Pet Shop Boys Totally Explained

Everything about Pet Shop Boys totally explained

Pet Shop Boys are a popular English electronic music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasionally guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards and occasionally on vocals.
Pet Shop Boys have sold more than 50 million records worldwide. Since 1986, they've had 39 Top 30 singles and 22 Top 10 hits in the UK, including four number ones: "West End Girls", "It's a Sin", "Always on My Mind" and "Heart".
As stated on the Pet Shop Boys website

, they're working on a new album with Xenomania which will be released early 2009.

Influence

Pet Shop Boys were successful in the United States in the mid-1980s, with "West End Girls" reaching number one. Their last Top 40 single, "Domino Dancing", reached number 18 on the US pop chart in 1988. Since then, they've continued to enjoy cult and club success in the US and are the fourth-most successful dance artists ever in the US Billboard dance charts, behind Madonna, Donna Summer and Janet Jackson with eight Billboard Dance number ones. Pet Shop Boys have undertaken four world tours in 1991, 1999-2000, 2002 and 2006-2007. During each tour, they performed a lengthy series of concerts in the USA.
   Pet Shop Boys' most recent studio album, Fundamental, was released on the Parlophone label on 22 May 2006. The album peaked at number five in the UK and in the rest of Europe at number two. The album's first single, "I'm with Stupid" was released in the UK on 8 May 2006, reaching number eight in the UK Singles Chart. In December 2006, the duo was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Dance Recording ("I'm with Stupid") and Best Electronic/Dance Album (Fundamental).
   In July 2007, Pet Shop Boys signed a new deal with Parlophone Records. According to a press release on the band's web site:
"Pet Shop Boys have signed a new deal with Parlophone Records. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe originally signed to the label in March 1985 and renegotiated a new deal with the company in 1990. Pet Shop Boys' most recent album, Fundamental, was their last under that contract. Their next studio album will be the first under the new contract.
   Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe commented: “It’s over 20 years since we originally signed to EMI and we’re very happy to be continuing our relationship with them”.
   Miles Leonard, Parlophone’s MD says: “What Pet Shop Boys are doing is unique. They continue to be at the vanguard of pop culture, constantly surprising and thrilling us with their every move. We are extremely pleased to have them on the label.”

Band dynamic

The dynamic of Pet Shop Boys' image lies in the duo's public personalities — Tennant is perceived as an erudite intellectual, articulate, and verbose in speech; while Lowe, now almost always seen in his trademark attire of hat and sunglasses (since as early as 1985), appears as guarded and terse but nevertheless behaves as casual, flippant and fun-loving. They have even cultivated a pattern for interviews, in which Tennant is the primary speaker, answering questions at length, while occasionally being interrupted by brief, generally humorous interjections from Lowe (comparable to the concept of a comedic double act).
They have also been seen as willfully contrary, defying expectations of record labels and the music industry in terms of commercial image, self-promotion, and the nature of their music. In their early years, Pet Shop Boys seemed to be defined by the things they refused to do. A 1986 quotation by Lowe, taken from an Entertainment Tonight clip and subsequently sampled in their song "Paninaro," is often cited as the prime example of this:
This also formed the foundation of the band's early reputation as being anti-rock music, and more properly aligned with disco and dance music culture. (See their appropriately titled 1997 B-side, "How I learned to hate rock and roll.") Eventually, however, these differences were reconciled — a process that symbolically culminated with Pet Shop Boys' performance at the 2000 Glastonbury Festival, which was the surprise highlight of the three day event. Tennant expressed his gratitude to the crowd by thanking them for "being kind to us" and that they were "Glastonbury virgins".

