The Quietus have just published online an interesting piece about “It couldn’t happen here”, directed by Jack Bond. Go to the link below to read it. Meanwhile discussions are taking place between EMI, Jack Bond and the BFI about a DVD release next summer.
This is what you can expect night after night on the Pet Shop Boys’ current tour.
Electric
One more chance/Face like that
Opportunities
Memory of the future
Fugitive/Integral
(Sample of “The Rite of Spring”)
I wouldn’t normally do this kind of thing
Suburbia
I’m not scared
Invisible
The last to die/Somewhere
Leaving
Thursday
Love etc
I get excited/Rent
Miracles
It’s a sin
Domino dancing
Love is a bourgeois construct
Always on my mind
West end girls
Vocal
Thank Christ they’ve done away with ‘Go West’.
Here are the rest of the World Tour Dates with Venues. I’ll see you all at the Mann Centre in Pennsylvania in September.*
* This might be a lie.
The first remix of ‘Axis’ is available to download on iTunes NOW.
Pet Shop Boys have released a video to Axis. The single is released on 1 May (it says) but you can get it on iTunes now.
Electric is available on vinyl and CD and features five exclusive postcards if you pre-order. 500 sets of postcards will randomly be signed, by Pet Shop Boys.
This is the latest blurb from the official website:
Pet Shop Boys new album, “Electric”, will now be released worldwide on July 15th (international dates vary) and is the first to appear on their own label x2 through Kobalt Label Services. Produced by Stuart Price, “Electric” features nine tracks in total – eight brand new songs plus a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “The last to die” – and has a running length of 50 minutes. The British singer and rapper, Example, performs on one track, “Thursday”. The album was recorded in London, Berlin and Los Angeles over the last six months with one track, “Fluorescent”, written and recorded within the last month. Neil and Chris comment: “Our latest album often evolves as a response to our previous album and, whereas ‘Elysium’ had a reflective mood, ‘Electric’ is pretty banging! And working with Stuart Price on a studio album is something we have wanted to do for a very long time.” The artwork (shown here) is by Farrow.
The album’s opening track, “Axis”, can be heard and purchased online now. An accompanying video can be viewed now at the link below where you will also find pre-order links for “Electric”.
As you’d expect, Farrow have been paid a shed-load of money to come up with the least inspiring artwork for a record I’ve ever seen. Yes, that’s it (above). It’s the only graphics the chaps have dared to show on their website.
Anyone, enough of that. Here’s the tracklisting for ‘Electric’:
They say the album will be released on 15th July (depending on where you are). Their own new label is called ‘x2′, through Kobalt Label Services. Nine tracks in all; ‘Thursday’ features a rapper (yawn) and in all, the LP lasts about 50 minutes (this is Disco 5 isn’t it?)
The LINK for the UK iTunes page works, but that’s about it. Chris came up with the name ‘x2′ and they say they may even release stuff by other artists on the label in the future.
Chris’s BOY cap can be purchased HERE.
Found these fanart covers online.
They’re probably a lot better than we’re going to get.
This image has appeared online this morning. I argued that even by Farrow’s ‘standards’, it’s rubbish. Probably a fake. What do you think?
Pet Shop Boys, Please – released 24 March 1986. To celebrate, here’s the Shep Pettibone Mastermix of West End Girls for you in M4A format:
WEST END GIRLS (SHEP PETTIBONE MASTERMIX) 12″
The Special Edition 10″ of Love Comes Quickly was released on the same day.
‘The Last to Die’ is one of two new songs from ‘Electric’ featuring on the Boys current tour. Not sure about it at the moment, but then it’s live, and live music (as you know) is a pet hate (sic) of mine. ’Axis’ is the other new song being premiered, and as I understand it, Stuart Price has already leaked it at a club – it’s the track you hear in the Electric teaser, followed by a medley of other songs like ‘One More Chance’ and ‘Face Like That’.
Setlist
Axis
One more chance/Face like that
Opportunities
Memory of the future
Fugitive/Integral
(Sample of “The Rite of Spring” by Igor Stravinsky.)
I wouldn’t normally do this kind of thing
Suburbia
I’m not scared
Invisible
The last to die/Somewhere
West End girls
Domino dancing
Love etc
It’s a sin
Always on my mind
Go west
Being the vague kind of guy I am, and knowing Pet Shop Boys lyrics as I do, I wasn’t aware of the Gerhard Richter influence on the ‘Yes’ cover, until I came across the Richter artwork named ’4900 Colours: Version II’.
Mark Farrow said the Boys had been inspired by the Richter exhibition at the Serpentine, which featured panels of brightly coloured squares.
“Although the Richter paintings look stunning on a gallery wall, as an idea for a CD cover it felt a little tired and we felt we had ‘been there’,” Farrow says. ”The tick was obviously inspired by the album’s title ‘Yes’. Reducing the title to a symbol that encompassed the other elements the band had requested just seemed to work; it’s instant and memorable and pop. The tick is made up of eleven coloured squares, one for each track on the album. It’s made up of eleven coloured squares, one for each track on the album.”
While the standard version of the album has a white background (above) a limited edition double disc version comes in black (below).
The coloured blocks continue on the inside of the package where the tick deconstructs and both merges and clashes with photographs of the Boys.
In addition, there was the highly limited edition vinyl version of the album which consisted of the album tracks split over eleven separate vinyl records, each in a coloured sleeve, all housed in a smoked Perspex case. I know somebody with one of these and I’m envious beyond belief.
When correctly arranged the eleven album sleeves will allow you to make up your own tick, measuring some eight feet in length.
