Neil’s an old friend from our days back at Smash Hits in the early ‘80s. The first Pet Shop Boys demos were played on the office tape machine, though he was a bit self-conscious about “the one with the rap on it”. He’s always had a journalistic capacity for story-telling, remembering everything in famously entertaining detail, and we had so much material from this reunion we turned it into a two-part podcast. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find in this second half ...
… “every group has to have an angle”.
… pop’s current obsession with identity.
… why Bronski Beat were so significant.
… David Bowie’s scathing one-word reviews of Michael Jackson and Oasis at the Brits.
… “the whole world of pop songs is a giant ever-expanding artwork”.
… meeting Frida from Abba, “a song waiting to happen”.
… the ‘Pits & Perverts’ gay benefit for the miners in 1984.
… London clubs in the early ‘80s - “we had a competition to see who could wear the highest heels”.
… how everyone at Smash Hits thought Michael Jackson’s Thriller was “a damp squib”.
… recording West End Girls.
… first hearing a 12-inch single.
… appearing on Soul Train with Don Cornelius – “like being on a different planet”.
… why Dusty Springfield gave Jerry Wexler a nervous breakdown.
… seeing the last Ziggy Stardust show.
… meeting Steven Spielberg, Micky Dolenz and Joni Mitchell.
… and Boy George's gag about George Michael.
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PSB tour dates: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/pet-shop-boys-tickets/artist/735852
Order the new Pet Shop Boys album ‘Nonetheless’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/nonetheless-Deluxe-2CD-Shop-Boys/dp/B0CTKKBBVF
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Stewart Lee knows the rigours of ‘animal costume work’ and why great comedy is about shock
How Springsteen went “six deep”, fictional rock hacks and who’s more conservative than Liam Gallagher?
Jon Savage - Dusty’s wig, Bowie’s bombshell and how gay pop culture changed music
“Abba’s success is more about us than them”: Giles Smith looks back at a 50-year love affair
the Architect of Mod: how Peter Meaden restyled and launched the Who - by Steve Turner
Great album trilogies, suing Madonna and "the pantheon of psychedelic heaviosity"
The spectacular Dead & Co, songs performed backwards & happy birthday Diamond Dogs!
Why They Might Be Giants now perform an entire song backwards
Guy Chambers - writing with Robbie, a tangle with Bowie & half a bagel with Paul McCartney
Alan Edwards, pop PR – ‘Bowie was like King Arthur and the Spice Girls like the Pistols’
Rock’s image-makers, men on dancefloors and why bands can’t act like bands anymore
Paul Carrack has seen it all – beat, soul, prog, pub rock, pop & the perfect ‘slow burn’ career.
Nige Tassell was so obsessed with Dexys he’s tracked down all 24 ex-members
Why Nick Mason’s “cottage industry” band plays just early Pink Floyd
Let It Be revisited, the wisdom of Steve Albini and a woeful tale about Steve Marriott
The genius of Little Feat, the Man with the Twang & pop’s greatest scandal in the making
Steve Diggle of the Buzzcocks remembers the day “a terrible beauty was born”
Rock snobbery, the seven wives of Gregg Allman & the greatest solo on a pop record
Harold Bronson of Rhino Records kept a 40-year rock and roll diary…
The “amniotic throb” of modern pop, the eternal life of the Top Gear theme and the Blue Nile’s lucky break
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