~ Pet Shop Boys - Before
Views: 4186 |  |  |  |  | "Before"
The telephone's not answered
So many times you'll call
For many different reasons
So many tears will fall before
You find your love before
It comes knocking at your door
Before you know for sure
This is what you were waiting for
So ...More many fears will haunt you
Deny them or regret
Some men will make you want to
And you will not forget before
You find your love before
It comes knocking at your door
Before you know for sure
This is what you were waiting for
There's a story of a man who loved too much
He ended up inside a prison cell
You've got to want to give to get it
Or you could land up in the same suspicious hell
It's happened before (Before Before Before)
It's happened before (Before Before)
Coincidence and patience
Will mend this fatal flaw
Though it may seem a long wait
Others have been here before
You find your love before
It comes knocking at your door
Before you know for sure
This is what you were waiting for
One day, when the phone starts ringing
You'll answer to the words you're longing for
No tears, no trade, no prison cell
Whatever you need, he will return more
It's happened before (Before Before Before)
It's happened before (Before Before)
You find your love before
It comes knocking at your door
Before you know for sure
This is what you were waiting for
You find your love before
It comes knocking at your door
Before you know for sure
This is what you were waiting for
It's happened before (Before Before Before)
It's happened before (Before Before) |
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~ Pet Shop Boys - Miracle
Views: 4284 |  |  |  |  | "Miracle"
Clouds drift away when they see you
Rain wouldn't dare
to fall near you here
Miracles happen when you're around
Somehow the grass is much greener
Rivers flow faster and cleaner
Being with you no matter
where sunlight breaks through and ...More suddenly there's
A bluer sky whenever you're around
You always bring
a bluer sky
a brighter day
Thunder is silent before you
Roses bloom more to adore you too
Miracles happen when you're around
The sunset is deeper and longer
The scent of the jasmine is stronger
Stray dogs don't bite
Birds start to sing
Lightening daren't strike
You suddenly bring
A bluer sky whenever you're around
You always bring a bluer sky a brighter day
Birds fly even higher in the sky
Sun shines
It's a new day
Miracle |
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~ Pet Shop Boys - DJ Culture
Views: 9127 |  |  |  |  | "Dj Culture"
Imagine a war
which everyone won
Permanent holiday
in endless sun
Peace without wisdom
One steals to achieve
relentlessly
pretending to believe
Attitudes are materialistic
positive or frankly realistic
Which is terrible old-fashi ...More oned, isn't it?
Or isn't it?
DJ culture
Dance with me
DJ culture
Let's pretend
Living in a satellite fantasy
waiting for the night to end
Let's pretend
we won a war
like a football match
ten-nil the score
Anything's possible
we're on the same side
or otherwise
on trial for our lives
I've been around the world
for a number of reasons
I've seen it all
the change of seasons
And I, my lord, may I say nothing?
DJ culture
Dance with me
DJ culture
Let's pretend
Living in a satellite fantasy
waiting for the night to end
DJ culture
Dance with me
DJ culture
Let's pretend
Living in a satellite fantasy
wondering who's your friend
Now as a matter of pride
indulge yourself
your every mood
No feast days or fast days
or days of abstinence intrude
Consider for a minute
who you are
what you'd like to change
never mind the scars
Bury the past
Empty the shelf
Decide it's time
to reinvent yourself
Like Liz before Betty
she after Sean
Suddenly you're missing
then you're reborn
And I, my lord, may I say nothing?
DJ culture
Une fois!
DJ culture
Deux fois!
Living in a satellite fantasy
waiting for the night to end
DJ culture
Dance with me
DJ culture
Let's pretend
Living in a satellite fantasy
wondering who's your friend
And I, my lord, may I say nothing?
