Pets headline Brighton Pride !

I was delighted to see that The Pet Shop Boys were the main act at this year's Brighton Pride here on Saturday 5th August, doing a full 90 minute show.

Much as I like The Pets - still going strong after 30+ years - and their innovative, stylish shows, on reflection we will be giving it a miss - it would not be a good venue for us to see them, as they will attract a huge crowd and one may well be stuck in the middle of a throng, unable to move. Now that we are getting on a bit, comfort is a necessity, I demand a seat and a good view. 

Thankfully I have seen the Pets several time before, as per label - their Savoy Theatre residency in 1997, London Pride that year, and on tour in Brighton in 1999 and also at The Tower Of London in 2006 etc. I am sure they will have other tour dates lined up too. 

But good luck for Brighton on Pride Day. I could always play their Glastonbury or O2 concert dvds instead ,,, Years and Years are terrific too...

Brighton Pride is one of the UK's main Pride events, I have been to several and know the city well having lived there for several years, on the south coast in Sussex. Its a great day out for everyone and events and clubbing continue all weekend.  

PSB ROH

Rave reviews for The Pets at The Royal Opera House, we did not get tickets in time though for their 4-night season - but at least they are doing a Tour next year, so may catch it then. We had already of course seen their great residency at The Savoy in 1997 - was that 19 years ago? scary .... and their 1999 tour (with that Zaha Hadid set) in Brighton; and their 2006 concert at The Tower Of London, plus a few of their Pride appearances.

After 30 years (42 Top 30 singles since 1985) the Boys are still going strong, still doing great concerts (check the dvds for ther O2 and Glastonbury sets), the recent albums have been great again, they were in the 2012 London Olympics parade,  plus their musical CLOSER TO HEAVEN, their soundtrack for BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, their ballet and those inventive videos and singles with all those great remixes. THE POP KIDS are still SUPER. POP ART  indeed. 
As James Hall said in "The Telegraph": The show encompasses high culture, club culture, theatre, cinema, political satire and a mind-bending laser show. Oh, and dozens of dancers in fluorescent inflatable sumo suits throwing shapes as though their lives depended on it ... This is no Greatest Hits set, a third of the 23-song set is taken from this year's SUPER and 2013's ELECTRIC, both produced by Madonna producer Stuart Price and both up-tempo celebrations of dance culture ... The setting is extraordindary, from the stalls one could look up to see five tiers of people dancing among the lasers and the gilded balconies, the Opera House recast as a temple to hedonism. Below, the orchestra pit became a rave cave. Call it incongruous, call it bonkers, call it wonderfully eccentric - this show is all of these." 2017 here we come !  

Something for the weekend 3: the pop kids

13 albums in, the golden age of The Pet Shop Boys may be behind them,  but they remain masters of their very singular domain. The new album SUPER ticks all the right boxes for devotees: "The Pop Kids" is the standout and is their current single - I have just ordered it with various remixes (including an extra verse and lyrics) and some other tracks - their CD singles are always worth investigating for extra numbers (or 'B-sides' as we used to call them:  "Sexy Northerner", "The Boy Who Couldn't Keep His Clothes On", "The Truck Driver and his Mate" etc). 

"Happiness" is also a delightful slab of boppy, nursery rhyme pop. Neil Tennant (a pop veteran at 61) still sounds simultaneously wry and mournful and Chris Lowe's (56) euphoric keyboards still tickle both heart and body. They have the pop sensibility down pat, they are indestructible, after 30 years and still going .... roll on their Royal Opera House shows in July. Nice that one can still be a Pop Kid at any age. SUPER is produced by Stuart Price, who also put Madonna through her paces. 

Gay Brit pop in the '80s .... hit that perfect beat, boy

What a gay week on BBC's Radio 2: first, an hour long documentary on gay British pop in the '80s with all the usual suspects, Boy George and co, but focused mainly on that song that meant so much to us: "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat, led by Jimmy Sommerville. Jimmy has done several versions over the years, as mentioned here before, but it really spoke to us back in 1984 with that simply but oh so catchy hook, which they followed by the equally good "Why?" -  the video for "Smalltown Boy" is equally a time capsule of life in the 80s then.  Their album AGE OF CONSENT was essential too, and their following hits plus Jimmy with The Communards. I spent so much of the late '80s listening to them and The Pet Shop Boys as my then disk jockey partner Rory (1960-1996) played them a lot in the clubs in Brighton and Portsmouth.

