One record at a time: 380. Pet Shop Boys - Interview Picture Disc

I used to see this "Limited Edition" picture disc being sold in almost every record shop in the late eighties and early nineties. Rather than music, this record contains a poor quality recording of an interview conducted by an unknown journalist with a German accent. The conversation seems to have been held around August 1987 when the Pet Shop Boys were promoting their album "Actually".

Fans could learn quite a lot from this interview where an unusually verbose Chris Lowe gives us details on the recording of the album and some of the instruments used. We learn that J. J. Jeczalik of the Art of Noise was the Fairlight programmer on "Shopping" and that the mix of "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" on the album was the second version created. 

Everyone becomes a little coy when discussing the vocal samples on "Heart" as the interview is going to be published in Italy and nobody was ready to risk being sued (years later they would reveal that Pavarotti was one of the voices sampled). Further on Neil talks at great length about the inspiration for the songs "Rent" and "Kings Cross" and there is a brief mention of the then current litigation regarding "It's a Sin" which finds the journalist firmly on the boys side.

The interviewer mentions a reprise of "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" being listed on his promo cassette that didn't seem to play. This comes as a relief to the boys as they had decided to remove it from the finished record. The interviewer also asks if the drums on "Hit Music" are 'real' only to be told they are from a Fairlight III. As the discussion moves to the writing process and how the songs were demoed, the record ends abruptly with Neil mid sentence. 

This item is strictly for collectors and I almost considered not including it here; but it didn't feel right to miss anything out. I have two copies of this record as one was a casualty of my poor record handling in the eighties. I haven't listened to either for over twenty years so it was good to spin one of them today. 1/5

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