Pet Shop Boys Influence, by Thierry Hachet |  |
The story began fourteen or fifteen years ago. There was this girl I was so mad in love with, I mean what I say. But she was not in love with me. Being good friends was to be the limit to our relationship. What wouldn't I have done to get her closer to me? Well, for a start I would listen to the music she liked.
At the time there was a song she thought was great, it was called West End girls and was sung by the Pet Shop Boys. So I would start listening to this song. And then what happened? Nothing. Well, not exactly: nothing changed in my relationship with my friend but something else happened. I fell in a trap.
A new love began, it has never ended so far. I fell in love with the music of the Pet Shop Boys. Well at that time something changed in me. What? With the intrusion of an odd couple's music in my life a new characteristic added to my identity. That of being a PSB fan. Did I change for the better? I could not say. This happened progressively. What is sure is that people who knew me, and my growing passion for the Pet Shop Boys, at the time refered to me as the Pet Shop Boy. Not 'A' Pet Shop Boy but 'THE' Pet Shop Boy. Even now, fifteen years later! If there is a place on earth my friends will have the chance to listen to pet shop boys music it is in my car, not in anybody else's! Or in my flat, but not in anybody else's! If they see them live on TV it is because my VCR is on! Would they want to see their face and their weird look? They will have a look at my bedroom walls! Call it obsession? No, I would just say it is love.
Is it so uncommon to be a Pet Shop Boys fan? Yes. It has always been and will always be. I remember, back in the eighties, how hard it was for me to find a badge of the Pet Shop Boys and how easy it was for my friends to find badges of U2, Bruce Springsteen, The Cure or Depeche Mode. Well, finding one in France was impossible, so I had to make my own badge. Thanks to them I specialized in DIY! Then later, in 1989 when I first travelled to Britain I found two badges, but this fashion was over at the time! Nevermind!
More recently, in 1998, as I had always been intrigued by the PSB web site address written on all their new releases I did everything I could to have access to the magical web. I had to do this for I have always done my best to have access to everything more or less in relation to the Pet Shop Boys! So I entered the world of the internet. I wanted to have access to this site, then quickly I reqlsed thqt there were dozens of very interesting sites created by fans devoted to the cult of the Pet Shop Boys.
Being a Pet Shop Boys fan is a quality criterion. Yes, definitely. What is going to follow might sound very paradoxical, I'm aware of that. At the same time I would like everybody to buy Pet Shop Boys records, but at the same time I really appreciate the fact that they are not as popular as they ought to be... Why? To get the exclusivity! I have quite chqnged my mind about this now. Why? well I changed my mind for I realized, using the internet, on a discussion forum, Dotmusic.com, that all these people around the world shared the same passion as I do and that they are not silly groupies as I had first imagined, but on the contrary an intelligent funny bunch of people!
Who am I, who are the Pet Shop Boys, What do we have in common, Do we have something in common, What makes me like them? Hey, I don't know! Do I need to know? What is sure is that we are connected in a way. There is a kind of association between us. Like association of ideas. Whenever a friend of mine hears the PSB he, or she, will automatically think about me. In my microcosm there is a direct link between this pop band and me. But I claim that there is no identification process, not at all. I am not them. I am influenced by them. I cannot remember walking down the street wearing a pointy hat! Then, if incidentally I wear a cap, my closest friend will again call me the Pet Shop Boy!
What do I think about Pet shop Boys connected people? How come I bought almost the entire back catalogue of Liza and Dusty and New Order? Has somebody got a clue? My friends tell me that even if they had produced the oldest crapiest untalented french singer ever I would have bought this record... well... maybe!
So what's the extent of this influence? This is what I tried to work out in this letter. What I know for sure is whatever the extent of this admiration there's no harm done, I am not under a bad influence! I pesonnally think that there should be not limit to admiration. One cannot master love!