Living in a satellite fantasy
waiting for the night to end |
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~ Pet Shop Boys - I Get Along
Views: 4372 |  |  |  |  | "I Get Along"
Feeling like I'm stuck in a hole
body and soul
while you're out of control
Now I know why you had to go
well I think we both know
why it had to be so
I've been trying not to cry
when I'm in the public eye
Stuck here with the shame ...More
and taking
my share of the blame
while making
sudden plans that don't include you
I get along, get along
without you very well
I get along very well
Now I know you'd much rather be
with rock royalty
instead of someone like me
The big boys are back and we need them, you said
Think it was something you'd read
and it stuck in your head
Even though I don't suppose
that's as far as it goes
You've go quite an appetite
for being wronged and in the right
Well from now on it won't affect me
I get along, get along
without you very well
I get along very well
The morning after the night before
I'd been alerted
to your lies
I phoned you up
Your calls were all diverted
Took a long time to track you down
even then you were defiant
It's not what you think it is, you said
and proceeded to deny it
So I lost my patience at last
and it happened so fast
you belong in the past
I've been trying not to cry
when I'm in the public eye
Stuck here with the shame
and taking
my share of the blame
while making
sudden plans that don't include you
I get along, get along
without you very well
I get along very well |
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~ New Chevrolet Cruze
Views: 4557 |  |  |  |  | Spy shots about the new Chevrolet, it will debut on the Paris Motor Show this october. Looks very nice!
Music: Pet Shop Boys - Psychological
On sale beginning in Europe from March 2009, Chevrolet Cruze features a dramatic re-interpretation of the trad ...More itional sedan featuring Chevrolet's new global design language that is becoming a signature on all new products carrying the gold bowtie.
Chevrolet Cruze's arching roof-line, extending from the steeply raked windshield to its sloping rear pillars and short rear deck, brings coupe-like proportions to a compact sedan.
Wider and longer than most of its competitors, Chevrolet Cruze has a purposeful stance with its wheels located at the outer edges of the tautly drawn bodywork. Noticeably tight body panel fits and a restrained use of exterior trim add to a high quality, 'hewn from solid' appearance.
Chevrolet Cruze's dramatic profile is matched by bold front styling, with large headlamp housings that wrap around the front corners and sweep up, arrow-like, into the fenders and sculpted hood. Other distinct design themes include a concave shoulder line, the two-tier grille and a "wheels-out/body-in" stance. Inside, Chevrolet Cruze features a 'twin #@!&pit' design motif, first introduced in the iconic Chevrolet Corvette sports car.
"Our goal in designing Chevrolet Cruze was to be bold, not evolutionary," says chief designer Taewan Kim. "We wanted to take a big step forward, making a strong design statement for Chevrolet products around the world."
Visitors to the Paris show will see how Chevrolet's progressive design is also reflected in the quality of Chevrolet Cruze's interior. The use of grained surfaces, soft-touch materials and low gloss trim panels ensures a quality ambience that echoes the clean, harmonious design of the exterior.
At launch in Europe, Chevrolet Cruze will be available with 16-valve, 1.6-liter (112 hp/82 kW) and 1.8-liter (140 hp/103 kW) gasoline engines featuring variable valve timing (VVT) on both inlet and exhaust sides, giving more power as well as better fuel economy and lower emissions. A new 2.0-liter turbo diesel, developing 150 hp/ 110 kW and 320 Nm of torque adds power with even greater frugality. Five-speed manual gearboxes and an all-new automatic transmission, Chevrolet's first six-speed application in the compact segment, complete the powertrain menu.
With sales in Europe up by 23 percent for the first six months of 2008, Chevrolet is GM Europe's fastest-growing mainstream brand. The arrival of Chevrolet Cruze spearheads an exciting new product roll-out program that is expected to propel the brand to even greater success.
"We are proud that Europe is leading the introduction for this global product," said Wayne Brannon, Executive Director, Chevrolet Europe. "Chevrolet has always stood for expressive value and Cruze delivers on that promise like never before. It further redefines Chevrolet with its design, quality, materials and great style inside and out. The fit and finish for gaps and interfaces sets a new standard for this segment in Europe and around the world."
Chevrolet Cruze is the result of a development process harnessing GM's global expertise and is the first of a new family of compact products that will deliver world class quality. It will be backed by expected highest scores in all major crash safety ratings.
The Chevrolet Cruze will be available in Europe from March 2009, followed by other global markets with regional-specific engine choices. |
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~ Divine - Native love
Views: 141400 |  |  |  |  | The actor known as Divine was born Harris Glenn Milstead on October 19, 1945 in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore to father Harris Bernard and mother Diana Frances. This would be his 60th birthday in 2005!