The '80s were a tough time for the gays, as the gutter press demonised them in the age of Aids, as people like Kenny Everett and Russell Harty were hounded to their deathbeds, and later in the '90s, as boyband members like Stephen Gately of Boyzone had to 'come out' before the tabloids exposed them, and then found that nobody cared - like now when guys like Tom Daley, Ben Whishaw, Andrew Scott, Russell Tovey, or Zachery Quinto, Matt Bomer, Jonathan Groff in the States can come out and still keep their careers while the senior gays like Sir Ian, Simon Russell Beale, Sir Antony Sher, Sir Jacobi and co are still at the top of the league - a long way from back in the 1950s when Sir Gielgud was arrested but also found theatre audiences were not bothered ....   

Of course British pop always had a big gay element right back from the days of Larry Parnes and his stable of rockers - only Billy Fury was the real talent - then Brian Epstein with The Beatles, and laterly producers like Simon Napier Bell (Wham!'s mastermind - his book "Black Vinyl White Powder" details it all),  high energy maestro Ian Levine, and Nigel Martin-Smith who put Take That together knowing exactly what the marked wanted ... but then suddenly the boys were not hiding in the closet any more as pop poppets like Will Young and Joe McElderry threw caution to the winds and emerged from those closets into the daylight. 

I loved "Smalltown Boy" from the start though it did not really apply to me: I did not leave home because I was not loved, on the contary - but I was 18 in 1964 and wanted to be in London, not in a small town on the west coast of Ireland .... of course now I love going back there, and will be relocating there in a year or two. Take it away, Jimmy - who I saw around town a lot back then, in London and in Brighton - good to see he is still here and still working ...

Then, also this week, the BBC gave us a 4 part, 4-hour long series on The Pet Shop Boys, tying in with their new album SUPER, covering Neil and Chris looking back on their 30 year career, with fascinating comments (2 more programmes next week, one by the fab Frances Barber, who starred in their 2000 show CLOSER TO HEAVEN) and the boys are on Graham Norton's show tomorrow, on Good Friday. The following week's Norton show features that other great '80s survivor Holly Johnson (of Frankie Goes To Hollywood) with Take That's Gary Barlow - once so big but now tarnished by tax avoidance scandal - promoting their new single written by Gary. We will always have a soft spot for Holly's Frankie hits, and Gary's Take That promos like "Pray" and "Never Forget". Perfect pop.  PS: What has George Michael been up to lately? - while Boy George queens it up on BBC's talent show THE VOICE, while Markus Feehily (the gay one in Westlife) is now making interesting solo music as well, very dark deep house. Then there is Mika and Tiga and all the others ... 

Of course before Take That became a respectable stadium act their early videos are a scream now, as canny gay manager Martin-Smith had them prancing around in camp outfits (just like early Boyzone when managed by Louis Walsh!) like that early one "Do What You Like" where they end up naked with jelly smeared on their bums - outrageous! Comedian Peter Kay had a lot of fun with that in his incarnation as transgender X-Factor winner Geraldine McQueen (from Dungannon, Northern Ireland) with his "The Winner's Song" written by Gary Barlow - Simon Cowell must have been livid!. Geraldine and the boys spoofed it all again in their hilarious concert clip here: 

Perfect 1980s pop ...

Brighton, 30th August 1985. 

"Sooner or later this happens to everyone - just when you least expect it, waiting around the corner for you" ....

Good news too that the Pets have a new album out in April and are doing some summer dates at The Royal Opera House in London - we saw them during their residency at The Savoy in 1997, and at the Tower of London in 2006 - as well as various festivals and Pride events. Bring them on ...

Dusty time again ...

How we listened to music then - a nice shot of Dusty in 1965, used to promote a new biography on her, recycling all the gossip and myths. 

Britain's greatest pop diva, Dusty Springfield was also the finest white soul singer of her era, a performer of remarkable emotional resonance whose body of work spans the decades and their attendant musical transformations with a consistency and purity unmatched by any of her contemporaries (Lulu, Sandie Shaw, even Mariane Faithfull, or dear old Cilla); while remaining a camp icon of glamorous excess in her towering beehive hairdo and panda-eye black mascara.

I have done several items on  Dusty already, as per label - including seeing her record one of her 1969 tv shows for the BBC, when I was 20, at the old Golders Green Hippodrome. She was in a bad mood that day and was having a diva moment, as she had to re-record her first song. I can still picture her stomping around the stage. 

