Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[daveid]

Perhaps it was Relentless that underlined this disappointment for me. That record was as exciting as anything in the charts of 1994. But when Neil and Chris decided to put a "dance track" out as a single, they gave us a camp little joke rather than something like Forever In Love - which, of course, was right down my street at 21 and, I suspect, would have made the top 10 with the required remixing. Didn't it even have the same sample that the Prodigy used in No Good the year after?

Are you thinking of "One Love"? Definitely on that track.

[telys]

And Paninaro served as promotion for Alternative, which reached number 2.

Paninaro '95 is interesting, because it's so deliberately contradictory. "Let's release a b-side compilation (!) with a single (!) that was originally a b-side (!) not sung by the frontman of the group (!)" - none of those things were obvious, let alone common, moves. And if you look at what topped the charts in 1995 it was an absolutely mental decision.

But also one that underlines their inherent integrity.

What's more, let's not put a new studio b-side on the single promoting the b-side collection but put a live track on it which is added to the Japanese version of the b-sides collection despite it not having been a b-side in Japan.

That's why Paninaro '95/Girls&Boys should've been a single off a "Live in Rio" album. Can it be considered a single off the "Live in Rio VHS"?

[markus]

Paninaro ’95 was pure provocation. It video was clearly to push gay politics on purpose, to annoy the old dinosaurs of the world. I loved them for doing it. The extended mix is the Pet Shop Boys track I played at party full of normal kids, fully aware it was a bit risqué.

[telys]

Paninaro ’95 was pure provocation. It video was clearly to push gay politics on purpose, to annoy the old dinosaurs of the world. I loved them for doing it. The extended mix is the Pet Shop Boys track I played at party full of normal kids, fully aware it was a bit risqué.

Nothing political about two guys enjoying eachother's company.
But the video is really creepy in other ways: that weird poodle, Neil morphing into devilish forms and the violent kick-boxing.

[markus]

Paninaro ’95 was pure provocation. It video was clearly to push gay politics on purpose, to annoy the old dinosaurs of the world. I loved them for doing it. The extended mix is the Pet Shop Boys track I played at party full of normal kids, fully aware it was a bit risqué.

Nothing political about two guys enjoying eachother's company.

Tell that to Putin.

[telys]

Paninaro ’95 was pure provocation. It video was clearly to push gay politics on purpose, to annoy the old dinosaurs of the world. I loved them for doing it. The extended mix is the Pet Shop Boys track I played at party full of normal kids, fully aware it was a bit risqué.

Nothing political about two guys enjoying eachother's company.

Tell that to Putin.

I will next time I meet him in The Hague

[NOBODY75]

In previous messages about the song "Yesterday," someone—I don't remember who, I'd have to look it up—talked about Chris's problems or situation at that time. He didn't appear in the video, and then there was very little promotion for "Bilingual." I had read something about it before, but it was vague. Does anyone know what happened to him?

[Harry]

In previous messages about the song "Yesterday," someone—I don't remember who, I'd have to look it up—talked about Chris's problems or situation at that time. He didn't appear in the video, and then there was very little promotion for "Bilingual." I had read something about it before, but it was vague. Does anyone know what happened to him?

I think the point was that we don't know. It might have just been that he was tired of promotion at that time, and in his mid-30s didn't feel like doing as much. Perhaps that was how he was able to continue to enjoy doing PSB at that time. He had definitely cheered up by the time they were at the Savoy.

[lalolalo]

In previous messages about the song "Yesterday," someone—I don't remember who, I'd have to look it up—talked about Chris's problems or situation at that time. He didn't appear in the video, and then there was very little promotion for "Bilingual." I had read something about it before, but it was vague. Does anyone know what happened to him?

Well yeah. His partner died a couple months before.

[Patrick Bateman]

I wouldn’t want to live in a world without Very, Bilingual or Nightlife either. That said, Release, Fundamental and Yes could easily have been contemporary 2000s trance-electro and dance-pop records. We know what happened when Stuart Price teamed up with Madonna. By the mid-2000s, Daft Punk and Röyksopp had effectively become the new Pet Shop Boys.
All it would have taken was the right producer. Xenomania finally came to the rescue in 2009, and the following decade was much brighter. Suddenly, they sounded modern again. If their career had been stronger at the time, Yes would probably have been made with even bigger producers.

They did work with dance producers on Nightlife but it's less than the sum of its parts. Didn't they want Fatboy Slim to produce them at this time? Ultimately, only some of the tracks on Nightlife lend themselves to dance production anyway as half of it is showtunes.

Release is self-produced, isn't it? And Trevor Horn did a good job with Fundamental. Arguably, they should have released Fugitive as the first single though, which was Richard X and not on the album. Yes, Richard X would have been perfect for an electroclash album in 2002 with tunes like they put on Disco 3 but I suppose it would have been too predictable. Fugitive is exactly the kind of thing I'd love them to have been releasing in the late 1990s/early 2000s. They got a bit boring.

[Drico One]

I don't mind them releasing Paninaro '95 as it served its purpose to promote Alternative, which as we've been saying on this thread is arguably one of their best albums.

