Pet Shop Boys - Fundamental

After flirting with everything from contemporary alterno pop (2002?s thoroughly unconvincing ?Release?) to the movie soundtrack (their recent score for ?Battleship Potemkin?), these dowagers of British disco have returned to what they know best. It?s been a long ride for the pair, who?ve influenced artists from Madonna to Magnetic Fields, but ?Fundamental? almost equals 1990?s ?Behaviour? in terms of quintessential style and features their trademark setting of kitchen-sink realism/sardonic social commentary against clubby house and grand yet melancholic orchestrations. It?s a balance best illustrated by 2005?s ?Back To Mine? compilation: Neil Tennant chose tracks by Harold Budd and Elgar; Chris Lowe opted for Queen and ?80s Italian disco dude Mr Flagio.

The scales are just as expertly weighted on ?Fundamental?, which reunites PSB with producer Trevor Horn. Lead single ?I?m With Stupid? ? inspired by Blair?s fawning relationship with Bush ? is all walloping syn-drums and high-gloss, ?80s production, while ?Integral? (a direct attack on the proposed introduction of ID cards) is a thumping, Euro-trance anthem of almost Tatu-like absurdity.

By contrast, opener ?Psychological? is set to a moody electro pulse, Tennant?s menacing vocal marking metronomic time until that creamy, billowing, inimitably PSB synth sound floods in, making sweet light of the darkness. ?I Made My Excuses And Left? is more symphonically fabulous than any song about the shell shock of catching your beloved staring into the eyes of another has a right to be. Second single ?Minimal? is a killer, all broken beats, New Order bass line and boogietastic electro breakdown, while ?Luna Park? (?Tiny Dancer?-era Elton united with Air) is plain lovely. The weak spot is ?Numb?, a hideously schmaltzy ballad written by Diane Warren, who should have given it to Robbie Williams instead. Still, one brickbat for a dozen-strong bouquet ain?t bad. Take a bow, Boys ? and welcome back

Sharon O?Connell, Mon May 15

Source: http://www.timeout.com/london/music/review/audio/180/pet_shop_boys_fundamental.html

I have the cd it is great.

think I'm gonna treat myself to this after pay-day http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/midi/froehlich/a068.gif

I used to be a huge fan of theirs back in the 80s, but I've put off buying this cd. Not sure if I'd still like them, is it still the same sort of stuff they did back then, or have they changed direction at all?

Wasn't too familiar with them in the 80's but bought a greatest hits cd and I think you would hear a lot of similarities. I think I like the new one better over all.

its brilliant - just listened to it

The Pet Shop Boys Live in Concert: the Director's Cut

7:00pm - 8:30pm

BBC 6 Music


The masters of melancholic synth pop in a "secret gig" recorded for Radio 2. This was a sumptuous affair, bolstered by an on-stage collective of pop gravitas featuring Trevor Horn, Anne Dudley and Lol Creme, with guest turns by minstrel balladeer Rufus Wainwright and, here, humbled showman Robbie Williams. The emphasis is on the recent work, Fundamental, with its pleasing shades of New Order, Kraftwerk and Madonna, but do expect a pick of reassuring oldies, and proof that they sound nearly as vital as ever.

RT reviewer: David Oppedisano







The Pet Shop Boys Live in Concert: the Director's Cut

BBC 6 Music

thanks for letting me know, I think the Pet SHop Boys did some great stuff in the past...

Where can I see this?

Pet Shop Boys announce live album

Thursday, October 5 2006 by David Cribb

The Pet Shop Boys will release a new live album this month.

The revitalised band recorded the album at the Mermaid Theatre in London. They were accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra for the 17 track record.

Songs featured on the album include a version of 'Jealousy' featuring Robbie Williams, and a duet of Rufus Wainwright's 'Casanova In Hell' with the man himself.

The live album, entitled Concrete, will be released on October 23.

