Clean Air Hybrid Electric Bus

[Gabby]

I get uk or even Europe citizens missing those old times where you went to the record store and get the 12", but for us in the rest of the world that was awful.
I prefer these days a thousand times, even when we have to wait over a month for a cd or a vinyl delivered. We would never ever ever get those releases here at the record stores, at least not all of them.
Some people with contacts or friends/family living abroad might get them, but the rest of us were fuxxed.
And in Argentina we're kind of lucky compared to the rest of Latinamerica cause we get some of them released. But imagine you're living in Peru or Ecuador, to name a couple. You'd never get a proper release at a record store these days.

I'm sorry you haven't had that experience - really. I can "sort of" relate - since moving to Canada getting these released has definitely become more of a challenge, but fortunately the internet comes to the rescue - not any help in '88 of course though, and fortunately I knew a guy who got much of my cool stuff back then. Someone I met at a record fair who I am sure made a mint out of me!

[Gabby]

I think there must have been a extra delivery of those Domino dancing remix vinyls in the Midlands !

I was at an indoor market in Birmingham, back in '88, and there was a tiny record stall in there, and they had the remix 12", just one copy sitting at the front of one of the racks.

I didn't even know that they had released it as a second 12". It had a small food style price label in the top right hand corner on the front, and the stall owner had hand written in blue ink 'Remix £7' (I only earnt £50 a week !). I was so excited !! Bought it without hesitation, took it home and played the Domino dancing Base Remix, and Demo version of Don Juan on repeat.

I've never taken that price sticker off the front, and even now when I look at it, I am instantly transported back to being at that stall.

Happy days !

lol - that's hilarious! The Midlands must have been the place to be for PSB stuff in the 80's! A favourite haunt of mine was Reddingtons Rare Records (went to school with one of the owners daughters).

The guy I got PSB promos from was in Leicestershire (so not a million miles away) and I picked up the Bobcat West End Girls and One More Chance in an otherwise rubbish little audio floor in a department store in Warwick.

[Xakrij]

Does anyone else have (semi-regular) dreams of going into a record store and finding an old PSB release with unknown b-sides? I usually wake up before I've heard them, of course (and am fairly convinced they're just bootlegs, anyway)...

I recently had a dream that for the 2025 leg of the Dreamworld Tour the Boys had procured a Clean Air Hybrid Electric Bus and filled it with one copy of everything in their entire catalogue! It was such an incredible experience to walk through the bus and see on display every LP, 12-inch, Promo, and CD BRAND NEW AND SEALED!

Oy Vey!

[petshopgrrl]

I think there must have been a extra delivery of those Domino dancing remix vinyls in the Midlands !

I was at an indoor market in Birmingham, back in '88, and there was a tiny record stall in there, and they had the remix 12", just one copy sitting at the front of one of the racks.

I didn't even know that they had released it as a second 12". It had a small food style price label in the top right hand corner on the front, and the stall owner had hand written in blue ink 'Remix £7' (I only earnt £50 a week !). I was so excited !! Bought it without hesitation, took it home and played the Domino dancing Base Remix, and Demo version of Don Juan on repeat.

I've never taken that price sticker off the front, and even now when I look at it, I am instantly transported back to being at that stall.

Happy days !

lol - that's hilarious! The Midlands must have been the place to be for PSB stuff in the 80's! A favourite haunt of mine was Reddingtons Rare Records (went to school with one of the owners daughters).

The guy I got PSB promos from was in Leicestershire (so not a million miles away) and I picked up the Bobcat West End Girls and One More Chance in an otherwise rubbish little audio floor in a department store in Warwick.

Reddingtons! OMG, I picked up my PWEI stuff from them while I was at uni. There and The Plastic Factory, and the Oasis market on Corporation St. And then Virgin Megastore... and HMV... yeah, Birmingham was a great place for music shopping...

[canveyboy]

That thrill of seeing an advert for the remix 12" in the music press and immediately going to you local record shops to try and find it. Even better, that Monday lunchtime visit when you didn't even KNOW there was a remix 12" out and there it was, staring at you from the racks, for £2.99....

