Pet Shop Boys Community

Chris once said that after listening to Passion by The Flirts, everything he had heard up to that point was made redundant.

Cast your mind back to when you had that feeling to a Pet Shop Boys song.

Mine has to be Paninaro (Italian Remix) from Disco. Everything about that mix made me feel this is the best thing they'll ever do. Of course I was wrong but reflecting back to that moment still gives me goosebumps to that thumping bassline, euphoric chords & the minimalistic of lyrics. It's as if I never wanted that song to end & to be fair, it didn't.

The euoporhic build up in Always On My Mind (Extended Dance Mix) and then the release 5mins 20 in.
That was it. But it also links with memories and people who sadly aren't here anymore. But that moment still stays with me. Dancing and buzzing to that beat. Life is much more simpler when you're young.

Opportunities! I was into of all types of music; rock, pop, electro, and was pleased that unlike most of my friends, I didn’t truly support just one band. Then I heard “Opportunities” on the radio and I was blown away. I bought the 12” and played it over and over and over. And here I almost 40 years later still a huge fan!

Actually wrote: Wed 23 Apr 2025, 7:21 pm Chris once said that after listening to Passion by The Flirts, everything he had heard up to that point was made redundant.

Cast your mind back to when you had that feeling to a Pet Shop Boys song.

Mine has to be Paninaro (Italian Remix) from Disco. Everything about that mix made me feel this is the best thing they'll ever do. Of course I was wrong but reflecting back to that moment still gives me goosebumps to that thumping bassline, euphoric chords & the minimalistic of lyrics. It's as if I never wanted that song to end & to be fair, it didn't.

I think I'm with you on Paninaro. Up to that point I was really only familiar with "the singles" so far and a pirated copy of Please, and Disco was my "lightbulb moment", and much of that was because of Paninaro. LOUD was the only way to play it.

I'm with you on Paninaro.

I first heard it sometime in 87 on a copied tape. Didn't know the title and I wrote it on the inlay as "Pannynero"

But the one that blew me away the most was Left to my own devices. I can still remember the hair on the back of my neck standing up as it finished.

Outside PSB, New Order True Faith; Happy Mondays WFL and Secret Knowledge Sugar Daddy all has a similar effect, if for different reasons.

Paninaro still gets me every time, I love it.

neilgregory72 wrote: Thu 24 Apr 2025, 5:30 am But the one that blew me away the most was Left to my own devices. I can still remember the hair on the back of my neck standing up as it finished.

Outside PSB, New Order True Faith; Happy Mondays WFL and Secret Knowledge Sugar Daddy all has a similar effect, if for different reasons.

Yes, hard agree on the neck-tingling capabilities of Left to my own devices. Even as a non-fan at the time, I had to applaud the sheer audacity of reciting your to-do list over a bombastic orchestra and pounding dance track!

My own biggest "musical epiphany" moment was Are Friends Electric by Tubeway Army, which made me a diehard Numanoid for several years because apparently teenage me needed moody scifi synths. The next biggest one was (ahem) Def Con One by Pop Will Eat Itself, for peak intergalactic punk rock hip hop. And then many years in the musical wilderness before Single-Bingual reintroduced me to PSB.

What always impressed me about Paninaro is that it's the bloody other one 'singing' it! How good must you be if a stone-cold classic has the keyboard player on lead vocals?

Even The Beatles only gave Ringo the cheesier songs; it wasn't like he sang Strawberry Fields.