Image

This band dynamic has played a role in their public image as well. Early in their career, the duo were frequently accused of lacking stage presence, said to be a deliberate reaction to the hyper-cheerful music of the time demonstrated by bands such as Wham!. A typical early performance featured Lowe in the background hitting the occasional note on a Fairlight synthesiser keyboard and Tennant singing, but otherwise passive, in the foreground.
   However, when they began touring in 1989, they were heavily influenced by opera and theatre staging. Derek Jarman staged their first tour, making a series of films to be projected behind the costumed singers and dancers. In 1991 they brought in David Alden and David Fielding from the English National Opera to create the staging and costume design for a show which made no attempt to involve or even acknowledge the audience, and pushed the choreography and staging centre stage. Subsequent tours have used artist Sam Taylor-Wood and architect Zaha Hadid for stage design. Their latest tour, ongoing in 2006 and 2007, was conceived and designed by theatre designer Es Devlin with choreography by Hakeem Onibudo.
   Traditionally, Pet Shop Boys have always favoured avant-garde tailored fashions. Tennant has referenced the designers of his suits in certain interviews, and Lowe has often sported outfits and glasses made by Issey Miyake, Stüssy and Yohji Yamamoto's Y-3 for Adidas. Presentation has always been a major theme for the Pet Shop Boys, and the duo have dramatically "reinvented" their image twice in their career. In 1993, when promoting their Very album, they wore brightly coloured costumes and used state-of-the-art computer technology to place themselves in a modern computer graphic world. This concept of reinvention was revisited for the promotion of the Nightlife album, in which they transformed their look wearing wigs and glasses with very futuristic urban wardrobes. In 2006 both Tennant and Lowe were seen on stage and in photographs wearing clothes designed by Hedi Slimane/Dior Homme.
   The duo have always been interested in the artwork, design, and photography for their releases. Photographer Eric Watson helped create the original image of Pet Shop Boys, creating many of their photographs and videos from 1984 to 1991. In design they've primarily worked with Mark Farrow, who designed the cover of their first Parlophone album release in 1986. The collaboration between Mark Farrow and Pet Shop Boys is comparable to the designer-band relationship of Peter Saville and New Order, Anton Corbijn and Depeche Mode, or the epic-length collaboration of Simon Halfon and Paul Weller. Their record sleeves are quite often very minimal, and the attention to detail is obvious, down to the font type and style. In October 2006, they released a 336-page hardcover book entitled Catalogue, showcasing their accomplishments in artwork, design, and of course, music. This retrospective of work is certainly one of the most comprehensive anthologies any music artist could have.

Live shows

The duo employ a programmer, Pete Gleadall to oversee the computers (which are all actually running live) and play keyboards, as well as backing singers, which include long time singer Sylvia Mason-James. The boys have used Katie Kissoon in the past for vocal duties, and have used other musicians, Danny Cummings, Jodie Linscott, and Dawne Adams (percussion), Scott Davidson, Dominic Clarke, Mark Refoy and Bic Hayes (guitarists), as well as the late J.J. Belle (guitars and percussion). For the 1999 - 2000 Nightlife Tour, the boys employed New York City based Peter Schwartz (keyboards / programming) as their musical director, programmer, and keyboardist. As with previous tours, backing tracks were sequenced on a computer playing sounds from a rig of synthesizers.
On using computers and playing live shows, Neil Tennant commented in 1991 that
Chris Lowe also commented in the same interview, (by Chris Heath for the Performance DVD sleeve notes), that

Biography

A chance meeting (August 19, 1981)

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met in an electronics shop on Kings Road in Chelsea. Realizing they'd a common interest in dance music, they began to work on material together in Tennant's flat in Chelsea and from 1982 in a small studio in Camden Town. It was during these early years that several songs that would later appear on future albums were created, including "It's a Sin," "West End girls," "Rent" and "Jealousy".

