The original version of West End Girls was produced by U.S. Hi-NRG producer Bobby Orlando for his own Bobcat Records and released through ZYX in Europe. The story goes that vocalist Neil Tennant, then the Associate Editor of UK pop magazine Smash Hits, was on assignment to New York to interview The Police in advance of their Shea Stadium gig in August of 1983. However, spotting a gap in his schedule, he sneakily stole some downtime in order to visit someone he\u2019d much rather be speaking to.<\/p>\n
You may like<\/p>\n
Using the magazine\u2019s sway, Tennant had secured an audience with Orlando (aka Bobby O) and, after hitting it off, Tennant played a demo of his unnamed band\u2019s hit-in-waiting, Opportunities, recorded at the Camden 8 studio<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was audibly inspired by Orlando\u2019s work of the time, and a flattered Bobby O enthused that they should make a record together, and just three short weeks later Tennant, plus keyboard player Chris Lowe, were in Unique Studios off Times Square, New York with a publishing deal and an in-progress instrumental attracting Orlando\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n Here today, built to last<\/p>\n \u201cI had written a rap and I thought I could do it over this music. It was the first time I ever sang West End Girls,\u201d Tennant explains in the band\u2019s 2006 Life In Pop documentary. \u201cChris hadn\u2019t even heard it over the music.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was staying at my cousin Richard\u2019s house outside Nottingham and he and I had stayed up watching some kind of James Cagney gangster film on the television,\u201d describes Tennant regarding his rap\u2019s origin.<\/p>\n \u201cI was sleeping in this tiny single bed and for some reason the line \u2018sometimes you\u2019re better off dead, there\u2019s a gun in your hand and it\u2019s pointing at your head\u2019 came into my head. So I got out of bed and wrote it down on a piece of paper.<\/p>\n \u201cThen when I got back to my flat in the King\u2019s Road I lay on my floor one night and wrote the whole thing,\u201d he writes in the booklet for the 2001 re-release of debut album, Please.<\/p>\n Orlando\u2019s take on the song is a far rougher and more raw proposition than the polished global hit of 1985, sharing many of the tropes of his other productions of the time, such as Passion by The Flirts and Divine\u2019s Native Love (Step By Step).<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n The Flirts – Passion \u2022 TopPop – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n With the tech still inching out of its primordial ooze, multi-instrumentalist Orlando would wrestle with the synchronisation of his early synths, drum machines and Emu Emulator sampler, resorting to playing each robotic part by hand, while trying to sound as mechanical as possible.<\/p>\n And while Orlando\u2019s take certainly still has its earworm charm, with explosive Emulator drums sampling the kick and snare from David Bowie\u2019s Let\u2019s Dance<\/a> (as many records would go on to do), the song failed to detonate upon its release in April 1984.<\/p>\n While a modest US club hit, its Euro import would only reach number 133 in the UK, while just scraping the French top 30. Meanwhile, its follow-up, the Orlando-produced One More Chance, failed to capitalise, failing to chart precisely anywhere.<\/p>\n Sometimes you’re better off dead<\/p>\n With Orlando busy dodging litigation from other acts, it seemed that his \u2018p-a-s-s-i-o-n\u2019 for the Pet Shop Boys was soon on the wane, and feeling trapped in a contract with a producer who never seemed to finish anything, the band made the bold move to pay off Orlando with a cut of future royalties in return for \u2018one more chance\u2019 elsewhere.<\/p>\n However, with Orlando\u2019s productions as their calling card, the band were able to attract the attention of manager Tom Watkins. Watkins \u2013 the man best known for birthing Bros and East 17 \u2013 brokered a deal with EMI\u2019s Parlophone and put them in the studio with J.J. Jeczalik and Nicholas Froome (two of Trevor Horn\u2019s backroom boys at Sarm Studios) to make a go of Opportunities (Let\u2019s Make Lots of Money)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, their first major label release only fared a little better than their Bobby O output, reaching 116 in the UK.<\/p>\n What to do next?<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to release West End Girls again after we signed to Parlophone but we had to rerecord it because we didn\u2019t own the recording,\u201d explains Tennant and, after admiring Stephen Hague’s work on the World Famous Supreme Team\u2019s Hey DJ and Malcolm McLaren\u2019s Madame Butterfly, had a new producer in his sights.