The full track listing is as follows:

Left To My Own Devices
Rent
You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk
The Sodom And Gomorrah Show
Casanova In Hell (with Rufus Wainwright)>/li>
After All
Friendly Fire (by Frances Barber)
Integral
Numb
It's Alright
Luna Park
Nothing Has Been Proved
Jealousy (with Robbie Williams)
Dreaming Of The Queen
It's A Sin
Indefinite Leave To Remain
West End Girls

Source: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds37814.html

[QUOTE=mon]

Jealousy (with Robbie Williams)
QUOTE]


Love this song so much. Rob really shows how top class a singer he is when he's singing this :rr:

Will be buying this cd for sure. Released the same day as Robbies a great that will be.:D

Daily Record
October 7, 2006, Saturday

THE RAZZ: RUFUS JOINS THE BOYS


RUFUS WAINWRIGHT is the latest singer to work on the Pet Shop Boys' forthcoming album.
The Canadian guests on Casanova In Hell on new recording Concrete.

The album, which sees Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe performing versions of their classics backed by the BBC Concert Orchestra, is set to be released on October 23.

Robbie Williams also makes a guest appearance, on the track Jealousy.

Oct. 13, 2006,

Pet Shop Boys find a Fundamental difference between US, UK

By CHRISTOPHER MUTHER
New York Times News Service

In the expansive canon of Twilight Zone-like differences between the United States and the United Kingdom - the colloquialisms, the food, the teeth - none seems as odd as national perception of the duo the Pet Shop Boys.

Here, there are wide sections of the population that snicker at a faint mention of the band's name alone. They draw associations with John Hughes films, Spandau Ballet, and big, belted sweaters (which are back with a vengeance). They see the Pet Shop Boys as a few-hit wonder that sang about London ladies of the evening.

But in the UK, where Chris Lowe first met Neil Tennant 25 years ago, the band has enjoyed the kind of career longevity reserved here for Madonna and Aerosmith. Earlier this year, the Pet Shop Boys charted with their 21st Top 10 single, I'm With Stupid, a dance song that looks at the relationship between British prime minister Tony Blair and George W. Bush. The duo's latest album, Fundamental, its first in four years - and one of its strongest in recent memory - combines topical commentary with producer Trevor Horn's ambrosial arrangements.

"It's quite a strange dichotomy," says Tennant. "Honestly, it's not something we spend a lot of time dwelling on. We're recording, touring, and writing so much of the time. We also do a lot of activities outside of that. We scored the silent Russian film 'Battleship Potemkin.' That's been really successful. We've performed it eight times now, and every time we do it, it makes the national news."

Tennant continues to tick off a list of recent projects that includes remixing (and adding background vocals to) the Madonna single Sorry, a version that Madge later used in her concert tour. The Pet Shop Boys wrote and produced two tracks on Robbie Williams's latest UK album, and Tennant is currently producing Rufus Wainwright's new album. They have also been approached to write a second West End musical. (Their first, Closer to Heaven, had mixed reviews during its a one-month run at the Arts Theatre in London in 2001.) Tennant casually adds, "I think we'll do it."

For Fundamental, the band's ninth album of new material, Tennant and Lowe tried to capture the feel of unrest that they perceive around the world.

"It's got many moods," Tennant says from his home in London. "It's got a kind of tension to it, and that's exactly what we tried to do with the album is to capture the strange, tense time that we live in. But it's got humor to it. 'I'm With Stupid' is quite jolly as political satires go. 'Minimal' is about an authoritative government that's trying to come up with more methods to control and observe us. It's quite a jolly song in its own way, too."

These seeming contradictions ("jolly song" and "authoritative government") and the resulting dissonance are what creates the best art in the Pet Shop Boys' microcosm. They also neatly sum up the chemistry of the band. Without Lowe's tech-pop acumen, Tennant confesses, he would be writing brooding, folk-pop tracks. He started composing music in the singer-songwriter vein during the 1970s, even auditioning for Elton John's Rocket Records label.

