Pet Shop Boys Community

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.

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

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....

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

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.

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.

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.

there was no such period for me

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

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.

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?

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.

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

See, t'was all fated to happen!

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...

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.