At the age of 12, the Milsteads moved to ...More Lutherville, another nearby district, just six houses from a boy the same age named John Waters. Years later, John and Glenn would thrive off each other's talents to acheive notoriety and eventually fame.
Glenn was a fat boy, always being picked on by the other boys at school for being plump and effeminate. In high school, his interests fell around horticulture, cosmetology and of course, acting. He worked for five or six years as a hairdresser, eventually running his own salon, a gift from his generous, lenient and naive parents. Generous because of all the gifts he received over the years, lenient because of the lack of punishment he received after destroying their gifts and sqauandering the family's money, and naive because it would be many years into his career as an actor before they realised exactly what was going on. Their relationship with Glenn broke down over the years, to the point where the Milsteads fled to Florida. But towards the end of Glenn's life, after he'd become world-reknown as Divine, he and his parents patched things up a bit.
Around 1966, Glenn was cast in his first Waters film, being remodeled by John and his makeup artist, Van Smith, into the horror show that would forever be known as Divine. Through Waters' films, Divine became synonymous with vile, repulsive acts with an attitude to match. But throughout his career, he longed for a way out of that mask, wig and dress, and in fact, did play a few roles out of drag. Not only did he act, but through somewhat coincidental cir#@!&stances, Divine had a brief career as a disco recording star and club attraction. The first of these records were made with sleazy New York producer Bobby Orlando, famous for producing Pet Shop Boys' first flops. After Orlando, Divine worked with the Stock-Aitken-Waterman team who's roster included Kylie Minogue and Dead or Alive.
Due to his weight, Divine had a plethora of problems with his body including a sleeping disorder termed sleep apnoea in which chronic violent snoring results in memory loss, mood swings, heart attacks and strokes. His weight, among other problems, led him through cycles of depression. He was also reportedly addicted to marijuana, passing out where he sat, exhausted from pot and chronic insomnia.
At age 42, he was just about to branch into television when he met his demise in Southern California. He'd broken his habit of pot smoking, been widely praised by fans and the press for his role as Edna Turnblad in John Waters' Hairspray, and was finally going to play a role out of drag on network television. The Fox program, Married With Children, had booked Divine to play Bundy relative, Uncle Otto - a character Fox hoped would become a regular. He did not show up on the set. His personal manager, Bernard Jay, discovered him dead in his hotel suite - Mr. Jay swears Divine died of happiness, a state he finally acheived the morning of March 7, 1988.
info: www.dreamlandnews.com/divine/index.shtml |
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~ Divine - Shake it Up
Views: 279912 |  |  |  |  | The actor known as Divine was born Harris Glenn Milstead on October 19, 1945 in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore to father Harris Bernard and mother Diana Frances. This would be his 60th birthday in 2005!
At the age of 12, the Milsteads moved to ...More Lutherville, another nearby district, just six houses from a boy the same age named John Waters. Years later, John and Glenn would thrive off each other's talents to acheive notoriety and eventually fame.
Glenn was a fat boy, always being picked on by the other boys at school for being plump and effeminate. In high school, his interests fell around horticulture, cosmetology and of course, acting. He worked for five or six years as a hairdresser, eventually running his own salon, a gift from his generous, lenient and naive parents. Generous because of all the gifts he received over the years, lenient because of the lack of punishment he received after destroying their gifts and sqauandering the family's money, and naive because it would be many years into his career as an actor before they realised exactly what was going on. Their relationship with Glenn broke down over the years, to the point where the Milsteads fled to Florida. But towards the end of Glenn's life, after he'd become world-reknown as Divine, he and his parents patched things up a bit.
Around 1966, Glenn was cast in his first Waters film, being remodeled by John and his makeup artist, Van Smith, into the horror show that would forever be known as Divine. Through Waters' films, Divine became synonymous with vile, repulsive acts with an attitude to match. But throughout his career, he longed for a way out of that mask, wig and dress, and in fact, did play a few roles out of drag. Not only did he act, but through somewhat coincidental cir#@!&stances, Divine had a brief career as a disco recording star and club attraction. The first of these records were made with sleazy New York producer Bobby Orlando, famous for producing Pet Shop Boys' first flops. After Orlando, Divine worked with the Stock-Aitken-Waterman team who's roster included Kylie Minogue and Dead or Alive.