<\/p>\n “We met a couple of times but I wasn’t too thrilled with their material at the time,\u201d recalled Hague to Music Technology<\/a> magazine in 1988. \u201cI did like West End Girls though, because it seemed as though Neil was born to sing it \u2013 everything was working for his voice. I also like them personally too so when EMI secured the recording rights, we began work on West End Girls and, with the band’s blessing, I started to change the track.\u201d<\/p>\n Hague went to town, being inspired by the original but choosing to play and program every instrument himself and even change its tempo, music and lyrics. \u201cI wanted to slow it down, change the bar structure, and tidy up some of the lyrics,\u201d Hague explained.<\/p>\n \u201cWe brought back the Major seventh chord as well, which hadn’t been on the landscape for a while\u2026 I wrote the chords at the beginning and the end\u2026 I guess I should have pushed for a cut of the publishing, but I was a little green at the time,\u201d he admitted to the 80sography podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n Recording took place at London\u2019s Advision Studio in June 1985, and, thanks to the only live instrument being a single cymbal strike at 2:11 \u2013 their Studio 2 \u2013 a small but well-equipped, remix\/overdub suite \u2013 fitted the bill perfectly. With house engineer David Jacobs at the controls, he and Hague set to work.<\/p>\n Which do you choose? A hard or soft option?<\/p>\n Using an Oberheim DMX the pair programmed the drums for the entirety of the track, syncing it to its own bespoke time code recorded on track 23 (with track 24 on the studio\u2019s Otari MTR90 being reserved for driving the automation of the SSL desk).<\/p>\n \u201cThere was very little pre-production necessary because the previous recording of the track was there as a very thorough demo,\u201d Jacobs explained to International Musician & Recording World<\/a> in 1986. \u201cWe used the time code in case we wanted to change things, but in the event, the only thing we added was a shaker.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the mis-quantised tambourine hit on bar six of both verses (the sixth tambourine hit, instead of appearing on the snare beat, pops up an 8th too early \u2013 listen carefully) jury\u2019s out on whether this was deliberate or a glitch in the DMX.<\/p>\n And while there\u2019s no mistaking that West End Girls\u2019 is a hi-tech record with the backroom takeover of drum machines and programmable sequencers in full swing by 1985, liberating music from musicians and placing it into the hands of music lovers with good ideas instead, it\u2019s surprising just how much of West End Girls is actually played live.<\/p>\n With the Oberheim operating very much in its own world, the track\u2019s conga part \u2013 consisting of two sounds from an Emu Emulator II sampler \u2013 was played entirely by hand. Recorded simultaneously to separate tracks via the keyboard\u2019s separate outs, the lower conga was given a repeat echo on the desk.<\/p>\n Likewise, the riff at the end of the chorus, was composed of a pitched-up choir sample and because \u201cit didn’t have enough attack to cut through, we added a cowbell,\u201d Jacobs explains. This tight, rhythmic part was programmed on a Roland<\/a> MSQ-700 sequencer. However, with the MSQ unable to sync with the DMX\u2019s code, Hague and Jacobs fired in the sequence \u2018live\u2019 each time they needed it, hitting Play on the MSQ at just the right moment.<\/p>\n That same Emulator choir is used in the solo too. Ah yes, West End Girls\u2019 trumpet solo \u2013 another airing of the over-worked Emulator II with the trumpet sound from its factory library. Again, it\u2019s played live, and, with the band not in attendance, performed by Steven Hague himself.<\/p>\n Inspired by a snatch of melody from the sample cacophony in the bridge of the original version, Hague borrowed five notes from Orlando\u2019s solo (\u201cI said to Neil, well, you own the master\u2026\u201d) and took that as inspiration for a whole new trumpet line.<\/p>\n \u201cI did it as one take. It was just me dicking around. I\u2019m not much of a player player at all,\u201d Hague admits. Jacobs, however, has another recollection. \u201cIt took about six hours to get the trumpet part to sound genuine, purposely playing wrong notes to make it sound more ‘jazz’,\u201d he recalls. Lowe agrees, stating in the album\u2019s re-release booklet, \u201cHe spent ages doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Another new addition to the track was backing vocals. With Tennant simply doubling his vocals an octave down during the choruses, there were no harmony parts to speak of. Thus, backing singer Helena Springs was given free reign to contribute whatever the seasoned session pro could come up with.