Our dreams for Obscure after the 5 shows at EB

[Richard-Eastham]

I'm not convinced Volume will make them any money at all - they're not listed as authors, the visual designs aren't theirs (aside from the odd thing like the Hotspot photos) and you don't get paid for someone using your likeness so...by what mechanism would they actually get paid for it? It's a book about them, not by them.

The visual designs belong to PSBs if they paid Farrow for them at the time, and the rights transferred over. All depends on the legal agreements and copyright arrangements between the designer (Farrow) and the clients (Neil and Chris). There's also the 'complication' that many visuals are credited jointly as Farrow/PSB which means shared ownership of some sort.

[Ramzy]

I'm not convinced Volume will make them any money at all - they're not listed as authors, the visual designs aren't theirs (aside from the odd thing like the Hotspot photos) and you don't get paid for someone using your likeness so...by what mechanism would they actually get paid for it? It's a book about them, not by them.

The visual designs belong to PSBs if they paid Farrow for them at the time, and the rights transferred over. All depends on the legal agreements and copyright arrangements between the designer (Farrow) and the clients (Neil and Chris). There's also the 'complication' that many visuals are credited jointly as Farrow/PSB which means shared ownership of some sort.

All fair points!

[Old Soak]

My view is that if you sell £750k of tickets for 5 shows + merch sales (maybe £150k gross), and you can't cover your costs for a 5 person band and zero AV staging, with no travel costs and no days off, you're working inefficiently, to be polite about it.

You're entitled to that view. Neil says flat out these shows lost them money. I guess you can accuse them of working inefficiently, but it's probably classier to just stop digging.

The shows might loose money but putting out a 2CD would sell well to fans and recoup, or as a limited edition deluxe version of a third b-sides collection now overdue. It isn't just about the cost of five shows as an experiment in a small venue. No real major stage sets, no major costume costs, no transport costs between locations, crew only before and after the five nights, not every night, lots of merchandise sales, content for next year's Annually; it's got to wipe it's face. And it would be popular elsewhere. I can't imagine 'the band' are on more than a grand a night each, and Pete would surely be on a wage.

[NotInvisible]

The shows might loose money but putting out a 2CD would sell well to fans and recoup, or as a limited edition deluxe version of a third b-sides collection now overdue.

Agreed with this.

It isn't just about the cost of five shows as an experiment in a small venue. No real major stage sets, no major costume costs, no transport costs between locations, crew only before and after the five nights, not every night, lots of merchandise sales, content for next year's Annually; it's got to wipe it's face.

The new Annually goes into this very briefly. The costs are higher than we think and the week lost the Boys money. This isn't the first time they've lost money playing live, of course.

[Morse]

Now, please repeat once again that you just think it's a global farewell tour, LOL.

I think some people are getting caught up in the distinction between an official farewell tour and a de facto farewell tour. Neil Tennant will be 72 in July. Assuming they keep to their recent four-year release schedule, he'll be 74 and 78 when the next two albums are released. I don't think it's a stretch to suggest they won't be mounting the sort of multi-year global campaign we've experienced with Dreamworld. Will there be more performances? Yes, probably. They seem to love playing live these days.

But Dreamworld is probably the last tour of its kind. Certainly album 17 won't have anything like it.

Ditto this

[the8thark]

The best solution would be a few live shows locally in the UK and have one of them filmed for a DVD and/or theatrical release.

At their age we can’t expect another Dreamworld like tour. Even think there will not be another obscure like tour. The boys are ok with doing vanity shows. As in shows they want to do and the fans want to see but are not financially viable.

I think the PSB will keep going until the money runs out or their health gives up. Anything after Nonetheless is the PSB on borrowed time. We should be happy they are doing anything at this point. Luckily for us, this “anything” is still a very high quality product.

Their career as in Volume, I am very happy about. To be everything else is a happy bonus and nice epilogue / sunset of their very long career.

We should not be thinking of them in the past tense just yet but we do need to be grateful and not just expect more and more. So when they do retire, through health, money or personal reasons, we as fans are happy with the career they had. Not complaining about still wanting more.

In saying this I do still have a few things in mind I would like that to do. Mostly greatest hits / legacy kind of things.

