One record at a time: 379. Pet Shop Boys - The Collection

This bootleg is quite an oddity. From what I can make out it was supposedly pressed in France circa 1988 and is a compilation that includes a twenty minute megamix as one of its 'highlights'. There are only seven tracks included and the assertion that the phonographic copyright in the recordings is owned by "ALLHITS LTD." seems more than a little doubtful. At least the artwork is a good effort.

I'm really not a fan of listening to mega mixes and they only make sense as a tool for lazy DJs. The effort by "Italian Sound Inc." included here is pretty terrible as the added elements are either out of tune or intensely irritating. Another annoyance is the fact that many of the songs play the wrong speed. As a result of beat matching the Shep Pettibone remix of "What Have I done to deserve this?" sounds slow and laboured and the samples added to "In The Night" drive me to distraction. The constantly repeating thunder claps and orchestra hits that are all over "It's a Sin" provide the icing on the cake.

The other tracks included are "Heart", "Always on my mind", "It's a sin" and "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" For whatever reason we are treated to the the album version of  "Suburbia" and "West End Girls" fades out rather unceremoniously after about three minutes. This record is quite a bizarre experience. 2/5

One record at a time: 378. Pet Shop Boys - Birmingham 91

This is a bootleg recording of the Pet Shop Boys "Performance" tour from June 1991. I attended one of the three nights Pet Shop Boys played at the NEC and I like to think this recording was made when I was there (despite there being no evidence to suggest it actually was).

Unfortunately the sound quality of this double album isn't very good as it is a audience recording replete with overwhelming room ambience, crowd chatter and a total lack of dynamics. To add insult to injury, this record became largely redundant when the "Performance" video was released in 1992 and fans could finally hear the show in high fidelity.

Personally I felt the set list for the "Performance" tour was rather disappointing. Whilst most of their hit singles were represented, I found it puzzling that they chose to include two songs from Liza Minnelli's "Results" album and the decision to allow one of the backing singers take over for "My October Symphony" was equally questionable. 

Highlights are the use of the Shep Pettibone remix for "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" and the blend of mixes on "We All Feel Better In The Dark". At the concerts themselves I found "I'm Not Scared" especially impressive but none of that dynamism comes across on these recordings. To be honest, the only value in this record is as a collectors item. 1/5

One record at a time: 377. Pet Shop Boys - Abbey Road Demos

This is a terrible bootleg that gathers together a seemingly random selection of unfinished mixes and demos. Not only is the sound quality pretty poor but the record needs to be played with the pitch down by about -6 to sound anything like it should. The source for these recordings is clearly a cassette that has been duplicated repeatedly and the muffled sound reproduction has absolutely no dynamics. 

Of the music itself we hear a slightly different mix of hit single "It's A Sin" and early mixes of "Rent", "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" and "You Know Where You Went Wrong". Despite being tagged as demos, I think these are actually alternate mixes created as part of the recording process for the finished product - we know that there were initial attempts at mixing both "It's A Sin" and "What Have I Done To Deserve This" that were rejected, so these could be those first versions.

Also featured is the "Breakdown Mix" of "I Want To Wake Up" and the short version of "One More Chance" that would go on to be officially released on the "Further Listening" disc that accompanied the remastered version of "Actually" in 2001.

To my mind the only genuine demos on this disc are "It Couldn't Happen Here" and "James Bond #1" (the latter being an early version of "This must be the place I waited years to leave"). Whilst it is possible that these two demos were made at Abbey Road, I think most of the material on this record was created as part of recording sessions at Advision or Sarm West studios and the title is misleading. 1/5

One record at a time: 376. Pet Shop Boys - Heaven

On 15th October 1991 Pet Shop Boys performed at Heaven nightclub in London as part of the launch party for the Derek Jarman film "Edward II". This event was billed as a benefit to raise funds for AIDS research at St. Mary’s Hospital in London and saw the boys play a short set of eight songs alongside guitarist J.J.Belle and three backing singers.

This record is a bootleg recording of the show and was released sometime in the early nineties. I seem to think I acquired this particular copy from a record shop in Manchester about ten years ago. People will try to sell you this record online for crazy prices as it is relatively rare, but it is not official and the sound quality isn't very good.

For this show Pet Shop Boys decided to play for about forty minutes and concentrated on, “Good dance tracks, so people could jump around a bit.” Despite wearing costumes from "Performance" on the sleeve of this record, only two songs from that tour were played and the nightclub atmosphere lends itself nicely to newer pieces like "Music for Boys" and "DJ Culture".

This concert also seems to have been the premier of the new song "Was It Worth It?" and footage form this performance was even worked into the subsequent video for the single release. Unfortunately the sequencers seemed to break down during "It's Alright" and it can be no coincidence that programmer Lawrence Cedar doesn't seem to have worked with the Pet Shop Boys since. 2/5

One record at a time: 375. Pet Shop Boys - Nonetheless

At the time of writing "Nonetheless" is the Pet Shop Boys latest album. Here we have two copies of the clear vinyl, the double white vinyl (with a signed postcard), the grey vinyl (signed on the sleeve), the numbered zoetrope picture disc and the triple vinyl 'expanded edition'. I haven't bought the standard common or garden black LP. Yet. I also have the standard black vinyl too but it isn't pictured.

