Now, I know I am gunna piss a few people off with this article, but I’ve never been one to shy away from controversy!
The thing is, I’ve just got to tackle this notion from some quarters of the Casual fraternity that The Pet Shop boys were (and are) an Iconic and top notch group!
Don’t get me wrong, whenever I hear West End Girls, Paninaro or Love Comes Quickly (too quickly in my case) I can’t help feeling a warm sense of nostalgia. These songs take me back to my school days, and they bring back a lot of fond memories, however that’s where it stops for me.
You see, I grew up in and around Moss Side Manchester, and if you went around our estate in the 1980’s saying that you liked the Pet Shop Boys someone would have promptly broken your nose, or snapped your jaw!
So to add some context, I began my hight school life in 1985, and where we lived Electro, Streetsoul, Hip Hop and Reggae were the sounds of the streets, and acts such as the aforementioned group were seen as being, well a bit shite, despite their catchy tunes!
Fast forward to the modern day and some of the older Casuals seem to have an almost sycophantic and gushing admiration for Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant! Now I put a lot of this down to the Suburbia record sleeve which in itself, (to be fair) is an iconic image of the 1980’s, but as far as the music goes, well it wasn’t really much kop (no Anfield pun intended)!
Of course the Paninaro track really cemented the groups legendary status in the minds of some, many of whom don’t really understand what the Paninaro movement was truly all about, but that’s a story for another day!
I remember arguing with some geezer from a little piss amp fishing village up in the north of Scotland (on Facebook) who was trying to tell me that The Pet Shop boys were as iconic as Bowie, The Beatles or the Stones! I think it’s fair to say that the geezer in question had clearly led a sheltered life!
Now its not my intention to embarrass any die hard Pet Shop Boys fans here, far from it, but for fucks sake get a grip, more importantly get yourself some fucking decent music to listen to, and stop looking back with your ‘Rose Tinted Glasses’!
PS: I would like to end by saying we once released a collection of t-shirts featuring the iconic Chris Lowe Suburbia image (below), and they sold like hot cakes. And I still love and adore the image to this day, but when it comes to their music being iconic, drop me out!
PPS: We still have two of these tees in a size XL (23″ pit to pit) £35 a pop!!
 Glasses!){kind=link}