1. Alternative volume 3 - we need the final set of b-sides released so everyone has easy access to them.

2. A career spanning music video DVD - for the same reason as above. So everyone has easy access to them.

3. Obscure on CD - Not a necessity but I think enough fans would like like the show released.

4. Literally / Annually The Collection - An easy way to get all the content from every Literally and Annually all in one place. This would preserve their history and legacy in detail. So in decades time people will still know what made the PSB on a daily, monthly and yearly basis.

[the8thark]

Delete this.

[DopeFiend]

The best solution would be a few live shows locally in the UK and have one of them filmed for a DVD and/or theatrical release.

At their age we can’t expect another Dreamworld like tour. Even think there will not be another obscure like tour. The boys are ok with doing vanity shows. As in shows they want to do and the fans want to see but are not financially viable.

I think the PSB will keep going until the money runs out or their health gives up. Anything after Nonetheless is the PSB on borrowed time. We should be happy they are doing anything at this point. Luckily for us, this “anything” is still a very high quality product.

Their career as in Volume, I am very happy about. To be everything else is a happy bonus and nice epilogue / sunset of their very long career.

We should not be thinking of them in the past tense just yet but we do need to be grateful and not just expect more and more. So when they do retire, through health, money or personal reasons, we as fans are happy with the career they had. Not complaining about still wanting more.

In saying this I do still have a few things in mind I would like that to do. Mostly greatest hits / legacy kind of things.

1. Alternative volume 3 - we need the final set of b-sides released so everyone has easy access to them.

2. A career spanning music video DVD - for the same reason as above. So everyone has easy access to them.

3. Obscure on CD - Not a necessity but I think enough fans would like like the show released.

4. Literally / Annually The Collection - An easy way to get all the content from every Literally and Annually all in one place. This would preserve their history and legacy in detail. So in decades time people will still know what made the PSB on a daily, monthly and yearly basis.

They aren't too old.
How is creating a whole live show with the work of talented stage designers, choreographers, costume designers, etc something that they can do in the early 90s but not now. What about being 70 years old prevents an artist from singing with a new video projection behind them versus doing the same tour from yesteryear.
They can totally do a new tour. Artists from decades prior to PSB are still doing it. I'm an enthusiast of 80s music and there are plenty of live acts continuing to perform. I fail to see what the issue is.

I'm a relatively young fan, and I would love to see them perform. I am practically just beginning my adult life, and as PSB continue to release music I get to live through different real world experiences alongside these releases. Things like my first love, or moving out of home, etc.
I think people like the8thark are projecting their own stale, tired ways, and they don't realise they come across as trying to drag others down with them.
I've never seen PSB perform live, because they haven't been to my country since I discovered them. I have never been overseas, and would like one day to see them perform even if it means travelling. Other people even younger than me are in the same boat, we were too young to see them in other eras.

80's music is more relevant in pop culture than it has been in decades. With things like the Michael Jackson movie doing really well in theatres currently, and the TV series Stranger Things also quite popular with it's soundtrack.
Synthwave is a new genre, modern pop music is heavily synthpop-inspired opposed to anything with guitars.
Artists like Pet Shop Boys are a rare golden legacy that is extremely sought after and treasured, an authentic artist from the 80s that are still around and still able to hit their stride creatively.

I fully expect a brand new, grand scale tour in the style of Electric or Pandemonium. With new songs, new-old songs, costumes, creative set design, etc.
Again I fail to see any reason whatsoever for why they can't continue to do this.
The pandemic disrupted the regular album|tour|sideproject|album|tour cycle they had going, but there's no reason why they can't resume that. They've released their pandemic album, naming it after the fact it had to be delayed and postponed. The Dreamworld Tour was originally pre-pandemic and had a halted rollout which ended up overlapping their 15th album's launch period. But I think it's reasonable to expect a brand new album with an accompanying tour. Even if it's wishful thinking. It's not as though anything has changed.