"I had never really thought about dance music," says Tennant. "If you listen to our 'Back to Mine' compilation, the songs Chris chose are all upbeat and dance-y. My songs are a mix of classical music and ambient music. If you played my album over Chris's album, you'd have a Pet Shop Boys song: a beautiful, somber melody over a throbbing bass line. There is that tension in our music."

Or, as in the case of the song Numb, the Pet Shop Boys' latest UK single, the tension can be derived from taking a song written by a woman best known for over-the-top rock ballads and handing it over to the reigning kings of understated electronic music.

"They asked me for a song," says famed songwriter Diane Warren. "And I said, 'You want a song from me? Are you sure?' I'm a big fan of the Pet Shop Boys. I sent them two songs. One of them is called 'Kisses on the Wind.' Neil said, 'We absolutely cannot record a song called 'Kisses on the Wind.'"

The band decided instead on Numb, a song that Warren wrote about her feelings after her mother died of cancer. Originally, the song was to appear on a Pet Shop Boys greatest hits collection three years ago (the same collection that will finally be released in the States this month). But the duo were so fond of the results, they held it for Fundamental.

"I could have seen 'Numb' go with a different voice," Warren says, beginning to sing the song with a Faith Hill-like bravado. "But I think of my songs as children, and I want to find a loving home for my children. In this case, a dark, detached loving home. Neil's voice is perfect for a song like this. He under-sings it just right."

Tennant bristles when Fundamental is referred to as a "dance album" or, even worse, "a return to form." He has a practiced ability to step over any part of the conversation that begins to get too treacly or self-important. But he can't resist getting excited when talking about the band's expansive catalog.

"It's quite exciting deciding what to play," he says of choosing songs for the current tour. "We put all our songs in iTunes and we came up with a set list. For the first time in years, we're playing the original arrangements of these songs. It's funny, in the 1990s an '80s arrangement sounded dated. Now it sounds rather fresh. It's funny how musical fashions change, but we always enjoy being fashionable."

Pet Shop Boys - Numb (Parlophone)


The release of Fundamental's third single Numb heralds an unprecedented flurry of Pet Shop Boys activity. Neil and Chris themselves are touring the USA, Canada and Mexico, while in the UK a book called Catalogue is released to commemorate 20 years of Pet Shop Boys' visuals, backed by an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. They're also releasing a live album, Concrete and collaborate with Robbie Williams on his seventh opus, Rudebox - which features a track called We're The Pet Shop Boys.
If what you expect from the duo is electropop of the Rent and Go West variety, Numb - like much of the parent album - will surprise. Written by Diane Warren and produced by Trevor Horn, the song opens with the sort of orchestral sweep and drumroll that would herald a hero's death on the silver screen. As dramatic openings go, this well sets the scene for what follows.

What does? An introspective number of hollow-sounding synth backing Neil's despondent vocals: "I don't want to feel this pain no more/Want to lose touch/I just want to go and lock the door/I don't want to think I don't want to feel nothing/I want to be numb." Later, piano and strings return to the fold, but for a single Numb is a challenge. Having shown their deep, thoughtful side, hopefully the next single will be Integral...

[source The release of Fundamental's third single Numb heralds an unprecedented flurry of Pet Shop Boys activity. Neil and Chris themselves are touring the USA, Canada and Mexico, while in the UK a book called Catalogue is released to commemorate 20 years of Pet Shop Boys' visuals, backed by an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. They're also releasing a live album, Concrete and collaborate with Robbie Williams on his seventh opus, Rudebox - which features a track called We're The Pet Shop Boys.
If what you expect from the duo is electropop of the Rent and Go West variety, Numb - like much of the parent album - will surprise. Written by Diane Warren and produced by Trevor Horn, the song opens with the sort of orchestral sweep and drumroll that would herald a hero's death on the silver screen. As dramatic openings go, this well sets the scene for what follows.