I remember walking into HMV in Southend in the summer of ‘89. It was the Saturday after the release of It’s Alright and I had made the trip with the hope of finding a new remix 12” but I didn’t know if one had been released or not. As I walked in I went straight to the checkout desk as there was always a rack of new 12” singles there. As I approached I immediately saw this dayglo pink 12” record sleeve and knew instinctively that that was going to be a PSB record. As I got up close and picked up a copy I was excited to read the silver title ‘The DJ International Remixes’ - I turned the record over to reveal the dayglo green cover and I had a hunch that I wouldn’t like these ‘DJ’ remixes but I didn’t care, I was just happy to have a 2nd 12” release for It’s Alright. I put my hand in my pocket and started digging around for my fiver and as I looked further down the rack I noticed a smaller black sleeve. ‘That writing looks very similar to the ‘PSB on tour’ fonts and colours’ I thought to myself. Imagine my excitement as I bent down to pick this record up. ‘The Alternatives’ it read, wow, how exciting!!! Another 10” single, with more remixes!!! And a poster!!! Woohoo!!! 2 records to buy. I parted company with my YTS money and went merrily on my way back to the train station. Whilst on the train and about halfway home I thought I’d take a look at my new acquisitions and went straight for the 10”. I’ll never forget the horror of looking inside the sleeve and seeing no evidence of a free poster!! Off the train at the next station and back to Southend again to swap my copy for a complete one!!

Every time I go to that 10” single now it always takes me back to that summer Saturday in 1989. As for the ‘DJ International Remixes’ 12”? That one doesn’t come out very often, haha!!

Good times!!

[Pinhead44]

I think there must have been a extra delivery of those Domino dancing remix vinyls in the Midlands !

I was at an indoor market in Birmingham, back in '88, and there was a tiny record stall in there, and they had the remix 12", just one copy sitting at the front of one of the racks.

I didn't even know that they had released it as a second 12". It had a small food style price label in the top right hand corner on the front, and the stall owner had hand written in blue ink 'Remix £7' (I only earnt £50 a week !). I was so excited !! Bought it without hesitation, took it home and played the Domino dancing Base Remix, and Demo version of Don Juan on repeat.

I've never taken that price sticker off the front, and even now when I look at it, I am instantly transported back to being at that stall.

Happy days !

lol - that's hilarious! The Midlands must have been the place to be for PSB stuff in the 80's! A favourite haunt of mine was Reddingtons Rare Records (went to school with one of the owners daughters).

The guy I got PSB promos from was in Leicestershire (so not a million miles away) and I picked up the Bobcat West End Girls and One More Chance in an otherwise rubbish little audio floor in a department store in Warwick.

Reddingtons! OMG, I picked up my PWEI stuff from them while I was at uni. There and The Plastic Factory, and the Oasis market on Corporation St. And then Virgin Megastore... and HMV... yeah, Birmingham was a great place for music shopping...

Yes, there was a magic half mile of record shops, where you had the two big megastores in HMV and Virgin, and then about 6 indie stores.

Reddingtons was an amazing shop. There was also Tempest (I still have my copy of Arctic Monkeys debut 7" 'five minutes with...' that I bought from there) and Swordfish (I bought a mint copy of the Nightlife vinyl from here, 15 years after it had been released).

Downloading closed them all down, at varying points, eventually

[Pinhead44]

Yes, the cover was a lot more exciting than the music on The International mixes, wasn't it !

Great to hear people's similar memories though !

[trafaelwyr]

That thrill of seeing an advert for the remix 12" in the music press and immediately going to you local record shops to try and find it. Even better, that Monday lunchtime visit when you didn't even KNOW there was a remix 12" out and there it was, staring at you from the racks, for £2.99....

I remember walking into HMV in Southend in the summer of ‘89. It was the Saturday after the release of It’s Alright and I had made the trip with the hope of finding a new remix 12” but I didn’t know if one had been released or not. As I walked in I went straight to the checkout desk as there was always a rack of new 12” singles there. As I approached I immediately saw this dayglo pink 12” record sleeve and knew instinctively that that was going to be a PSB record. As I got up close and picked up a copy I was excited to read the silver title ‘The DJ International Remixes’ - I turned the record over to reveal the dayglo green cover and I had a hunch that I wouldn’t like these ‘DJ’ remixes but I didn’t care, I was just happy to have a 2nd 12” release for It’s Alright. I put my hand in my pocket and started digging around for my fiver and as I looked further down the rack I noticed a smaller black sleeve. ‘That writing looks very similar to the ‘PSB on tour’ fonts and colours’ I thought to myself. Imagine my excitement as I bent down to pick this record up. ‘The Alternatives’ it read, wow, how exciting!!! Another 10” single, with more remixes!!! And a poster!!! Woohoo!!! 2 records to buy. I parted company with my YTS money and went merrily on my way back to the train station. Whilst on the train and about halfway home I thought I’d take a look at my new acquisitions and went straight for the 10”. I’ll never forget the horror of looking inside the sleeve and seeing no evidence of a free poster!! Off the train at the next station and back to Southend again to swap my copy for a complete one!!

