Where Pet Shop Boys Disco series idea came from which is slightly similar to Soft Cell's Non-Stop series.
I have noticed something very interesting a similarity sequence with Pet Shop Boys Disco series of 1-4...well Disco, according to Catalogue. And then some....
"Disco was first of series of Pet Shop Boys albums to contain extended dance mixes of recent hits and a new song, in the tradition of Soft Cell's Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing. Its title was something of a provocation and a defiant show of pride in the face of an American culture that still deemed the word 'disco' an insult, connoting music that was shallow, passionless and worthless." Catalogue page 62. Apparently they were influenced by Soft Cell more than I thought.
The Disco sequences have different meanings but at the same time, have a connection to mixes. The first Disco you see the image of Chris from the "Paninaro" video and then Disco 2 had Neil from an Italian TV show performing "Liberation" you'll see Chris clearly on the back of the CD sheet cover, the other two are in different angles and kind can't tell who they are if you didn't know who they were. The first two were designed by Mark Farrow and PSB. Disco 3, they had two artists: Scott King which art design and art direction and artist/photographer name Wolfgang Tillmans who did a shot of a cityscape, which honestly signify "nightlife" in my opinion and since from Catalogue, it looks like it's in the Nightlife Era which made perfect sense. The last one Disco 4 is pretty much florescent lights I think that's what they are called) forming a "4." I like how the first two show the presents one of each of the two band members and then the last two are the absences of them, very symmetrical there. I have no clue who designed Disco 4 but when I do more researching I'll see who did or ask someone who has it. That's the only one I don't own. I recently purchased Disco and so far my favorites from it are "In the Night" remixed by Arthur Baker, "West End Girls" remixed by Shep Pettibone, "Love Comes Quickly" remixed by Shep Pettibone and "Opportunities" remixed by Ron Dean Miller and the Latin Rascals. Disco 2, I love every track except "Yesterday When I Was Mad" Junior Vasquez Fabulous dub. Disco 3 I love "Time on My Hands," "Positive Role Model," "Somebody Else's Business," "If Looks Could Kill," and "Home and Dry" (Blank and Jones remix). Since the first one are other peoples' remixes of PSB songs, second one are like dubs and mixes of their songs by other people, third one are mixes, remixes and an edit, plus a new track or tracks I think, I look foward one day to hear to listen to Disco 4 where PSB do remixes of other musicians/bands' songs. I think I heard "Mein Teil" remix a few times, but that was it.
Now onward to Soft Cell and their installments with the Non - Stops installments. Since I don't have the CD covers at the moment of the first two, I'll base it off memory.
Non Stop Erotic Cabaret was Soft Cell's first album that was successful and was with Some Bizarre, they had previous vinyls from when they started I believe "Mutant Moments" but was released independently but it has only 2,000 copies and it became a high valued collectors item, but it showed interested by the likes of Mute Records and Some Bizzare Records. This particular album was funded by a loan of 2,000 pounds from Dave Ball's mother. I just thought about Chris having a loan to pay I think it was more, I forgot how much. Anyway back to the Non-Stops, Non Stop Erotic Cabaret was Soft Cell's first successful album, it includes their well known cover of a 1964 song "Tainted Love" and in the recent years, they had a dub added called "Tainted Dub." There's a limited of another copy of this album (this is the one with light blue colour surrounding the image of the album cover) with additional tracks like "Fun City," "Down in the Subway," and "Facility Girls." I'm trying to remember if there's more, I can't find the album cover, because I own this but it's all scratched up. Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing reminded me more of Disco 3 because of the mixes of the songs it's strange because that's where PSB gotten the tradition from with Disco. Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing at the time stopped with the extended version of "Tainted Love" then the newer remastered album consists of extended versions of songs such as "So," "What," "Torch," "Insecure? Me?" this particular idea reminded me of how Pet Shop Boys have the Further Listenings tracks on their debut albums in the terms of "Catalogue" which is their first six albums remastered: Please, Actually, Introspective, Very, Behaviour, and Bilingual. Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing had their underground hit "Memorabilia" which was ironically considered the first techno record ever. It also had instrumentals of "Chips on My Shoulder" you would hear on here voices from the original track and here Dave Tofani on the saxophone I think and "A Man Could Get Lost" and an original version of "Sex Dwarf" the other cleaner version can be heard on their first album Non Stop Erotic Cabaret. Lastly, "Where Did Our Love Go?" all by itself, I love this version than the one on the extended version. The original North American vinyl release replaced "Chips on My Shoulder" with the extended version of "Insecure...Me?", while the 1999 remastered CD reissue contained both tracks. I thought that was a good choice to do that. My least favorites from both albums are "Sex Dwarf," "Secret Life," and "Fun City." Going back to Non Stop Erotic Cabaret I found what the songs were on the bonus tracks, I called the limited because it's not common in the states that I know of, but here they are:"Where Did Our Love Go?" (B-side of "Tainted Love"), "Memorabilia" (B-side of "A Man Can Get Lost" in the UK and "Tainted Love" in the US, "Facility Girls" (B-side of "Bedsitter"), "Fun City" (B-side of "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye"), "Torch" (non-album single), "Insecure Me" (B-side of "Torch"), "What?" (non-album single), "....So" (B-side of "What?") and these two where on the update on I thought the 12 inch mix too: "Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go" (12" Mix), "Tainted Dub" (12" Mix). (wikipedia).I guess since they probably notice the album have space to add these songs on there was a brilliant choice! Now here's where SC and PSB are different in the sequence, Soft Cell released a VHS called Non Stop Exotic Video Show, this was a visual aspect of their first two albums, it is on DVD which I gotten as a gift, it omitted certain parts but it's still good to have. Now I would say this would be similar to PSB's PopArt only because of the commentary with Chris Heath. Soft Cell had behind the scenes and Marc is describing bits and pieces of their songs. I also noticed Soft Cell had some albums out in complilations such as: Demo Non Stop and The Bedsit Tapes. Demo Non Stop can possibly the fourth installment of the Non Stops why? According to wikipedia: A 2006 collection of demo recordings, originally recorded during the sessions for Non Stop Erotic Cabaret, which went on to become a worldwide multi-platinum seller (and their most popular album). 10 tracks, most of which are entirely unreleased songs or early versions of album tracks. Distributed by Some Bizzare Records. So it cuts a connection to one of their Non Stop Albums, which reminded of how PSB's Disco 4 was released later on. "The Bedsit Tapes is a compilation of songs recorded by the synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell before their record contract with Some Bizarre Records. The album, released 1 August 2005, collects various songs recorded in an amateur studio at Leeds Metropolitan University, then called Leeds Polytechnic, in Leeds. The album includes three tracks which appeared on their rare independent 1980 release, Mutant Moments. The album has received criticism for not being comprehensive enough, excluding several rare cuts which have appeared on previous bootlegs. David Ball, the keyboardist, comments on the album in the liner notes." (wikipedia) In order words, these are tracks of their rare demos they did back in the day. The "Secret Life" demo in Demo Non-Stop reminded me of PSB's early Demo "Bubadubbadum" if you listen to it, you'll see why somewhat. Even though Neil says it sounds like an early Depeche Mode demo, I can't agree with that, even Depeche Mode back then had a different sound, sure they were on the same record label with Soft Cell at the time with Some Bizarre but that statement is one of those I can't agree on when it comes to that demo. They say they are influenced by Depeche Mode, but what I'm looking at, they are more influenced by Soft Cell, I mean the evidence that I have looked and search for years prove that and even a friend of mine showed me something about how they only mentioned Depeche Mode about an album of their sounding like Violator and then the song "The Ghost of Myself" resembled Depeche Mode and Brittany Spears. And Soft Cell were used in song references :"In the Night", (Zazou) according Marc in his autobiography that was one of his performance pieces, which I found out was something different according to Alternative. "I Want to Wake Up" mentions "Tainted Love." In Disco 3, "If Looks Could Kill" and another song from something else but it's a demo called "A Powerful Friend" they like because if reminded them of a late Soft Cell. Neil even stated that Non Stop Erotic Cabaret they were influences by it and I believe if I'm not mistaken it was one of the influences of Please. The Disco sequence in the tradition of Soft Cell. Even Neil stated "If It wasn't for Soft Cell, there would be no Pet Shop Boys, Soft Cell made us realize could form a group." Even stated on a podcast that they were absolutely obsessed with Soft Cell. It made sense but why hide it? It's quite visible in the music and style but reinvented as their own. Just curious on that.
