New Order & Pet Shop Boys - Grandads of Electro - Seniors of Synthpop

We loved them in the 80's.
Over 30 years on, New Order and Pet Shop Boys have still got it.
In September 2015 New Order released their latest album "Music Complete" (though without Peter Hook). There is not a dud track on the album. My favourite at the moment is in the link below.
"Tutti Frutti" Official video via You Tube


In April 2016 Pet Shop Boys released their 13th album "Super". Also a terrific album. "The Pop Kids" (about 30 secs in, it'll knock yer socks off), "Burn" (shades of Hot Chip), "Happiness" (the closest the boys have come to C&W), "Undertow" and "Say it to Me" are also boppy highlights.

 My partner and I first saw Pet Shop Boys perform the single "The Pop Kids" on "The Graham Norton Show"(our brand of 'old fart' TV). The clip is on You Tube too. Later in the year PSB are performing at the London Royal Opera House. Classy venue, but it is an 'old fart' venue?
Click for You Tube: "The Pop Kids" (sound only)

Bernard Sumner is 60 (my age).
Neil Tennant is 61, Chris Lowe is 57.


P.S. "Blur" doesn't qualify in the synthpop category, but "Magic Whip" in 2015 was brilliant and a great way to go out.
Damon Albarn is 48.

The battle of the i-pod playlists

On a road trip at the moment, travelling from Melbourne, north to Sunshine Coast, around 4000 km round trip.  It is the battle of the i-pod playlists in the car.

My wife’s playlist is a lot broader than mine and a lot more hard core:

The Beat, House of Pain, Cypress Hill, Sex Pistols, Stranglers, Joy Division, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, The Models, Hunters And Collectors, The Clash, Ian Dury, Roxy Music, UB 40, Simple Minds, Echo and the Bunnymen,  The Smiths, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Nick Cave, Butthole Surfers, Wall of Voodoo, Nina Hagen, Malcolm McLaren, The Cure,  Souxie and the Banshees , Rammstein - mainly 70’s and 80’s alternative (like being stuck in a John Hughes movie),  with a smattering of 90’s and newer stuff.  Some opera, “Ride of the Valkeries” and “Madam Butterfly” is in the mix too.

My playlist sounds very gay in comparison – some musical soundtracks (mainly Sondheim), Pet Shop Boys, The Presets, Scritti Politti, Heaven 17, New Order, Culture Club (“Time”), Mental As Anything (“Berserk Warriors”), EMF (“Unbelievable”) Hurts, Blur, Kate Bush, The Police,

We have some overlaps:

U.K. Squeeze “Kool  for Kats”, Lou Reed “Walk on the Wild Side”, New Order “Bizarre Love Triangle”, “World in Motion”, The Clash “Rock the Casbah”, The Church “Under the Milky Way”, Amy Whitehouse “Back in Black”, Violent Femmes  “Blister in the Sun”, Duran Duran “Planet Earth”, The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony"

Anyway, it made the kilometres pass.