#west end girls

[halonumber]

Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls (1984) dir. Andy Morahan & Eric Watson

#pet shop boys #west end girls #synth pop #80s music #neil tennant #chris lowe #.gif

[80s-music-tourney]

The previous poll has decided, Talking Heads is back in the game!

#80s music tourney #back with a vengeance #pet shop girls #pet shop boys #west end girls #talking heads #once in a lifetime #80s music #polls #Youtube

[wannabeskyferreira]

🚬🚬🚬🐈‍⬛️🐈‍⬛️

#old tumblr #2014 tumblr #2014 grunge #bring back 2012 tumblr #bring back 2014 #2014 indie #rockstar gf #west end girls #kate mess #2014 revival #2012 tumblr #mood board #moodboard #lana del rey

[bigforeheadbaddie]

fave lisa edit yet

#lisa frankenstein #@malicekiss #tiktok #lisa frankenstein edit #lisa frankenstein movie #lisa swallows #kathryn newton #diablo cody #zelda williams #kathryn newton edit #lisa swallows edit #west end girls #pet shop boys #80’s

[carmyscigs]

gonna start posting my edits here too cause of the stupid tiktok ugm thing ugh anyways enjoy carmy x west end girls

#carmen berzatto #carmy berzatto #carmy the bear #the bear #the bear edit #carmen berzatto edit #carmy berzatto edit #i need him #5’7 looks a lot like 6’7 when ur on ur knees #jeremy allen white #west end girls #jeremy allen white edit

[dazaiconfused]

West End Girls, 1986 - directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson

#um so i just like the walking parts even tho everyone has seen them before -this is a post for me ig #these are also not chronological #pet shop boys #neil tennant #chris lowe #1986 #1980s #west end girls #music videos #my gifs #gifset

[project21-fashionista]

nah bro. this intro is untouchable. molly did her thingggggggg 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

#project 21 #molly long #west end girls

[keepyourtwocents]

East end boys and west end girls

#literati #Rory gilmore #Jess mariano #Gilmore girls #East end boys #west end girls #Alexis bledel #milo ventimiglia #moodboard #aesthetic #nyc

[goodomens-girlie]

Aziraphale is the only theater kid I tolerate.

if ur a theater kid… u scare me

#good omens #good omens s2 #good omens show #aziraphale #neil gaiman #crowley x arizaphale #good omens fandom #west end #west end girls #theater kids #theater kid #theatre #theatre kid #michael sheen is my fave #michael sheen is so funny #aziraphale magic show #aziraphale is adorable #aziraphale theater kid

[singlesablog]

A New Cool

“West End Girls" (1985) Pet Shop Boys Parlophone Records (Written by Tennant/Lowe) Highest U.S. Billboard Chart Position – No. 1 

There are two lines of thinking concerning the debut pop single for the seminal electronic pop band Pet Shop Boys; one, that the song is atypical of all of the hits they would ultimately create (and are still creating over 30 years later), and the other is that this is their signature song.  I am of two minds, that it is at once very them, and conversely not them at all; in some ways their first hit was a makeover of the band, whether by design, or not.  It is undeniable that in 1986 it was enormously successful, an evocative ear worm, and that the single introduced the strangely beautiful tenor voice of singer Neil Tennant, and ushered in one of the greatest pop duos ever. 

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met in a hi-if shop in London on Kings Road in Chelsea in 1981, and discovering a mutual love of electronic music, formed a band.  Tennant was at that time an assistant editor at Smash Hits magazine, and Chris a college student studying architecture.  Immediately, they began writing songs together in Neil’s bedsitter apartment (which I believe translates as a studio in the US).  They signed with American producer Bobby O (who oversaw rather crude Miami-tinged 80s dance music) in 1984/85; together with him they produced for the first time many of the songs that would appear on their debut Please, and the follow-up LP, Actually. “West End Girls” was released in 1985 as a 12” disco version that was much cruder and sparer; it was a minor hit in Europe and a “Screamer of the Week” on the influential 80s radio station WLIR in Long Island, New York (who's djs had a nose for new wave talent).  Nevertheless, it sank, and they spent the next year extricating themselves from Bobby O and signing with EMI, relinquishing to him some of the future royalties on many of the soon-to-be famous songs they had already written, including “West End Girls”, “Opportunities”, and “It’s A Sin” (all of which were re-recorded and eventually went top ten in the United States).  It would seem that the Imperial phase for any great band must always begin with a lawsuit.

“West End Girls” was re-released by the band in late 1985 in a much different version produced by Stephen Hague, and it immediately conquered the world, selling 1.5 million copies.  Where the Bobby O version squawked and squealed and sounded dated even then, this new track slithered on to the airwaves with a newer, more insinuating quality.  Rather than a club banger, this was now a highly suggestive track, with droning, floating synths, every effect modulated downward into an expression of cool detachment.  It was an important single not only in introducing this idea of bored aloofness from the duo, but also by permanently stamping them with the image.  No matter how hard they would try in the future to produce bombast (say, on “It’s a Sin”, a truly bezerk pop hit) they would be forever labeled as sardonic, stand-offish, bored, or sarcastic.  These are words that really translated into one idea for me: that they were actually gay, and smart, and therefore happy to play along with any narrative the public chose for them as long as people continued to buy their records.  The song’s lyrics, written by former history major Tennant, apparently reference Eliot’s “The Waste Land”, which sounds hilariously high-toned, but for the then 19 year old that first experienced it, it was clearly a coded story of gay boys clubbing on the wrong side of town, because the gay bar is inevitably on the wrong side of town, and that perhaps West End Girls is a clever wink at describing gay men crossing over. On top of all of these suggestions was a very fey British man successfully talk-rapping lyrics (a rap I can to this day successfully recite), telling a story with no obvious conclusion, because, well, you know.  It is a coded song about a coded world.  And while the Pets didn’t invent the electronic pop song, like couturiers they certainly tailored it to the measure of some very strict gay signifiers, and when I fell in love with the hit (and the band) I was already acquainted with those ideas and understood them instantly.  Of course, I did not experience the duo as detached; instead, they were stylistically and artistically brilliant, and their songs were clever, propulsive, and unique. 