What does? An introspective number of hollow-sounding synth backing Neil's despondent vocals: "I don't want to feel this pain no more/Want to lose touch/I just want to go and lock the door/I don't want to think I don't want to feel nothing/I want to be numb." Later, piano and strings return to the fold, but for a single Numb is a challenge. Having shown their deep, thoughtful side, hopefully the next single will be Integral...

source http://www.musicomh.com

Pet Shop Boys

It’s good times if you’re a fan of Chris and Neil who release a wheelbarrow full of quality products this week including a live album, a documentary DVD, a lavish book, an exhibition of photographs at the national portrait gallery and a collaboration with Mr Robbie Williams.
The brand new single ‘Numb’ released on October 16th is to be followed on the 23rd with a live album, ‘Concrete’, recorded at their amazing Mermaid Theatre performance earlier this year. And then on the 30th you can get the DVD ‘A Life In Pop’, a much longer version of the Pet Shop Boys documentary that was screened on Channel 4 earlier this year.

Concrete
‘Concrete is the Pet Shop Boys’ first-ever live album, and features songs huge hits, album tracks from their current album ‘Fundamental’ and a few surprises, including a song from their musical ‘Closer To Heaven’.

Tracklisting:
CD1
Left To My Own Devices
Rent
You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk
The Sodom And Gomorrah Show
Casanova In Hell
After All
Friendly Fire
Integral

CD2
Numb
It’s Alright
Luna Park
Nothing Has Been Proved
Jealousy
Dreaming Of The Queen
It’s A Sin
Indefinite Leave To Remain
West End Girls

A Life In Pop
The DVD “A Life In Pop” is an expanded version of the Channel 4 Pet Shop Boys documentary including some amazing extra footage, like the duo’s first ever TV performance of “West End Girls”, “and their staggering 1994 Brit Award performance of “Go West”.

Catalogue
On October 16th, Thames & Hudson publish the book ‘Catalogue’, a definitive collection of twenty years of Pet Shop Boys’ visuals, including every record and CD sleeve, videos, stage productions etc. There’s also a show at the National Portrait Gallery from 30th October.

Win Signed Artwork And Albums
All this week, Paul Gilles is giving away PSB signed artwork and copies of Concrete.

Keep listening for your chance to win, or enter our free draw below.


Source: http://www.capitalfm.com/Article.asp?id=289997

Extract from an article

Are the Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, up to anything, you ask. Well, next week they start a tour of Canada, the US and Mexico. The single Numb was out on Monday. Next Monday their new live album Concrete is out. On Monday week they release a two hour, 20 minute DVD, A Life in Pop, a much longer version of a documentary on Channel 4 this year. This week you can buy the Thames and Hudson-published book Catalogue, which includes 20 years of the band's visuals. On October 30 the National Portrait Gallery will host a small exhibition of Pet Shop Boys photographs. Next Monday the new Robbie Williams album will be out with two Pet Shop Boys collaborations. And they will be on a Popjustice compilation CD out next week. Sick of them yet?

Full article http://www.buzzle.com/articles/112873.html

Pet Shop Boys Eyeing Different Kind Of Dance

October 25, 2006

Gary Graff, Detroit

It may not be their very next project, but Pet Shop Boys have a different kind of dance music in mind for a future endeavor. "I think we'd quite like to write a ballet," says keyboardist Chris Lowe, who formed the group in 1991 with frontman Neil Tennant. "We've got an idea for one, and we know a ballet dancer in London who wants us to do something, so that might happen."

"They always seem to take quite awhile to come together, though. We're very good at spending a lot of time working on something that's not going to bring us financial reward," he adds with a laugh.

The ballet idea comes amidst a busy year for the Pet Shop Boys. The duo -- who are currently touring North America -- released their ninth studio album, "Fundamentalism," in June along with this month's U.S. release of the two-CD compilation "PopArt: The Hits" and the live DVD, "Concrete: In Concert at the Mermaid Theatre."

