Pet Shop Boys Community

Herald Sun (Australia)
June 1, 2006 Thursday
HEAVY PETTING
CAMERON ADAMS

Pop survivors Pet Shop Boys are getting by with some help from their friends, writes CAMERON ADAMS

It's very rare that Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys turns wedding singer.

But then it's rare to be asked to organise the stag night for Elton John and David Furnish's wedding.

Last year, Tennant and shoe designer Patrick Cox had the task of assembling the entertainment for the dual stag night.

With the likes of Gary Barlow, Lulu, Bryan Adams and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters in the house, Tennant had one idea: a cabaret show.

''I thought with all those people it'd be at least amusing,'' Tennant says.

Gary Barlow and Lulu re-created Take That's Relight My Fire, Eric McCormack (Will in Will & Grace) filled the air with double entendres Benny Hill would have blushed at, and Ian ''Gandolf'' McKellen brought his pantomime character at the time, Widow Twankey, along for the ride.

There were video messages from Elton's famous friends who couldn't make it.

''They started with Bill Clinton,'' Tennant says.

For their part, the Pet Shop Boys and Jake Shears decided to raise the gay factor in the room to boiling point.

''We sang I Am What I Am,'' Tennant says. ''It seemed appropriate. It was quite a lot of work to organise, though, that night. The Pet Shop Boys had to take a back seat for a month . . .''

In 2006 the Pet Shop Boys are back in a big way.

For their fans, they've never been away. There's been a string of albums (Nightlife, Release) that spawned fewer hits, a second Greatest Hits (Pop Art, helpfully divided into ''pop'' singles and ''art'' ones), even excursions into a gay-themed musical (Closer to Heaven) and a classical soundtrack to a remake of Battleship Potemkin, which many considered their final goodbye to the pop charts.

But some canny decisions -- and good timing -- have aided their comeback.

First, Tennant and fellow Pet Shop Boy Chris Lowe worked with producer Trevor Horn for the new album (their ninth) Fundamental: pop nirvana on paper.

Then Madonna started hailing them as an inspiration on her new album, putting her money where her mouth is by hiring them to remix her single Sorry.

''We kept reading reviews of her album that mentioned us,'' Tennant says. ''Jump, from the album, sounds like it has a bit of West End Girls in it to me, not that I mind. We've always loved Madonna's records. (Producer) Stuart Price did an interview where he said: 'Madonna f---ing loves the Pet Shop Boys'.''

The Pet Shop Boys and Madonna started their careers around the same time, and in the same city: New York.

''Chris and I used to go to the Funhouse and stand in the DJ booth with Jellybean when he was going out with Madonna,'' Tennant says.

Tennant, who used to be a journalist for pop magazine Smash Hits, even interviewed Madge in 1983.

''I'm friends with Madonna's publicist. She phoned me up last year and I thought: 'She's finally going to ask us to remix a single' but she said: 'Would you like to interview Madonna?' and I said: 'No, I'm not a f---ing journalist!'

''But that put the idea in my head. So our manager phoned up Madonna's people and within 12 hours we were doing a remix.''

They turned Sorry into a ''semi-duet'', with Tennant playing ''the pathetic guy'' in the lyrics. At the Brit Awards earlier this year, where he presented Madonna with an award ''at her request'', she thanked him for their ''awesome'' remix.

Does she remember the 1983 interview?

''She didn't bring it up and I certainly wouldn't. That was a different lifetime.''

Their other showbiz friends David Walliams and Matt Lucas, from the hit TV comedy Little Britain, offered to appear in the video for Fundamental's first single, I'm With Stupid.

Cue automatic exposure on TV and I'm With Stupid becoming their 21st British Top 10 hit and 37th British hit overall, a run that started with West End Girls 20 years ago.

''David asked us if we wanted them to be in our video. Then I read in a newspaper over here that they were going to be in it, so we thought we'd better do it.''

Walliams and Lucas play ''two stalker fans who kidnap us and perform cheap versions of our greatest hits''.

The new album, Fundamental, is their most anticipated in years.