The Bobby 'O' Years (1981–1984)

Starting out, the two called themselves West End, because of their love of London's West End, but later they came up with the name Pet Shop Boys, a name derived from some friends who worked in a pet shop in Ealing. They said that Pet Shop Boys "sounded like an English rap group".
Their big break came in August 1983, when Tennant was assigned by Smash Hits to interview The Police in New York. The duo were obsessed with a stream of Hi-NRG records made by New York producer Bobby Orlando, known as Bobby 'O'. According to Tennant: "I thought well, if I've got to go and see The Police play then I'm also going to have lunch with Bobby 'O'." They shared a cheeseburger and carrot cake at a restaurant called the Apple Jack on August 19 (two years to the day since Tennant and Lowe had met) and Orlando suggested making a record with Pet Shop Boys after hearing a demo tape that Tennant had taken with him. In April 1984, the Orlando-produced "West End girls" was released, becoming a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Though the track didn't do well in the UK, it was a minor hit in France and Belgium.

Signing with Parlophone (1984–1986)

In March 1985, after long negotiations, Pet Shop Boys cut their contractual ties with Bobby O with a settlement giving Bobby 'O' significant royalties for future sales. Hiring manager Tom Watkins, they signed with the London-based Parlophone label. In April, Tennant left Smash Hits (where he'd progressed to the position of deputy editor), and in July a new single, "Opportunities (Let's make lots of money)", was released, reaching number 116 in the UK. The B-side to this single, "In the night," was used as the theme for the UK television series The Clothes Show.
   Unperturbed by the low chart position, the band returned to the studio in August to re-record "West End girls" with producer Stephen Hague. Released in October 1985, this new version initially entered the charts at a similarly low position, but began a slow rise so that by January 1986 it achieved number one. It was subsequently number one in the USA, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Lebanon, Israel, New Zealand and Norway, and sold an estimated 1.5 million copies worldwide. It remains the most-heard Pet Shop Boys song to date.
   After the success of "West End girls", Pet Shop Boys released a follow-up single, "Love comes quickly", on February 24 1986. The single reached number 19 in the UK singles chart and was followed by their debut album, Please on March 24. In June 1986, the band announced a European tour; however, their plans for a theatrical extravaganza proved to be too expensive and the tour was cancelled. Please started Pet Shop Boys' penchant for choosing one-word album titles.
   New versions of "Opportunities (Let's make lot's of money)" and album track "Suburbia" were also released in 1986, followed by a remix album, Disco, in November.

"Imperial phase" (1987–1988)

1987 started with Pet Shop Boys receiving both BRIT Awards and Ivor Novello Awards for "West End girls". Later, on June 15, they released what became their second number one single, "It's a sin". The single caused some controversy: Neil's school, St. Cuthbert's Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne, chastised him in the press, while Jonathan King accused them of plagiarising the Cat Stevens song Wild World. Pet Shop Boys later sued King and won damages which were donated to charity. The video to "It's a sin" also saw their first collaboration with director Derek Jarman.
   The continued success of "It's a sin" was followed by the release of "What have I done to deserve this?" on August 10. Co-written with Allee Willis and also featuring Dusty Springfield on vocals, the single reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, and the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Although the duo had wanted to release this track on their debut album, they'd been unable to track down Springfield and were reluctant to record it with any other female singer, despite their record company's suggestions. Springfield's manager finally contacted them in 1986, following the release of Please and towards the end of that year she travelled to London to record "What have I done to deserve this?" with them. It was the first track to be recorded for the duo's second album. Pet Shop Boys had been told that Springfield was "difficult" to work with and even that she could no longer sing; however her performance on the track put any such concerns to rest and they began a collaboration with her which lasted until the end of the decade. Included on their album Actually, the song became a massive worldwide hit and resurrected Springfield's career, leading to her 1990 album Reputation, on which Pet Shops Boys were major contributing producers. This duet was also the start of a series of collaborations with high profile musicians throughout the band's career.
   Also in August 1987, Pet Shop Boys appeared on Love Me Tender, a UK television programme on ITV commemorating the tenth anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. They were asked to perform one of their favourite Elvis tracks, and they narrowed it down to two options, "Baby Let's Play House" and "Always on My Mind", eventually settling on the latter. September 7 1987 saw the release of the duo's second studio album, Actually, followed by the single "Rent" in October, which reached number 8 in the UK. The final song on the album, "King's Cross", was revealed to have a strange prescience when there was a fatal fire at the London underground section of the station in November of that year (part of the lyrics read: "Dead and wounded on either side/You know it's only a matter of time"). The Sun newspaper in the UK subsequently tried to get the track released as a charity single but Pet Shop Boys wouldn't allow this.
   Towards the end of 1987, Pet Shop Boys started work on an hour-long film that would incorporate the songs from Actually. Working with director Jack Bond, the short film grew into a full-scale movie, It Couldn't Happen Here, starring Barbara Windsor, Joss Ackland and Gareth Hunt. The film was eventually released in 1988 to mixed reviews. Footage from the film was also used for the music video to "Always on my mind", now released as a single on November 30; it became both the duo's third number one single in the UK and the Christmas number one single for 1987, infamously beating out "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues. 1988 started with another collaboration. Patsy Kensit's band, Eighth Wonder, had the song "I'm not scared" written and produced for them by Pet Shop Boys. The song became her biggest hit single and Pet Shop Boys included their own version of the track on their Introspective later that year. March 1988 saw the duo achieve their fourth UK number one single (and their last to date) with a remixed edit of "Heart", different from the album version (NB: The single version is included in their Discography collection, whereas the album version is used in their "Pop Art" retrospective). The video to the single, directed by Jack Bond, was a retelling of the Dracula story, starring Ian McKellen as the vampire who steals Neil Tennant's wife. It was seen to be ironic since McKellen was a well-known gay figure at the time (he came out in the 1970s).
   In the 1996 BBC Radio 1 documentary About Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant noted that their "Imperial Phase" ended in 1988. On September 12 1988, Pet Shop Boys released a brand new single, "Domino dancing", and in the documentary Neil recounts his disappointment when hearing the news that the single had reached number 7 in the UK single chart. He felt that their major success was now over and that it was going to be a challenge to remain successful going forward.