Every time I go to that 10” single now it always takes me back to that summer Saturday in 1989. As for the ‘DJ International Remixes’ 12”? That one doesn’t come out very often, haha!!

Good times!!

Yeah, I like these kinds of stories! There's nothing like the thrill of picking up the unexpected. When I use to go over to London to visit a very, very good friend of mine, we would ALWAYS hit up the same music store haunts: Virgin, Tower, HMV, all the indie record stores on Berwick street and a few others around the city. There was nothing like looking at the new stuff to see what was there, then head to where they had the collectors items and then perhaps down to the basement to rifle through the discounted stuff to find some gems. Our days pretty much ended with our fingers being all grubby from flipping through loads of 7" singles or 12" singles...but it was worth it. I would always come back home laden with loads of vinyl (new and/or used), 1 track promo video tapes, CDs, etc. Those were really good times!

[Towa]

Yes, the cover was a lot more exciting than the music on The International mixes, wasn't it !

Great to hear people's similar memories though !

I love the Sterling Void mix! Not only is it a nice remix, it is also a Sterling Void remix of a Pet Shop Boys cover of a Sterling Void song, I think that is nice

[Gabby]

lol - that's hilarious! The Midlands must have been the place to be for PSB stuff in the 80's! A favourite haunt of mine was Reddingtons Rare Records (went to school with one of the owners daughters).

The guy I got PSB promos from was in Leicestershire (so not a million miles away) and I picked up the Bobcat West End Girls and One More Chance in an otherwise rubbish little audio floor in a department store in Warwick.

Reddingtons! OMG, I picked up my PWEI stuff from them while I was at uni. There and The Plastic Factory, and the Oasis market on Corporation St. And then Virgin Megastore... and HMV... yeah, Birmingham was a great place for music shopping...

Yes, there was a magic half mile of record shops, where you had the two big megastores in HMV and Virgin, and then about 6 indie stores.

Reddingtons was an amazing shop. There was also Tempest (I still have my copy of Arctic Monkeys debut 7" 'five minutes with...' that I bought from there) and Swordfish (I bought a mint copy of the Nightlife vinyl from here, 15 years after it had been released).

Downloading closed them all down, at varying points, eventually

The HMV and Virgin stores were my go-to when I could get into Brum. Solihull was closer for me from my work so new release day usually had me going there instead, but I would frequently drive into the centre of Birmingham on a Saturday morning (right when the shops opened so parking was easy and people were fewer) to trawl through the racks to see what I might be missing. I'd be in town by 9 and out again and home in time for lunch. I'm not one for window shopping, so browsing was kept to a minimum - I knew what I wanted and b-lined for it.

[Gabby]

Yes, the cover was a lot more exciting than the music on The International mixes, wasn't it !

Great to hear people's similar memories though !

I love the Sterling Void mix! Not only is it a nice remix, it is also a Sterling Void remix of a Pet Shop Boys cover of a Sterling Void song, I think that is nice

The Inception of PSB tracks!

I picked up the DJ International 12" on an exchange trip to Germany. I don't recall how I came by the 10" but I do have it - with poster!

[Gabby]

That thrill of seeing an advert for the remix 12" in the music press and immediately going to you local record shops to try and find it. Even better, that Monday lunchtime visit when you didn't even KNOW there was a remix 12" out and there it was, staring at you from the racks, for £2.99....

