A Hard Or Soft Option?

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Ever Friday, we give away a voucher worth TWENTY FIVE euros to spend at any of the many Golden Discs stores nationwide.

All we ask from you is a tune we can play at an unspecified time next week.

This week’s theme: Pet Shop Boys

What song from the three-decade career of enigmatic synth pop duo Neil Tennant (above right) and Chris Lowe (left) remains always on your mind, forcing you to ask, quite reasonably: what have I done to deserve them?

To enter, please complete this sentence.

‘Pet Shop Boys’ greatest moment would have to be ___________________________________owing to its_______________________’

Lines MUST close at 2.45pm EXTENDED until 6.15pm  MIDNIGHT!

Golden Discs

Thanks Bertie

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58 thoughts on “A Hard Or Soft Option?

  1. Dub Spot

    (It’s Pet Shop Boys, not “The” Pet Shop Boys according to Neil – I’m a massive fan who was once in a tribute act called “Pet Shop Alter Boys”)

    “Pet Shop Boys’ greatest moment would have to be “Love Is a Bourgeois Construct” owing to its brilliantly catchy core sample from Michael Nyman’s “Chasing Sheep Is Best Left to Shepherds” and a wry, witty ironic, very bourgeois student “have your cake and eat it” set of lyrics that are a playground of kaleidoscopic cultural references to make you smile. A dazzling, multicoloured overload of clever reflections, regrets, and glitter that yet never disappears up its own behind. It’s soooo PSB.”

  2. yupyup

    Pet Shop Boys’ greatest moment would have to be their appearance on the ‘Love Me Tender’ TV special commemorating the 10th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death owing to their absolute genius ability to cover someone else’s work and make it their own. It was a great tribute to Elvis but they tweaked the harmonies a bit and synth popped the ass out of it. It shouldn’t have worked but it really did and 30 years later it still sounds great. They got so much praise for the tribute performance that they decided to release it as a single and it went on to be a UK Christmas number 1 keeping the first release of ‘Fairytale of New York’ off top spot.

    1. Brother Barnabas

      yep to yupyup

      that’s the defining brilliance of pet shop boys – a fairly limited synthpop duo (a couple of keyboards that they couldnt even play all that well and just-alright vocals) that could stretch and bend the b0ll0cks out of almost anything to make things that in theory couldn’t work turn out brilliantly. thinking too of of What Have I Done to Deserve This?, the duet with Dusty Springfield.

          1. Bertie Blenkinsop

            Pop band.
            Our generation.
            Name a better one.
            ( assuming you’re of a similar vintage )

          2. Brother Barnabas

            actually I take it back – you’re right

            I’d forgotten loads of PSB’s stuff – having a YouTube moment now

            had somehow forgotten Suburbia… how come nobody’s mentioned that?!?

          3. Bertie Blenkinsop

            Is that the first time anyone ever said “actually you’re right” in Broadsheet history?
            No wonder the site is down temporarily, Bodger must have fainted! :)

          4. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

            Depeche Mode were the dog’s. I saw them in ’93 when Dave Gahan was mangled on heroin and they were unbelievable.

          5. Martco

            I’ll throw another one in…
            Spandau Ballet

            Tony Hadley works in some clothes shop up in Dundrum nowadays

        1. Brother Barnabas

          remember taping that video and spending hours with a couple of friends pausing it on the camel toe shots. such innocence.

          1. Brother Barnabas

            he mightn’t have been able to hold the high notes, but he had the most beautiful labia

      1. Brother Barnabas

        neil tenant was the editor of smash hits when they got their deal. in an interview once, was asked what he attributed their early success to. said: “a surprisingly large volume of very, very, very positive reviews in smash hits… which I wrote”

  3. 3Cees

    ‘The Pet Shop Boys’ greatest moment would have to be West End Girls owing to its revelation that one can rap in an english accent and still come out with a banging tune’

  4. Ollie Cromwell

    The Pet Shop Boys greatest moment would have to be Always On My Mind because it’s the answer no-one ever gets in the pub quiz where the question is what kept Fairytale Of New York off the Christmas No 1 spot.It’s also a great cover version of the Elvis classic.

  5. Bertie Blenkinsop

    ‘Pet Shop Boys’ greatest moment would have to be Left to my own devices.

    I always thought listening to it is like speeding along in a car….

