Pet Shop Boys Community

boney m and abba !

The "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Beverly Hills Cop II" soundtracks.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Duran Duran ...

1985 Divas!

Its funny when you listen to that early 80s new york hi nrg/freestyle stuff you see that what the PSBs were doing wasnt that original at all. Obviously they matured as song writers and this is to their credit, but i've got a wicked electro album called dreams never end and any one of the songs o there could have been a PSBs song, except they were released before Please came out....

That's true. If you've ever seen the atrocious 1984 breakdance movie Beat Street, you'll know just how much of its soundtrack influenced Please. Arthur Baker was involved and Afrika Bambaataa performed in the movie itself. In hindsight, you can see how underground Please sounded to the mainstream in early 1986.

They were original in developing that music as a soundscape for tales of neurotic middle-class urbanity, though.

Drico.

agreed yes, it was underground music sold to an urban middle class, bit like house, jungle and more recently dubstep.

It was only because Pet Shop Boys 12" singles were stacked in the hi-NRG section of my local indie record shop that I noticed them in the first place. The name 'Pet Shop Boys' seemed to evoke the fey English bands I liked such as Lotus Eaters and Tin Tin, but in the hi-NRG section?? I was completely intrigued.

Early influence ... ?

ABC, Scritti Politti, Soft Cell

Ah, forgot about Scritti Politti. Great artist.

He drinks in my local pub. I love the hip hop track he did with mos def, tinisletown to the boogie down.

Duran Duran
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Eurythmics

Fugitive1979 wrote:Frankie Goes To Hollywood

I used to have every maxi vinyl but sold them at the flee market.
Silly me ...

I used to have the complete 12" and 7" collection of Japan records - and threw 'em out thinking no-one would want them.

More silly me!