Introspective, Behaviour and the Performance tour (1988–1992)

The duo's third studio album, Introspective, was released on October 10 1988 and was followed by the Trevor Horn-produced single "Left to my own devices", and a cover version of the Sterling Void single "It's alright" in 1989. 1989 also saw the start of Pet Shop Boys' first tour, in which they performed in Hong Kong, Japan and Britain. The tour followed the ideas of the extravaganza that couldn't have been afforded earlier in their career. Derek Jarman returned to direct the performance, and he provided several films that were projected during the shows.
   On September 24 1990, a new single, "So hard", was released, and Pet Shop Boys' fourth studio album followed on October 22 1990. Behaviour was recorded in Munich with producer Harold Faltermeyer. The album was never intended to be a dramatic change in mood to their earlier albums, but it's noticeably subdued. It included the fan-favourite "Being Boring," the second single from the album, which only reached number 20 in the UK singles chart, their lowest placing at the time. The song was inspired by a quote by Zelda Fitzgerald: "...she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring" and was widely thought to be a commentary on the AIDS epidemic. The music video was directed by film-maker Bruce Weber. By this time, the duo had also parted ways with manager Tom Watkins, replacing him with Jill Carrington.
   In March 1991, a cover of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" as a medley with "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", the 1960s pop song by Frankie Valli/The Four Seasons, was released as a non-album single, followed by the duo's first world tour. Named "Performance", the tour kicked off in Tokyo on March 11 1990. The tour also visited: the United States, Canada, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The shows were designed by David Alden and David Fielding, who had designed several sets for the London Opera.
   Before taking a break in 1992, Pet Shop Boys released an 18 track compilation, in 1991, which included two new singles: "DJ Culture" and "Was It Worth It?".
   However, during this period, Pet Shop Boys continued to collaborate with many high-profile musicians. They worked again with Dusty Springfield on the singles "Nothing Has Been Proved" (which was a song written for their soundtrack for the film Scandal about the Profumo political scandal in Britain), and "In Private". The duo later went on to produce half of the tracks on her 1990 solo Reputation album. Pet Shop Boys were also asked to write and produce an album for Liza Minnelli in 1989. The album, Results, included the hit single "Losing My Mind", a cover version of the Stephen Sondheim song. The duo's own version of this appeared on the "Jealousy" single as a B-side. Neil Tennant also worked with Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr on their first album as Electronic, whose first single, "Getting Away With It", co-written and co-produced by Neil Tennant, was released on December 4 1989. Later, in 1991, Lowe also contributed to the Electronic project by working on the track "The Patience of a Saint" for their 1991 album; finally, in 1992, Tennant sang lead vocals on their non-album single "Disappointed", which was featured on the soundtrack to the movie Cool World. In addition, a remix of "So Hard" by notorious electronic music duo The KLF, released as a separate single, led to Tennant re-recording his vocals for the song entirely.
   Pet Shop Boys set up the Spaghetti Records label in 1991. Their most successful release was the soundtrack to the 1992 film The Crying Game which featured Boy George performing the title song The Crying Game. The song was produced by Pet Shop Boys and featured Tennant on backing vocals. Other artists on the label included Scottish singer David Cicero, The Ignorants, and Masterboy.

