Music

Pet Shop Boys on Brexit, pop albums & why they’re not quite national treasures


“WATCH this!” says the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant, taking his iPhone out of his pocket.

“We like our new song Monkey Business so much we even made a video.”

 The Pet Shop Boys are the most successful duo in UK music history

8

The Pet Shop Boys are the most successful duo in UK music history

“Aaaannnnnd,” he adds in his clipped Geordie accent: “Chris dances in it.”As any Pet Shop Boys fan will know, dancing is a rare thing for the English synth-pop duo’s Chris Lowe, known for standing motionless behind his keyboard.

“You can see I’m not a professional dancer but there you go,” says Lowe, pushing the phone in front of my face.

“It’s a synchronised Saturday Night Fever-ish dance routine — and I participated. The video was shot in this club called PRYZM, in Watford. It was great fun. We haven’t made a video properly in such a long time.”

As both break into a fit of laughter, it’s clear there’s an excitement around the release of Hotspot, the Pet Shop Boys’ 14th studio album. Monkey Business is one of the many high points of their new album and shows the lasting love that fans have for them, 36 years after they released first single West End Girls.

 Neil and Chris have sold more than 50million albums and enjoyed 42 UK Top 30 singles

8

Neil and Chris have sold more than 50million albums and enjoyed 42 UK Top 30 singles

Tennant, 65, says: “You worry, with a long career, that it’s going to be diminishing times. I don’t think it is with us. What we were really excited about with this album is the quality of the songs and the euphoria. Saying ‘it’s melodic’ sounds naff, doesn’t it? But it is very melodic and euphoric. It’s not just all bangers.”

Pet Shop Boys are the most successful duo in UK music history, having sold more than 50million albums and enjoyed 42 UK Top 30 singles.

All their 13 albums have made the UK Top 10. This has earned them the label “elder statesmen of synth pop” — a title I put to them as we chat over coffee in a hotel-restaurant in central London.

“Elder statesmen,” agrees Lowe, 60. “But not quite ‘national treasures’, as I have read. Not Quite Pet Shop Boys!” Tennant laughs. Typing on his phone, he adds: “That is quite good, I’m writing that down. It’s a great title for an album or book. Or . . . Pet Shop Boys, quite,” quips Lowe.

 Jacqui Swift chatted to the duo over coffee in a hotel-restaurant in central London

8

Jacqui Swift chatted to the duo over coffee in a hotel-restaurant in central LondonCredit: Getty Images – Getty

He adds: “We’ve apparently had more No1s than any other duo. But I don’t want to sound like The Pogues, who were so bad- humoured when Fairytale Of New York was only at No2 because Always On My Mind (Pet Shop Boys’ 1987 single) was No1.” Hotspot, the third in a trilogy of albums produced by Stuart Price, has a Berlin theme and was mostly written and recorded in the German capital.

Tennant says: “We had the idea of going to Hansa Studios where David Bowie and Iggy Pop recorded. It was very inspiring.”

Tracks Will-o-the-Wisp, You Are The One and Wedding In Berlin were all inspired by, and also reference, Berlin. Tennant says: “We are so famous for being English, so it was nice to set it in Berlin rather than London.

“It seemed like a refreshing thing to do. People think of Berlin as cold and grey but Berlin is beautiful in the summer. I go there on holiday because you can cycle around the woods, swim in the lakes, it’s gorgeous.

 Hotspot, the third in a trilogy of albums produced by Stuart Price, has a Berlin theme and was mostly written and recorded in the German capital

8

Hotspot, the third in a trilogy of albums produced by Stuart Price, has a Berlin theme and was mostly written and recorded in the German capitalCredit: AFP – Getty

“The second song (on Hotspot), You Are The One, is a love song to Berlin, while Wedding In Berlin was originally a wedding present for an artist friend of ours. We couldn’t go to his wedding, as we were on tour. It’s a great end to the album — a Berlin statement.” Lowe adds: “The idea was to do a techno wedding song. It was chopped up, really — bits of Mendelssohn’s Wedding March.”

On opening track Will-o-the-Wisp, Tennant refers to the underground train which travels from the west to the east of Berlin. He says: “It’s a party train, as it is taking people to the clubs and they get on with bottles of beer and all the rest of it. It’s got a fantastic atmosphere.”

There’s also a bit of Margate on Hotspot — the track Dreamland, a collaboration with Olly Alexander of Years & Years, is named after the east Kent town’s famous retro amusement park.

“Olly had just been to Dream-land when we met for a coffee,” says Tennant. “I had never heard of it but I said it was a great title for a song. Chris had already written a basic track so we sang Dreamland over it and we all thought it was super. Olly is great to work with. He’s got a beautiful voice and a very different melodic sensibility to us.”

 Last March, Tennant took part in the Put It To The People mass march in central London calling for a second referendum on Brexit

8

Last March, Tennant took part in the Put It To The People mass march in central London calling for a second referendum on BrexitCredit: Getty – Contributor

The track is also about the refugee crisis, which Tennant was thinking about when writing its lyrics. He says: “I was imagining living in a peaceful, prosperous place where you can get on with your life. It’s also just about not having borders.”