I think Chris and what had happened to him plays a big part in what occurs during that period and it's something we will never fully know. Him not being physically in the video for Yesterday, the decision to tour Australia and South America and the lack of promotion for Bilingual all strike me as connected. Even that A Red Letter Day performance on TOTP. Between 1994 and 1997 something had definitely changed.

In the mid-80s Spandau Ballet got into a dispute with their record company about a greatest hits album, went away, won the Milk Cup with Melchester Rovers and then briefly resurfaced with a couple more hits before the inevitable descent into the dumper. A couple of years is an eternity in pop.

I like Paninaro '95, but it wasn't new. In fact, it was the fourth of their last five singles to be "old" - and the fourth in a row if you didn't consider Absolutely fabulous to be canonical. I wouldn't normally do, Liberation, Yesterday, and then Paninaro. Sure, three of them were remixed, but there's a sense they were coasting by 1995. To be fair, I also think Chris's personal tragedy had lots to do with that. I recall watching a video on the ITV Chart Show - I think it was Before - and the pop-up text accompanying it suggested that they wouldn't be doing any promotion for the record. So, they were semi-detached at this time, touring South America but not Europe and barely promoting their releases.

Alternative was a breath of fresh air - well, if not quite fresh, a reminder of what they really were after the annus miserabilis of Absolutely fabulous and Disco 2. I realise I am being overly picky and a little haughty about the mid-90s, but Alternative was Pet Shop Boys as I understood them, with its echoes of the glorious Disco, while Disco 2 was Pet Shop Boys on a bender. I think they let themselves go. The problem with that was one of their most interesting characteristics was their reserve, their slightly repressed hedonism, the battle between that yearning for freedom and the stiff upper lip. Once the floodgates opened, they were quaffing champers with "Pats", recording duets with Elton, and consorting with Tony at number 10.

Drico.

[Drico One]

Perhaps it was Relentless that underlined this disappointment for me. That record was as exciting as anything in the charts of 1994. But when Neil and Chris decided to put a "dance track" out as a single, they gave us a camp little joke rather than something like Forever In Love - which, of course, was right down my street at 21 and, I suspect, would have made the top 10 with the required remixing. Didn't it even have the same sample that the Prodigy used in No Good the year after?

Are you thinking of "One Love"? Definitely on that track.

That's the one.

Regarding the thought they should have fully embraced dance, I disagree if only because their competitive advantage lay in the song. I loved lots of the Eurodance of the day, but Pet Shop Boys, for me, were more about poetic pop than the prosaic pounding of dancefloors. There's far more soul in A red letter day than there is in Firestarter.

Drico.

[markus]

My sentiments were really about creating a profile and image that were commercially viable. The world still seems intent on crediting them primarily as electronic pioneers, still recognising them only an ’80s synth-pop band. Everyone largely ignore the musicals, ballets, film scores and melodramatic ballads.

“We’re not selling sex,” they said — but you’re always selling something.

[Gabby]

Perhaps it was Relentless that underlined this disappointment for me. That record was as exciting as anything in the charts of 1994. But when Neil and Chris decided to put a "dance track" out as a single, they gave us a camp little joke rather than something like Forever In Love - which, of course, was right down my street at 21 and, I suspect, would have made the top 10 with the required remixing. Didn't it even have the same sample that the Prodigy used in No Good the year after?

Are you thinking of "One Love"? Definitely on that track.

That's the one.

Regarding the thought they should have fully embraced dance, I disagree if only because their competitive advantage lay in the song. I loved lots of the Eurodance of the day, but Pet Shop Boys, for me, were more about poetic pop than the prosaic pounding of dancefloors. There's far more soul in A red letter day than there is in Firestarter.

Drico.

I really love "Fat of the Land" and often wished PSB could have leaned into being something "tougher", but you're right that Neil is really a poetic soul. Relentless more or less hit the spot, and there's lots of other examples in the PSB catalogue. "angry Neil" can be a mixed bag at times too.

[NotInvisible]

They never really committed to being a dance act though did they? I suspect it was lack of confidence/concern about the media reaction as much as the quality of the material.

I think it's more that they just didn't want to be a dance act. They're a pop group influenced by dance, which is a different thing. Even on the debut album you're still getting Later Tonight.

I wouldn’t want to live in a world without Very, Bilingual or Nightlife either. That said, Release, Fundamental and Yes could easily have been contemporary 2000s trance-electro and dance-pop records.

They could have been, and frankly PSB probably wouldn't have even made it to Yes in that scenario. We'd be talking about a former group we all used to love, rather than a contemporary group that still puts out records. Pet Shop Boys needed Release, they had to break the rigid box they had fallen into by Nightlife. Chris was right to throw out the tools and start over. The art projects were a creative lifeline - it's no mistake we get Release and then Battleship Potemkin.

We know what happened when Stuart Price teamed up with Madonna. By the mid-2000s, Daft Punk and Röyksopp had effectively become the new Pet Shop Boys.

I suppose if we reduce PSB to "sounds electronic" then sure, but I'm not seeing the actual similarity between My October Symphony and Around the World really.

All it would have taken was the right producer.

I mean, we know from countless examples this isn't the case, and teaming them with Stuart Price didn't exactly set the pop world on fire even if we love Electric.