PSB Interview

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Yes - it's Pet Shop Boys

By John Earls - "It doesn't seem that long since we recorded It's Alright with Trevor Horn. And then you think 'Oh, it was 21 years ago...'"

Having barely stopped since they made No 1 with West End Girls in 1985, Pet Shop Boys are still creatively flowing, as new album Yes proves.

"We've always done stuff outside of pop too," says Neil Tennant. "Our musical, Battleship Potemkin, a ballet next..."

Have Neil and Chris Lowe ever felt like they were bored of Pet Shop Boys?

"No," insists Neil, 54. "Even when an album doesn't do so well, like Release, we're still proud of the record.

"I listen to our stuff when I'm jogging and, when I hear Release, I think it's a strong collection of songs. People say 'Oh, you made that acoustic record' and it's not: it's all programmed. And EMI loved it when they first heard it."

For Neil, the album's problem ties in with the public's perception of PSB.

"I guess we're seen as epic or - and this is the thing that always slightly irritates us - camp," he says.

"But there's also the quiet songs like Your Funny Uncle. And where does West End Girls fit into all this? It's the song that made us, but it's actually a rap record. We did it in an English accent 20 years before Mike Skinner."

Yes was originally going to be called Pandemonium, after one of its songs, before their designer came up with its distinctive "tick" sleeve for Yes.

"It's a positive album, and a positive title," says Neil.

"You'll notice we didn't call the bonus album No," adds Chris. "We do spend a lot of time saying no to things, but it's too negative a title. For this record, anyway."

Will there ever be a Pet Shop Boys album title with more than one word? There hasn't been so far.

"No," says Chris, 49. "It's too hard to break out of it now. PopArt is a bit of a cheat, but then it's two albums - a Pop one and an Art one."

"Bilingual got as far as promos with the title That's The Way Life Is," Neil recalls. "Which isn't a bad title. After that, I doubt we'll ever change."

Next up, Neil and Chris are writing a ballet based on a Hans Christian Andersen story for Sadler's Wells.

"It's not classical music," explains Neil. "It's contemporary dance music, all instrumental. We wanted to take a ballet like Swan Lake and see if you could do a contemporary version.

"It may yet not happen. Being us, the budget is through the roof. Someone sees that budget, they'll faint..."