<\/p>\n \u201cHelena just sang ideas all through the track, the best of which we then sampled into the Emulator so that we could spin them in wherever we wanted,\u201d explained Jacobs. In the end, just two of her lines made the cut, with \u201cHow much do you need?\u201d appearing twice and \u201cHow far have you been?\u201d three times.<\/p>\n Meanwhile Tennant\u2019s own vocals were recorded with two mics, a Neumann KM84i for the verses \u2013 \u201cto get the full bottom end\u201d \u2013 while the choruses were recorded with a Neumann U87, \u201cwhich I never use for vocals because you can’t get any top out of them, but Neil’s voice is very sibilant, so it worked well in this case,\u201d explained Jacobs.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a madman around<\/p>\n All of which just leaves West End Girls\u2019 distinctive, thudding bass part. Again, it\u2019s all played live, and pop TV viewers of the time will recall being introduced to Lowe, the band\u2019s silent partner, as he battered the hell out of the bottom octave of a scissor-standed PPG Wave 2.2.<\/p>\n In an age where mimed TV appearances were the norm, keyboard players would more usually grasp ownership of any lead line or dramatic musical \u2018event\u2019 in a track regardless of where it came from. Guitar and sax solos would suddenly become keyboard fare\u2026 Multiple fingers would be outstretched\u2026 Arms would vigorously jab and pierce the air\u2026 And faces would be pulled as if it were their eyebrows that were making the sound.<\/p>\n So when Lowe opted for the repetitive chore of solemnly finger-banging West End Girls\u2019 bassline while his right arm took the night off, audiences were \u2013 at the very least \u2013 intrigued. Indeed, UK DJ Steve Wright introduces the Pet Shop Boys debut Top of The Pop performance (video above) as, \u201cA most unusual song from an unusual band\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cWhen West End Girls started to take off, it was then that we started to think about the presentation of ourselves,\u201d Tennant mulls in their 2006 documentary A Life in Pop. \u201cWhat were we going to look like? What were we going to do? We didn\u2019t have \u2018an act\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n But a performer chin down, dodging eye contact and radiating that he really didn\u2019t want to be there WAS an act, and would stick in both the public\u2019s throat and consciousness simultaneously. The band\u2019s routine \u2018non-performance\u2019 of the song would become the talk of the playground and workplace after every \u2018do we really have to?\u2019 TV appearance.<\/p>\n Thus Lowe\u2019s diligent bass duties during West End Girls\u2019 promotion played a huge part in successfully minting the band\u2019s much-loved, stand-offish, anti-pop \u2018Mr Posh and Mr Grumpy\u2019 Smash Hits persona that still endures to this day. \u201cReluctance was very much built into the concept,\u201d Tennant admits.<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Smash Hits)<\/p>\n And Lowe has continued in jobsworth \u2018I just do basslines\u2019 mode for practically every TV performance ever since.<\/p>\n And that bass sound? Not generated by the PPG Wave 2.2 and Waveterm sampling module that were routinely wheeled out for Lowe to hide behind, but the combined output of three completely different synths: A Yamaha<\/a> DX7 \u2013 the de rigueur digital FM synth of the moment \u2013 a Roland Jupiter 6 \u2013 the poor relation younger brother to their flagship analogue Jupiter 8 and Roland\u2019s first keyboard with MIDI \u2013 and an Emu Emulator II \u2013 the \u2018affordable\u2019 sampling keyboard (which still cost $8000 or about $25,000 in today\u2019s money) which would go on to earn legendary status in Ferris Bueller\u2019s bedroom and countless subsequent Pet Shop Boys TV outings.<\/p>\n \u201cThe DX-7 voice was a very low pitched, percussive sound; it didn’t have much of a note but it gave the thing depth and attack,\u201d explains Jacobs. \u201cThe Jupiter provided the body of the sound, and the Emu II was actually playing a bass drum sample, the pitch of which changed as it was played on the keyboard to add some punch.\u201d All three keyboards were then simply daisy-chained with MIDI leads \u2013 Out to In, Thru to In \u2013 and played and recorded live.