4. Pet Shop BoysDisco
‘West End Girls’ came out, and it was great, but talk about getting things wrong. It’s the shittiest rap. There was something in the Pet Shop Boys’ history where they said they called themselves that because they wanted to have this name of a crap rap duo. Classic 80s style over substance. All the contradictions in the same bag and all the influences. Bobby Orlando mixed with Alan Bennett. Noël Coward and Giorgio Moroder, which I’m fine with because I think if you’re the bedsit queens that we are, then that’s what you are, and you recognise it. He’s a reader like me, and he likes Donna Summer! It just makes so much sense. Look at him standing there looking bored in his raincoat on the telly, getting away with it. When this album came out, I loved the title, and I loved the cover that looked like a still from video art. It was the first time I ever saw beats per minute written down. I didn’t even know what it was and wondered if bpm was a secret gay code.
My favourite track is ‘Paninaro.’ It took ages to find out what it meant, because of course we didn’t have Google. I imagined it was a sophisticated place in Italy. Its streets would be full of people in sunglasses drinking espressos, wearing shoes with no socks. If I wear no socks, it just looks like I’ve forgotten to put my socks on, and I’m having to walk really badly because my feet are rubbing inside my shoes, walking like I’ve just had a serious operation. I found out the paninaro were an Italian subculture, proto-casuals, with jumpers around the neck, prominent Armani labels, and they could be quite aggressive. It connects to the origin of football, when Scouse casuals were going to football matches in Milan and nicking all the Lacoste gear. Then there’s the subcultural contradiction of a pastel Lacoste, white Pepes, kickers in bright red, wedge cut hair. And then you’re up for a rumble and 25 pints. There’s the whole idea of these violent, sexy, casual men and women hanging around in Italy. And then they’ve got a chorus, ‘Armani. Armani. Armani. Versace.’ Hearing this, I thought I’d arrived in the 80s. This is what it’s all about! It’s style. Content has gone. Style is the content; surface is everything and the Pet Shop Boys then spend the next five years absolutely proving that’s the case. What matters most is what’s on the outside? Yeah, very much. And the outside just gets bigger.
