2020 headliners

[H.M.V]

2 hours ago, Gnomicide said:

I can't stand Pet Shop Boys (which I may have mentioned more often than Crazyfool1 mentions his hat) but they'd get a huge crowd.

I can't stand them either. They make me feel sad. 

[eFestivals]

27 minutes ago, H.M.V said:

I can't stand them either. 

to me they represent everything that Thatcher put onto the country.

[Jeremy Irons]

16 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

to me they represent everything that Thatcher put onto the country.

PSB? that's an interesting statement. In what ways?

[jparx]

Thatcher is responsible for a lot of awful shit, but inventing synth pop certainly is top of the list.

[eFestivals]

4 minutes ago, Jeremy Irons said:

PSB? that's an interesting statement. In what ways?

fuck the world and "Let's Make Lots Of Money".

[Quark]

14 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

fuck the world and "Let's Make Lots Of Money".

I always listen to that as poking fun at that concept - have I been doing it wrong?

[maelzoid]

Yowser! A lot of PSB hate here. I think they're great. Yes, there was some shitty Synthpop, but lots of brilliant stuff m ore than mitigates: PSB, New Order, Depeche Mode, Talk Talk, Tears for Fears, Human League.

And there's no way Thatcher had anything to do with it, other than provide a horrid social situation that inspired artists to rebel against. PSB may sound a bit yuppieish in places but there's so much more depth to them than such a reductive view suggests.

If they play, I'll be there and  I'm sure we'll get along without you very well.

[incident]

8 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

fuck the world and "Let's Make Lots Of Money".

It's not a celebration of the concept though. It's much the same as The Specials writing Ghost Town a few years before.

"This was in the Eighties, during Thatcherism, and suddenly there had been this huge philosophical shift in the country where the idea of making money was a good thing. People started talking about yuppies and buying Filofaxes and all that kind of stuff, and this was meant to be a sort of satire on that. It's a classic Chris idea: let's say the unsayable."

 

[maelzoid]

1 minute ago, Quark said:

I always listen to that as poking fun at that concept - have I been doing it wrong?

No you got it right. If nothing else, Neil Tennant is an arch ironist.

[jparx]

4 minutes ago, maelzoid said:

Yowser! A lot of PSB hate here. I think they're great. Yes, there was some shitty Synthpop, but lots of brilliant stuff m ore than mitigates: PSB, New Order, Depeche Mode, Talk Talk, Tears for Fears, Human League.

And there's no way Thatcher had anything to do with it, other than provide a horrid social situation that inspired artists to rebel against. PSB may sound a bit yuppieish in places but there's so much more depth to them than such a reductive view suggests.

If they play, I'll be there and  I'm sure we'll get along without you very well.

For the record I was just having a laugh - don't mind some PSB at all. New Order are one of my favourite bands so no issue from me with the genre!

[eFestivals]

5 minutes ago, Quark said:

I always listen to that as poking fun at that concept - have I been doing it wrong?

I've just been wondering if I have been.

But along with that song title, everything else about them as a band is similarly plastic-80s too. Not formed for artistic output, and with a love of miming.

[Quark]

1 minute ago, eFestivals said:

I've just been wondering if I have been.

But along with that song title, everything else about them as a band is similarly plastic-80s too. Not formed for artistic output, and with a love of miming.

Any chance that your view is slightly coloured by the fact that, from what I've seen you post on the topic, you really REALLY didn't like a lot of the 80s in general?

[eFestivals]

2 minutes ago, Quark said:

Any chance that your view is slightly coloured by the fact that, from what I've seen you post on the topic, you really REALLY didn't like a lot of the 80s in general?

oh, absolutely.  

Much like now, there was a wrong side to be on and a right side to be on. Everything about PSB screamed the wrong side.

[CaledonianGonzo]

I always assumed Tennant was a leftie and songs like Shopping and Rent were skewering the yuppies rather than celebrating them.

