.. and they mean more to me than John Martyn to be honest. It's a broad church, which is why we come here

And I'll happily admit they polarize opinion, probably more than most, but what artist doesn't? Plus, there's that lifetime award at the recent Brits, a new album, tens of millions of records sold... seems to be a sensible and timely choice for cover.

[edit after seeing Richard's post above]: I am a girl, though.

First three on vinyl, then CD. And the two Disco mix albums, and the b-sides album. And though they do sometimes deliver an album of four singles and some filler, they've been good value over the years. Actually, Introspective, Very and Behaviour are albums to stack up alongside most artists top four (see the thread on who can better four great albums)

although they've had some fine moments... but I find Neil Tennant interesting in that he's a pop star who can string several sentences together in a highly coherent manner. Which is a rare thing indeed.

I don't have to love an artist's music to read an interview with them, just so long as he or she has something interesting to say.

I'd put money on as many people here owning PSB albums as own RT albums

3 PSB albums, no RT.

Went to see them too a couple of years ago, and they were great.

I fail to see why you think they're unworthy of a Word cover.

...where are the beards?!? First Kate Bush, now these guys - what next, 'The Word Awards' sponsored by Gillette?

Still, we can but hope that David Bellamy, Brian Blessed and the guys in ZZ Top will be on the cover of the next one to make up for it.

about 12 RT and 4 JMs.
Anyway, I enjoy Neil Tennant's interviews immensely. Just as I do the Gallaghers even though I have little interest in their music.

Well an ex had greatest hits and I like some of those. But they have a new album out, did the Brits thing and do good interview - so cover is perfectly acceptable. Good to see someone (Neil) who looks a bit like me (we share that more vigourous growth at front (hair I mean) and thinner (well, bald) area on top look)on a music magazine cover. I don't have a jacket like that though.

Listening to the new album on Spotify. It's the first album of theirs I've ever listened to and every track so far has been enjoyable. Don't see why there can't be room for this in my life alongside everything else.

Brilliant pop band, best of the last twenty odd years. Front cover of The Word - quite right too!

And as for all the fuzzfaces and nest necks around these days, sheer bloody lazyness if you ask me.

Even in the 70s, Andrew Gold -

a) a devoted beardy
b) a lonely boy
c) his ladies kept slipping away

It all links.

Anyone who says otherwise is just wrong.

Actually - one of the top 5 albums of the '80s - discuss.

"She's made you some kind of laughing stock, because you dance to disco and you don't like rock." Have we learnt nothing in that time?
Incidentally I interviewed John Martyn a few years back. I don't remember him saying a single interesting thing. Gimme Neil Tennant any day - talking or singing.

The Pet Shop Boys have been a favourite of mine since 1985.

One of the great British singles bands, with as much in common with The Kinks as Kraftwerk.

Hey that's not bad, I might use that somewhere else!

I own lots of PSB.

Going head-to-head, beard-to-beard, we have -

Andy with Lonely Boy

Deano with Lydia

Holmesy with The Pina Colada Song

And the winner in terms of sheer bloody awfulness of this dripfest would be...

The first five albums (from Please to Bilingual) are all terrific. And that doesn't even include Introspective!

I remember Neil Tennant proclaiming on the front cover of the NME: "We're The Smiths you can dance to".

Great PSBs lyrics, No. 2:

"I'm always hoping, you'll be faithful,
But you're not, I suppose,
We've both given up smoking, because it's fatal,
So who's matches are those?"
( - So Hard).

Can't wait for the Friday at Latitude.

Been a fan for years. More than worthy of The Word cover. Why on earth not?! Great singles, great albums. Agree with you buskerdu, would pass on Release and Nightlife but Fundamental was very much a return to form, perhaps even their best LP.

pet shop boys IMO are bland in the extreme

this couldn't be said of RT or JM

don't have one of their records nor can I hum any of their songs

I am however good friends with a former girl friend of Neil's - yes you read right. An aussie lass with whom he caught up with on the last tour

All the albums, a fan since West End Girls. Intelligent lyrics, bright guys, fun pop music. I have no Richard Thompson or John Martyn. Should I cancel my subscription?

