All Hail Pet Shop Boys
Posted Thu 6 Nov 2008 10:20AM GMT by Johnny Famethrowa in Touching The Void
In recent years, The Brits have solved the problem of who or what should close their glitzy annual music biz bun-fight and international tribute to Colombian industry with the Outstanding Achievement Award. Earlier this week, organisers revealed that The Pet Shop Boys would receive the prize in February, 2009, following in the footsteps of Sir Paul McCartney, Oasis, U2, Paul Weller, Tom Jones, Sting, David Bowie, The Beatles and The Who. From the moment of their debut single, the soundtrack to a blighted ‘80s Britain that is"West End Girls", it was clear this band was special."Sometimes you're better off dead / There's a gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head / You think you're mad, too unstable / Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables..." Has there ever been a better start to a chart career, wonders Famethrowa? This was Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe at their best, illuminating the deadpan terror of the generation through a near revolutionary, Technicolour electro-pop vision. It was also far preferable to the dafter duo they at times became, camping it up in silly pointy hats. But it's not just their own material that has made this as deserved as the Godlike Genius gong bestowed on The Cure by the NME, also this week.
Two of my favourite Pet Shop Boys tracks are actually collaborations. The first is 1989's majestic Electronic debut, "Getting Away With It", which saw them energise Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr's new act from the off. The other is "She's Madonna", the 2006 hook-up with Robbie Williams, in which he claimed "No man on Earth could say that he don't want her", a statement clearly at odds with Guy Ritchie's divorce proceedings, but still. Announcing the news on Monday, Brits Chairman Ged Doherty described The Pet Shop Boys "as one of the most influential groups of the modern era". Right on, Mr Doherty.