Please as an album can be examined as a cohesive slice of queer nightlife in the 1980s: escaping to the city (“Two Divided by Zero”, “Suburbia”), sneering at society (“Opportunities”), fighting oppression (“Violence”, “I Want a Lover”), and, finally, reconciling to life and love, whatever that might mean (“Later Tonight”, “Love Comes Quickly”, “Why Don’t We Live Together?”).   I am sure “West End Girls” does reference “The Waste Land”, but somehow, just perhaps, Neil, the master of collage, is actually speaking more allusively to the mating habits of the male homosexual circa 1985.  Chris Lowe, for his part, made absolute certain that the songs would be played were they belonged, which was in the club, his complete obsession in every way; the electronic sounds he produced are essential to the texture of what Pet Shop Boys ended up doing better than anyone else, which was to document gay lives by dropping clues and signals to fantastic disco music while leaving out the specifics. And this is possibly why the original Bobby O version was so awfully wrong, and not really them: the duo must have discovered that they didn’t need to bang bang bang, that they could be better than that.  In fact, they actually didn’t need Bobby O at all; they could conjure up these subtle and delicious scenes all by themselves.

Sadly, Bobby O still got the money.  Kind of just like a Pet Shop Boys song, isn’t it?  

A little cynical, but true.

-

*The title of Please, which I always found entertaining, I imagined was a reference to gay men chastising one another with "Oh, Please", or "Girl, Please." This has never been substantiated. Instead, Neil was quoted as saying it was a little joke, so when a customer asked for it, they would be forced to say I would like Pet Shop Boys, Please. Hmmm. Regardless, this would still qualify as a double entendre.

-

Dropping a hairpin (verb, gay, archaic slang term): to reveal one's sexual preferences by dropping broad hints; thus keep your hairpins up, and maintaining a 'normal' mask.

Who, who wants a cocktail?  (“Opportunities (Reprise)”)

Someone spread a rumor.  Let’s run away. (“Two Divided By Zero”)

In every city, in every nation, from Lake Geneva to the Finland Station.  (“West End Girls”)

You may not always love me I may not care But intuition tells me, baby There's something we could share If we dare, why don't we?    (“Why Don’t We Live Together?”)

And you wait 'til later, ‘til later tonight.  'Cause tonight always comes.   (“Later Tonight”)

Neil Comes Out

In the early 1990s, Jimmy Somerville, formerly of the very out, gay 80s band Bronski Beat, accused Neil and Chris of Pets Shop Boys of exploiting gay culture for career purposes, and of not putting anything back.

Neil came out officially in 1994, and commenting in print on the matter, said that he resented anyone telling anyone how out they should be, or just what constituted a “contribution” to gay culture: 

“I do think that we have contributed, through our music and also through our videos and the general way we’ve presented things, rather a lot to what you might call ‘gay culture’. I could spend several pages discussing the notion of ‘gay culture’, but for the sake of argument, I would just say that we have contributed a lot. And the simple reason for this is that I have written songs from my own point of view…”

He pauses again. “What I’m actually saying is, I am gay, and I have written songs from that point of view. So, I mean, I’m being surprisingly honest with you here, but those are the facts of the matter.”

Having finally got all that off his chest, Neil Tennant pours himself a glass of mineral water and takes his sweatshirt off. He is looking distinctly pink around the gills. Maybe it’s the effect of suddenly admitting that for all these years he has been singing nothing but the truth. Or maybe it’s just the unbearable heat in here. “Well,” he says, in a voice which carries a distinct [air of]‘moving swiftly on’, “what’s your next question?”

Source: Neil Tennant in Attitude Magazine, 1994

#west end girls #pet shop boys #1980s #pop #disco #electronic music #Please #music history

[187um-killa-trill]

Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls (Official Video) [HD REMASTERED]

#pet shop boys #west end girls #video

[djevilninja]

Too many shadows, whispering voices; Faces on posters, too many choices. If, when, why, what; how much have you got? Have you got it? Do you get it? If so, how often? Which do you choose: A hard or soft option?

Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls (Disco Mix)

*no one knows your name

#pet shop boys #music #new wave #pop #80s #groove #west end girls #west end girls remix #(upload)

[80s-music-tourney]

#80s music tourney #pet shop boys #west end girls #bobby brown #every little step #80s #polls #Youtube

[wannabeskyferreira]

#modeling #lindsay lohan #old tumblr #2014 tumblr #lily rose depp #rockstar gf #mood board #lana del rey #coquette #west end girls #nyc aesthetic #nyc #nyclife #kate moss #kate mess

[diet-poison]

When Pet Shop Boys sang,

Too many shadows, whispering voices Faces on posters, too many choices If, when, why, what? How much have you got? Have you got it, do you get it If so, how often? Which do you choose A hard or soft option?

I think they were talking about getting tacos

#pet shop boys #west end girls #music #tacos

[bellz-twilight]

i love him so much miles is my spirit animal

#bright young things #miles maitland #michael sheen #west end girls #michael sheen fanart #miles maitland fanart #Bright young things fanart