I have noticed something very interesting a similarity sequence with Pet Shop Boys Disco series of 1-4...well Disco, according to Catalogue. And then some....
"Disco was first of series of Pet Shop Boys albums to contain extended dance mixes of recent hits and a new song, in the tradition of Soft Cell's Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing. Its title was something of a provocation and a defiant show of pride in the face of an American culture that still deemed the word 'disco' an insult, connoting music that was shallow, passionless and worthless." Catalogue page 62. Apparently they were influenced by Soft Cell more than I thought.
The Disco sequences have different meanings but at the same time, have a connection to mixes. The first Disco you see the image of Chris from the "Paninaro" video and then Disco 2 had Neil from an Italian TV show performing "Liberation" you'll see Chris clearly on the back of the CD sheet cover, the other two are in different angles and kind can't tell who they are if you didn't know who they were. The first two were designed by Mark Farrow and PSB. Disco 3, they had two artists: Scott King which art design and art direction and artist/photographer name Wolfgang Tillmans who did a shot of a cityscape, which honestly signify "nightlife" in my opinion and since from Catalogue, it looks like it's in the Nightlife Era which made perfect sense. The last one Disco 4 is pretty much florescent lights I think that's what they are called) forming a "4." I like how the first two show the presents one of each of the two band members and then the last two are the absences of them, very symmetrical there. I have no clue who designed Disco 4 but when I do more researching I'll see who did or ask someone who has it. That's the only one I don't own. I recently purchased Disco and so far my favorites from it are "In the Night" remixed by Arthur Baker, "West End Girls" remixed by Shep Pettibone, "Love Comes Quickly" remixed by Shep Pettibone and "Opportunities" remixed by Ron Dean Miller and the Latin Rascals. Disco 2, I love every track except "Yesterday When I Was Mad" Junior Vasquez Fabulous dub. Disco 3 I love "Time on My Hands," "Positive Role Model," "Somebody Else's Business," "If Looks Could Kill," and "Home and Dry" (Blank and Jones remix). Since the first one are other peoples' remixes of PSB songs, second one are like dubs and mixes of their songs by other people, third one are mixes, remixes and an edit, plus a new track or tracks I think, I look foward one day to hear to listen to Disco 4 where PSB do remixes of other musicians/bands' songs. I think I heard "Mein Teil" remix a few times, but that was it.
Now onward to Soft Cell and their installments with the Non - Stops installments. Since I don't have the CD covers at the moment of the first two, I'll base it off memory.
Non Stop Erotic Cabaret was Soft Cell's first album that was successful and was with Some Bizarre, they had previous vinyls from when they started I believe "Mutant Moments" but was released independently but it has only 2,000 copies and it became a high valued collectors item, but it showed interested by the likes of Mute Records and Some Bizzare Records. This particular album was funded by a loan of 2,000 pounds from Dave Ball's mother. I just thought about Chris having a loan to pay I think it was more, I forgot how much. Anyway back to the Non-Stops, Non Stop Erotic Cabaret was Soft Cell's first successful album, it includes their well known cover of a 1964 song "Tainted Love" and in the recent years, they had a dub added called "Tainted Dub." There's a limited of another copy of this album (this is the one with light blue colour surrounding the image of the album cover) with additional tracks like "Fun City," "Down in the Subway," and "Facility Girls." I'm trying to remember if there's more, I can't find the album cover, because I own this but it's all scratched up. Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing reminded me more of Disco 3 because of the mixes of the songs it's strange because that's where PSB gotten the tradition from with Disco. Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing at the time stopped with the extended version of "Tainted Love" then the newer remastered album consists of extended versions of songs such as "So," "What," "Torch," "Insecure? Me?" this particular idea reminded me of how Pet Shop Boys have the Further Listenings tracks on their debut albums in the terms of "Catalogue" which is their first six albums remastered: Please, Actually, Introspective, Very, Behaviour, and Bilingual. Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing had their underground hit "Memorabilia" which was ironically considered the first techno record ever. It also had instrumentals of "Chips on My Shoulder" you would hear on here voices from the original track and here Dave Tofani on the saxophone I think and "A Man Could Get Lost" and an original version of "Sex Dwarf" the other cleaner version can be heard on their first album Non Stop Erotic Cabaret. Lastly, "Where Did Our Love Go?" all by itself, I love this version than the one on the extended version. The original North American vinyl release replaced "Chips on My Shoulder" with the extended version of "Insecure...Me?", while the 1999 remastered CD reissue contained both tracks. I thought that was a good choice to do that. My least favorites from both albums are "Sex Dwarf," "Secret Life," and "Fun City." Going back to Non Stop Erotic Cabaret I found what the songs were on the bonus tracks, I called the limited because it's not common in the states that I know of, but here they are:"Where Did Our Love Go?" (B-side of "Tainted Love"), "Memorabilia" (B-side of "A Man Can Get Lost" in the UK and "Tainted Love" in the US, "Facility Girls" (B-side of "Bedsitter"), "Fun City" (B-side of "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye"), "Torch" (non-album single), "Insecure Me" (B-side of "Torch"), "What?" (non-album single), "....So" (B-side of "What?") and these two where on the update on I thought the 12 inch mix too: "Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go" (12" Mix), "Tainted Dub" (12" Mix). (wikipedia).I guess since they probably notice the album have space to add these songs on there was a brilliant choice! Now here's where SC and PSB are different in the sequence, Soft Cell released a VHS called Non Stop Exotic Video Show, this was a visual aspect of their first two albums, it is on DVD which I gotten as a gift, it omitted certain parts but it's still good to have. Now I would say this would be similar to PSB's PopArt only because of the commentary with Chris Heath. Soft Cell had behind the scenes and Marc is describing bits and pieces of their songs. I also noticed Soft Cell had some albums out in complilations such as: Demo Non Stop and The Bedsit Tapes. Demo Non Stop can possibly the fourth installment of the Non Stops why? According to wikipedia: A 2006 collection of demo recordings, originally recorded during the sessions for Non Stop Erotic Cabaret, which went on to become a worldwide multi-platinum seller (and their most popular album). 10 tracks, most of which are entirely unreleased songs or early versions of album tracks. Distributed by Some Bizzare Records. So it cuts a connection to one of their Non Stop Albums, which reminded of how PSB's Disco 4 was released later on. "The Bedsit Tapes is a compilation of songs recorded by the synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell before their record contract with Some Bizarre Records. The album, released 1 August 2005, collects various songs recorded in an amateur studio at Leeds Metropolitan University, then called Leeds Polytechnic, in Leeds. The album includes three tracks which appeared on their rare independent 1980 release, Mutant Moments. The album has received criticism for not being comprehensive enough, excluding several rare cuts which have appeared on previous bootlegs. David Ball, the keyboardist, comments on the album in the liner notes." (wikipedia) In order words, these are tracks of their rare demos they did back in the day. The "Secret Life" demo in Demo Non-Stop reminded me of PSB's early Demo "Bubadubbadum" if you listen to it, you'll see why somewhat. Even though Neil says it sounds like an early Depeche Mode demo, I can't agree with that, even Depeche Mode back then had a different sound, sure they were on the same record label with Soft Cell at the time with Some Bizarre but that statement is one of those I can't agree on when it comes to that demo. They say they are influenced by Depeche Mode, but what I'm looking at, they are more influenced by Soft Cell, I mean the evidence that I have looked and search for years prove that and even a friend of mine showed me something about how they only mentioned Depeche Mode about an album of their sounding like Violator and then the song "The Ghost of Myself" resembled Depeche Mode and Brittany Spears. And Soft Cell were used in song references :"In the Night", (Zazou) according Marc in his autobiography that was one of his performance pieces, which I found out was something different according to Alternative. "I Want to Wake Up" mentions "Tainted Love." In Disco 3, "If Looks Could Kill" and another song from something else but it's a demo called "A Powerful Friend" they like because if reminded them of a late Soft Cell. Neil even stated that Non Stop Erotic Cabaret they were influences by it and I believe if I'm not mistaken it was one of the influences of Please. The Disco sequence in the tradition of Soft Cell. Even Neil stated "If It wasn't for Soft Cell, there would be no Pet Shop Boys, Soft Cell made us realize could form a group." Even stated on a podcast that they were absolutely obsessed with Soft Cell. It made sense but why hide it? It's quite visible in the music and style but reinvented as their own. Just curious on that.
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