The music journos at UK newspaper The Guardian came up with their list of 'the 100 best UK #1 singles' a couple of years back, and placed West End Girls at number 1. They got a lot of stick for it (and to some extent with the top 10 they were trolling their readers a bit to generate clicks, I suspect), but I think the Pet Shop Boys did, as you say, combine a fresh take on electronic music with insightful, incisive, zeitgeisty poetry that made their music so right for that transitional period in Britain, both musically and societally.

There's probably a piece to be written somewhere about 'bands featuring former music journalists'. These guys, The Pretenders, Saint Etienne...

Does being a student and scribe of the contemporary music scene give a particular perspective, I wonder?