Due to his weight, Divine had a plethora of problems with his body including a sleeping disorder termed sleep apnoea in which chronic violent snoring results in memory loss, mood swings, heart attacks and strokes. His weight, among other problems, led him through cycles of depression. He was also reportedly addicted to marijuana, passing out where he sat, exhausted from pot and chronic insomnia.
At age 42, he was just about to branch into television when he met his demise in Southern California. He'd broken his habit of pot smoking, been widely praised by fans and the press for his role as Edna Turnblad in John Waters' Hairspray, and was finally going to play a role out of drag on network television. The Fox program, Married With Children, had booked Divine to play Bundy relative, Uncle Otto - a character Fox hoped would become a regular. He did not show up on the set. His personal manager, Bernard Jay, discovered him dead in his hotel suite - Mr. Jay swears Divine died of happiness, a state he finally acheived the morning of March 7, 1988.
info: www.dreamlandnews.com/divine/index.shtml |
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~ THE CRYING GAME...!
Views: 4125 |  |  |  |  | John Paul and Kieron's crying game...
Played at their own risk...!
The Film:
The Crying Game is a popular and critically acclaimed 1992 film written and directed by Neil Jordan. The film explores themes of race, gender, nationality, and sexuality aga ...More inst the backdrop of the Irish Troubles. The original working title of this film was The Soldier's Wife.
The film is notable for containing a dramatic plot twist...because the wife is actually a man dressed like a woman...!
The song :
"The Crying Game" is a song written by Geoff Stephens, and first released by Dave Berry in July 1964. It reached #5 in the UK Singles Chart.
The song was covered by Boy George in 1992 as the theme to the Neil Jordan movie, The Crying Game. Produced by the Pet Shop Boys, it turned out to be his last major hit single, reaching #22 on the UK Singles Chart, #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. and #1 in Canada.
In addition the song has been covered by artists such as Brenda Lee, The Associates, Kylie Minogue, Percy Sledge, Chris Spedding, Blue System, and crooner Alex Moore.
Lyrics:
I know all there is to know about the crying game
I' ve had my share of the crying game
First there are kisses, then there are sighs
And then before you know where you are
Youre sayin goodbye
One day soon Im gonna tell the moon about the crying game
And if he knows maybe he ll explain
Why there are heartaches, why there are tears
And what to do to stop feeling blue
When love disappears
Dont want no more of the crying game
Dont want no more of the crying game
Dont want no more of the crying game
Dont want no more of the crying game.
*Music:Starlite Orchestra and Singers,"The Crying Game".
***THANKS to Axelmoto's Blog for the photos!!! |
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~ Divine - Shake it Up (Formel Eins)
Views: 75759 |  |  |  |  | The actor known as Divine was born Harris Glenn Milstead on October 19, 1945 in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore to father Harris Bernard and mother Diana Frances. This would be his 60th birthday in 2005!
At the age of 12, the Milsteads moved to ...More Lutherville, another nearby district, just six houses from a boy the same age named John Waters. Years later, John and Glenn would thrive off each other's talents to acheive notoriety and eventually fame.
Glenn was a fat boy, always being picked on by the other boys at school for being plump and effeminate. In high school, his interests fell around horticulture, cosmetology and of course, acting. He worked for five or six years as a hairdresser, eventually running his own salon, a gift from his generous, lenient and naive parents. Generous because of all the gifts he received over the years, lenient because of the lack of punishment he received after destroying their gifts and sqauandering the family's money, and naive because it would be many years into his career as an actor before they realised exactly what was going on. Their relationship with Glenn broke down over the years, to the point where the Milsteads fled to Florida. But towards the end of Glenn's life, after he'd become world-reknown as Divine, he and his parents patched things up a bit.
Around 1966, Glenn was cast in his first Waters film, being remodeled by John and his makeup artist, Van Smith, into the horror show that would forever be known as Divine. Through Waters' films, Divine became synonymous with vile, repulsive acts with an attitude to match. But throughout his career, he longed for a way out of that mask, wig and dress, and in fact, did play a few roles out of drag. Not only did he act, but through somewhat coincidental cir#@!&stances, Divine had a brief career as a disco recording star and club attraction. The first of these records were made with sleazy New York producer Bobby Orlando, famous for producing Pet Shop Boys' first flops. After Orlando, Divine worked with the Stock-Aitken-Waterman team who's roster included Kylie Minogue and Dead or Alive.
