Links

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

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, including Fan Club membership. 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!) and greatly redesigned. But it's still amazing.

Online reference sites can be valuable, fascinating, and frustrating—sometimes all at the same time. Wikipedia and Moodbook have excellent PSB entries. I'm especially fond of the latter, which includes a detailed discography (though hardly an authoritative one; among other things, some of the releases are listed out of order). Despite the fact that it's not up to the "Lazlo/Gardner standard," it's still nothing to sneeze at.

I haven't attempted a Pet Shop Boys FAQ myself because there's already an excellent one available.

The Pet Shop Boys' road crew for their 2006-07 Fundamental world tour have put together an amusing website of their own. Pay it a visit if you're interested in a slightly behind-the-scenes glimpse that is at times alternately intimate, comic, surprising, and downright bizarre. An alert, however: it has very little to do with the Boys themselves.

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!

Another marvelous site is So Pet Shop Boys. It offers lots of PSB goodies, most notably a huge photo gallery. And I love the way the webmaster, Stephen Kenneth, keeps the site updated to feature the design scheme of the most recent album: it now features a Fundamental-inspired look.

Yet another superb site is Pet Shop Boys Online. It's attractive, full of material, and very well structured. I'm particularly fond of its changing "Pic of the Day" selections and its musical preview feature.

Don't overlook Mike Kay's delightful site Confidential. It has a wonderfully tasteful look and feel as well as an especially good "Chronology" section, not to be missed!

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!

Another noteworthy French site is Stéphane's Very Pet Shop Boys. I absolutely love the drawing of Neil and Chris on the home page!

And one more French fan with a decidedly creative bent has put together a rather nifty selection of PSB-related wallpapers as well as an assortment of remixes, including some of PSB songs.

Kevin Church's Very. A blog about Pet Shop Boys holds great promise as a source of regular reading pleasure. I'm quite honored that he wrote to tell me that my own site has served as a source of inspiration for him. What more can a writer hope for?

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. Now back in operation after an extended hiatus, it's as good as if not better than ever.

Euphoric has a terrific look and feel as well as links to all sorts of helpful material. Its webmaster also has a wonderful penchant for being "on top of things," so to speak, frequently being among the first to obtain and share valuable new info. In my opinion it ranks within the top tier of PSB sites.

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

One of the newer sites is Rachael's Pet Shop Boys. Quite nice, and I love the floating cube! Much more sophisticated than the one I briefly posted on my site a few years ago. Plus, it's proof-positive that the Boys still have younger fans! (Well, a lot younger than me, anyway.)

The fantastic German fansite petshopboys·reflection is an absolute revelation, especially with regard to its extensive lists of PSB rarities. Awesome graphics, too! I think I'm just a tad envious.

I don't know the story behind the change, but another German fansite, Pet Shop Boys - OnPage, which once had its own unique design, has recently become simply a German-language clone of the aforementioned Pet Shop Boys Online. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but I liked it much better before; now there's no reason for me to visit. But my German-speaking site visitors will undoubtedly find it extremely useful.

Since we're on the subject of German—if you want to read the Boys' lyrics translated into that language, check out Pet Shop Boys - Poetically, which does precisely that. 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!

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.

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!)

An excellent Mexican site, Pet Shop Boys|Mexico, has been under development for some time but is now essentially complete. It should prove a valuable online resource, especially for the very sizeable Spanish-speaking segment of PSB fandom.

Armin's Romanian PSB site, known by its URL www.petshopboys.ro, is one of the newer fansites. If you're from Romania or speak Romanian, check it out! Heck, check it out even if you don't speak Romanian!

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.

And for an especially delightful approach to PSB fandom, visit Pet Shop Boys...Funnily Enough. But be forewarned: you may never look at Chris and Neil in quite the same way again.

Another lighthearted (and sometimes perfectly outrageous) site is Agent Pinkski's "The Pets Files." Those with a good sense of humor about our heroes will find lots to enjoy there. Those without, however, had best stay away.

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.

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

• the Yahoo! Petheads group
• the Pet Shop Boys Community Forum (subtitled "I Like to Think of It As Home")
• Lydia's Pet Shop Boys Forum (subtitled "This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Sin")
• Sherry's Pet Shop Boys-Erasure forum for fans of both bands (and there are many!)
• Zeus's Pet Shop Boys Forum
• an Italian PSB forum
• several Russian fan forums, perhaps most notably Petheads.ru (do I detect a clever pun in the URL?)
• a number of Spanish-language fan forums, including one hosted in Argentina titled Introspective, two hosted in Chile—PetHead Culture and Integral & Friends (the latter of which can be accessed at http://www.petshopboys-foro.org/foro but, for some reason that I simply can't figure out, I can't get the link to work on my website)—and one simply called Pet Shop Boys hailing (if I'm not mistaken) from Spain itself
• a Swedish forum titled Pet Shop Boys Lovers
• You Are So Gay, which has, as its title suggests, a specifically gay focus (although the discussions there sometimes have little if anything to do with PSB)
• a PSB Facebook group created by one of my university-based site visitors, though to join you must also have an email address that's affiliated with an academic institution or certain workplaces (if you can join and then run a search for "Pet Shop Boys," you'll find the group)

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

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. Parts of it are still under development, but if you're interested in Electronic, then you'll definitely want to check out what's already there and to stay tuned for what's still to come!

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.

A charity album titled Philanthropy, consisting of tracks recorded by musically talented PSB fans, is reportedly nearing completion. From what I've heard thus far, it sounds quite promising. Several websites devoted to it have appeared, including the official site for the project.

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. And if you're more interested in contemporary artists—particularly those commonly overlooked by the "mainstream" media—I encourage you to visit Outmusic, an organization dedicated to supporting and recognizing the work of openly LGBT performers.

If you're interested in buying PSB music online, there are several 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 rareties offered, it's perhaps understandable. Finally, I've done occasional online business with Siren Disc as well, again with total satisfaction.

The Pet Shop Boys are much more than an "eighties band," despite the fact that's how most of my fellow Americans regard them (when they regard them at all). But for those of you who are indeed particular fans of 80s music, I recommend a visit to About.com's "80s Music Site," hosted by Dawn Marie. Similar territory is covered by Remember the Eighties, which often features news and features about our heroes and their contemporaries of that decade. I liked it better, however, when it was more gharishly (but effectively) hued. But remember—the Pet Shop Boys are not merely an "eighties band," regardless what the bulk of my countrymen (and women) think.