Pet Shop Boys Community

joepsb wrote: Sun 23 Jun 2024, 12:04 am Not Neil’s best gig

I think Neil does a brilliant job. He has to remember different set lists from week to week, especially now the new songs have been added, and remember all the lyrics, and he's doing this live in front of a an audience of thousands each time (60,000 tonight) !

And at 70 years of age!

He's a hero.

A little trip from Neil during the opening monologue. Glad they ran the whole set without ads from Opportunities on. Presenting team was...not my favourite. Sound mix was a bit odd, became really apparent in the Suede set, the keys were more prominent than Brett's vocals. Apparently been an issue in the coverage all day, but I only tuned in for PSB.

It was strange that there were adverts after 2 songs, then back to the presenters to discuss the first two songs, and then the rest of the show without any breaks at all !

Brilliant to see that Heart has been elevated to the levels of the other (UK) no.1's on this tour, and the crowds reaction is as big for it as any other song. On previous tours it got put to the early part of the show, or not played at all. Stuart Price has done a great job on tweaking the track, whilst keeping it close enough to the original. Visuals are also stunning.

Simon and Afrika's percussion between It's Alright and Vocal are incredible ! The 3 additional musicians bring an amazing energy to the whole show.

Whilst realising they are constrained by time on festival shows, I do think it is a real shame to remove What have I done to deserve this??

Meebabi wrote: Sat 08 Jun 2024, 7:34 am I’ve yet to see anyone discuss the mystery of Neil’s new white coat. Did the original white trench get damaged? Was there a massive stain that could not be removed? Has it been misplaced? Did someone nick it? Alas, we may never know.

Different coat in IOW yesterday, sharp edges not round ones like in Manchester. Return of the original trench?

CSL wrote: Sun 23 Jun 2024, 9:53 pm

Meebabi wrote: Sat 08 Jun 2024, 7:34 am I’ve yet to see anyone discuss the mystery of Neil’s new white coat. Did the original white trench get damaged? Was there a massive stain that could not be removed? Has it been misplaced? Did someone nick it? Alas, we may never know.

Different coat in IOW yesterday, sharp edges not round ones like in Manchester. Return of the original trench?

It would appear so!

Pinhead44 wrote: Sun 23 Jun 2024, 12:39 am

joepsb wrote: Sun 23 Jun 2024, 12:04 am Not Neil’s best gig

He has to remember different set lists from week to week, especially now the new songs have been added, and remember all the lyrics, and he's doing this live in front of a an audience of thousands each time (60,000 tonight) !

And at 70 years of age!

He's a hero.

The set list only changes slightly when it's a festival show, otherwise it's exactly the same songs in the exact same order every night, the same banter in between songs, the same stage directions coming through his in-ear monitors (there's a bootleg recording taken from these where you can hear him being told where to stand and when).

Don't get me wrong, I hope I've as much energy and enthusiasm as Neil has when I'm 70, but I'm sure the two of them could probably do this show in their sleep at this point.

And so called serious rock acts do the same thing too. I've seen U2 a couple of times on each of their last couple of tours and same thing. Bono telling the same stories at the same point in the same way at each show.

But to be fair, all big arena/stadium shows are such huge productions now that there's very little room for spontaneity from night to night. And it's only the obsessive fans like us that probably go to multiple shows on the same tours that are going to notice.

Amsterdam was a great concert tonight. It was imho better than 2 years ago. Better sound probably.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder and cmplimented me on how I could sing along with every song. I pointed to the singer and said he could do it to. When Go West came, they said they know the lyrics of that one.

Right before the encores, someone asked me what song they haven't played, so I said: "west end girls" and they answered: "oh yeah, of course!" Which just shows their quality. PSB playing hit after hit after hit and then people forgetting there's also West End girls.

Sent from my SM-A505FN using Tapatalk

I'm going to the concert on 3 july in Poland, who's also going ?

leesmapman wrote: Wed 26 Jun 2024, 10:52 pm Amsterdam was a great concert tonight. It was imho better than 2 years ago. Better sound probably.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder and cmplimented me on how I could sing along with every song. I pointed to the singer and said he could do it to. When Go West came, they said they know the lyrics of that one.

Right before the encores, someone asked me what song they haven't played, so I said: "west end girls" and they answered: "oh yeah, of course!" Which just shows their quality. PSB playing hit after hit after hit and then people forgetting there's also West End girls.

Sent from my SM-A505FN using Tapatalk

The concert was great indeed and as you wrote, better than the one they brought to Amsterdam 2 years ago. The sound was excellent. Nothing to complain about.

The only pitty was that the audience was so lame/tame in my opinion. Neil was doing his best, over and over again, to move the public but it was only with a couple of songs that the audience went wild.

After all, sublime setlist, sublime arrangements and nice to see the boys back in Amsterdam. Now looking forward to see them in London again

wieske wrote: Thu 27 Jun 2024, 6:56 am The only pitty was that the audience was so lame/tame in my opinion. Neil was doing his best, over and over again, to move the public but it was only with a couple of songs that the audience went wild.

Not where I was standing (next to the mixing desk). It was a party and a really good vibe. I even thought a song like Jealousy went down really well with the people

leesmapman wrote: Thu 27 Jun 2024, 8:35 am
Not where I was standing (next to the mixing desk). It was a party and a really good vibe. I even thought a song like Jealousy went down really well with the people

Next to the mixing desk… on the left (facing the stage), or the right? I was standing very close in front of the left side.

left facing the stage, I was standing right in the middle of the left side

Glowing review from one of the bigger Dutch music magazines:
https://oor.nl/concerten/pet-shop-boys- ... afas-live/

I saw some people photographing a guy on the balcony on the right during the Amsterdam gig. Any idea who that was? He was probably a famous person?

I've been to several Dreamworlds now, the first in Hull, the most recent in IoW (front row). Yes, of course it's very standardized, but my impression is that spontaneous audience response has quite a big impact on performance in ways that are hard to pin down, maybe to do with general energy. I mean, what was it about the Leeds gig that made it so special? Surely it's to do with the interaction between audience and performers. The Stockholm one was fine, but certainly not Leeds or Liverpool. Then there's the way Neil changes what he says in response to the audience, for example about the St Lucia holiday (Domino Dancing) depending on whether most of the audience have been there, '"it's beautiful sea and sand, you've all been there" (Stockholm) or whether everyone thinks he's showing off, "it was only a cheap place" (Hull). There are different types of audiences at all these shows. At the IoW I think the audience was more a festival audience than a specific PSB-fan audience (for example, they didn't sing along to everything). I may be wrong, but outside of festivals the main PSB audience demographic seems to be relatively homogenous, middle-class, middle-aged, mono-ethnic. They're all really nice though.