I mean have Neil & Chris complained about their age or health concerns with touring? They're still announcing new concerts almost every week. The Dreamworld tour is 113 concerts so far. If anything they seem to be touring more than ever! and commissioning, conceptualising a brand new tour I'm sure is something that have the passion and monetary capital to do. I mean if they could do it in prior eras then why not now.
Nonetheless peaked at number 2 on the UK charts.
Switzerland: #2
Germany: #3
Australia: #3
Belgium: #5
US Top Album Sales: #14
US Dance/Electronic Albums: #3
It has been a big, successful album. More successful than some previous PSB albums.
They have no reason to slow down, whatsoever.

[Parkol]

I Dream of a Better Tomorrow.

Who told Tennant this song wouldn't be a hit? Before the song, he said at the concert that it was written for Andersen's new musical and that they wanted to release it as a single, but he was talked out of it.

I remember the story with Kraftwerk's "Model." They shoved that track in as a B-side, and it ended up being one of the band's biggest hits.

Who are all these damned advisers? How many amazing songs have been relegated to B-sides, and yet they're still getting advice on what to release and how.

[Vintage Youth]

They aren't too old.
How is creating a whole live show with the work of talented stage designers, choreographers, costume designers, etc something that they can do in the early 90s but not now. What about being 70 years old prevents an artist from singing with a new video projection behind them versus doing the same tour from yesteryear.

I'm a relatively young fan, and I would love to see them perform. I am practically just beginning my adult life.

I've never seen PSB perform live, because they haven't been to my country since I discovered them. I have never been overseas, and would like one day to see them perform even if it means travelling. Other people even younger than me are in the same boat, we were too young to see them in other eras.

I'm middle aged, and when you get there, you'll start to understand the toll things take on you when you start to get older!!
PSB are remarkably fresh, but just as an example, one of my parents was incredibly 'young', fit and active for their age until they hit 70 and then, boom, cancer, heart condition, trips and falls and breakages started happening and all of a sudden they are not schlepping halfway across the world for work any more and we're looking at more metalwork going in. The other one is still very fit and active but I know that won't last forever. I know it's depressing, but it comes to us all eventually.

I live somewhere where, seeing PSB usually requires at least one air journey. For me, the travel is part of the adventure and you should definitely do it if funds allow and when you are young enough to be able to do so/enjoy it.

[NotInvisible]

I Dream of a Better Tomorrow.

Who told Tennant this song wouldn't be a hit?

Someone with sense. It's a great chorus with a meandering verse. But more importantly, it's Pet Shop Boys in 2026 - nothing they do is going to be a hit, even if it was the best song they've ever written.

[Vintage Youth]

It's ridiculously catchy, I couldn't get it out of my head after just one listen. But a catchy chorus does not a hit make, in the year of our Lord 2026.

[Gabby]

Yeah I agree to come extent that whoever is "advising" them might not entirely have their finger on the pulse (or maybe they actually do and know that, as Vintage Youth said, it's not a 2026 sounding hit).

The music/song space is so different now. IDOABT is a nice catchy song, but it's almost impossible to know what is going to capture the zeitgeist. My daughter listens to such an eclectic mix of music I can't keep up, and when people seem to have the attention span of a gnat as well, holding someones attention for the length of a 3 and half minute song really has to be something that hit's some mysterious sweet spot on TikTok.

I was re watching Stranger Things the other day where we had all that Kate Bush kerfuffle, which I bet most of the kids have largely forgotten about now. You might see a flash of excitement over an older PSB track if it's used in something, but anything new I am willing to bet isn't going to make a ripple in the popular music scene now.

It's a bummer, but we're not 16 anymore either.

[Parkol]

Someone with sense. It's a great chorus with a meandering verse. But more importantly, it's Pet Shop Boys in 2026 - nothing they do is going to be a hit, even if it was the best song they've ever written.

You know, I haven't been to London for 18 years, especially since it's quite difficult for Russians to get to England these days, but I made it. So I walked around Soho and went to Edinburgh, wandered around Eastbourne, and asked about PSB's popularity in every record store. Everywhere they told me they were very popular. At one record store, I was told that their records sell better than those of many artists. They are incredibly popular in Britain. A salesperson at the NMM store on Oxford Street told me they're more popular than Blur, for example. Their book is being advertised in Westfield Shopping Center. The latest album is selling really well.

A few photos from April 9th. Maybe someone will recognize themselves in the photos.

[Parkol]

More photos