Due to his weight, Divine had a plethora of problems with his body including a sleeping disorder termed sleep apnoea in which chronic violent snoring results in memory loss, mood swings, heart attacks and strokes. His weight, among other problems, led him through cycles of depression. He was also reportedly addicted to marijuana, passing out where he sat, exhausted from pot and chronic insomnia.
At age 42, he was just about to branch into television when he met his demise in Southern California. He'd broken his habit of pot smoking, been widely praised by fans and the press for his role as Edna Turnblad in John Waters' Hairspray, and was finally going to play a role out of drag on network television. The Fox program, Married With Children, had booked Divine to play Bundy relative, Uncle Otto - a character Fox hoped would become a regular. He did not show up on the set. His personal manager, Bernard Jay, discovered him dead in his hotel suite - Mr. Jay swears Divine died of happiness, a state he finally acheived the morning of March 7, 1988.
info: www.dreamlandnews.com/divine/index.shtml |
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~ Pet Shop Boys - Se a vida é (That's the way life is)
Views: 32399 |  |  |  |  | After a tour through South America the Pet Shop Boys were influenced by the beats and rhythms associated with Latin American music. In August 1996, the Pet Shop Boys released a follow-up single, "Se a vida é (That's the way life is)", a Latin American mus ...More ic-inspired track featuring a drum sample from a track called "Estrada Da Paixão" by Brazilian act Olodum. This preceded the sixth Pet Shop Boys album Bilingual which was released in September.
The peaked at number eight in the UK charts in late August 1996, having gained a great deal of radio airplay, and secured the band their first appearance on UK music show 'Top of the Pops' since 1993. The song soon became the summer party anthem of the year for those people who were not advocates of the UK's ever-growing club culture of the late 1980s and the 1990s, helped by its Portuguese/Brazilian feel, Latino influences and a popular video shot by Bruce Weber set mainly in a water park located in south Florida. "Se A Vida E" would spend eight weeks in the Top 40 before eventually dropping out in early November. Numerous dance remixes were also made which helped the track become one of the biggest club hits of the second half of the 1990s.
***The right translation of the Portuguese song title "Se a vida é" would be "If life is..." |
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~ South Bank Show - Dusty Springfield part 1
Views: 3904 |  |  |  |  | The South Bank Show - Dusty Springfield part 1
The iconic Dusty Springfield remains the "white lady of soul" and in this compelling South Bank Show, her moving and dramatic story is told in its entirety for the first time. An array of intimate friends, ...More lovers and show business talents go on record to describe the intense highs and lows of Dusty's swinging life, before her untimely death in 1999.
Born Mary O'Brien in London as war began in 1939, in the 60's as Dusty Springfield, she came to represent renewed British optimism and modernity, epitomising swinging London. A plain convent educated girl, Dusty's transformation of herself into a blonde glamour icon was a remarkable act of will.
A lesbian with a great deal to lose and a great deal to hide, Dusty hid for many years behind the mask of the Girl Singer. The unique qualities of her voice attracted the crème de la crème of songwriters and producers; she had close relationships with Burt Bacharach, Carole King, and Gamble and Huff, the men who created the sound of Philadelphia Soul.
Dusty made herself an expert on black American soul music after she fell in love with Motown. Her career waned in the seventies and she fled to America, where she floundered in variety shows. She moved to Los Angeles where she struggled with drink, drugs and self harming. She later returned to Britain to critical acclaim when she re-invented herself in partnership with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe better known as the Pet Shop Boys.
Dusty's life is nothing if not dramatic, although this can never obscure her remarkable gifts as a musician and performer - which have continued to be rediscovered by new generations.
A soul searching South Bank Show, on arguably Britain's greatest ever Pop Diva - Dusty Springfield.
