Pet Shop Boys Community

Patrick Bateman wrote:Absolutely fabulous was on this week. I know it's history now but watching it in 'real time', it reminded me why it's still their biggest mistake. You've got The Prodigy entering the top ten with the mighty No Good, Pulp on the next show with the peerless Babies and here's Neil and Chris with an in-joke comedy charidee record that Neil boasts only took 30 minutes to make. What on earth were they thinking?

I'm sure their popularity was on the wane anyway but they seem like Emerson Lake and Palmer as punk rages around them. Totally out of kilter with what's coming, and for once, not in a good way.

I know what you mean. Of all the Pet Shop Boys’ eras, it does fit neatest with Very though. They had effectively killed off the way they had previously presented themselves. They had gone technicolour and were breaking all of their own rules. “We would never make a charity record - but if we did, what might it sound like?” There’s a KLF style element of self sabotage as well. It’s quite a clear statement that they don’t care about “cool” - they are operating outside of those kind measures. I do actually like the Rollo mix.


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The Rollo mix is an absolute banger

Hallo Spaceboy.

Top of the Pops, 29/02/1996: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001zqts via @bbciplayer

Dog wrote: Sat 25 Mar 2023, 9:08 am

Patrick Bateman wrote:Absolutely fabulous was on this week. I know it's history now but watching it in 'real time', it reminded me why it's still their biggest mistake. You've got The Prodigy entering the top ten with the mighty No Good, Pulp on the next show with the peerless Babies and here's Neil and Chris with an in-joke comedy charidee record that Neil boasts only took 30 minutes to make. What on earth were they thinking?

I'm sure their popularity was on the wane anyway but they seem like Emerson Lake and Palmer as punk rages around them. Totally out of kilter with what's coming, and for once, not in a good way.

I know what you mean. Of all the Pet Shop Boys’ eras, it does fit neatest with Very though. They had effectively killed off the way they had previously presented themselves. They had gone technicolour and were breaking all of their own rules. “We would never make a charity record - but if we did, what might it sound like?” There’s a KLF style element of self sabotage as well. It’s quite a clear statement that they don’t care about “cool” - they are operating outside of those kind measures. I do actually like the Rollo mix.


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Wish they'd write something autobiographical. I'd pay good money to better understand what they were thinking between Discography and Very.

To be a fly on the wall and hear the PSB board meetings

The KLF's self-sabotage was a bit cooler/defining than the Pets prancing about to Europop while hailing a sitcom of the time! I would have wavered as a fan if I had been old enough.

OakeyDokey wrote:The KLF's self-sabotage was a bit cooler/defining than the Pets prancing about to Europop while hailing a sitcom of the time! I would have wavered as a fan if I had been old enough.

I was thinking of the f*** The Millennium single and performance - KLF had already split the band and deleted the catalogue… All they had left was their legacy. f*** The Millennium was designed to blow their cool and credibility - two pensioners in wheelchairs spinning circles to a naff opportunist remix of an old single.

Anyway, Pet Shop Boys know that truly being cool means not to care whether you’re cool or not. You could argue that Ab Fab was one massive f*** you to anyone that thinks they can call the shots on what is and isn’t cool.

It seems that 'Absolutely Fabulous' is one of the most divisive things they've ever done. Certainly in terms of the fanbase. They've said countless times over the years that they don't really plan ahead that much. I just see it as something that came up in some way that they said yes to. It was a reversal of their previously-held position on charity singles, but Pet Shop Boys have often been about defying expectations.

It's very much of its era, but I like the track. I wonder how successful it was in terms of raising money for Comic Relief? Turns out there have been 32 Comic Relief singles over the years, who knew! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... ef_singles

I think what struck me about "Ab Fab" at the time was it flew in the face of everything they had criticized in "...Seriously?"

I think with the passing of time Neil and Chris have become very much the target of their own song ("Do you have a message for your fans?).

I don't really have a problem with it - maybe people saw it as "selling out" but PSB have always been about their image and product as much as they have about the music, so it seems to me like they pretty much "sold out" from the get go. Why not do some good for the less fortunate in the process?