The Very era (1993–1995)

In June 1993, Pet Shop Boys made a strong return to the UK Singles Chart with "Can you forgive her?". Taking its title from the Anthony Trollope novel of the same name, the single reached number 7 in the UK Singles Chart, and the iconic music video features the duo in orange body suits and tall dunce caps in a world of computer-generated imagery. The theme was continued with the follow-up single, a cover of the Village People single "Go West", which reached number 2 in the UK, with another computer-generated music video, this time inspired by the Soviet Union. The duo's fifth studio album, Very followed on September 27 and is the only Pet Shop Boys album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart. It was produced by Pet Shop Boys and mixed with additional production by Stephen Hague who had produced their first album and subsequently produced records by New Order and Erasure. The other singles from Very, "I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing", "Liberation", and "Yesterday, when I was mad", continued the theme of computer-generated videos, peaking with the "Liberation" video, which contained almost no real-life elements at all. All these videos were directed by Howard Greenhalgh who continued to work with Pet Shop Boys well into the next decade. Very was also released in a limited edition to include an entirely new album "Relentless." It was comprised of six all new dance heavy tracks with a darker tone to the perky Very.
   In 1994, Pet Shop Boys offered to remix fellow Parlophone artist Blur's single "Girls & Boys"; it was a club hit throughout Europe and started a sporadic trend for Pet Shop Boys to remix other artists' music.
   In 1994, Pet Shop Boys released the 1994 Comic Relief single, "Absolutely Fabulous". The song started when Tennant and Lowe were playing around with samples from the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous in the studio. They wanted to release a single, so approached lead actors Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, and suggested releasing it as a charity single. The single was released under the artist name of "Absolutely Fabulous". Tennant and Lowe don't consider it a Pet Shop Boys' single release and it wasn't included on their last compilation CD of singles, "PopArt". The video to the single featured clips from the sitcom along with newly recorded footage of Tennant and Lowe with the characters of Edina (Saunders) and Patsy (Lumley).
   On September 12, Pet Shop Boys released the follow-up to their 1986 remix album Disco in the form of Disco 2. The album featured club remixes of the singles released from Very in a continuous megamix by Danny Rampling. Then, in October, Pet Shop Boys began their "Discovery" tour which would see them visit countries that they'd never performed in before: Singapore, Australia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. The following year, a new version of the 1986 B-side to "Suburbia", "Paninaro", was released to promoted a B-side collection album, Alternative. The single, called "Paninaro '95", is based on the live version from the "Discovery" tour.