A book, "Catalogue," was recently published, chronicling the visual component of Pet Shop Boys' career (including CD packaging, Christmas cards and fan club materials), while England's National Portrait Gallery has commissioned an exhibit dedicated to the group.

Pet Shop Boys also remixed Madonna's hit, "Sorry," for club play and produced two songs for British superstar Robbie Williams new album -- including, ironically, his remake of the My Robot Friends' song "We are Pet Shop Boys."


"We still love creating and making music, and we're not struggling to do it," Lowe explains. "It's not difficult for us. We haven't reached a cul de sac or anything like that. And we still have a lot of music in us, I think."

Pet Shop Boys have also done film scores (for the 1925 silent film "Battleship Potemkin") and collaborated on the limited run British stage play "Closer to Heaven." But don't ever expect a "jukebox" musical crafted from the group's songs, ala ABBA's "Mama Mia" or Queen's "We Will Rock You."

"No, we don't want to do the greatest hits show," he says. "That doesn't appeal to us in any way at all -- which is a shame, 'cause that might make money."

Source: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003314421

Pet Shop Boys touring the UK
The band's first dates in five years

Pet Shop Boys will play their first live dates since 2002 this summer, with five big concerts starting late May.

The veteran pop duo have been busy of late, working with Robbie Williams on the single "She's Madonna" and a remix of the Killers' "Read My Mind", while Neil Tennant has been working with Rufus Wainwright as an executive producer on his new album.

They'll be back in their familiar guise though this May, with live dates coming ahead of a new studio album. The tour looks like this:

May 2007

24 - Gateshead Sage
25 - Wolverhampton Civic Hall
27 - London Hammersmith Apollo
28 - Manchester Apollo
30 - Brighton Centre

Tickets are on sale this Friday, March 2nd. Click here to buy online.

In addition to the UK, Pet Shop Boys will also play live this year in
Norway, the Baltic States, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, France, South
America, Australia and New Zealand

Source (http://www.soundgenerator.com/news/showarticle.cfm?articleid=9056&CFID=6790206&CFTOKEN=78266598)

yes that's true - on May 3, 2007 Pet Shop Boys are giving concert in Riga, Latvia

And I'm gonna be there - first row of course... hmmm... maybe they'll take supporting act for Jelousy with them... :blaf:

BRITISH pop favourites Pet Shop Boys will be performing in Suffolk this summer, it has been announced.

The duo - Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have become the latest and final act to be announced for the 2007 series of Newmarket Nights concerts.

Pet Shop Boys are one of the most successful duos in pop music history and since forming in 1981, they have had 39 top 30 singles in the UK, including four number ones with West End Girls, It's a sin, Always On My Mind and Heart.

Their latest album, Fundamental, was released last year and was acclaimed as one of their best, reaching number five in the UK album charts as well as being nominated for two Grammy awards.

The duo is currently headlining the V Festival in Australia as part of a 15 month world tour and the last year has also seen them work with Robbie Williams.

Their stage show is a multi-media event, created by Olivier Award-winning theatre designer, Es Devlin.

Pet Shop Boys will be performing at the July Course of Newmarket Racecourse on Friday July 27.



Friday June 22 - INXS

Friday June 29 - Sugababes

Friday July 20 - Madness

Friday July 27 - Pet Shop Boys

Friday August 3 - Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra

Friday August 10 - The Ordinary Boys

Friday August 17 - Wet Wet Wet

Fundamental is a fantastic album. A must have.

It would be very much appreciated if some of the german speaking members could translate this interview. It's a part about Robbie and Rudebox from a longer interview with Neil Tennant on Laut.de.