For when you have a spare hour, this compilation  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCcYTv6Evoc&list=RDoCcYTv6Evoc#t=3074

 of her BBC appearances is worth watching, particularly the later ones, and that last sad final one on the Jools Holland Show. I also like her doing "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" with The Pet Shop Boys at the Royal Albert Hall Brits Awards in 1987 see below - the only time they did it apart from the pop video. In their later shows the Boys used a back projection of Dusty for the number. She remains though for me up there with Joni, Barbra and Aretha, and her "Dusty In Memphis" remains an essential album. 

Song writer Gerry Goffin who died recently, is featured on the album too, as four Goffin-King songs are included:  the wonderful "No Easy Way Down" plus "Don't Forget About Me", "So Much Love" and "I Can't Make It Alone". There will always be so much love for Dusty - if only her last years had been better. 

Summer sounds

High summer at last, Robin Thicke's BLURRED LINES may be the infectious sound of the summer (just how ironic/sexist is that video or lyrics?) - along with Daft Punk's GET LUCKY, Pharrell has certainly been busy, as has Nile Rodgers - his CHIC compilation is a treat, all those great tracks on one album, plus the new Pet Shop Boys on Monday - ELECTRIC, we can't wait. So, lets have a jug of Pimms and get the music going....

I was compiling a playlist of hot summer tracks, and songs from way back that remind one of those summers we used to have. It went something like this:

Groove Is In The Heart - Deee Lite

Summer In The City - Lovin Spoonful (Warm Baby - is their winter song)
Sunglasses At Night - Tiga

On The Road Again - Canned Heat

Night In The City & Chelsea Morning - Joni Mitchell

Hot Summer Nights - Marianne Faithfull

Summertime (I like Nina Simone's version best)

Sunny Afternoon - The Kinks
Running Around Town - Billie Ray Martin (12 minute remix)
Nothing Really Matters - Madonna (13 minute remix) + Don't Tell Me, Impressive Instant.

Dancing in The City - Marshall Hain

Back To the Night - Joan Armatrading

It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry - Leon Russell

Stranger In a Strange Land - Leon Russell

Riders on the Storm & Waiting For The Sun - The Doors

Sunshine Of Your Love & White Room - Cream

Need Your Love So Bad - Fleetwood Mac

I'd Rather Go Blind - Chicken Shack

Laughed At The Judge - Grease Band

40,000 Headmen & Feeling Alright - Traffic

Rock & Roll Heart - Eric Clapton

Paradise & I Cherish The Day -  Sade

Pure Pleasure Seeker - Moloko

Finally - Ce Ce Peniston

Sun Rising Up - Deux

Brighter Days - Dejae

Where Love Lives - Alison Limerick

Big Fun - Inner City - their whole album still counts

Back To Life & Keep On Moving - Soul II Soul

Say I'm Your Number One - Princess

Gotta Save Your Love For Your Number One - Rene & Angela & Kurtis Blow, 
Thinking About Your Love - Skipworth & Turner (I had a great night out with them in Brighton in 1985)
and I must grab those Hed Kandi 'Back To Love' compilations for tracks like T-empo's Saturday Night, Sunday Morning or Young Disciples' Apparantly Nothing ....

 
Then there's all the Ibiza chillouts, I will be happy with my A Man Called Adam ("Barefoot In The Head", "Duende" and "Space, Ibiza") collections, or the Groove Armada compilations, plus the Global Underground deep funk series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBae0rfqIKE
 

Fond memories of those A Man Called Adam Friday nights at Heaven, chatting to the group's Sally Rodgers; or the Miami funk duo MURK (Funky Green Dogs) also raising the roof at Heaven, what a night that was, and 4 or 5 Pet Shop shows, including that great Savoy residency in '97. 

Ultimates !

Just how many times can one re-package one's greatest hits? I see there is a new Barbra Streisand compilation THE ULTIMATE BARBRA STREISAND which is just 1 disk of of her best known and it is in the charts! But there have been 5 or 6 other packages of her greatest hits. I have the 40-track 2-disk ESSENTIAL one which is enough for me (also the ESSENTIAL series of Aretha Franklin, Herbie Hancock, Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon) and the Michael Jackson one is pretty comprehensive too (I bought it as part of a Christmas gift).