That said I was definitely wrong about Morrissey.

[eastynh]

59 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

I always assumed Tennant was a leftie and songs like Shopping and Rent were skewering the yuppies rather than celebrating them.

That said I was definitely wrong about Morrissey.

Tennant is/was one of the biggest donators to the Labour party.

Synth pop has always been very anti establishment and anti Thatcher. It was ridiculed as not being proper music. It is also massively gay. It may have been the soundtrack to the 80's and people automatically identify that with the Thatcher years, but synth pop was definitely not right wing or utopian

The grabbing hands, grab all they can.

 

[eFestivals]

26 minutes ago, eastynh said:

Tennant is/was one of the biggest donators to the Labour party.

Synth pop has always been very anti establishment and anti Thatcher. It was ridiculed as not being proper music. It is also massively gay. It may have been the soundtrack to the 80's and people automatically identify that with the Thatcher years, but synth pop was definitely not right wing or utopian

The grabbing hands, grab all they can.

 

everyone who picks a synth becomes left wing...? 

It didn't work for Phil Collins.  

[eastynh]

12 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

everyone who picks a synth becomes left wing...? 

It didn't work for Phil Collins.  

Not really. I thought the discussion was about 80's synth pop? New Order, Human League, Depeche Mode and so on. No one mentioned Phil Collins.

[eFestivals]

Just now, eastynh said:

Not really. I thought the discussion was about 80's synth pop? New Order, Human League, Depeche Mode and so on. No one mentioned Phil Collins.

I was talking specifically about PSB, who certainly didn't wear left wing politics openly (unlike other bands) to anything in my vision. Perhaps I got it wrong, but they looked like yuppies and sung about making money like yuppies, to a background of plastic music.

[eastynh]

5 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

I was talking specifically about PSB, who certainly didn't wear left wing politics openly (unlike other bands) to anything in my vision. Perhaps I got it wrong, but they looked like yuppies and sung about making money like yuppies, to a background of plastic music.

You are wrong on this one Neil. Tennant has always been massively left wing. PSB have always been dripping in irony. There is absolutely nothing yuppie about them in any way. 

Please define plastic music for me. I would call PSB music as high nrg, gay, proto disco, electro pop. 

[Superscally]

19 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

I was talking specifically about PSB, who certainly didn't wear left wing politics openly (unlike other bands) to anything in my vision. Perhaps I got it wrong, but they looked like yuppies and sung about making money like yuppies, to a background of plastic music.

Did one of the top ten covers of all time...

[stuie]

2 minutes ago, eastynh said:

You are wrong on this one Neil. Tennant has always been massively left wing. PSB have always been dripping in irony. There is absolutely nothing yuppie about them in any way. 

My knowledge of them doesn't go back to the 80's but I've always had this impression too. 

[eFestivals]

2 minutes ago, eastynh said:

You are wrong on this one Neil. Tennant has always been massively left wing. PSB have always been dripping in irony. There is absolutely nothing yuppie about them in any way. 

how can I be wrong about what they represent to me..? What they are in reality is one thing, the image they portrayed and (for example) the titles of songs was something else.

 

2 minutes ago, eastynh said:

Please define plastic music for me. I would call PSB music as high nrg, gay, proto disco, electro pop. 

definitely not what I know of as high energy.

From where I was musically at the time, just being a synth band and very much a pop band was probably enough for them to get fixed in my mind as that plastic thing. If you wanted 'credible' synth that was to be found elsewhere.

[Quark]

17 minutes ago, Superscally said:

Did one of the top ten covers of all time...

You know this just demands the question of the other 9 right?

 

[Superscally]

2 minutes ago, Quark said:

You know this just demands the question of the other 9 right?

 

That's a nice job. Watch this space.

[Quark]

Just now, Superscally said:

That's a nice job. Watch this space.

I shall ready my judgement.

I've actually got a playlist I've been building up of originals vs covers, so I ain't coming into this gunfight with a knife