Much of that has to do with producer Trevor Horn, the electronic pop world's answer to Rick Rubin or Phil Spector.

Horn first hit the pop charts as half of the Buggles with Video Killed the Radio Star, then wrote hits for British boy-girl duo Dollar.

Since then he's left his production fingerprints all over Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Relax and Two Tribes, Seal's Crazy, Yes's Owner of a Lonely Heart, ABC's Poison Arrow, Grace Jones' Slave to the Rhythm and LeAnn Rimes' Can't Fight the Moonlight.

That's not to mention ingenious pop songs for Art of Noise and Propaganda.

Horn had remixed two Pet Shop Boys singles, Left to My Own Devices and It's Alright, in 1988 and 1989 respectively.

But it was Horn's return to the pop chart with Tatu's 2003 No.1 All the Things She Said, that got Tennant and Lowe thinking about the producer.

''He'd not done pop music for ages,'' Tennant says of Horn. ''He'd done film work in Hollywood, and he always does the Seal albums, but Tatu was such a great teenage pop record. That reignited our interest in Trevor.

''From the beginning we regarded this as quite an ambitious album, the combination of us and Trevor. People's reactions to us and Trevor working together were quite good. I thought the record company might think we were going into some '80s ghetto, which is not how we see it.

''I guess it's like when you hear David Bowie's working with (his '70s producer) Tony Visconti. It gave us the pressure we had to get it right.''

Horn and the Pet Shop Boys had worked on a song for 2003's Pop Art, Numb.

Bizarrely, the tune was written by serial songwriter for hire Diane Warren, who's written hits for everyone from Starship to Celine Dion.

Numb was left off the Best-of, and kept for Fundamental.

''You have to write a hit for your Greatest Hits,'' Tennant, 51, says, ''which is maddening. Chris had this jokey idea, but only slightly joking, about approaching Diane Warren. We always like to try something new: PSB doing an LA power ballad is something new for us.''

The first song Warren sent over was called Kisses on the Wind.

Tennant automatically nixed the song, merely on the very un-Pet Shop Boys title.

Numb was next.

''Diane told us Aerosmith had been sent it but they were doing a blues album so they turned it down. She said: 'Pet Shop Boys: Numb, I can hear it'.''

The idea was odd enough for the pair to record the first song sourced by an external songwriter in their career.

''It's a beautiful song, but I thought the idea of us doing a Diane Warren song was ludicrously perverse. I thought she wouldn't know who we were but, in fact, she knew quite a lot about us.

''She was really into it. She sends me text messages to this day. You might think someone like that is an industry songwriter, but I always liked (Toni Braxton's) Unbreak My Heart, which she wrote.''

Warren has a reputation for being a little, well, bonkers.

''Gary Barlow of Take That told me he had dinner with her and when he got there she had a parrot on her shoulder,'' Tennant says.

He texted her to confirm the bird tale.

''She texted back and told me: 'He is my best friend.' She has a room she writes songs in and you can't go in it. She's got this myth going for her: I can't think of any other songwriter like that.''

The salvaged Numb, produced by Horn and given his trademark kitchen-sink string arrangement, became the benchmark for the dramatic sound of Fundamental.

''We originally went in the studio thinking we were doing a minimal electro-pop album,'' Tennant says, ''but there was always the shadow of Numb, which we'd recorded with this massive arrangement. We thought we'd go with Trevor, get him to really go for it.''

Horn wasn't so keen to relive his mammoth sound from the '80s, despite the Pet Shop Boys wanting the trademark 'Trevor Horn sound'.

''We had to push him,'' Tennant says. ''He doesn't really make quite such theatrical records as he did in the first part of the '80s. That's what we wanted. So it was quite funny. I'd keep gesturing to make him sound like Dollar; he looked quite embarrassed.''

Horn returned to the Pet Shop Boys fold recently when he served as musical director for a BBC radio concert, with orchestra, to launch Fundamental.

It was a Who's Who of pop: Lol Creme (10cc) on backing vocals, Anne Dudley (Art of Noise) on keyboards and Rufus Wainwright (who sang Fundamental's Casanova in Hell) and Robbie Williams guesting on vocals.