"Robbies Platte verkaufte sich viereinhalb Millionen Mal"

Okay. Auf eurer DVD "A Life In Pop" gibt es diesen bewegenden Teil, wenn Robbie Williams erzählt, wie er Anfang der 90er immer auf den Zugfahrten von London nach Stoke-On-Trent "Behaviour" auf dem Walkman gehört hat. Was ist deine Lieblingsszene auf der DVD?
Ähm, ich mag die Szene, in der Robbie erklärt, wie wir ihn ins "Heaven" mitnehmen, den Schwulennachtclub in London. Er hatte unglaublichen Bammel, dass die Schwulen ihn hassen würden, da er damals gerade eine Klage gegen jemanden laufen hatte, der ihn als Schwulen bezeichnete. Also hätte man ihn als Heuchler brandmarken können, aber egal, es ist die offene Art, mit der er das erzählt, die mir gefällt. Und ich fand es sehr schmeichelhaft, wie Brandon Flowers über uns spricht. Wie er zum ersten Mal in einer Disco zu "New York City Boy" getanzt hat. (lacht) Er ist einfach so ein süßer Typ. Es ist einfach eine Ehre, so viele bekannte Leute in der Dokumentation zu sehen.

Robbies Album "Rudebox" kam letztes Jahr ja nicht so gut weg, teilst du die Kritik?

In England kam Robbie Williams' Album vor allem in Sparten und Magazinen ganz gut an, in denen er früher immer total durchfiel. Der NME feierte das Album zum Beispiel ab und auch einige ernstere Publikationen. Aber es stimmt, die leichteren Magazine, die ihn eigentlich lieben, watschten ihn ab. Ich finde, man muss Robbie zugestehen, dass er etwas Neues ausprobiert hat, dass er als Künstler in eine neue Richtung wachsen wollte und nicht als reine Pop-Formel enden wollte.

Und nebenbei: Die Platte verkaufte sich viereinhalb Millionen Mal. Ich meine, das ist so viel wie unsere beste Platte jemals verkauft hat (lacht). Wenn Robbies Tragödie also die Größe unseres bestverkauften Albums hat, ist es wohl eine nicht ganz so große Tragödie. Die Platte soll ja auch seine Zukunft andeuten, dass er neue Dinge ausprobieren will und so.

Source (http://www.laut.de/vorlaut/feature/15241/index.htm)

I will try to get this translated :)

just read your PM, shell, will do that at once.

Sorry for the delay. The German T-com is on strike and I don't have phone or internet connection since Thursday. I don't know if it's sorted out soon. I can use a friend's net now, but unfortunately not as often as I need to use it. I hope you don't mind....


Robbie's album sold 4.5 million times

OK, there's this touching part on your DVD "A life in pop" where Robbie Williams talks about listening to "Behaviour" during his train rides from London to Stoke in the 90's. What's your fav scene on the DVD?

"Erm, I like the scene where Robbie explains how we took him along, into the club "Heaven", a gay club in London. He was fucking scared that the gays would hate him. He had taken someone to court who had named him gay. One could have easily called him a hypocrite, but the way Rob talked about it, open-hearted, that's what I like.
I think the way Brandon Flowers talkes about us is very complementary. How he danced to "New York City Boys" in a discotheque for the very first time. (laughs). He's simply a sweet guy. It's a honour to see so many famous people in the documentary."

Rudebox didn't do that well last year, do you agree with the critics?

"Robbie's album was judged well in magazines that had been negative towards his music in the past. The NME celebrated the album and some other serious publications did as well. The "lighter" magazines that loved him on the past slapped him now. He's done something new, he wanted to try a different direction and didn't want to end as a pop-formula.
And, btw, the album sold 4.5 million times, I mean it's as much as our best album ever did. (laughs). If Robbie's tragedy has the size of our best sold album, it's a rather small tragedy. The album ought to forshadow his future, that he's going to try new stuff and so on."

Thanks for translating this Laska x

I love the PSB's and have done for years and years. I also love the way that another successful music artist such as Neil Tennant talks sense about Rob and Rudebox, giving both artist and album the recognition it deserves.

