Home >

Links

"PSB sites"

Be sure to visit the official Pet Shop Boys website. A bookmark to this page is a prerequisite to true online PSB fandom.

Don't be fooled by fakes! The Boys also have their own authentic Facebook page.

If that weren't enough, our musical heroes now have their own YouTube channel, where you can watch their videos.

The Pet Shop Boys have joined Instagram and TikTok as well.

You want their song lyrics? While lyrics are available at various websites, why not go to the most authoritative source? The aforementioned official PSB website has its own lyric section.

You can now easily buy official PSB merchandise online. I can even send you to the official online store now if you like—and I don't even make a dime off it! (Caveat: I've used it myself, and it seems completely safe and secure. But remember that all online transactions carry some risk. Any purchases you may make there are at your own risk; I'm providing the link merely as a convenience.)

By far the most comprehensive Pet Shop Boys discography online (or anywhere, as far as I know) is based on the original "Lazlo's Discography Machine." It's now under different management (great job, Gardner!), greatly redesigned, and has undergone a retitling transition to "Pet Shop Boys Catalogue." But it's still amazing.

Mark Farrow and his company, Farrow Design, have been creating graphics for the Pet Shop Boys almost from the start, including album and single packaging, tour books, Christmas cards, posters, and more. No, not every PSB graphic has been done by Farrow, but certainly most. And it's probably safe to say Farrow is very largely responsible for the overall "graphic look" of PSB—with the Boys' input and approval, of course. In short, you might like to pay a visit to the official Farrow website.

Dedicated Irish PSB fan Mary Allen has drawn upon her vast collection of clippings, dating back three decades, to set up an absolutely delightful Pet Shop Boys Scrapbook page on Facebook! Lots and lots of great old photos! Visit it and take a nice long walk down memory lane.

Online reference sites can be valuable, fascinating, and frustrating—sometimes all at the same time. Wikipedia and Moodbook have excellent PSB entries, although the latter doesn't appear to have been updated since 2009.

There's also a dedicated Pet Shop Boys Wiki site that's still very much in the "developmental" stages. It's soliciting volunteers to help beef up its content. I'd join in if I didn't already have my hands plenty full just managing this site, but perhaps you would like to help.

Have you ever wondered how many times each word is mentioned in PSB lyrics? In case you have, José Cruz (aka JCRZ) has created a page titled "Pet Shop Boys: Dictionary" that provides the answers. Though it's not really a "dictionary"—it's actually much more akin to a concordance—it would be petty to quibble over the naming of such an interesting site.

Longtime PSB fan Lydia Zambrano has started her own online PSB fanzine, Pet Shop Boys Fanatics, by means of the self-publication website issuu.com.

Pop Art Boys is a Tumblr page devoted to graphic art by various artists, all of which is inspired by the Pet Shop Boys. The works displayed there range from the superb to the—well, not so good. (That being said, even the poorest graphics there are better than what I could draw myself.) But I can only imagine how the subjects of such art must feel. It must inspire a strange blend of feeling quite flattered yet also somewhat creeped-out. At any rate, if you're interested in that sort of thing, it's certainly worth a visit.

In terms of sheer volume and variety of content, it's hard to beat Absolutely Pet Shop Boys. It's got lyrics, pictures, reviews, interviews, sound files, and scads of other cool stuff. A treasure-trove of PSB info that bears repeat visits!

Yet another superb site is Pet Shop Boys Online. It's attractive, full of material, and very well structured. And webmaster Chris Dahl has revamped it with an extremely cool new look that's also very user-friendly. Well worth visiting!

"Pepe Pethead" has created an Instagram page titled petshopboyslyrics that's devoted to his single-photograph expressions of select Pet Shop Boys lyrics. And for those of you who (like me) prefer Facebook to Instagram, it's also available on Facebook.

Although my French is poor—I can make out only about half of what I read—that doesn't stop me from thoroughly enjoying Pascal Leclerc's outstanding Pet Shop Boys in Paris. Marvelously designed and packed with information, photos, sound files, video files, and its own forum, it's a real treat. And just imagine how much better it must be for those of us who are actually fluent in the language!

And one more French fan with a decidedly creative bent has put together a rather nifty selection of PSB-related wallpapers.