''I remember standing there with a 60-piece orchestra behind me and I thought: 'I am not Barbra Streisand','' Tennant says of his initial fears.

Their relationship with Robbie Williams continues. Williams chose to perform early Pet Shop Boys single Jealousy.

''He told me it's his favourite song by us,'' Tennant says. ''He's a great pop star. When he came on at our concert there was this huge fanfare and, really, only Robbie Williams could walk on stage to that fanfare as the conquering hero.''

The Boys are now working with Williams on two tracks for his electronic album, due out this year.

''It's difficult writing with people because there's already two of us,'' Tennant says. ''Chris can sometimes get a bit funny about it too . . . actually Robbie's like Chris, he lies on the sofa and comes up with ideas. He had great ideas for lyrics, I was really impressed.''

Do their songs sound like Pet Shop Boys or Robbie Williams?

''It's a draw.''

There's also talk of an Australian tour by the Pet Shop Boys later this year, their first since 1994.

In the past year a version of Closer to Heaven has been performed in Australia. The Pet Shop Boys also get a pivotal scene in musical Dusty and the Melbourne production Seriously was based entirely on lyrics from their songs.

''We've had an offer to tour Australia in November,'' Tennant says. ''We were quite surprised. We've never sold that many records in Australia. But then someone did Closer to Heaven, then Seriously, then Dusty . . . we didn't think anyone liked us in Australia.''

Fundamental (EMI) out now. To hear the Pet Shop Boys' BBC concert, go before Saturday to www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/



pet shop tourism

kylie's performance yardstick

THE Pet Shop Boys' 1991 tour Performance, saw the pair break their rule of never touring, but in a gloriously theatrical way. It was more of an opera than pop concert. The audience were deliberately ignored, as if they weren't there, and there were no musicians on stage.

''In 1991 that was regarded as commercial suicide,'' Tennant says of the concert (reissued on DVD last year).

''We invited all these friends to rehearsals who said: 'That's all your fans under the age of 14 killed off then'.

''Ironically, the people the show influenced were people in pop like Take That and Kylie (above). Take That told me several times they wanted their live show to be like that. Even nowadays there's not too many people who've done these highly conceptualised shows with costumes and dancers. Obviously Kylie is one.''

Kylie's Showgirl greatest-hits tour not only used Left to My Own Devices as a musical benchmark, but Performance as a creative yardstick.

And in case you missed the reference, the Pet Shop Boys/Kylie duet In Denial was performed in the concert, with Tennant's voice left intact, on tape.

''I think the song is very underrated so I was really pleased when they used it,'' Tennant says.

''I was more surprised when I was told: 'You're in the show, it's your voice'.

I loved that. It's quite an honour. I like being on tour without going on the road.''



seriously now

IN JANUARY this year Seriously, a musical (below) spawned from the Pet Shop Boys' lyrics, was launched by David Knox and Dean Lotherington.

''I heard the music from it, and I was knocked out,'' Neil Tennant says.

''It puts our songs in a very different context and I thought it was clever how they'd linked the songs. I was told they took their inspiration from the album we did with Liza Minnelli, Results.

''People who don't know the Pet Shop Boys' work particularly well think we're this camp high-NRG group, but so many of our songs are these romantic, tortured love songs. They seemed to concentrate on that.

''They even took a dance song, I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Anymore, and put it in a completely different musical context. I thought it was beautiful. I must watch the DVD of the show, I've literally just received it. I heard they might bring it to London, which would be fantastic.''

this is great actually !

Am I reading wrong things between the lines or do they really adore Numb?

Thnx.

Here's another positive review of Fundamental....

The Toronto Sun
June 4, 2006 Sunday
HEAVY PETTING;
BRITISH ELECTRO-POP DUO RETURN WITH ALBUM THAT'S BOTH POLITICAL AND INTROSPECTIVE

JANE STEVENSON, TORONTO SUN

In case you hadn't heard, the '80s are back -- musically speaking.

So it's more than appropriate to hear Pet Shop Boys, electro-dance-pop survivors of that decade, referencing British contemporaries on their still-fresh sounding and sophisticated new disc.