Bilingual, Nightlife, and the musical (1996–2001)

In November 1995, Neil Tennant saw David Bowie live at Wembley Stadium and met him backstage. Whilst discussing Bowie's recent album Outside, Tennant mentioned that his favourite track was "Hallo Spaceboy". Jokingly, Bowie said that Pet Shop Boys should remix the track, and, a week later, phoned Tennant asking for this to happen. The new version was completely re-recorded and featured Tennant on backing vocals, using additional lyrics from Bowie's first hit song, "Space Oddity". The single was released on February 19 1996 with Pet Shop Boys joining Bowie to perform the song on the BRIT Awards and Top of the Pops.
   In April, Pet Shop Boys released a new single, "Before", leading up to their forthcoming album; the single reached number 7 in the UK Singles Chart. That same month, Tina Turner also released her Wildest Dreams album, which featured Pet Shop Boys-produced track "Confidential". In August, Pet Shop Boys released a follow-up single, "Se a vida é (That's the way life is)", a Latin American music-inspired track featuring a drum sample from a track called "Estrada Da Paixão" by Brazilian act Olodum. This preceded the sixth Pet Shop Boys album Bilingual which was released in September.
   In December 1996, Neil appeared live with Suede singing the Suede song "Saturday Night" as a duet with Brett Anderson, and Pet Shop Boys track "Rent". Both live tracks were released with the Suede single "Filmstar" in July 1997.
   Pet Shop Boys kicked off Summer 1997 with a sold-out three-week residency at the Savoy Theatre in London in June. Entitled "Somewhere" and being promoted by a cover version of the song "Somewhere" from the musical West Side Story, the shows used projections filmed by the artist Sam Taylor-Wood. Pet Shop Boys would later work with Sam Taylor-Wood again: in 1998, they recorded a version of "Je t'aime... moi non plus", originally by Serge Gainsbourg, with her, and in 2003 they covered the Donna Summer track "Love to Love You Baby" and gave it a limited edition release credited to Kiki Kokova, a pseudonym used by Taylor-Wood for this project.
   The majority of 1998 was spent with a series of live dates and minor releases, including a charity album of Noel Coward songs called . The album included Pet Shop Boys' version of "Sail Away" along with songs performed by Elton John, Texas, Marianne Faithfull, The Divine Comedy, Suede, Damon Albarn, Vic Reeves and Robbie Williams. Tennant also co-produced the Williams track and provided backing vocals for Elton John. Tennant also provided backing vocals on Robbie Williams' "No Regrets" single along with Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy. Meanwhile, the band switched managers again as Carrington resigned and was succeeded by Mitch Clark who had previously worked for EMI International as Head of Promotion.
   During this time, Pet Shop Boys also began to work with playwright Jonathan Harvey on a stage musical project. In 1999, many of the tracks recorded ended up on the duo's seventh studio album Nightlife which also included the singles "I don't know what you want but I can't give it any more", "New York City boy" and "You only tell me you love me when you're drunk" — as well a duet with Kylie Minogue, "In denial", about a father (Tennant) coming out to his daughter (Minogue). Minogue later performed the track live during her 2005 "Showgirl" tour, singing to a pre-recorded Neil Tennant. This isn't the first time that Pet Shop Boys have worked with Minogue. In 1994, Pet Shop Boys wrote a song for inclusion on her Kylie Minogue album. "Falling" was based around an unreleased remix of "Go West" with new lyrics by Tennant. However, Minogue and her record company didn't like the production sound of Pet Shop Boys' demo, and asked Farley & Heller to produce the track. 1999 ended with a world tour which continued into 2000, this time with the stage sets designed by architect Zaha Hadid. The tour took them to the USA and Canada, Japan, Europe and the UK. In the summer of 2000 they also played a series of festival dates in Europe, including a performance at the Glastonbury Festival where they performed on the main stage on Saturday night at 9.30 pm to a triumphant reception. In 2000 they won their third Ivor Novello Award honouring their "Outstanding Contribution" to music.
   Throughout 2000, they continued to work on their musical and in May they started workshopping the project and finalising the plot and songs to be used. The musical, Closer to Heaven, opened at the Arts Theatre in London in 2001 with financial backing from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group. Reviews were mixed and, although the run was initially extended, it closed earlier than expected, due to poor ticket sales, in October 2001. Around the time of the London closure, Tennant said that they were in talks to take the musical to various locations in Europe (particularly Germany which is a big market for Pet Shop Boys) and to take it to New York. Nothing further has been issued by Pet Shop Boys or Really Useful Group regarding these performances; in 2005, a series of performances were done in the Brisbane Powerhouse, Australia, though they were independent to Pet Shop Boys and Really Useful Group.