Speaking of creativity, "lonelyheroine" is a PSB fan who often incorporates references to our musical heroes in her creative writing. You might like to check out her blog, "My Pet Shop Boys Fan Fiction: Short Stories, Poetry, and Essays."

And who would've thought that a site devoted almost exclusively to a single song could be so good? Yet that's precisely what Marcin Wichary's 10 Years of Being Boring is: a superbly conceived and executed website. There's some fascinating content and, if you dig around, you can find some really cool stuff. Although it seems more or less abandonned—apparently not having been updated since 2003—it's a thoroughly enjoyable place to visit for any PSB fan.

For a delightful PSB webpage (part of a larger site) with an especially personal touch, visit Remark's Pet Shop Boys, obsession.

If you want to read the Boys' lyrics translated into German, check out Pet Shop Boys - Poetically. I don't read German, so I can't vouch for its overall quality, but it certainly looks like an admirable effort.

The wonderful website At Dead of Night had vanished for a while—but now it's back and better than ever, boasting an extensive PSB/PSB-related lyrics section, MIDI files, and other useful resources. Welcome back!

Coufy's Pet Shop Boys Technology is an excellent Czech fansite that's been around for quite a while.

The Boys obviously have a lot of dedicated fans in central Europe. Why not pay a visit to Culture, a first-rate Hungarian PSB fan site?

Also, don't overlook All About Pet Shop Boys, a very nice blog/fansite. Be sure to check out the "categories" and archives.

A Russian (and Russian-language) fansite is "Unofficial Pet Shop Boys Partnership." It's actually been around longer than my own site—since 1998, which probably gives it one of the greatest longevities among PSB sites online—but I only recently learned about it.

The webmaster's Italian, but his site's in English. Visit Valentino's 20th Century Pet Shop Boys, especially for some of his special features. (The "Pet Shop Boys' Worst Nightmare" cartoon on his Links page is a hoot!)

A Brazilian site, A Red Letter Day Brazil, boasts a most delightful, imaginative design.

Pet Shop Boys Covers and Quotations offers (among other things) more than 1,500 images, including PSB picture sleeves from around the world!

Mary McPherson and her website have a mission: to encourage the Pet Shop Boys to tour Canada, the United States, and Australia. And, oh yeah, the U.K., too. She invites you to sign the appropriate guestbook, which is the equivalent of signing a petition for a PSB tour.

Speaking of Facebook groups, USA Petheads (set up by Mischell "Meech" Yost) is a special online place for—what else?—PSB fans here in the United States. She also also has a "Sketch Shop Boys" Twitter acount.

Ariel Alarcón has created another Facebook group, Pet Shop Boys - Electric Tour 2013 - The Integral&friends Leg's Tour, exclusively dedicated to promoting the Electric Tour and providing relevant updates about it. Its principal language is Spanish, so it will prove especially helpful to Spanish-speaking fans.

And one other Facebook page, Electric, Pet Shop Boys, has been created by Spanish fan Pablo Ferrer for his fellow fans living in Spain.

On several occasions site visitors have suggested that I create a list of amusing "misheard PSB lyrics." But I refuse to do that for two reasons: (1) Where does such a list ever end? and (2) I'm personally convinced that a majority (or at least a large minority) of the allegedly "misheard" lyrics that crop up in such lists were never actually misheard but were merely contrived by people who think such creations are funny. At any rate, for those of you who enjoy such things, there's already a "PSB page" on an entire site devoted to misheard lyrics.

I'm not familiar with the Bebo social networking site, but one of my site visitors has told me about a Bebo page devoted to the Boys.

Similarly, I don't have much of any experience with Instagram, but there's a nice Instagram page, 1psbaday365, that promises a new PSB-related photo every single day.

Sherry has a delightful My Space page that's associated with her PSB-Erasure Forum (see one of the bullet points below). She also offers a related e-newsletter that you can subscribe to.

A fan-made Facebook page is devoted to the Boys' ballet, The Most Incredible Thing. (Note that much—though not all—of the conversation there is in Spanish.)

Another Facebook page is Pet Shop Boys Greece, which, as its name indicates, has a special focus for Greek fans of the Boys.

Also on Facebook is Martin Rossini's Argentina-based site Being Pet Shop Boys, with lots of delightful photos and links.