Depeche Mode is an obvious influence on the slinky synth-opener Psychological -- you can actually imagine Dave Gahan singing this one -- and I could have sworn that was Peter Hook's signature bass sound from New Order on the standout mid-tempo dance number Minimal.

Heck, PSB even reference themselves on the full-blown hip-wiggler and album-ender Integral.

"Sterile, immaculate, rational, perfect," says singer Neil Tennant in his crisp British accent as the stunning song comes to an end.

The PSB's first studio record of original material since 2002's Release finds them working with producer Trevor Horn, the man responsible for their seminal 1988 hit Left To My Own Devices.

This time, however, Horn stuck around for the whole album -- and it pays off immeasurably.

The slick 12-song collection is a mix of the political -- the album title was inspired by the fundamental ideals currently dominating the world scene -- and the personal, with the emphasis on serious ballads over fun dance-floor anthems.

But the production is varied, ranging from minimal synths and drums to orchestral strings.

And, like Neil Young, Pearl Jam and The Dixie Chicks before, them, PSB's Tennant and Chris Lowe have come out swinging against George W. Bush on the cheeky, dance-friendly first single I'm With Stupid.

Although the English duo's particular take on the situation is about British prime minister Tony Blair's close relationship with the American president.

"See you on the TV, call you everyday, fly across the ocean, just to let your get your way," Tennant sings. "No one understands me, where I'm coming from, why would I be with someone, who's obviously so dumb?"

All but one of the tracks -- the overwrought ballad Numb was penned by hitmaker Diane Warren and is, frankly, a bit of a bore -- were written by Tennant and Lowe, who seem to be back at the top of their game.

Other highlights include the poignant ballad Casanova In Hell and the wistful mid-tempo number Twentieth Century.

"Well, I bought a ticket to the revolution, and I cheered when the statues fell, everyone came to destroy what was rotten, but they killed off what was good as well," Tennant sings on Twentieth Century.

But it's not all sombre seriousness as the upbeat ode to an hedonistic lifestyle -- The Sodom And Gomorrah Show --attests.

"It's got everything you need for your complete entertainment and instruction, sun, sex, sin, divine intervention, death and destruction," Tennant sings.

On second thought, maybe he's talking about the war on Iraq.

So far, there are no Canadian dates for PSB, who are touring in Europe this summer.

But we can always hope, given the strength of their latest disc.

There was a short review on today´s finnish mag 100. 4/5 stars.

South China Morning Post
June 4, 2006 Sunday

Pet Shop Boys

Fundamental
(Parlophone)

by Clarence Tsui

Two names on the credits sum up the tone of the Pet Shop Boys' ninth album - and it's not that of producer Trevor Horn and orchestral composer Anne Dudley, who provided Fundamental with its thumping pop energy and lush orchestral sweeps respectively. By dedicating the album to Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni - two Iranian teenagers hanged last year for being gay - Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe reveal the force driving their creativity this time round.

Almost two decades after Actually, an album that commented on the sorry state of Thatcherite Britain, Pet Shop Boys have delivered a record oozing discontent about the way things are at home and abroad, ranging from New Labour's dictatorial tendencies (Integral) to a withering attack on machismo (Casanova in Hell, about a Lothario's retreat into literary fantasy when his libido begins to fail him).

Pet Shop Boys have never been chest-thumping commentators, and Fundamental continues their acerbic censure dressed up as irresistible electronic pop. A withering account of Tony Blair's "special relationship" with George W. Bush becomes I'm with Stupid, a high-energy ode about a man questioning whether "you've made a fool of me - are you not Mr Right?"; Luna Park laments that the masses are subjugated by bread and circuses, while corruption and atrocities are normalised every day.

Not that the pair have forsaken twisted ballads. But while I Made My Excuses and Left is a textured slow-burner - the prime line being the protagonist musing "I felt I should apologise/ for what I haven't heard" when his partner flirts with adultery - it backfires. Numb, with its simple heartrending sentiment, is out of place on an album filled with caustic commentary and pounding vigour.