<\/p>\n A final dash of stereo spread via the studio staple of the time, the AMS DMX 15-80S stereo harmonizer, completes the sound, \u201cwith a setting of 0.999 on one side, 0.998 on the other and the uneffected signal in the middle,\u201d revealed Jacobs. \u201cWhen mixing to digital, it gives a kind of ADT or wavering effect that the rock-solidness of digital can lack.\u201d<\/p>\n The Emulator II (this time teamed with the older Emulator I) would also provide perhaps the song\u2019s most memorable and moody elements \u2013 its slow, legato strings. Both Emulators play the same part with the I using its Strings preset (a sound and part directly borrowed from the Orlando version) and the II serving up its more complex (and famous) Marcato Strings alternative. \u201cThere’s also a third low string part that we did on the Emulator II to give it some depth,\u201d says Jacobs.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that Marcato Strings also appears all over the band\u2019s debut album, Please, each time replacing what could\/would\/should have been synth chords with the \u2018real\u2019 sound of an orchestra instead. Thus, the preset would become a major part of defining the PSB\u2019s sound and effectively gave \u2018just another synth duo\u2019 their own unique, enduring signature.<\/p>\n A dive bar, in a West End town<\/p>\n But let\u2019s rewind to the start. Just what are we hearing in the track\u2019s famous, instantly recognisable intro before its first explosive snare drum?<\/p>\n Seeking to inject some \u2018street\u2019 vibes into the track, and armed with the new Sony Professional Walkman WM-D6C \u2013 a larger, \u2018pro\u2019 version of their world-conquering portable cassette players that, this time, featured the record heads that its forebears had stripped away \u2013 producer Hague walked the mean streets around London\u2019s Advision studio harvesting whatever the night would throw at him.<\/p>\n And while the D6C was still only a mere cassette recorder, its fresh-for-\u201984 Dolby C noise reduction does a mean job of keeping the sound sufficiently high-end even by today\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n So what can we hear? Well, there\u2019s West End Girls\u2019 unmistakable \u2018city ambience\u2019\u2026 And that car horn\u2026 Those high heels on pavement\u2026 But there are other more remarkable and long-debated insertions too.<\/p>\n Ever wondered just what the girl in the intro is singing?<\/p>\n In every city, in every nation<\/p>\n Advision Studios were at 23 Gosfield Street, Fitzrovia, London, and, being in the heart of the trendy capital, had some similarly high-profile neighbours. Such as Simon Napier-Bell, the then manager of pop flavour of the day, Wham, whose Nomis Management (Nomis is Simon backwards) had their office directly opposite at number 17.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Once word had got out that George Michael and\/or Andrew Ridgely would very occasionally stop by for a debrief, the narrow street between Wham HQ and Advision had acquired a 24\/7 detail of weary Wham fans, ever hopeful for an encounter with their heroes.<\/p>\n Thus, anyone entering or leaving the studio would have to run Wham\u2019s gauntlet, and so it was, on the fateful night that Hague took to the streets to capture London\u2019s contribution to West End Girls.<\/p>\n Hague recalls approaching that night\u2019s Wham deployment, whereupon one spotted that he was holding a tape machine and a microphone and, buoyed by the group’s shared hysteria, actively worked to ensure that they were immortalised. \u201cGet on the my-eye-cro-pho-ooown for-eeever\u2026\u201d they sing sarcastically as Hague passes, simultaneously becoming a part of his nocturnal recording, and a key, unwitting, uncredited performer on one of the most enduring pop records of the past century.<\/p>\n And thanks to detective work by mu:zines<\/a>\u2019 Ben and Kirk D. Keyes of synthroom.com<\/a> (who was privy to Hague\u2019s tapes as part of prep for planned but aborted first Pet Shop Boys live show) we can enjoy this performance, here, isolated, 40 years later<\/a>.<\/p>\n That their impromptu vocal is perfectly in tune with the inaudible-to-them and yet-to-be-finished track is unfathomable, but the moment \u2013 forever frozen in pop \u2013 is clearly audible at 14 seconds in and, if you listen very carefully, even gets an encore at 4:04.<\/p>\n Tennant also describes in the Please re-release booklet how Hague also recorded one of Wham\u2019s acolytes blurting \u201cIt\u2019s Sting!\u201d as he approached. \u201cIf you listen carefully, you can hear a girl at 0:05,\u201d he says, Hague\u2019s mistaken identity due to the fact that, like much of fashionable London in 1985, he was sporting the same spiky bleached blonde \u2018do\u2019 as the Police frontman. \u201cStephen Hague looks a bit like Sting,\u201d Lowe confirms.