When it was released I was very impressed by this album and that feeling hasn't waned. I still think this is the best record Neil and Chris have made since "Yes" in 2009 and I am delighted they have moved away from producer Stuart Price.

Ironically the first two singles that were released to promote the album, "Loneliness" and "Dancing Star", are fairly average but "Feel" is a big favourite of mine. I was less impressed with the idea of "A New Bohemia" being a single but it has grown on me to the point that today I regard it as one of the highlights of the album.

Songs that had the potential to sound cheesy such as "The Secret of Happiness" or "New London Boy" are brilliantly realised by producer James Ford and there are no horrors on the scale of "Wedding In Berlin" or "Hold On" here. If you don't understand the genre you might miss the point of "The Schlager hit parade" and "Why am I dancing?" can be a little repetitive, but I still enjoy both. In fact I can sit and listen to this album all the way through quite happily. Oh and the clear vinyl edition sounds terrific. 4/5

One record at a time: 374. Pet Shop Boys - Smash

When vinyl enthusiasts went looking for a Pet Shop Boys compilation, their attention invariably fell on the album "Discography". Not only was this release  relatively easy to find, but it also gathered together the singles from the band's commercial peak.

However, by 2023 this LP had been out of print for over thirty years and second hand prices were on the rise. Having noted this demand, Warner Music approached Neil and Chris for permission to repress "Discography" and fill a gap in the market.

Rather than grant this rather simple request, the boys elected to release a brand new box set called "Smash" instead. I'm not really sure a comprehensive six disc collection that retails for over £100 is what either the record company or the music buying public wanted; but it's what we got. How very Pet Shop Boys.

Here we have the limited edition version pressed on white vinyl and the standard black vinyl edition that were both released in 2023. The records are pressed by Optimal media and sound great, but the paper stock used for the inner sleeves feels very cheap and unsatisfactory. The less said about the graphic design the better, and the title is so bad it is laughable; but thankfully the music is the main attraction here.

The content of the first three discs in this set largely mirror that of "PopArt", but the correct mixes are used this time around. As you might expect, the remaining records collect together all of the singles Pet Shop Boys released between 2004 and 2020. Highlights for me are "Memory of the Future", "Vocal" and "Did you see me coming?" but there's a lot of other great material on here too. My disappointment is chiefly reserved for "Numb", "Leaving" and the single that should never have been: "I don't wanna".

Normally I wouldn't sit and listen all the way through a six disc box set that contains fifty five tracks, but I can make an exception for the Pet Shop Boys. If you are less inclined to persevere with such a marathon it is fairly easy to dip in and out of this compilation as the tracks are presented chronologically. As a comprehensive history of the Pet Shop Boys singles, "Smash" can't be beaten. Those looking for a more concise introduction would be better served by simply paying for a second hand copy of "Discography" and pocketing the difference. 4/5

One record at a time: 373. Pet Shop Boys - Hotspot

By the time "Hotspot" was released it felt like the seemingly arbitrary commitment to make a trilogy of albums with producer Stuart Price was a mistake. This record sounds like everyone involved had run out of ideas and the finished album is a ramshackle effort that I simply cannot warm to.

When it was released I decided to forget the quality of the music and simply find comfort in the fact that my favourite group were still around and releasing new material. I acknowledge this was rather cold comfort.

It's fairly easy to summarise this album as, "poor title, poor artwork and poor music". I don't like any of the songs here and a few of them I dislike intensely. 

"You're the one" is syrupy nonsense that is far too repetitive, "Only the dark" is out of tune, "Hoping for a miracle" sounds like a reject for a musical and the lyrics to "Wedding in Berlin" are simply awful (just to be clear I have absolutely no issue with the subject matter of "Wedding in Berlin", but the lyrics read like a poem created by a 14 year old).

There is a real lack of attention to detail everywhere but a good example is the fact that the introduction for "Wedding in Berlin" shows signs it once followed "Happy People" in the running order. Rather than modify the transition when the track listing was revised, the boys just chopped things up and said, "That will do". This is the same band that devoted a considerable amount of time adding an almost inaudible thunder clap between songs on "Introspective" - how times change.

If we were honest we would have to say much of this album only just gets over the quality threshold. This is a real shame as the boys made some brilliant tracks in this era but they chose to use them as additional tracks for singles rather than include them on the album. "An Open Mind" and "Decide" were thrown away, but they are better than anything heard here.

I was in a pretty bad mood with the Pet Shop Boys at this stage in their career. This was a band I had loved since 1985 and suddenly it felt like the wheel was spinning but the hamster was dead. I must admit, it began to enter my head that if "Hotspot" was the best they could muster, then boys might as well pack it in. 1/5