Thank you very much for the translation Laska! :hug:

If Neil is right about 4,5 million albums sold it's very good. I hope it's right.

I like the songs PSB did with Robbie on Rudebox very much! :)

What does the word "forshadow" in the last sentence mean?

Thank you for the translation Laska!

What does the word "forshadow" in the last sentence mean?

It means that it shows the future. We have a saying here in Germany that great events throw their shadows beforehand... you can see them coming before they are actually there.
So forshadow means "glimpse of the future". Hope this helps. :)

It means that it shows the future. We have a saying here in Germany that great events throw their shadows beforehand... you can see them coming before they are actually there.
So forshadow means "glimpse of the future". Hope this helps. :)
Thank you for explaining! I thought it might mean something like that, but wasn't sure.
So thanks for clearing it up for me. :)

'It's the ultimate Big Brother nightmare now'
On the eve of the Pet Shop Boys' Dublin concert, Neil Tennant talks about Tony Blair, journalism and dying to Donal Lynch

Sunday October 14 2007


In an empty restaurant at the back of London's famous Groucho Club, Neil Tennant cuts a rather lonely figure. Three days ago, his close friend and security man-cum-assistant, Dainton "the Bear" Connell, was killed in a car crash in Moscow. Chris, the other half of the Pet Shop Boys, is still in Russia handling the arrangements for the body to be flown back.

"Dainton was in high spirits and the group in the car had been drinking. It was raining heavily and they lost control of the car and it went through some quite substantial railings into a river. So I believe it was actually death by drowning," Neil says while staring forlornly down at his Bloody Mary.

"It's just a terrible waste." People have been good; messages of support have come in from all over the world.

"Dainton was well-known in the music industry. He was friends with Robbie Williams from the Take That days. Elton John phoned up yesterday about it. Johnny Marr has been in touch. It's funny, Chris was just saying to me Dainton was the most famous non-celebrity he'd ever met."

It should have been a week of triumph for the Pet Shop Boys. A winter tour -- which will go ahead -- is selling out all over the world and will take in Dublin as part of Some Days Never End later this month at IMMA.

The latest album, Fundamental, came out last year to enthusiastic reviews and marks a return to form for the group. Lyrically it touches on themes such as regime change, the introduction of ID cards in Britain and the War on Terrorism.

The title track, I'm With Stupid, satirises the relationship between George Bush and Tony Blair and marks quite a departure for Tennant, previously a staunch Labour supporter.

"I can't vote for them anymore and I won't even get into Iraq. It's a civil rights issue. They can now use technology to monitor us in this country. They can now use phone records and share that with various agencies. It's not different from opening someone's mail, which they do in fascist states. It's the ultimate Big Brother nightmare and the argument that 'if you've done nothing wrong, you've nothing to fear' is no argument at all."

There's a sense with Tennant that, more than most pop stars, he knows the importance of giving good copy and rendering his convictions into digestible sound bites.

This is no surprise, perhaps, given that he got his first foothold in show business as a journalist. His first big interview was with Marc Bolan ("He had to show me how to use the Dictaphone. It was mortifying") and he went on to become the editor of the pop bible Smash Hits. When Madonna posed for the famous photo of her sucking lasciviously on a lollipop, she was talking to Tennant off camera.

"I interviewed her in 1983, before she was famous. She arrived on the subway. She was chunkier in those days and looked more Italian, with those big eyebrows she had. We went for a pizza afterwards. I mean, can you imagine that happening with her today?"

I can't, but Tennant inviting me for a pizza would not be completely surprising. Unlike most stars, he puts no time limit on the conversation, has no entourage to speak of and amiably agrees to move when the waitress informs us that a staff meal at a nearby table is going to drown us out.

He's frank at times, talking of the "sadistic nuns" who educated him in Newcastle -- who inspired (if that's the word) It's A Sin -- and he has a mordant sense of humour, dropping sly little asides about his fellow pop stars.