Original air date: Sunday 9th April 2006, ITV1 |
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~ McFly's 100 totally awesome pop bands [4/4]
Views: 6084 |  | ![Pet Shop Boys McFlys 100 totally awesome pop bands [4/4]](http://img2.everyvideoevermade.com/img.ashx?src=7sJnbqPsecc_1) | ![Pet Shop Boys McFlys 100 totally awesome pop bands [4/4]](http://img3.everyvideoevermade.com/img.ashx?src=7sJnbqPsecc_2) | ![Pet Shop Boys McFlys 100 totally awesome pop bands [4/4]](http://img4.everyvideoevermade.com/img.ashx?src=7sJnbqPsecc_3) | I edited it and deleted the videos, so it's just the McFly parts.
Videos that were in this part:
23 - gold - spandau ballet
22 - I want it that way - backstreet boys
21 - tragedy - steps
20 - dani california - red hot chills
19 - survivor - destiny' ...More s child
18 - venus - bananarama
17 - bet you look good - arctic monkeys
16 - go west - pet shop boys
15 - I don't feel like dancin - scissor sisters
14 - heart of glass - blondie
13 - beautiful day - u2
12 - blame it on the boogie - jackson5
11 - about you now - sugababes
10 - obviously - mcfly
09 - I want to break free - queen
08 - don't look back in anger - oasis
07 - world of our own - westlife
06 - who do you think you are - spice girls
05 - wild boys - duran duran
04 - something kinda ooh - girls aloud
03 - wake me up before you go go - wham
02 - dancing queen - abba
01 - shine - take that |
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~ The Chart Show 23 September 1988 (Part Six)
Views: 4220 |  |  |  |  | FEATURES:
Rick Astley - She Wants to Dance With Me
Pet Shop Boys - Domino Dancing
A rare instance of the number one having no video here. I think we had to wait until Black Box's "Ride On Time" before it happened again.
Also, the Pet Shop Boys tr ...More ack is definitely titled "Domino Dancing" and not "Domino Talking" as the Chart Show state here!
Sorry about the lack of Preview, but I believe it was Sandie Shaw's "Please Help the Cause Against Loneliness". |
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~ Donna Summer-I Feel Love-Rare Masters at Work Promo
Views: 3789 |  |  |  |  | Brilliant version from 1995. A duet with herself with the most incredible powerful new Vocals!
Very Rare Remix of the Classic I feel love originally from 1977. This newer version has brand new vocals(1995) and extra lyrics. Donna Summer shows the real po ...More wer of her Amazing voice. Very different from all the other versions ever done before. Not the best sound quality though but a Brilliant track!!!
Feel the LOVE:-) |
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~ Simple Minds - Alive & Kicking [Extended A&I Mix]
Views: 115570 |  | ![Pet Shop Boys Simple Minds - Alive & Kicking [Extended A&I Mix]](http://img2.everyvideoevermade.com/img.ashx?src=aczXyA_fxpM_1) | ![Pet Shop Boys Simple Minds - Alive & Kicking [Extended A&I Mix]](http://img3.everyvideoevermade.com/img.ashx?src=aczXyA_fxpM_2) | ![Pet Shop Boys Simple Minds - Alive & Kicking [Extended A&I Mix]](http://img4.everyvideoevermade.com/img.ashx?src=aczXyA_fxpM_3) | 1985's Smash-hit "Alive & Kicking" by Simple Minds. This is my own video remix tribute (re-edited on this catchy chorus as sample) done from the rare US Maxi-Promo a.k.a. 'Extended 12" Mix'. only hope you'll really like it... :)
Review.- Simple Minds i ...More s a rock band from Scotland, which had its greatest worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early-1990s. The band, from the south side of Glasgow, produced a handful of critically acclaimed albums in the early 1980s, and later went on to produce some politically inspired and critically praised work.
Founding members Jim Kerr (vocals) and Charlie Burchill (guitar), along with drummer Mel Gaynor, are the core of the band, which currently features Mark Taylor on keyboards and Eddie Duffy on bass guitar.
Charlie Burchill and Jim Kerr formed a punk band in 1977. They were heavily influenced by Lou Reed, and after one unsuccessful single as Johnny & the Self Abusers, they shuffled the line-up to include former Abusers Brian McGee on drums and Tony Donald on bass guitar, the latter of whom was quickly replaced by Derek Forbes.
Simple Minds commercial first album, Life in a Day, took a cue from fellow Post-punk forebears Magazine, and was somewhat self-consciously derivative of the late-70s punk boom.