    AND it’s got the line

    Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat

    What more could anyone want?!

    https://youtu.be/Ed1tv_gCOUA

    1. Martco

      second that, great great tune!
      (they’ve Trevor Horn to thank, and did)
      have to put it on now on the drive to Cork, English Market & a Saturday pizza at ballymaloe house awaits, nice one Bertie!

      wishing y’all a nice pre-Christmas weekend!

  6. The Deadly Calzone

    Pet Shop Boys’ greatest moment would have to be ‘Being Boring’ owing to its subject matter of love, loss and life in their own eloquent and melancholic style. ‘Tis Axl Rose’s favourite song too.

  7. Joe cool

    As a kid i was their biggest fan. If youre going to play pet shop boys then it has to be Its a sin…

  8. The Bad Ambassador

    ‘Pet Shop Boys’ greatest moment would have to be “Love etc.” owing to its central message that I
    (Don’t have to be) A big bucks Hollywood star
    (Don’t have to drive) A super car to get far
    (Don’t have to wear) A smile much colder than ice
    (Don’t have to be) beautiful but it’s nice

    As a result I’m now much more than content with my

    meagre salary
    rust-bucket 1994 Nissan Micra
    Shane McGowan teeth
    face that looks like it caught fire and was subsequently extinguished was a shovel

    Life is good.

  9. ivan

    Lads, you’re going to have to extend the deadline. I can’t answer a question like this in such a short time.

  10. LeopoldGloom

    ‘Pet Shop Boys’ greatest moment would have to be their Pandemonium tour owing to just how jaw droppingly brilliant it was. Hit after hit after hit, incrediblly well produced, amazing visuals, and they were both on top form. It lead to a late career resurgence and their last 2 albums are genuinely excellent and as good as their early stuff.

    I saw it in a sodden field, on a day in which it rained endlessly and I and the other 10,000 or so people there were dancing like it was the hacienda or studio 54 or something!

    They could teach any “artist” a thing or 2 about how to put on a show.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSKVYP3jSLs

    1. The Bad Ambassador

      Couldn’t agree more. I was kind of indifferent to them (liked some of their songs but synth-pop generally isn’t my thing) until I caught the Pandemonium tour on Sky Arts late one night. (I think Andre Rieu may have been sick that day or something).

      Decided there and then that I’d get go see them next time they came this way. Saw them last year and was blown away. it was one of the greatest gigs I have ever been to.

  11. Spaghetti Hoop

    ‘Pet Shop Boys’ greatest moment would have to be Go West owing to its great sense of excitement in starting a new life in another land. Reminds me of the American pioneers, and the migration westwards from the early 19th Century. But it could apply to any nation, or indeed direction on the compass.

    we will love the beach
    (Together) we will learn and teach
    (Together) change our pace of life
    (Together) we will work and strive

  12. yupyup

    ‘Pet Shop Boys’ second greatest moment would have to be ‘Suburbia’ owing to how poptastically upbeat the tune is. Love the contrast between the frustrated lyrics and the upbeat happy chimes. In particular after the ‘I only wanted something else to do but hang around’ x 4 which shouts of desperation and discontent… and then whoosh off you go, happy days

  13. Peter Dempsey

    Pet Shop Boys greatest moment is Your Funny Uncle because it deals with death and how people cope with it. The stiff, upright uncle is dignified even though he’s out of his comfort zone.

  14. John Moore

    Greatest moment Shopping
    Because the lyrics are as true today as they were in the 80s boom

    No questions in the house, no give and take
    There’s a big bang in the city
    We’re all on the make
    We’re S-H-O-PP-I-N-G, we’re shopping

  15. Amorphous Kerry Blob

    Inner City Pressure.
    I’m guessing someone in the comment section has pointed this out already, but ‘what the hell’, I thought to myself.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUAcN9UCnbU

    This song is not particularly funny, and in turn making this comment not worth reading. Which you have read, so far to the end. One’s outer life passes in a solitude haunted by the masks of others; one’s inner life passes in a solitude hounded by the masks of oneself.

  16. Paddy

    I Made My Excuses And Left. A powerful song about the crushing moment when a partner is caught in the act with another person. Beautifully subtle with a sound akin to a church chant flecked through it to illustrate a fading sanctity. Off the underrated Fundamental album.

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