I'm pleased to note that a regular site visitor, NastyChris from Italy, is the official author and director of the Italian Wikipedia pages for the Pet Shop Boys.

A particularly delightful Facebook site is "Pet Shop Boys, literally historical," which indeed takes a very historical approach to PSB fandom. Its biggest drawing card are its photos drawn from Chris's and Neil's pre-fame lives, including childhood.

A young artist who goes by the online handle "Jalene81" has created a blog titled "Unpredictable Art Worlds of Pet Shop Boys and Soft Cell," in which she discusses the art-design aspects of the music videos of those artists.

There are also a number of PSB online fan forums, including:

Whatever the case and however you prefer, join the online discussion!

Sites peripherally related to PSB

King Kong may have been the Eighth Wonder of the World in the movies but, as far as I'm concerned, in the real world it's YouTube. Among countless other things, you can find there all sorts of short film clips on the Pet Shop Boys.

The Swedish duo West End Girls have, at least for their debut album and singles, devoted themselves to covering our heroes. Pay a visit to their official website and, if you haven't already seen and heard them, check out their videos. I really like their arrangements, especially of "West End Girls."

You may be interested in Max Kroger's very nice site devoted to Electronic, with whom one or both of the Pet Shop Boys have collaborated on several occasions.

With impeccable pop sensibilities, yet very often tongue planted firmly in cheek, Popjustice is an invaluable resource for those of us who love pop music but don't take it too seriously. Maybe they take it seriously, but they don't take too seriously the fact that they do indeed take it seriously, if you know what I mean. And, oh yeah, they love the Pet Shop Boys and report on them often. Reason enough to visit right there.

Kevin Church's Disco Potential blog (named of course for a PSB song) evolved from his older blog "Very," which focused exclusively on the Boys. His newer blog no longer focuses just on them but more on dance-oriented pop music in general. They're still a major presence there, however. I'm quite honored that quite some time ago he wrote to tell me that my own site served as a source of inspiration. What more can a writer hope for?

The truly astounding TV Tropes website—a place where pop-culture geeks like me can happily lose themselves for hours on end if we're not careful—has a page devoted to the Pet Shop Boys. By the way, they're well aware of me, having cited me as an example of a "Fandom VIP," aka a "Big Name Fan" (look under the "Music" section) and linking back here in the process. I wouldn't even be surprised if my own website had been the original source for some of their observations. But that's OK. It's what I'm here for, and they're good enough not to engage in copyright infringement.

Sites even more peripherally related to PSB, if at all

OK, so like me you're one of those non-British types who sometimes think Chris and Neil speak an entirely different language than the English you're familiar with, especially in interviews? Do such words as chuffed, gormless, naff, and narked leave you scratching your head in confusion? That's because you're not up on your British slang! Fear not, there's a really great British slang website that's a valuable resource when trying to decipher some of the Boys' more informal pronouncements. I do quibble with a few of the webmaster's statements about American English and slang; I don't think he's quite as well-informed about how we actually talk here in the U.S. as he thinks he is. But it's still a terrific website!

If you want to learn more about gay and lesbian recording artists, particularly of years past, I strongly recommend Queer Music Heritage, a valuable resource that publishes a new online edition every month.

If you're interested in buying PSB music online, there are several excellent sites you might want to check out. I have a lot of personal experience with Amazon.com and its U.K. offshoot Amazon.co.uk (terrific for buying those U.K. singles!) and I've always been completely satisfied with their service. I also used eil.com once, with great success, and I've received several positive reports from others as well—and the selection of PSB items there is staggering! The prices seem steep, but considering the rarities offered, it's perhaps understandable. By contrast, you can find some extremely competitive prices (that is, pretty low for the most part) at WOW HD (formerly CDWow!), which has a very good if conventional PSB selection. (Those links are to the U.S. site, although there are other nation-specific editions as well, such as for the U.K.) Finally, I've done occasional online business with Siren Disc as well, again with total satisfaction.

 

All text on this website aside from direct quotations (such as of lyrics and of other nonoriginal content) is copyright © 2001-2023 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images are copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary, thereby constituting Fair Use under U.S. copyright law. Billboard chart data are copyright © their respective dates by Nielsen Business Media, Inc.

 

◀ ▲ ▶