While still categorisable as 'rock', Simple Minds' second release, Real to Real Cacophony, had a darker edge, and announced some of the New Wave experimentation that would become the band's trademark sound over the next two albums.
The next album, Empires and Dance, was a far more radical departure, and signalled the influence of Kraftwerk, Neu! and similar European artists. Indeed, during this period Simple Minds promoted themselves as a European band, not a Scottish or UK band.
Simple Minds' sixth studio album, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), released in 1982, was a significant turning point for the band. With a slick, sophisticated sound thanks to producer Peter Walsh, Simple Minds were soon categorised as part of the New Romantic outgrowth of New Wave (along with Duran Duran and others), and the record generated a handful of charting singles including "Promised You a Miracle" and "Glittering Prize", which both hit the UK Top 20 and Australian Top 10, continuing the band's early success in that region. In addition, jazz keyboardist Herbie Han#@!& performed a synth solo on the track "Hunter and the Hunted."
Despite the band's new-found popularity in the UK and Europe, Simple Minds remained essentially unknown in the U.S. The movie The Breakfast Club changed all that. Released in early 1985, this Brat Pack drama from writer/director John Hughes was a box-office smash and made household names of many of its young stars, including Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez. It also broke Simple Minds into the US market almost overnight, when the band achieved their only number-one U.S. pop hit with the film's opening track, "Don't You (Forget About Me)". Ironically, the song wasn't even written by the band, but by Keith Forsey, who offered the song to Billy Idol and Bryan Ferry before Simple Minds agreed to record it. The song soon became a chart-topper in many other countries around the world.
Taking advantage of their new-found popularity, Simple Minds released their most unashamedly commercial album, Once Upon a Time, which was tailored specifically to appeal to the stadium-rock sensibilities of American audiences. Reviled by some long-time fans yet embraced by millions of new listeners and critically well-received, the record reached number one in the UK and number ten in the US, even though "Don't You (Forget About Me)" was not included. The band made it clear in interviews prior to the album's release that they would not include the song, believing that it would devalue the rest of the album, which they felt could stand on its own merits.
Once Upon a Time would go on to generate four worldwide hit singles: "Alive & Kicking", "Sanctify Yourself", "Ghostdancing" and "All The Things She Said", the latter of which featured a cutting-edge music video directed by Zbigniew Rybczyński that used techniques later employed in music videos for Pet Shop Boys and Art of Noise. Because of Simple Minds powerful stage presence and lyrics that trafficked in Christian symbolism, the band was criticized by some in the music press as a lesser version of U2, despite the fact that both bands were now heading in different musical directions.
Simple Minds have secured a string of successful hit singles, the best known being its number one worldwide hit single "Don't You (Forget About Me)", from the soundtrack of the John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club. |
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~ PET SHOP BOYS Left To My Own Devices 1.12.88 Trevor Horn Production
Views: 32949 |  |  |  |  | Reunited in 2005 with producer Trevor Horn for the first time since 1988's magisterial Left to My Own Devices, Pet Shop Boys encountered an unexpected problem. The man responsible for overblown epics such as Relax and Poison Arrow wasn't giving them the H ...More orn they were looking for. So they didn't have to rein him in? "Au contraire," answers Neil Tennant. "We were trying to rein him out."
In the end, as Tennant and Chris Lowe's new album, Fundamental, proves, they got what they wanted, but it wasn't without a struggle. "We kept saying to him, 'We're making a Trevor Horn album here,'" recalls Tennant. "The reason we started working with him again was because of that tATu single, which was proper Trevor. We thought, 'Oh, he's doing pop again': first of all, a pop record; second, a pop record with two Russian lesbians. I said to him, 'You know, you should only work with homosexuals.'"
The great man's sonic imprint is all over new songs such as Casanova in Hell, Minimal and The Sodom and Gomorrah Show. On the first, the cellos detumesce down the scale seconds after Tennant has sung: "He couldn't get an erection." "Actually, we nearly cut those out," says Tennant, "because we thought they might be too arch." "What's wrong with arch?" asks Lowe. On Minimal, Horn ignores the tenor of the song by pelting it with pizzicato strings that are straight out of ABC's The Lexicon of Love. And on S&G — a giant journey from innocence to depravity to regret — well, Tennant admits he cheated. "We were trying to do a real Trevor there," he says, "and I thought, 'You'd have backing vocals here, wouldn't you?' So I put them on — and it sounds like Dollar."
