West End Girls 12” - is this legit?

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canveyboy · #1 Post by **canveyboy** » Tue 21 Jan 2025, 11:05 am

I’ve seen this 12” pop up online a few times now and not sure if it’s a genuine official 1984 release? It’s on ZYX records which produced all those terrible remixes in ‘86 and ‘88. The cover says Extended Mix 5.00 but isn’t the original 1984 extended mix nearly 8 mins in length? It has ‘Pet Shop Boys’ 5.10 on the b-side

IMG_6034.jpeg

lowesglasses · #2 Post by **lowesglasses** » Tue 21 Jan 2025, 11:10 am

canveyboy wrote:I’ve seen this 12” pop up online a few times now and not sure if it’s a genuine official 1984 release? It’s on ZYX records which produced all those terrible remixes in ‘86 and ‘88. The cover says Extended Mix 5.00 but isn’t the original 1984 extended mix nearly 8 mins in length? It has ‘Pet Shop Boys’ 5.10 on the b-side

IMG_6034.jpeg

Seems to be legit according to Discogs:

https://www.discogs.com/release/1017858 ... -End-Girls

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leesmapman · #3 Post by **leesmapman** » Tue 21 Jan 2025, 1:32 pm

It's a ZYX release, that is a real record label.

canveyboy · #4 Post by **canveyboy** » Tue 21 Jan 2025, 1:35 pm

leesmapman wrote: Tue 21 Jan 2025, 1:32 pm It's a ZYX release, that is a real record label.

Yeah but I thought the ZYX releases were just unofficial dodgy remixes - nothing to do with PSB?

One of the crowd · #5 Post by **One of the crowd** » Tue 21 Jan 2025, 2:10 pm

ZYX5154

Reissue of original ZYX release with an edit of the 7:50 mix

Dog · #6 Post by **Dog** » Tue 21 Jan 2025, 4:36 pm

canveyboy wrote:
leesmapman wrote: Tue 21 Jan 2025, 1:32 pm It's a ZYX release, that is a real record label.
Yeah but I thought the ZYX releases were just unofficial dodgy remixes - nothing to do with PSB?

I don’t think it’s dodgy. There’s also One More Chance.

djx · #7 Post by **djx** » Tue 21 Jan 2025, 4:47 pm

They are legit. ZYX licensed the Bobby O stuff back in the 80's.
I remember buying most of these from HMV and The Plastic Factory in Birmingham back in 1987/1988 ish.

Some of these mixes ae definitely of their time but interesting nonetheless.

https://www.psb-catalogue.com/weg84pic.php

https://www.psb-catalogue.com/omcpic.php

oakey · #8 Post by **oakey** » Tue 21 Jan 2025, 8:03 pm

They are legit yet not authorized by Neil and Chris (as they do not own the Bobby O masters). Discogs states this West End girls 12" was released in 1984, but I really think most ones you find are likely later re-issues, not from 1984 (the sticker and advertisement are suspect: Orginal-Hit-version, in '84 there was no other version of course). I have both West End girls and OMC on ZYX 12". They're neither rare nor expensive, so easy to find, which makes me also doubt they're from 1984.

ZYX is an Italo label (I think a sublabel of CBS even) that released a lot of Bobby O like music in the 80s.

canveyboy · #9 Post by **canveyboy** » Tue 21 Jan 2025, 11:01 pm

Thanks for all the help and links guys!

Ramzy · #10 Post by **Ramzy** » Tue 21 Jan 2025, 11:02 pm

I've never actually bought a copy of One More Chance partly because I haven't been able to work out which version - if any - is the "original" mix. There's a confusing array of mixes, one not labelled at all despite being mixed by a third party, another labelled as a remix but which could actually be the primary 12" mix as it's by Bobby O, and in some cases the track lengths are mislabelled. Is any of the 1984 versions considered to be definitive?

neilgregory72 · #11 Post by **neilgregory72** » Wed 22 Jan 2025, 6:07 am

Always find the ZYX releases frustrating because it's difficult to figure out which are the originals and which are the cheap cash-in later releases.

For the West End girls above, as Oakey says, this surely is a later release, maybe in 86 and Original Version was use to differentiate from the Remix 86 versions?

It doesn't help that there are no dates on the labels.

For West End girls ,I consider the version with the 7.50 mix to be the original and all the others later releases.
The one Andemaste lists as: 12" #1 "no title box" https://www.psbcq.it/index.php?option=c ... Itemid=122

OMC is messy as well.
The one shown above seems to be available with 4 different coloured labels, and they're all dated 1984. And some with incorrect times.
https://www.psbcq.it/index.php?option=c ... Itemid=123

Why would they do that in 1984 for an artist that had only release one song? I can't imagine there are many pressed originally. Surely, if this was a 1984 release only, they wouldn't have changed the colour of the label so much? I wonder if one of these was the 84 release and the others were re-pressed later? And there are loads of these out there, compare them, say, to the Jonathan West End girls which is much scarecer.

And while we're at it, how did Canada end up with a different mix of West End girls on the7"?

Future Lover · #12 Post by **Future Lover** » Wed 22 Jan 2025, 8:31 am

I'd argue the Belgium edition (red and blue, unique photo of them) is The One, and the single mix being the Kordak version (the Bobby 'O' one is frankly a mess).

Ramzy · #13 Post by **Ramzy** » Wed 22 Jan 2025, 1:36 pm

Future Lover wrote: Wed 22 Jan 2025, 8:31 am I'd argue the Belgium edition (red and blue, unique photo of them) is The One, and the single mix being the Kordak version (the Bobby 'O' one is frankly a mess).

Thank you! Always seemed odd to me that the single mix would have been done by someone other than Bobby O, unlike West End Girls, but I guess there's no arguing with the fact it's the seven-inch A-side.

canveyboy · #14 Post by **canveyboy** » Thu 23 Jan 2025, 9:46 am

Future Lover wrote: Wed 22 Jan 2025, 8:31 am I'd argue the Belgium edition (red and blue, unique photo of them) is The One, and the single mix being the Kordak version (the Bobby 'O' one is frankly a mess).

On that Belgium ‘speakers’ 12” - isn’t the short version of OMC on that the Kordak mix?