Variety: Release and Battleship Potemkin (2002–2005)

After the mixed fortunes of Closer to Heaven, Pet Shop Boys returned to the studio to start work on their eighth album. After toying with genres including hip-hop, they went for a stripped back acoustic sound as a complete change to the over-the-top dance music of the musical. In 2002, they released Release. Most of the tracks were produced by the duo themselves and many of the tracks featured Johnny Marr on guitar. The first single, "Home and dry" featured a video directed by Wolfgang Tillmans, mostly consisting of footage of mice filmed in the London Underground. The follow-up single, "I get along", had a video filmed by Bruce Weber and following this they embarked on another world tour, although this time it was a stripped back affair with no dancers, backing singers, costumes or lavish sets. They used two extra guitarists, (Bic Hayes and Mark Refoy), a percussionist (Dawne Adams) and regular programmer Pete Gleadall.
   The Release tour took them first to several universities around the UK, not officially the Release tour but entitled "The University Tour", these dates saw them perform at Bristol University, Keele University, University of East Anglia in Norwich, University of Teesside, Middlesborough, and De Montfort University, Leicester. The Release tour then took them to Germany, USA, Canada, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, then another series of dates in the UK again, Switzerland, and onto Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and then a first ever date in Thailand as the final show, at the large Bangkok Impact Arena, in front of 9,000 fans. The Bangkok concert was considered a "Triumphant success" Neil Tennant later commented on the official website.
   A third single, "London", was only released in Germany, at the request of EMI Germany. It was never planned for release in the UK, although a promotional video was shot by the distinguished photographer Martin Parr and it was serviced to some UK radio stations. Following a live stint on the John Peel show on Radio 1, Pet Shop Boys released Disco 3 in February 2003. The album followed their previous Disco albums, but this one also included new songs as well as remixes.
   In 2003, Pet Shop Boys launched two new labels, Olde English Vinyl and Lucky Kunst, their Spaghetti label being defunct. The first release on Olde English Vinyl was Atomizer's "Hooked on Radiation", followed by Pete Burns' "Jack and Jill Party" in 2004. The only Lucky Kunst release to date is Kiki Kokova's version of "Love to love you baby". They also remixed Yoko Ono's "Walking on Thin Ice" in 2003 and Rammstein's "Mein Teil" in 2004. Another new manager, David Dorrell, was brought on board to replace Clark.
   In November 2003, Pet Shop Boys released a second greatest hits album with two new singles "Miracles" and "Flamboyant".
   In September 2004, Pet Shop Boys appeared at a free concert in Trafalgar Square in London where they performed with the Dresdner Sinfoniker orchestra a new soundtrack to accompany the seminal 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin. There were four further live performances of the work with the Dresdner Sinfoniker in Germany in September 2005, and the Battleship Potemkin soundtrack was released on September 5, 2005.
   In November 2004, Pet Shop Boys played at the Prince's Trust concert called "Produced by Trevor Horn", a festival with artists who worked with famous British producer Trevor Horn. Other artists included Grace Jones, ABC, Seal and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
   In 2005, Pet Shop Boys was selected as the headline act for the Moscow Live 8 concert in Red Square. They were received extremely well by the crowd in Moscow. Also in 2005, Pet Shop Boys was asked to put together the twentieth release to the Back to Mine series, an ongoing anthology showcasing artists' favourite music selections, with an emphasis on afterhours chill out music. As a condition, Tennant and Lowe were given one disc each, whereas all previous and releases in the series consisted of only a single disc per group. (See .)