It's shown in his music. The Pet Shop Boys came along at the end of the 1980s and were sandwiched in between "Eighties music proper" -- Duran, Duran, Culture Club, Wham, and so on -- and the syncopated dance revolution to come.

"We were less shiny and happy than the Stock, Aitken and Waterman stuff, which was just taking off then," Tennant remembers. "It was all a bit more deadpan with us."

In the Smash Hits days he would hang around nightclubs in London, gossiping with Bananarama and George Michael, but not everyone was thrilled with the arrival of a journalist into the ranks of the stars.

"I wrote a bad review of a Culture Club record and I was afraid they were going to beat me up. Boy George still goes on about it. I was saying to Chris the other day that we should have a party for 25 years of bitterness about that review!"

He escaped a lot of the "who was out and who wasn't" sniping of the mid-Eighties, which went on between Boy George, Jimmy Somerville and George Michael, but eventually in 1994 he came out in an interview with Attitude magazine.

"We had quite a teenage girl following; we still have to an extent. And I had thought it was more interesting not to comment on my sexuality. Another reason was that I sort of balked at what I saw as 'gay'. I'd go to Heaven [a big gay nightclub near Trafalgar Square] and I had a girlfriend at the time and I'd see these muscle clones and just not really feel a part of it. It seemed like another kind of conformity. Gay has become sort of banal and it's used to marginalise you."

In the Eighties, he says, the spectres of HIV and AIDS hung over him.

"I was absolutely terrified of getting it, as many people were. A close friend of mine died of it and there was such press hysteria around it."

He tells me he is surprised by the recent admission from his friend George Michael (in an interview with Stephen Fry) that he doesn't get tested for the disease because he doesn't want to know the result.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like George to me.

"I would've thought he was more of a 'get-things-sorted' type of person."

He professes a kind of impatience with activism in pop music but he's dedicated the new record to the two Iranian teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, who were executed on July 19, 2005, for having sex with each other.

"They looked so stoic. And you know they weren't hung; they were strangled to death in front of 2,000 people. I heard the Iranian president saying they have no gay people in Iran. If that's the case then why did he allow these young men to be murdered? Why does he allow women to be stoned to death?"

Tennant is just finishing this point when a familiar figure appears over his shoulder. It's his long-time friend and sometime co-habitant Janet Street-Porter. The two of them are off to the theatre -- Macbeth is playing around the corner. I tell her I enjoyed her autobiography and she screeches with delight and tells me the next instalment is going to be called Life's Too F**king Short. She also playfully warns me of her contacts in the Irish media. So if I'm not nice to Neil she can have me killed? The two of them take a sip of their drinks and exchange amused glances. "Yes, something like that."

The Pet Shop Boys play at Some Days Never End, IMMA, on October 27. Other acts performing at the event, which runs from October 25-31, include the Frames, Groove Armada, Jose Gonzalez and the Buena Vista Social Club.

Source (http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/its-the-ultimate-big-brother-nightmare-now-1166527.html)

They came to Argentina this year on March and I (FINALLY!!) got to see them... you see, the first time they came here I was way too young to go or to even care they were visiting the country... The second time was on 2004 and I was unemployed, so no money... but finally I could see them this year on their third visit to my country!!
It was such a great show!! I can't believe they don't have more fans down here... anyway... I was a great party, and I almost die of a heart attack when they opened the show with "We're the Pet Shop Boys"...
It was as if Rob was there too...:rose: hehe and as I was right in front of the stage and it was great, because most of the people at the concert didn't know the song and I was screaming it at the top of my lungs... and Neil noticed that:marianne: I couldn't believe it.

gee, I guess I'm a little (just a little?) bit nostalgic...
If I could turn back time...

well, I'm gonna go to bed now... It's 4 in the morning here!! haha good thing tomorrow it's a holiday...

kisses,
Eves, :gn4:
and I'll dream about the best night of my life: October 15th 2006...

How lucky to see the PSB, when they were near me it was too expensive.