Your thoughts about PSB before being a fan?

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Riikka · #1 Post by **Riikka** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 3:08 pm

What did you think about the Pet Shop Boys before being a fan yourself? Or can you even remember such time?

I did not actually have an opinion on them at all. I used to recognize most of their songs because of Neil's voice. I didn't like his voice at first, but it's easy to like now as there's so much good to expect when hearing it (good music)...! I used to find their music a bit too "cold", but I clearly hadn't heard "Jealousy" or "I wouldn't normally.." or many other good songs.

I'm too young to could have been a fan from the beginning of their career, but I'm wondering how I managed not to notice "Go west" properly when it was played a lot.

neil_psb · #2 Post by **neil_psb** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 3:14 pm

I don't know 'cause I felt in love with the Boys right at the first time I heard them (singing West End Girls)

geowayne · #3 Post by **geowayne** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 3:18 pm

Great question! Before I became a fan, I didn't give them much thought at all. I had neither positive nor negative feelings toward them. To me they seemed pretty "interchangeable" with a bunch of other "eighties bands" for whom I liked a few singles casually as "radio fodder" but not enough to buy anything of theirs. I knew virtually nothing about them and couldn't name any songs of theirs aside from four or five hits. But then Discography and Very changed all that....

Ronald42 · #4 Post by **Ronald42** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 3:19 pm

neil_psb wrote:I don't know 'cause I felt in love with the Boys right at the first time I heard them (singing West End Girls)

You weren't even born then.

But for me it's the same liked them since West End girls

neil_psb · #5 Post by **neil_psb** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 3:22 pm

Ronald42 wrote:
neil_psb wrote:I don't know 'cause I felt in love with the Boys right at the first time I heard them (singing West End Girls)
You weren't even born then.

But for me it's the same liked them since West End girls

I meant "the first time I heard them sing" so it was not necessarily in 1985.

Pet Shop Girl · #6 Post by **Pet Shop Girl** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 3:25 pm

It is hard for me to answer that one, my first envision of them I started to like them from that point on. So I do not know how to answer that.

Fugitive1979 · #7 Post by **Fugitive1979** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 3:32 pm

I missed West End Girls originally and It's A Sin passed me by, although I was aware of it - that was the first time I had heard of them. It all started for me with Always On My Mind.

Very · #8 Post by **Very** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 3:46 pm

there was no such period for me

Glenny4 · #9 Post by **Glenny4** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 3:58 pm

Seeing them the first time on Top of The Pops with West End Girls i though they where cool as hell and nothing like i've seen before.

And the song always had a strong meaning to me as i linked it to a girl i had a crush on at school

Nickname · #10 Post by **Nickname** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 4:01 pm

In my case, I remember HATING Domino Dancing (it was the first time I realized about the existence of PSB). But with Left To My Own Devices, everything changed.

Riikka · #11 Post by **Riikka** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 4:36 pm

nickname wrote:In my case, I remember HATING Domino Dancing (it was the first time I realized about the existence of PSB). But with Left To My Own Devices, everything changed.

Ha ha. I can also remember I was rather irritated by that "watch them all fall down" repeated over and over again. But that was at a time when I didn't know any English and my musical taste hadn't "formed". And I didn't even know there were two members in Pet Shop Boys...

I can remember similar feelings about ABBA before I became a fan of theirs. I had a very superficial image as the only song I had listened to was "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!".

But thank God for the internet, how easy it has been to find information about PSB. I can't remember having seen any of their videos/performances before at all, so watching those also changed my mind. They have that personality, and there's also a certain.. hmmm... Britishness?

weirdalfan1980 · #12 Post by **weirdalfan1980** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 5:10 pm

I never heard of the PSB until I heard Go West. But I think I heard WDWLT? on radio in the 80's when I was a child.

Rent · #13 Post by **Rent** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 5:20 pm

I fell in love in them (well, Neil's angelic voice) without even knowing it was them.

See, t'was all fated to happen!

PopArt · #14 Post by **PopArt** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 5:40 pm

I first became aware of PSB when i was 8 and 'It's a sin' was Number 1. I didnt think too much of them, but even at that age was very aware that they were different in a good way. Then i really properly became a fan that Christmas as I *loved* 'Always on my mind'. I bought 'Actually' soon afterwards in early 1988 and have never looked back since!!

My sister was a big A-ha fan at the time and even then I could never understand how on earth she though A-ha were better than PSB. We would argue for hours about it. Funny thing is, around the time of 'Behaviour' (and when A-ha went a bit crap) she started to get into PSB and has been a casual fan ever since. In fact she is going to the Hammersmith gig with me in May...

Padster · #15 Post by **Padster** » Sun 18 Mar 2007, 5:40 pm

I remember hearing the Bobby O version of West End Girls in a club and thinking it sounded "different", to be honest I loved the electro sound of it but hated the jungle noises on it. I never knew who it was by at that time.

Then I heard the first version of Opportunities and was blown away and followed the lads from that point on. I loved the re-released West End Girls for EMI and really started collecting their stuff then.