Tennant in the mood he's in today is unstoppable. Flitting from one subject to another in the space of seconds, he'll marvel at the 24-hour nature and vapidity of contemporary celebrity-mag discourse, then veer off down memory lane about Dollar. "I interviewed them for Smash Hits (which, famously, he once edited). I went and bought make-up at Boots with Thereza Bazar." He's off. "David Van Day is a surviving kind of guy. I know he's got the chip van, but he also tours with a version of Buck's Fizz."
"He was never in Buck's Fizz," Lowe protests. "But there's a kind of weird logic that the guy from Dollar is in Buck's Fizz," reasons Tennant. Do you ever do pub quizzes, Neil? "I've never been in a pub in my life," he splutters. "Although someone said to me, 'You know, everyone who knows you agrees that if they were on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, you'd be the friend they'd phone.'"
They're not always like this. Lowe, cruelly inaccurate though the stereotype of him as monosyllabic and scowling beneath his baseball cap is, can play to it when he wants. And Tennant in picky, guarded mode can be a scary prospect. If the joke's on you, beware; on him, and you can relax. Asked to settle, once and for all, whether it's Pet Shop Boys or The Pet Shop Boys, he pokes fun at his penchant for pedantry. "It's Pet Shop Boys. We confuse the issue by calling ourselves the Pet Shop Boys." He pauses before pouncing. "With a lower-case 't'."
Yet critical reaction to them can also be contrary, and sometimes wilfully ignorant. Quite apart from releasing some of the greatest pop singles of the past 20 years, PSB have also made at least three classic albums, with Fundamental now making it four. Detractors dwell on their apparent archness or snag on the perceived contradiction between their innate melancholia and giddy, hi-NRG hedonism. This misses, surely, PSB's uniqueness, which is that they locate the sadness that always resides somewhere in silliness, and vice versa.
Tennant's droll vocal style has also attracted criticism. "Some people think my voice sounds disengaged," the singer acknowledges. "But I think that gives the songs emotional punch. When people take a song and drag it by the scruff of the neck, they don't necessarily get emotion out of it." On the great new track I Made My Excuses and Left (a very PSB title), the subject of the song walks into a party to discover his lover with someone else. Tennant's delivery of the line "I walked into the room/Imagine my surprise", manages, by being conversational and resigned, to set the tragic scene with visceral power. He once, famously, told the American songwriter Diane Warren: "We don't do passion." By which he meant? "That I'm not Mariah Carey." And you imagine Carey lathering that same line with demented coloratura and know immediately what Tennant means. Warren has contributed a song — Numb — to Fundamental, though she was keen for PSB to cover another of her compositions. The title proved a problem. "She couldn't get why the Pet Shop Boys wouldn't sing Kisses on the Wind," Tennant laughs. "Imagine getting the label to say: 'The great new Pet Shop Boys single — Kisses on the Wind'." |
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~ Moby Performs 'Porcelain' Live At DanceStar Awards London
Views: 4510 |  |  |  |  | http://www.dancestar.com - Moby live at DanceStar London this video was voted the best TV performance video on dancestar.com
Born Richard Melville Hall, Moby received his nickname as a child; it derives from the fact that Herman Melville, the author of ...More -Moby Dick, is his great-great grand uncle. Moby was raised in Darien, CT, where he played in a hardcore punk band called the Vatican Commandos as a teenager. Later, he briefly sang with Flipper, while their singer was serving time in jail. He briefly attended college, before he moved to New York City, where he began DJing in dance clubs. During the late '80s and 1990, he released a number of singles and EPs for the independent label Instinct. In 1991, he set the theme from David Lynch's television series Twin Peaks to an insistent, house-derived rhythm and titled the result "Go." The single became a surprise British hit single, climbing into the Top Ten. Following its success, Moby was invited to remix a number of mainstream and underground acts, including Michael Jackson, Pet Shop Boys, Brian Eno, Depeche Mode, Erasure, the B-52's, and Orbital. |
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