Track-by-Track: From Please to Nonetheless

[markus]

I went looking for a CDR with an amazing To Step Aside mix, planning to Shazam it to see what it was called. Instead, I stumbled across a “BBC radio broadcast 6/4/02.”
There’s an acoustic version of A Red Letter Day on it that I’d completely forgotten existed. A great companion to the studio version(s), and a perfect extra addition to properly indulge in all things Bilingual.

[NOBODY75]

By the way, I think the cover of the special edition is much better than that of the regular edition.

[Towa]

By the way, I think the cover of the special edition is much better than that of the regular edition.

It’s nice that they included some of their fans on the SE cover, but I actually prefer the original cover.

[Patrick Bateman]

I only recently bought the special edition on ebay. At the time my fandom was definitely in abeyance and it looked like a desperate cash-in. I must be a pretty loyal person as I did stick with them through the worst years - I suppose they had a lot of collateral in the bank. We're definitely moving into their 'cult' years as they shed countless fans from the imperial era right through the 90s and 00s.

[NOBODY75]

Looking at their album sales, over 70% of fans jumped ship after Very. And I think the vast majority never came back. I was always very surprised by such a drastic drop from one album to the next. Although I think Before was a very bad first single, that obviously can't be the key to everything

[Drico One]

I only recently bought the special edition on ebay. At the time my fandom was definitely in abeyance and it looked like a desperate cash-in. I must be a pretty loyal person as I did stick with them through the worst years - I suppose they had a lot of collateral in the bank. We're definitely moving into their 'cult' years as they shed countless fans from the imperial era right through the 90s and 00s.

I never bought the special edition. I'm not a collector, more a curator.

I've always found the concept of blindly collecting anything a form of addictive/compulsive behaviour. When you are buying something "just because", rather than for more positive exciting reasons, I think it's time to take stock. I didn't bother with Disco 2 either, so that's me - a fanatic in many ways at this time - taking my leave of that form of addictive fandom in the mid-90s. I still haven't bought Discos 4 or 5, and can't see why I ever would...

At the time, I remember the announcement of the Bilingual Special Edition in Melody Maker or the NME and feeling unmoved. After Disco 2, this sort of release was a debased currency for me. It also felt a little like a fan shakedown. So if they were losing fans at this time, they weren't moving loyal fans either. This lacked excitement and broke their own rule of pop being about being new. This felt old.

Drico.

[Disco.]

I’ve never really seen the point of the Disco albums. They’ve always felt like doggy bags of leftovers to me.
The Bilingual era had loads of great remixes scattered across singles. That was the perfect moment to compile them properly and give them mainstream exposure — instead, they stayed hidden away.

Kind of like this?

https://www.petshopboys.co.uk/product/a ... al-edition



Still available on Spotify here:

https://open.spotify.com/album/7x4QGVpv ... sD2YgrpbrA

No, there are more out there. So many gems...

They have had so many great remixes, a treasure full of them. They were in may ways born out of dance music, their big inspiration Bobby O, and their first ambition to have a 12” that could be bought in Record Shack.

[telys]

Got hold of the Special edition a couple of years ago in a second hand store in London. It's a great double album. The bonus disc really deserved to be counted as Disco 3. I think it's up there with Disco 1. Not the same kind of remixes of course, I mean 10 years had passed, but the remixes are really good for its time. It has a new track, the awesome extended mix of Somewhere, a somewhat remixed b-side and remixes of the 5 singles (yes Discoteca feels like a single just as Single when you look at the tracks on the single release).
But it's a very long bonus album. I think I would've edited the longest remixes, removing 1-2 minutes.
So, in conclusion Bilingual special ed bonus album is the real follow up to Disco.

[markus]

I bought the original version and gave it to my sister when the special edition came out.

On a trip to Estonia, I spotted something familiar and yellow as I walked toward the duty-free shop. They didn’t have many albums on display, but there was a whole section devoted to Bilingual.
“These aren’t going to sell,” I remember thinking. Very had been such a big success that it felt like they assumed this album would be an instant hit too.

The whole era felt slightly overconfident. The videos were nice and well made, but they didn’t say much. The singles were easy on the ears and very radio-friendly. PSB released the album on time, following their three-year cycle commitment.

But in the music business, that attitude doesn’t work. You’re only as good as your latest record.

Those yellow albums at the airport felt like they were shouting: flop.

I just wanted to buy it again. Such a good album going to waste. It was bittersweet.

[NotInvisible]

Looking at their album sales, over 70% of fans jumped ship after Very.

I don't think their fans jumped ship at all - the casual mainstream audience simply moved onto something new, because times had changed. Fans haven't stopped listening to Bruce Springsteen, but his record sales are down from his mainstream peak for the same reason.

[NOBODY75]

Look, if you buy four or five albums by an artist, I don't think you can be called a casual listener. Very was already their fifth album, and four of them had sold over four million copies. I can accept that theory for later years, but not back then, and not with those numbers.

[petshopgrrl]

It’s nice that they included some of their fans on the SE cover, but I actually prefer the original cover.

I think it's fair to say that Bilingual (especially Single) hooked me on PSB but the Bilingual Special Edition sold me on PSB. There's a special place in my heart for this album and its remixes.

However, before the conversation careens down yet another rollercoaster detour towards Dumpersville, why don't we crack on with the boom-boom finale?

Track 99: "Saturday night forever"

Chronology: Bilingual, Track 12

¿Hay una discoteca por aquí? Sí! Está aquí! The Boys finally track down that elusive discotheque and prepare to dance their cares away. Going out and carrying on as normal indeed. According the the FL liner notes, Neil calls the words "completely nothing" and Chris says it's "a bit cheesy-sounding" but this kind of moronic euphoria feels as though it's right in his wheelhouse. It's a nice bright note on which to end the main album, although personally it's a little too disco-ey twee for me to listen to on repeat.

[markus]

I used to make music just for fun, and when I first heard Saturday Night Forever, it completely floored me. I could hear how much skill it must take to write something like that.
I guess it tries to capture a trace of Studio 54 at its absolute zenith — that moment when the balloons drop from the ceiling, the room lifts, and for a few euphoric minutes you feel close to heaven. Very few artists have managed to capture that feeling in music.

They tapped into it again a few years later with New York City Boy, which has probably aged better. Still, I remember some truly great listening moments with this track. A worthy ending to a great album.

[NOBODY75]

I think it's an average song, bordering on weak.

[New Devon Boy]

A very strange time for me in 1997.

I started at university in 1993, riding in on the crest of Very. I remember nights in the student pub with Shameless on the duke box, with literally everybody joining in. Then sitting in the hall tv room watching the Children in Need 3D version of I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing.

In 1997 everything seemed so different. I’d hated before, but loved its b-sides. Bilingual just wasn’t doing it for me either. I travelled up from Exeter to see the Somewhere shows twice, incline first meeting with N and C, but everything seemed a bit flat.

Looking back I think my perception of PSB was coloured by my life experiences. In 93 I was young and heading off on an adventure. In 97 I was ending that adventure and joining the ‘real’ world of employment.

Funny how each PSB era captures a different emotional moment for me. I’m getting reflective in my old age!