Seriously, there's a bigger point here and it's something I'm uncomfortable with on this website. One of the things I like about the magazine is that it feels there's a genuine joy in music and an openness to all types of artist. I read all the articles and sample stuff I don't think I'll enjoy if it's rated in the magazine. Some of which I love, some of which I don't.

But the posts on this site seem to imply that there's a "Word aesthetic" and if you fall outside that then you don't deserve to read the magazine. Frankly, continue down that road and you end up with 15 readers that could chat about things in the pub. Which is not, I suspect, what Development Hell were looking for.

And as to Richard Lowe's comment above, I'm not a girl. But I am gay. I wasn't aware I'd stumbled into the Chris Moyles forum.

Someone has already made this observation, but I can't help myself. The orginal poster here seems to have thought "I don't like the Pet Shop Boys, so I'm going to pretend that I therefore assume nobody else really likes them, throw in a dig at Hepworth and Ellen, and sit back and watch."

I'm sure you have more worthwhile things to say, gorbalsbhoy, ket's hear them!

More than I can be bothered to list here.

I do wonder though if I am on the same planet as the more earnest RT lovin' contingent of the Massive. They break off into passionate threads about music that has completely passed me by, despite having given music my full attention for several decades.

I wince and have to leave the room at a gathering when someone starts to strum on an acoustic guitar. I really hate it. Maybe that's it.

It seems to be a very welcoming forum to me - a bit of badinage, a fair amount of wisdom, a lot of laughs, a bit of steam-venting, occasional raised voices but generally trebles all round at the end of a discussion (in my limited experience)...
Me, I don't mind the PSB - I don't own their records but I agree Neil T is always an interesting interviewee. I think RT and JM are probably overrated or, rather, 'over-deified' by some people - if that makes sense? They're just guys with guitars and songs at the end of the day - some people like their songs, some don't. So it goes.

Personally, I think JM made a handful of lovely recordings in the 60s/70s but his personal qualities repel me so I don't really care to listen to his music; RT I don't listen to at all, because I don't really like his voice and there's something about his songs - bar a handful of real gems - that seem more 'worthy' and clever than anything else. But, that said, I've seen him performing live a number of times and boy can he hold a crowd in his hand - especially as a solo performer. A master of his craft - as I'm sure the PSB are in their field of operations. Room for all sorts, I'd say!*

(* except for Chris Moyles, obviously...)

Own all their albums. Behaviour has to be one of the best British albums of all time.
Why can't you see them been on the cover, Gorbalsbhoy? To me it is perfectly natural to see them there...

Anyway, any PSB fans planning to splash out on this?
http://www.thevinylfactory.com/shop/index.php/pet-shop-boys-yes.html?gcl...

and I like them all.

Particularly like the first two Disco albums.

Pop Art is a great collection.

Best version of Opportunities was the OGWT one, no recording or mix since has ever hit the spot like that one.

but glad to see the overwhelming support for PSB racking up here

To answer the original question, yes I own many PSB albums. I would have said all of the PSB albums, but then I looked on Spotify...

Anyway I also own plenty of beardrock, but if that's all Word covered I'd not be interested. Word is the only music magazine that I buy for the simple reason that it recognises that some of us mix Fairlight and Fender.

It would make no more sense to me to only listen to / read about beardrock than to have a TV and only watch nature documentaries...

It's clear to me that the posting was no more a sly dig at Heppo/Elly's old cohort-in-scribing getting good coverage in their mag, perhaps by someone bemused by the PSB musically. OK, fair to say that it is unlikely that Slomo and Unshod will necessarily follow suit, but then, this really is a different and broader demographic, as well as being way way way wider than the advertisers copy "advice".
I love this blog, despite often finding little of impact in the mag, which, curiously, despite there being more to read of my interests in t'competition, remains my favourite of the 3. I love the mix of humour, irony, sarcasm, and sky-high levels of fanaticism about any old rubbish, often, that I encounter here, with new blood streaming in to become initially confused by the seeming perversity of the older lags (Hi, Richard)but overall adding to the rich mix of standpoints. What a long strange trip it is.
PSB? Yes. RT? Yes. JM? Yes. None are mutually exclusive.
Astonishingly, my love for Willie Nelson stems mainly from their version of "Always on my mind". Fact. I still struggle as to which is the better version, Elvis P being a mere also ran in this songs case.

