Pet Shop Boys Community

Bobby O has come up several times in the recent documentaries, interviews etc. So I wonder, where is he? Why hasn't he appeared in the documentaries etc. Has he even been sought up?

Funnily enough I discovered that he has an Instagram account the other day: https://www.instagram.com/bobbyorlando_/

It's not very interesting though, just old stuff.

telys wrote: Tue 23 Apr 2024, 8:06 am Bobby O has come up several times in the recent documentaries, interviews etc. So I wonder, where is he? Why hasn't he appeared in the documentaries etc. Has he even been sought up?

A fascinating piece that explains a lot:

https://babettepress.tumblr.com/post/16 ... -queer/amp

MikeyC wrote: Tue 23 Apr 2024, 8:29 am

telys wrote: Tue 23 Apr 2024, 8:06 am Bobby O has come up several times in the recent documentaries, interviews etc. So I wonder, where is he? Why hasn't he appeared in the documentaries etc. Has he even been sought up?

A fascinating piece that explains a lot:

https://babettepress.tumblr.com/post/16 ... -queer/amp

Amazing article, it explains many things.

Nickname wrote: Tue 23 Apr 2024, 11:08 am

MikeyC wrote: Tue 23 Apr 2024, 8:29 am

telys wrote: Tue 23 Apr 2024, 8:06 am Bobby O has come up several times in the recent documentaries, interviews etc. So I wonder, where is he? Why hasn't he appeared in the documentaries etc. Has he even been sought up?

A fascinating piece that explains a lot:

https://babettepress.tumblr.com/post/16 ... -queer/amp

Amazing article, it explains many things.

Explains what? I have no idea, apart from mentioning Bobby Orlando was homophobic (seems quite extraordinary to me) and wrote a book on creationism. Does this suggest him being to much of a nut to be asked a few question about the PSB early history? I don't get it.

My guess would be that either Bobby Orlando was approached and said no, or more likely Neil and Chris said no.

Agree with telys. Tom Cruise is a scientologist, he still is being interviewed about his work and Prince was a Jehova’s witness, so what?

Quite a provocative article, but not really based on facts I would say, more of an opinion piece without having talked to the guy. The music industry in the late 70s and early 80s was very hetero focused and full of man loves a woman cliches. That’s not only Bobby O but also companies like CBS or MTV at the time, and even the BBC. And singers as marrionettes was also done before and after (Boney M, Millli Vanilli, Stock Aitken Waterman, 90s dance acts, Idols etc)

He’s probably not a nice figure in terms of personality, that’s why official documentaries of the Boys do not feature him (he made a lot of money with their early recordings and also gets some writing credits on their later work) in addition to the 1 million he was paid to release them from his contract.

His recordings are never featured on official PSB collections as well because he asks too much money for licensing his recordings (which he still owns).

Would love to hear him interviewed though.

The last I heard, they hadn’t spoken to him for years. Probably decades by this point. I think things are acrimonious. Didn’t he ring them up to tell them that their new record (I think it was ‘Actually’), wasn’t much good?

I’m sure it’s a needle in their side that he kept releasing their earlier recordings made with him and they had no control over it.

I agree that it would be interesting to hear his side of the early story from his mouth.

In 2003, things can't have been that acrimonious as they covered Try It (I'm in Love with a Married Man). They've had remixes of the Bobby O's West End girls pulled from Spotify over the past few years so maybe things changed.

Bobby O is positive about Bilingual in this interview from 1996

https://www.italodisco.co.uk/artists/bo ... erview.htm

But not sure why they are talking about a DVD release of Bilingual.....

before wrote: Tue 23 Apr 2024, 4:44 pm Bobby O is positive about Bilingual in this interview from 1996

https://www.italodisco.co.uk/artists/bo ... erview.htm

But not sure why they are talking about a DVD release of Bilingual.....

That is indeed weird, their talking about "the use of DVD technology" whatever they mean with that. The first DVD title was released in November 1996 in Japan, the interview is from November 1996, but at that time literally nobody owned a DVD-player so both probably did not have a clue what they were talking about.

I never heard of a bad relationship between Bobby O and the Boys, other than them commenting on how much money he made with rereleasing their early stuff without their consent. And that he asked too much money for these tracks to be included on their own compilations. Maybe he asks too much money for being interviewed about them too, who knows.

Found this a nice Bobby O read btw: https://www.disco-disco.com/artists/bobby-o.shtml

Still wish those new west end girls mixes from Ben liebrand etc weren’t pulled.

There don't seem to be any pictures of Bobby O in recent times.

telys wrote: Tue 23 Apr 2024, 12:06 pm

Nickname wrote: Tue 23 Apr 2024, 11:08 am

MikeyC wrote: Tue 23 Apr 2024, 8:29 am

A fascinating piece that explains a lot:

https://babettepress.tumblr.com/post/16 ... -queer/amp

Amazing article, it explains many things.

Explains what? I have no idea, apart from mentioning Bobby Orlando was homophobic (seems quite extraordinary to me) and wrote a book on creationism. Does this suggest him being to much of a nut to be asked a few question about the PSB early history? I don't get it.

Maybe he has a difficult personality, at least the article suggest that, and it had his effect on his relationship with PSB.

There is a rumour about him that says he didn't accept the success of PSB just because he thought they were having success with the "high-energy" method he thought he had invented.

TallThinMan wrote: Tue 23 Apr 2024, 7:20 pm There don't seem to be any pictures of Bobby O in recent times.

Yes, this is true.