SMASH HITS 1982 XMAS PARTY - Part One

One of the Pet Shop Boys fan pages had this on here. It's basically a Christmas Party with a lot of the well known musicians that are popular with the magazines. It's been said on the description that the idea  came from Neil Tennant himself, I thought that was a remarkable move on getting musicians do something briefly but hilarious and a fun-tastic piece compiled within twelve minutes. My goodness if it was an actual footage, I would have possibly died of laughter! It's just that funny. Since Christmas is rapidly approaching, I thought I shared this on here, I don't remember if they mentioned on the Smash Hits Christmas audio but it's good nonetheless. Mark Edith did the recording and producer was Taylor Dann. The following musician and bands are featured are: ABBA, ABC, Adam, Bananarama, Bucks Fizz, Captain Sensible, Culture Club, Duran Duran,  Fun Boy Three, Haircut One Hundred, Imagination, The Jam, Madness, Mari Wilson, Musical Youth, Piranhas, Police, Steve Strange, Toyah and Ultravox. Some you heard of and some you might haven't but it's still a cute little audio and it was very well thought out. I'm not sure if they do these type of things anymore, I do know about free CDs and stuff with magazines but something like a Christmas special. But anyway, it's a part 2 to this and I will link you on the bottom of this.

Oh and If you don't here from me in a few days, I will everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Smash Hits 1982 Christmas Party Part 2

My thoughts on Neil Tennant's Smash Hits Christmas on Radio 4

Couple days ago, a fan friend and I was listening to the Smash Hits radio, thankfully my internet didn't have a hiccup where it buffered or anything. I was truly shocked and impressed there was another Smash Hits audio, because the magazine itself is a fascination and fun filled. But this one was similar to the podcast last year but this time more of the staff members actually spoke in this one as well as Neil did. It was very informative and you can really tell how much they missed the atmosphere of the magazine and being part of it. Even the emotions on the voices about how music nowadays isn't all that cracked up to be, because it's really not about ideas anymore and they are right and with a magazine like Smash Hits, it was hard enough as it was to cope with the changing decade. I honestly wished this was on a podcast. I really like this one as well as the one about Neil Tennant wanting his job back. I think the link is still available to have a listen, it's only about 30 minutes in length but it's worth to have a listen! I haven't listen to the one where Neil reads a chapter of Moby Dick but I've manage to listen to other audios. The link for the Smash Hits radio is below this paragraph. Again it's really short but it's good. Really discussing like the best times and intriguing facts. The Smash Hits story is also on YouTube as well, that's another documentary that's good to understand about the magazine.

Smash Hits Radio

Update and minimal review post

Hello dear readers,

I haven't abandon my blogs, I've just been busy and having a writer's block. In spite of that, I have been reading with one Pet Shop Boys book and almost done with that, looking at videos and working on a few posts but would go through them here and there. I will; however, continue on where I left off even with the Soft Cell/ Marc Almond posts as well. And may I just say that the Philharmonic BBC Concert that the Boys, Johnny Marr, orchestra and choir did an outstanding job, I was really impressed by the song choices and everything, there were some songs I wish it wasn't on there but still it was really excellent. Who ever seen it live, was truly lucky to see all that art. Even though, Neil's voice was trembling a bit, sounds like he was nervous, but he still sounded good! I will possibly have a better review on it later on. All I can is that I truly hope they will release it like they did with Concrete. If you have not listened to it yet(which I'm sure you have), I would recommend it. As fas as the single choices, I'm not really too impressed by that but that's the choice. Out of the video, "Leaving" and "Invisible" are probably the best videos I've seen. "Winner", for me unfortunately, wasn't their best video, in fact, I would consider it to be one of their worst videos. Only because I've seen what they are capable of doing and seeing something like that, wouldn't impress a young artist like myself. The idea was good, but they needed more than what they had on there and they weren't even on the video. Even though, I'm not too fond of the art cover of "Memory of the Future", I do have hope that the music video would be better than I would think it would be. I do like the "Leaving" art covers, but I think this time, I will just get the CDs for "Memory of the Future" and not the vinyls. It's like a weird clash between David Bowie and Andy Warhol on a bad day. The B-sides so far sound very good, and I am enthuse by that which hopefully, the new B-sides will prove remarkable. I am excited about the new pet text with Neil Tennant discussing about Smash Hits again, it's like the other one he did last year, and if possible, it would also be neat if they release a demo compilation, I've heard a good amount of demos of theirs and wonder why they haven't released on yet! Anyway, expect more blog posts heading your way!