a perfectly natural choice for the front cover of word. They've produced some of the finest pop music of the last 25 years and worked with some of the most influential musicians/producers (marr/horn/xenomania). Think the question most word readers have who grew up with colour tv's is why the big fuss over the martyn cover. To talk pure economis too, I would be very surprised if Martyn hadn't broken a new record for lowest selling issue, while the PSB's may even attract some new readers in addition to the regulars.

One of the very first bands I properly fell in love with.
I've got seven of their albums, plus various compliations.

and the tour baseball cap.

I have every PSB album and almost every John Martyn Album - in no way mutually exclusive and both brilliant.

I guarantee, however, that JM would have won in a fight. Sorely missed.

if the PSBs were in the 'long way on a little' chart in this month's mag, I reckon they should be.

He's very entertaining. I'm not a particular fan of the music, but he's always got something interesting to say, a good anecdote to relay.

Word is not just about music, it's about intelligent chat too, and with the PSBs, it's really more about that, isn't it?

..busking with a casio.
That makes them great, obviously.

Or, at least, I don't like most of their music. But the interview was interesting and left me feeling I ought to like them - a bit like Nick Cave in that respect. They certainly deserve their place on the cover. Hey, we're a broad church here in Worddom.

but it doesn't matter. I can't think of anyone who could produce a 2 cd greatest hits with such pop quality.

Earlier post about the massive's framework being narrow, I don't think that's the case at all. It's quite inclusive.

We've all admitted to guilty pleasures (what a crap comparison) on here and wouldn't change. People disagree as on this thread but no one gets castigated.

On the subject of Andrew Gold, never bothered with him really but I loved Wax's "Building a bridge to your heart".

But then I again I like a surprising amount of East 17 singles.

I have a gay friend who hates the Pet Shop Boys and takes real umbrage that people assume you must like them because you're gay. Whenever he's around at people's houses who he's not met before, it does his head in as the PSB's always seem to make an appearance on the hi fi supposedly for him.

Going slightly off topic here but... Neil Tennant shattered an illusion of mine. I saw him being interviewed about recording Dusty for the Scandal soundtrack thing and said that she wouldn't sing more than a word - possibly even a syllable in each take. Was she always like that? I found it hard to believe (or accept) that *that* voice could have been recorded in such a stilted way.

PSBs soundtrack to Battleship Potemkin. No idea what the consensus is on this, in fact was only dimly aware that it existed, but I loved it.

They're the two that I have, the former being a lovely example of pop art actually

...when I had just turned 11 (get less for a Post Office etc). Stuck with them through "the wilderness years", glad to see them back in the mainstream getting the recognition they deserve. And my 24 month old daughter loves Love etc, which must make a nice change from peoples' moms loving them.

Incidentally I have very little interest in facial topiary of any kind (ditto the oft-associated chin-stroking and poloneck wearing), but love The Word and its CDs and I discovered the magazine when... the Pets were on the cover to promote Fundamental in 2006.

..now done digitally using lanes in Protools or similar, is by far more common than not, especially in "pop" music.
Dusty was that rare combination, a perfectionist with low self esteem, so the compiling method was ideally suited to her.

Apologies

Tried to model myself on Chris Lowe (inner sleeve of Please album 1986?) - failed miserably in the fashion sense - but like Chris didn't finish my architectural degree! (hope my face ages better thou)

Pet Shop Boys get a lot of grief - but to me they are up there with The Cure, New Order, Depeche Mode as a great singles band...plus Behaviour is deffo a top 10 slab of wax - emotional and sophisticated disco.

Haven't bought PSB for a while now. It seemed to me their synth sound had gone 'plastiky' and they'd ramped the campness up a little too much -but will give the new album a go.