The new ULTIMATE that I really want to talk about is ULTIMATE PET SHOP BOYS and for once it really is. The Pets have been going for about 25 years and have clocked up so many hits and are still hugely popular all over the world, they tour a lot, as per their website. Originally part of the electro-pop scene of the early '80s they have transcended that with their engaging music and different work as they mature (they are in their 50s now) - Neil Tennant's vocals are as engaging as ever and I just like their 'look', often using sets by architect Zaha Hadid for instance. Over the years I have seen them at The Savoy in London, at Clapham Common gay pride, at Brighton for their 1999 tour, and at The Tower of London a few years ago. To be fair they have not re-packaged themselves too much - there is one collection of all their singles "Discography" and the 3-disk definitive "Pop Art" collection, various concerts like last year's at the O2 with accompanying dvd, and the 2-disk concert at the Barbican "Concrete" etc., as well as their "Battleship Potemkin" soundtrack, their musical "Closer to Heaven" and I like their "Back to Mine" disks of personal favourites, as well as their studio albums.



This new one really is the ULTIMATE - a cd of 19 hits, starting with - of course - that intro into "West End Girls" and ending with a new song "Together" - but also a terrific three-hour dvd of their BBC appearances, covering their 90 minute concert at Glastonbury this summer which was terrific (with new arrangements of those songs we love and very visually staged too) and 27 other video clips from shows like "Top of the Pops" most of which I had not seen - fascinating seeing those early versions of "Love Comes Quickly", "Being Boring", "Paninaro" etc - and their lovely version of "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" with a fabulous looking Dusty Springfield at the Brit Awards in 1988 - the only time they did it live with her (apart from the pop video). (They now do it live to a ghostly video projection of her). 20+ years ago I was living a different life in a different city with someone now no longer with us and Pet Shop Boys was the soundtrack to all that. So, in all, this is one ULTIMATE worth having. (I saw Dusty too back in 1969 recording one of her BBC weekly shows at the old Golders Green Hippodrome - something went wrong with the first number and she had to do it again, so there was a little drama...!)


The cover of the original issue of "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" and Neil and Dusty doing it at the Brit Awards in 1988. Top: at Glastonbury 2010

And now Leon ! How great to see Leon Russell back - with that mane of white hair and beard! His new album with Elton John THE UNION is also a tasty treat. Leon was a favourite of mine back in the late '60s, his honky-tonk piano and bluesy voice were great on tracks like "Stranger in a Strange Land" or "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, it takes a Train to Cry" and of course his "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" tour with Joe Cocker. He wrote one of my favourite songs "A Song For You" which it seems everyone has covered - Donny Hathaway's version being the ultimate for me (up there with Marvin Gaye's "Distant Lover"). We loved Elton's first albums too - that "Your Song" one, the glorious sound of "Tumbleweed Connection" [Dusty on backing vocals!], "Madman Across The Water" (with "Tiny Dancer" etc) but then the glitz took over, so its good to see Elt going back to his roots in this collaboration with Leon. They have been doing the rounds so hopefully this will be a hit - now I must go and savour it again....[back in my '70s life I lived off the Kings Road in Chelsea and got to know Elton slightly as he used to visit Noel Edmond's record shop where he would chat and sign records, and we met in Harrods once, plus there was a nice early concert with Marc Bolan guesting...but those are other stories, like when I met Freddie Mercury at Heaven (as I knew Jim Hutton.]

Music Music Music

Great month for new music. New albums by MASSIVE ATTACK, SADE, HOT CHIP, BILLIE RAY MARTIN to add to ipod and THE PET SHOP BOYS do it again - terrific new CD of their December concert at the O2 in London, which includes a dvd of same, with some brilliant extras.

Its a brilliant extra-long concert which the full O2 certainly appreciated, I always love the new versions they do of the hits like "West End Girls", "What Have I Done To Deserve This?" [with Dusty tribute], "Suburbia" and "Being Boring". They revisit the hits and its all very visual. I have seen 4 other Pets concerts (including their Savoy residency in 1997 and at the Tower of London a few years ago). What other duo have been going for over 25 years and still as dynamic today? Dvd also includes that brilliant mix they did at the Brits last year, with Lady Gaga and Brendan Flowers.

One of my 70's favourites JOAN ARMATRADING is touring as well, so seeing her in May. She is always terrific live, its been too long since we saw her last. Will JONI MITCHELL ever tour or appear here again? At least I got to meet her (in Kings Road, Chelsea) purely by chance in 1972 and we walked along having a pleasant conversation. She did great concerts in London in 70, 72, 74 etc. Given her antipathy to the music biz now I don't suppose we will be seeing her cashing in on a nostalgia tour as others do! Her painting probably takes precedence now, but we will always have that marvellous sequence of albums from 1968 onwards. She has a good website though for updates.