He adds of Pet Shop Boys: “We’ve always been political, I just don’t believe in making the straightforward political statements — you get a lot of abuse online.”

Last March, Tennant took part in the Put It To The People mass march in central London calling for a second referendum on Brexit. He says: “On our website, we wrote, ‘A beautiful day in London . . . to march’ — with a picture of me with a flag.

“We don’t do it very often and, anyway, we’ve had a second referendum, it’s called a general election, and I’m pleased we’ve had one. It is interesting, though. What happens politically to the huge proportion of the country that wanted to remain? Who now represents them? The Labour Party doesn’t represent them and the Lib Dems had this oppor-tunity and threw it away.

 Next year marks 40 years since the Pet Shop Boys formed

8

Next year marks 40 years since the Pet Shop Boys formedCredit: Getty – Contributor

“Jeremy Corbyn supports Brexit, really. He enabled the referendum to be won by Brexit because he didn’t really campaign. Anyway, it’s interesting to see what happens next.”

Meanwhile, another standout on the excellent Hotspot is Happy People, which Tennant explains is “sad but euphorically sad”. He adds: “Something we don’t like about modern pop is that a lot ofit is very narcissistic and introverted — not all of it, as I do like Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Post Malone and The Weeknd — but when we write we are always looking for something euphoric.”

Next year marks 40 years since the Pet Shop Boys formed, after meeting by chance in an electronics shop on the King’s Road in Chelsea. So how have they survived without any break-ups — and not needing comebacks — like so many of their contemporaries?

Tennant says: “People naturally are going to have a sense of boredom or cynicism about what you do. We hit that about 15 or 20 years ago, then we started with festivals. We also have a very strong friendship and are loyal.”

 The band formed after meeting by chance in an electronics shop on the King’s Road in Chelsea

8

The band formed after meeting by chance in an electronics shop on the King’s Road in ChelseaCredit: Getty – Contributor

He also adds: “When we go into the studio, creating something new is exciting. I know that sounds boring but it’s what it’s about at the end of the day.”

There have been just two times when they came at all close to splitting up. Tennant says: “We were touring in 1999 and concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith’s company went bankrupt. We were playing to a two-thirds empty Sheffield Arena and I said, ‘Maybe we should just knock it on the head now?’ Chris being Chris just didn’t answer — so we just carried on.”

Recalling the other time, in the early Noughties, Tennant adds: “We played a sports hall in Grimsby. It wasn’t full, everyone was standing with arms folded and it was my birthday. I thought, ‘This is it, I can’t do this any more’. But then we drove back to the hotel with Janet Street-Porter and my sister, on the bus, and had such a hoot on the way back that we carried on.”

But it’s not been about only pop albums for the pair. Tennant says their diverse “moonlighting” work has been an important factor in keeping them together. He says: “We did Battleship Potemkin in Trafalgar Square in 2004 (playing live to accompany a screening of the film) and it was a turning point for us. Twenty thousand people came to see it and we felt more confident after that.”

 Tennant says their diverse 'moonlighting' work has been an important factor in keeping them together

8

Tennant says their diverse ‘moonlighting’ work has been an important factor in keeping them togetherCredit: Pet Shop Boys

Other work has included a BBC Prom about computer pioneer Alan Turing, a Sadler’s Wells ballet The Most Incredible Thing and musical Closer To Heaven, with playwright Jonathan Harvey.

Next month, Musik, the sequel to 2001 West End musical Closer To Heaven, begins at Leicester Square Theatre starring Frances Barber as Billie Trix in the one-woman show. Tennant and Lowe have written four new songs for it.

Tennant says: “She is a brilliant actor and Musik gave us the opportunity to write a different style of songs. The character reminisces about her life and how she knew Andy Warhol, and she gives him the idea for painting soup cans. We took it to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year.”

Following recent successful biopics about Queen, and their friend Elton John, I ask who would play Lowe and Tennant in a film about them?

“I think I like Jack O’Connell,” says Lowe. “He’d be good. Benedict Cumberbatch would be right for me,” says Tennant. “And it would have to be a comedy by Armando Iannucci — or who’s the Alan Partridge guy? Steve Coogan! He’d be great and we can film it in Brighton.”

For now, though, Pet Shop Boys’ focus is on their Dream-world: The Greatest Hits Live Tour, which starts in Berlin in May. Lowe says: “We are excited and looking forward to having a live band with us.”

Tennant adds: “We won’t be working with Es Devlin this time as designer, as she’s busy with the new Cirque Du Soleil show, but it’s going to be a theatrical production. We are going gradually every-where with the tour. We never really look back and longevity is part of the story.

“People have always liked us — there’s no ‘I used to like you’.  And that’s what we keep doing. We don’t think about it too much in case it goes away. We’re having too much fun at to allow that to happen.”

Hotspot

★★★★★

1. Will-o-the-Wisp
2. You Are The   One
3. Happy People
4. Dreamland (ft Years & Years)
5. Hoping For A          Miracle
6. I Don’t Wanna
7. Monkey Business
8. Only The Dark
9. Burning The Heather
10. Wedding In Berlin

 







READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.