Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls

What this video is

Released as the promotional film for the October 1985 EMI/Parlophone re-recording of 'West End Girls', this video arrived at the precise moment British synth-pop was transitioning from art-school underground to global mainstream. The song — inspired partly by T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' and concerned with class tension and inner-city London life — found its visual correlative in a document of mid-1980s London…

Why it matters

A landmark document of British synth-pop visual language, this video established the anti-performance, documentary-street aesthetic that would become a Pet Shop Boys hallmark. Its deliberate rejection of conventional pop-star spectacle — no stage, no choreography, no glamour lighting — in favour…

The director

Andy Morahan (born 11 August 1958) is a British commercial, film and music video director who graduated from St Martin's College. He won the MTV Award for Best Director for George Michael's 'Father Figure' and Best Video for Guns N' Roses' 'November Rain',…