Pet Shop Boys Community

I haven't been to the Fundamental tour yet and was wondering if Chris's playing live like the release tour or not ?

i was always wondering if Chris is playing live on each live performance
but I think that he has never ever played live 'cause there's no need for it
he probably adjusts arrangement before each performance and then they playback it on performance
the only thing to wonder about live perfromances is if Neil is singing live or on playback

I know it appears to be... and i know when I saw them at Electric Picnic, during the soundcheck before their performance, a roadie was messing around with his synthesizer and a corresponding sound played through the speakers... seems if he was just faking it, they wouldn't have needed that step (since no one in the audience would have noticed if they didn't touch the synth beforehand)

I think he plays the melody.

spiggums wrote:...a roadie was messing around with his synthesizer and a corresponding sound played through the speakers...

This action is deliberate.
It 'proves' to people Chris plays live. Guess who's laughing all the way to the bank?!
Hell knows I always plug-up my gear even when playbacking, it gives it that 'authentic' live feel.

dannii wrote: the only thing to wonder about live perfromances is if Neil is singing live or on playback

given that Neil f*** up during "Where the streets have no name" in DC...

I think that one we can be assured on

Darkmoon wrote:

spiggums wrote:...a roadie was messing around with his synthesizer and a corresponding sound played through the speakers...

This action is deliberate.
It 'proves' to people Chris plays live. Guess who's laughing all the way to the bank?!
Hell knows I always plug-up my gear even when playbacking, it gives it that 'authentic' live feel.

I mean, ultimately, most of the aspects of electronic music just can't be reproduced live... and I'm comfortable with that as long as there's a show involved... and well, PSB definitely give a show...

But in the end, all signs indicate that Chris is doing something live, but the only people who would know for sure are the band and their techies

This topic has been mentioned before. He plays some live and the rest is programmed. It is the same with any band of this type. It does not matter too much for me if he is playing live or not.

I think he plays some chords live... and Neil does this too sometimes

One of the few good things about being high up off to stage right in the rafters at the DC concert was that I had a pretty good view from "above" of Chris and his keyboard. During "Psychological," he certainly did seem to be playing the lead synth. I'm also pretty sure he was playing during the minimalistic performance of "Home and Dry." He was striking keys during much of the rest of the performance, too, but I'm less sure what they were activating. (I don't think his hands could have been seen to well from below and in front, where the floor audience was, so if he was miming it wasn't for the benefit of much of the audience.)

Pet Shop Girl wrote:He plays some live and the rest is programmed. It is the same with any band of this type.

This is exactly what I do.

Sometimes I play chords, sometimes the basslines, or samples of sequenced material, etc.

One song may be all chords that I'm playing live. On another song, I'll play the whole bassline through. I'll play whatever is fun.

The thing to remember is, Chris uses a lot of sounds from different sources - softsynths, keyboards, etc - and not all of these can be reproduced faithfully with such a minimal set up of a Korg and a laptop.

Don't get me wrong, it can be done of course - but would he want to? Chris could always use equivalent sounds (as I'm sure he does) for ease of use.

I would ask: "Who cares", but apparently a lot of people do.

There is so much that could go wrong and so much to remember within one song let alone throughout a whole show night in and night out.

It's much easier to play chords here or a bassline there or even some of the melodies now and then. Given my choice and preference, I'd play 50/50 at any given time with any option I want.

Another thing is, is that Chris can't physically play everything - nor could Pete Gleadall (sp?) PSB songs are very dense, textured and complicated.

All in all, I'm sure Chris plays chords/basslines/melodies to a large degree - probably 50/50 of pre-recorded/live sequenced playback/live performance.

Just sayin'...

synthpopfan wrote:

Pet Shop Girl wrote:He plays some live and the rest is programmed. It is the same with any band of this type.

This is exactly what I do.

Sometimes I play chords, sometimes the basslines, or samples of sequenced material, etc.

One song may be all chords that I'm playing live. On another song, I'll play the whole bassline through. I'll play whatever is fun.

The thing to remember is, Chris uses a lot of sounds from different sources - softsynths, keyboards, etc - and not all of these can be reproduced faithfully with such a minimal set up of a Korg and a laptop.

Don't get me wrong, it can be done of course - but would he want to? Chris could always use equivalent sounds (as I'm sure he does) for ease of use.

I would ask: "Who cares", but apparently a lot of people do.

There is so much that could go wrong and so much to remember within one song let alone throughout a whole show night in and night out.

It's much easier to play chords here or a bassline there or even some of the melodies now and then. Given my choice and preference, I'd play 50/50 at any given time with any option I want.

Another thing is, is that Chris can't physically play everything - nor could Pete Gleadall (sp?) PSB songs are very dense, textured and complicated.

All in all, I'm sure Chris plays chords/basslines/melodies to a large degree - probably 50/50 of pre-recorded/live sequenced playback/live performance.

Just sayin'...

I agree with you, neither Chris nor Pete Gleadall can play everything.

I´d say he plays live. I have seen the soundcheck too and Chris played the keyboards during it. He just played something in between the songs. It was so funny. I was thinking that maybe it could be next PSB hit single.

I thought during the NYC show that he messed up a chord on one of the songs, which seemed to me that he does play some bits live.

It's well publicised that Depeche Mode have the bass and drums and a few synth lines on "tape" so i doubt very much that our boys are doing much different.

Pete Gleadhall must play bits and is probably 'supervising' sounds coming thru as they do, as they have computers playing live, as Chris always says.

Come on if it was all pre recorded they'd be bored as hell and would have to hide it from a lot of techies and other staff.