I don't care about "selling out", everyone does so the phrase becomes meaningless. But the boys had set a high standard on all their releases up to this point, whereas this was just a bit cringe and crap.

TallThinMan wrote: Mon 10 Jun 2024, 5:22 pm It seems that 'Absolutely Fabulous' is one of the most divisive things they've ever done. Certainly in terms of the fanbase. They've said countless times over the years that they don't really plan ahead that much. I just see it as something that came up in some way that they said yes to. It was a reversal of their previously-held position on charity singles, but Pet Shop Boys have often been about defying expectations.

It's very much of its era, but I like the track. I wonder how successful it was in terms of raising money for Comic Relief? Turns out there have been 32 Comic Relief singles over the years, who knew! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... ef_singles

Yet I find it hard to believe they'd of said "hey lets completely change our presentation with Very and Ab Fab and just wing it" without knowing they'd follow up with more subdued efforts like Bilingual and Release.

Since I doubt they'd release Very with the possibility of it being their last. I'd assume they'd of thought "this could add texture to a lengthier career which we will continue with".

Or maybe not. I don't know. Maybe they just wanted Discovery to be a hell of a party tour, which it would have been (in person, maybe less so on video).

Between Heath and interviews and Annually I guess we get good insights - but an autobiography would be fascinating To hear how they actually felt, and what they were doing day-to-day in their more private lives, and chats between themselves, in the inner sanctum.

I think they needed a top ten single and knew that there wasn't another one on the album.

So these are still running and we're now up to 1997. A Red Letter Day should have been on this evening but the R Kelly episodes are not being shown so the BBC4 audience misses the opportunity to see Chris in that weird chair and speculate on his health.

I wasn't a regular TOTP viewer by this stage and I was flicking through some of the episodes around this time on iPlayer...bloody hell, Erasure really had gone down the dumper by the time of Don't Say Your Love Is Killing Me. It looks and sounds like a completely different band! PSB may have been repeating themselves by this stage but at least they were distinctly themselves. It just shows how out of step both groups were after the Britpop phenomenon, ten years since their imperial heyday.

Patrick Bateman wrote: Fri 07 Feb 2025, 11:54 pm So these are still running and we're now up to 1997. A Red Letter Day should have been on this evening but the R Kelly episodes are not being shown so the BBC4 audience misses the opportunity to see Chris in that weird chair and speculate on his health.

I wasn't a regular TOTP viewer by this stage and I was flicking through some of the episodes around this time on iPlayer...bloody hell, Erasure really had gone down the dumper by the time of Don't Say Your Love Is Killing Me. It looks and sounds like a completely different band! PSB may have been repeating themselves by this stage but at least they were distinctly themselves. It just shows how out of step both groups were after the Britpop phenomenon, ten years since their imperial heyday.

I was waiting for it and wondered why it was not shown. At this rate they won't be able to show many TOTP episodes in a decades time (if they ever get shown again or BBC4 gets the axe). I remember that so called 'health' article in one newspaper

Yep, there have been loads skipped, R Kelly, Rolf Harris and all the episodes that Adrian Rose won't allow to be shown when he presented them.
Obviously Savile and Glitter episodes, but the 20 December 1996 edition was skipped because Shaun Ryder impersonated Jimmy Savile in nearly every link.

There's been no issue with MJ, that awful Arthur Mullard Grease parody record, when he was accused of domestic and sexual abuse against his wife and daughter, and a sainted host who boasted about his dalliances with teenagers.

The #totp Tweetalongs, which grew wings during lockdown, and have also migrated over to Bluesky, are still going strong and there's generally a lot of love for the boys.

Vintage Youth wrote: Sun 09 Feb 2025, 8:42 am There's been no issue with MJ, that awful Arthur Mullard Grease parody record

Christ Almighty, thanks for that terrible flashback.

Surprised I have that as a memory - must of done the rounds in Australia.

No idea why they'd show it down here, looks like they spent all of $20 on the production and filmclip