I remember walking into HMV in Southend in the summer of ‘89. It was the Saturday after the release of It’s Alright and I had made the trip with the hope of finding a new remix 12” but I didn’t know if one had been released or not. As I walked in I went straight to the checkout desk as there was always a rack of new 12” singles there. As I approached I immediately saw this dayglo pink 12” record sleeve and knew instinctively that that was going to be a PSB record. As I got up close and picked up a copy I was excited to read the silver title ‘The DJ International Remixes’ - I turned the record over to reveal the dayglo green cover and I had a hunch that I wouldn’t like these ‘DJ’ remixes but I didn’t care, I was just happy to have a 2nd 12” release for It’s Alright. I put my hand in my pocket and started digging around for my fiver and as I looked further down the rack I noticed a smaller black sleeve. ‘That writing looks very similar to the ‘PSB on tour’ fonts and colours’ I thought to myself. Imagine my excitement as I bent down to pick this record up. ‘The Alternatives’ it read, wow, how exciting!!! Another 10” single, with more remixes!!! And a poster!!! Woohoo!!! 2 records to buy. I parted company with my YTS money and went merrily on my way back to the train station. Whilst on the train and about halfway home I thought I’d take a look at my new acquisitions and went straight for the 10”. I’ll never forget the horror of looking inside the sleeve and seeing no evidence of a free poster!! Off the train at the next station and back to Southend again to swap my copy for a complete one!!

Every time I go to that 10” single now it always takes me back to that summer Saturday in 1989. As for the ‘DJ International Remixes’ 12”? That one doesn’t come out very often, haha!!

Good times!!

Yeah, I like these kinds of stories! There's nothing like the thrill of picking up the unexpected. When I use to go over to London to visit a very, very good friend of mine, we would ALWAYS hit up the same music store haunts: Virgin, Tower, HMV, all the indie record stores on Berwick street and a few others around the city. There was nothing like looking at the new stuff to see what was there, then head to where they had the collectors items and then perhaps down to the basement to rifle through the discounted stuff to find some gems. Our days pretty much ended with our fingers being all grubby from flipping through loads of 7" singles or 12" singles...but it was worth it. I would always come back home laden with loads of vinyl (new and/or used), 1 track promo video tapes, CDs, etc. Those were really good times!

On the times I went to London me and my friends would hit the Trocadero to play video games, Oxford Street HMV (on my insistence I suspect), although Virgin and Tower were less frequent haunts. I have a pretty vivid memory of the layout of Tower though and picking up some new Falco stuff there.

The HMV was where I first heard the Electronic album - didn't even know it was out at the time and thought "Hmm, that sounds like Neil Tennant - wtf, it IS Neil Tennant!" and promptly went into a tailspin to find the album - which at that time I picked up on cassette only - I hadn't quite got into buying albums on vinyl yet and didn't own a CD player either.

[ea39]

Does anyone else have (semi-regular) dreams of going into a record store and finding an old PSB release with unknown b-sides? I usually wake up before I've heard them, of course (and am fairly convinced they're just bootlegs, anyway)...

I recently had a dream that for the 2025 leg of the Dreamworld Tour the Boys had procured a Clean Air Hybrid Electric Bus and filled it with one copy of everything in their entire catalogue! It was such an incredible experience to walk through the bus and see on display every LP, 12-inch, Promo, and CD BRAND NEW AND SEALED!

Oy Vey!

Haha - brilliant! That's exactly the kind of dream that would be interrupted by my phone's alarm clock...

[Pinhead44]

Reddingtons! OMG, I picked up my PWEI stuff from them while I was at uni. There and The Plastic Factory, and the Oasis market on Corporation St. And then Virgin Megastore... and HMV... yeah, Birmingham was a great place for music shopping...

Yes, there was a magic half mile of record shops, where you had the two big megastores in HMV and Virgin, and then about 6 indie stores.

Reddingtons was an amazing shop. There was also Tempest (I still have my copy of Arctic Monkeys debut 7" 'five minutes with...' that I bought from there) and Swordfish (I bought a mint copy of the Nightlife vinyl from here, 15 years after it had been released).

Downloading closed them all down, at varying points, eventually

The HMV and Virgin stores were my go-to when I could get into Brum. Solihull was closer for me from my work so new release day usually had me going there instead, but I would frequently drive into the centre of Birmingham on a Saturday morning (right when the shops opened so parking was easy and people were fewer) to trawl through the racks to see what I might be missing. I'd be in town by 9 and out again and home in time for lunch. I'm not one for window shopping, so browsing was kept to a minimum - I knew what I wanted and b-lined for it.

I lived in Solihull, so a lot of my records were purchased from there also. Discovery Records and then Our Price.

[canveyboy]

Loving everyone’s reminiscences about buying PSB vinyl back in the day. Wouldn’t it be great to be doing this in a nice comfy London pub / restaurant somewhere and telling each other all our stories like this - would be great!