<\/p>\n However, while Keyes HAS been able to ascertain that this is indeed true, and such a recording exists \u2013 the girl says \u201cIt\u2019s Sting!\u201d and then, disappointed, \u201cThat\u2019s not Sting\u2026\u201d \u2013 this part of the tape was not used on the finished West End Girls as Tennant assumed. Actually.<\/p>\n Upon returning to the studio, Hague had been particularly pleased with the passing cars and the click of the heels on the street, and hastily plugged his Walkman into the desk. \u201cI wound the tape back to the start and said, \u2018Let\u2019s just see if we\u2019ve got anything\u2019. I hit play and David hit play on the multitrack\u2026 And it was exactly like it sounds on the record\u2026 There were no edits, no anything\u2026 And the girl singing the little song\u2026 And the car driving away\u2026 I said \u2018Shit, we should have recorded that!\u2019 and David said \u2018I did record it\u2026\u2019 And that was the record. I took that as some kind of sign.\u201d<\/p>\n Faces on posters, too many choices<\/p>\n Likewise, some kind of trickery was afoot in the song\u2019s video directed by Andy Morahan and PSB photographer and style guardian Eric Watson<\/a>. The video features \u2013 in order of appearance \u2013 a deserted Wentworth Street (part of Petticoat Lane Market), bustling Waterloo Station, the South Bank, Leicester Square, and anti-apartheid protesters outside the South African embassy on Trafalgar Square.<\/p>\n It also memorably stars a ghostly, transparent Chris Lowe, faded in from a second take of each shot, and the duo fleetingly become a trio when, unbeknownst to the band, Tennant and Lowe are joined by a passing rough sleeper, who magically walks in sync with the track during their 0:34 reveal.<\/p>\n Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls (Official Video) [HD REMASTERED] – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n And second time around, West End Girls certainly had some kind of mojo. Following its October 28th release in 1985, the single charted in the UK on November 16th at number 80. From there it rose, week by week, 59\u2026 40\u2026 With its number 23 position earning them the Top of the Pops debut, above. From there, a final ascent to the summit of Mount Pop ensued.<\/p>\n 9\u2026 5\u2026 4\u2026 3\u2026 Narrowly missing the coveted Christmas number one slot, before \u2013 with his Christmas bubble having burst \u2013 dethroning Shakin\u2019 Stevens\u2019 Merry Christmas Everyone on January 5th 1986 \u2013 40 years ago this week.<\/p>\n The song would also top the charts \u2018from Lake Geneva to the Finland Station\u2019 (or more accurately Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway and the States) shifting 1.5 million copies in total, and staying on the US Billboard Chart for 20 weeks.<\/p>\n Its success would help shift over one million copies of debut album Please in the States alone, was crowned The Greatest UK Number 1 Ever in by The Guardian<\/a> in 2020 and would spearhead an onslaught of hit Pet Shop Boys singles across the decades to follow.<\/p>\n And, of course, it\u2019s spawned an inevitable raft of genre-spanning recreations from \u2013 among many others \u2013 East 17<\/a>, Sleaford Mods<\/a>, Prayers (featuring Travis Barker)<\/a>, The HotRats<\/a> and even West End Girls by\u2026 err\u2026 West End Girls<\/a>\u2026 And special props to The Flight of the Conchords\u2019 Inner City Pressure of course.<\/p>\n Meanwhile Pet Shop Boys themselves continue to record and tour to this day. New album Disco 5 out now<\/a> and \u2013 in addition to their ongoing Dreamworld stadium gigs \u2013 a series of five intimate live shows<\/a> at London\u2019s Electric Ballroom are planned for April 2026, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Please.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople endlessly ask us what it\u2019s like having a number one,\u201d Tennant told Smash Hits back in 1986. \u201cBut what it feels like is vaguely nothing. It feels like having a cup of tea\u201d.<\/p>\n Perhaps following 40 years of plaudits, he may be a little more effusive about his band\u2019s biggest hit.<\/p>\n But we wouldn\u2019t bank on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the debut hit that launched a multi-decade career. A track that\u2019s testament to a band\u2019s tenacity, talent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-223407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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