Show Notes
Being Boring, a single by Pet Shop Boys is 30 years old today (12 November 2020). It's one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite pop groups and as such I felt I needed to mark the occasion. This podcast complements a Pop Art feature I wrote for Classic Pop magazine about the photography of The Douglas Brothers published in March 2018.
The Douglas Brothers photography was used on the cover designs for the single, with graphic design by regular Pet Shop Boys creative collaborator, Mark Farrow.
Neil Tennant has spoken in detail about what Being Boring is about and this is included in the podcast, but to quote from his book, One hundred lyrics and a poem:
"An autobiographical elegy for my best friend from Newcastle whom I'd known since we were teenagers; he died in 1989 aged only thirty-four... The title was inspired by a Japanese review which said we were 'being boring'. I liked the bouncy rhythm of this phrase and confronting the criticism of our famously deadpan presentation. The teenage party referred to in the first verse was in July 1974 (actually, I had just ceased being a teenager) and the invitation quoted Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of Scott Fitzgerald, from an article, 'Eulogy on the Flapper', published in Metropolitan magazine in 1922: 'She was never bored mainly because she was never boring.' In the second verse I leave Newcastle on the train to study in London wearing platform shoes (it was 1972) and assuming I would never move back. In the third verse I am a Pet Shop Boy recording in Munich, while back in London my friend has died and other friends are ill."
More from Art on your sleeve
On 19 March 1990, Depeche Mode released what is still considered their finest album - 'Violator'. Anton Corbijn created its sleeve with assistance from graphic designer Richard Smith of Area. The two would go on to collaborate on dozens of sleeves for a wide range of artists, but to celebrate this seminal album's 35th birthday, I spoke to Richard about his creative involvement.
Graphic designer, painter and sleeve artist, Andie Airfix was born in Scotland but grew up in Warrington in the north west of England. After studying art and English literature at Chester teacher training college, he spent almost a year teaching art and English in Southampton. In 1970 he started travelling around the USA, Canada and Mexico, a trip funded by selling psychedelic paintings to poster companies in New York and San Francisco. On his return to the UK, he spent some time in Devon where he concentrated on painting and writing before heading off again to India for a few years.
This episode of the podcast is a bit different... Instead of our usual, reverent look back at examples of the best in record sleeve creativity, we dig into its darkest and often unexplored corners of obscurity to expose some of the worst, or at best, most bizarre record sleeves ever created.
Hello and best wishes for the festive season. My gift to you is a brand new episode of the ‘Art on your sleeve’ podcast. In this episode I speak with Paula Benson and Paul West from Form. There’s a lot that I could say about this dynamic duo and their extraordinarily diverse pop portfolio, but it’s probably easier to let them speak for themselves. So, here’s a bit of an introduction lifted directly from their website.
In this episode, I speak with Andy McCluskey, lead vocalist of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, or OMD, as they are more commonly known. Andy formed OMD with co-writer and occasional co-vocalist, Paul Humphreys, at the tail-end of the 1970s. Their self-titled debut album (and its follow-up) was released in 1980 at the dawn of electronic pop, just as synthesised sounds were easing their way into the mainstream - and this is where our story begins.