

There was a few angry shouts, but did we care? No on your life, we got our stuff signed and we were out of there in 5 minutes. I took my new pal Richard and the girls for a few beers in a nearby pub and we promised to stay in touch

Blimey!! I was in that same section, that got let through first!!!

bigboy wrote:Anyway, part two is:

They were running these Fifth Element comps for the first four days of that week, and the four winners of each day were all put thru to a grand final on the Thursday evening to win a DVD player.

The researcher asked me if I was gonna be at home again on Thurs 27th between 5 and 6, and suddenly I thought, 'Shit, that's the day of the PSB HMV signing. What am I gonna do?' It occured to me that at that particular time I would (hopefull) be somewhere in the queue, as the signing was set to start at 6.

I thought about either pulling out of the competition or not going to the signing, then suddenly I had a brainwave. I'll do it on one of these new-fangled mobile phone thingies. The guy duly took doen my mobile number and told me to expect the call on Thurs between 5 and 6 and make sure I've got my battery fully charged.

Thurs comes and I get to HMV around 4:40 and I make my way to the back of the queue outside in the freezing cold. I eventually get talking to a couple of girls next to me and later on I tell them 'I'm gonna be live on the radio in a few minutes'. Once they take in this obviously incredulous news, one of them asks me if I know what the theme of the questions is. I don't. XFM wouldn't reveal that until they phone me, as it gives people an unfair advantage.

The other girl, a lovely lass from Liverpool, then tells me 'Oh, well my friend Richard knows a lot about things. He's just gone to pay for his signing stuff now, he'll be back in a minute'.

When he comes back we start chatting and he agrees to help in any way he can. Nice guy he is, and from Nottingham. But don't hold that against him.

Mobile rings, and the researcher is just testing my signal and to make sure I'm ready for the comp in a few minutes time. I get worried when he tells me there's an awful lot of noise in the background (loads of PSB fans nattering up and down the queue - and probably all discussing Chris's hair, eh, PSB-Freak?), which will sound really terrible on the radio. Can I go somewhere quieter?

Erm, no I can't. I tell him I'm shopping in the west end but I'll try to find a quieter spot somewhere, I lie. Obviously I can't go anywhere or I'll lose my place in the queue.

'Oh, what's the questions gonna be about?' I ask him. Core compounds and the elements, he replies and hangs up.

When I tell Richard what the theme is, he can hardly control himself for laughing. 'I did pharmaceutical chemistry at university! It'll be a doddle!!

Hilarity over, and the four of us are split into two groups of two to compete against each other. I was up against a girl who clearly was out of her league. The questions were all 'what does Pt stand for?' (platinum), 'what does Pb stand for?' (lead) etc.

I made sure that I re-read the questions out aloud so that Richard could hear them and then write down the answer on the paper I'd given him. It was very noisy anyway, so I was also effectively checking I'd heard Lauren Laverne correctly, even going as far as asking her 'Ni? As in Northern Ireland?' because I so wanted to win the competition (Ni is nickel). Some times I completely forgot I was live on the radio and I was suddenly reminded of the fact when she started to sound a little irritated I was taking so long!

If my memory serves me correctly, the last question was 'what is Au?'. Amazingly enough, I knew the answer to this one myself! But I waited to see what Richard wrote down just to confirm what I thought. 'And... the... answer... is........ Gold!' I exclaimed, using the pauses for maximum theatrical effect. 'Wow, you've won! How on earth did you know all all that?' cried Lauren! The girl I was up against didn't get one of the (same) questions right. Indeed it was a doddle!

I was really on a high now. I just won a DVD player and quite frankly I wasn't that bothered about the Pets signing now. The DVD player I used to use belonged to my (now ex) partner in Holland, tho most of the discs belonged to me. So I was thankful that I now had something in London to play them on. I wanted to have a boozy celebration.

But before I knew it, we were suddenly being ushered inside HMV, split into different queues and then all of a sudden, our group, which was at the back of the queue got led up to the counter to get out stuff signed first!

There was a few angry shouts, but did we care? No on your life, we got our stuff signed and we were out of there in 5 minutes. I took my new pal Richard and the girls for a few beers in a nearby pub and we promised to stay in touch.

The DVD player (and Fifth Element) eventually arrived only about 10 days ago. Nice JVC model too. Haven't watched the Fifth Element yet, but something caled PopArt has hardly been off it.

After all, it was all thanks to the PSBs that I won the the prizes, eh?

I knew there was something I had to record that day!

blah blah blah

rags wrote:But I never quite liked Aimoo so I still don't know who you are :p

So what's so different about this place then?

*now let's see..* ah yes, you have no idea how happy it makes me to have you back, I've really really missed you