Basically: Fundamental, touring and Disco 4 (2006 onwards)

Pet Shop Boys began 2006 remixing Madonna's single, "Sorry", for release in February. The single reached number one in the UK and Pet Shop Boys' remix included new back-up vocals performed by Tennant. Madonna subsequently used the Pet Shop Boys' remix, including Tennant's vocals, in her 2006 world tour production.
   In April, Pet Shop Boys released a new single, "I'm with Stupid", a commentary on the relationship between George W. Bush and Tony Blair. The promo video featured Matt Lucas and David Walliams, better known as the team behind Little Britain. Lucas and Walliams portray Tennant and Lowe, parodying two of the duo's previous videos, "Go West" and "Can you forgive her?". The ninth Pet Shop Boys studio album, Fundamental, followed in May. The album was produced by Trevor Horn, who Pet Shop Boys had previously worked with on "Left to my own devices" in 1988. The album was also released with a limited edition remix album called Fundamentalism, which included a version of "In private", a song originally written and produced by Pet Shop Boys for Dusty Springfield, as a duet with Elton John and "Fugitive", a new track produced by Richard X.
   The week that 'Fundamental' was a released, a documentary Pet Shop Boys - A Life In Pop was broadcast on Channel 4 and directed by George Scott and produced by Nick de Grunwald. The original broadcast was an hour long. In October 2006, a significantly expanded version lasting 140 minutes was released on DVD. The liner notes explain, 'From their trailblazing first single 'West End girls' to their current position as Britains foremost pop duo, A Life In Pop traces every ground-breaking step in the 20-year career of the Pet Shop Boys. Starting in the respective home towns in the north of England, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe retrace their remarkable journey in their own words. The film features some previously unseen live performances, rare television appearances (including their first ever from Belgium in 1984), and interviews with famous fans, collaborators and colleagues including Robbie Williams, Brandon Flowers, Tim Rice-Oxley, Jake Shears and Bruce Weber. A Life In Pop is a fascinating in-depth documentary film chronicling the Pet Shop Boys' enduring success.'
   The second single to be taken from the album was "Minimal". The duo filmed the video to the single in Paris with Dan Cameron. The single was the first of theirs to be playlisted by London's biggest radio station Capital Radio in a decade.
   Pet Shop Boys began a world tour in June 2006 in Norway. The show was designed and directed by Es Devlin the award-winning British theatre designer and choreographed by Hakeem Onibudo. Between June 15 and September 10, 2006, Pet Shop Boys played a series of concert dates across Europe mainly at assorted festivals and outdoor venues. These included two dates at The Tower of London on 28 and 29 June and a single show at Thetford Forest, supported by Lorraine. These dates also included performances of Battleship Potemkin in Germany and Spain. On May 1, 2006, "Potemkin" was also performed at the Swan Hunter shipyard in Newcastle-upon-Tyne with Pet Shop Boys accompanied by the Northern Sinfonia orchestra.
   On October 3, 2006, the long-delayed U.S. release of their PopArt hits package was issued by Capitol Records.
   During 2006, Pet Shop Boys worked with Robbie Williams on his new album Rudebox, producing two tracks: a cover version of "We're the Pet Shop Boys" written by My Robot Friend (which they've also recorded themselves, and released as a B-side to "Miracles" in 2003) and "She's Madonna", a duet with Tennant allegedly about Guy Ritchie's affair with Tania Strecker prior to his relationship with Madonna.
   On October 10, 2006, Pet Shop Boys embarked in Montreal on the North and Central American leg of their world tour which took them through Canada, the USA and Mexico concluding on November 16th. A DVD of the show in Mexico City was released on May 21st, 2007, entitled "Cubism". It was recorded on November 14th 2006 in the Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City and the film was directed by David Barnard (who has in the past directed similar films for Björk and Gorillaz).
   On October 16, Catalogue from Thames & Hudson, a 336-page hardcover book written by Philip Hoare and Chris Heath, detailing their entire visual output (photography, as well as the design of record, video, tour, book and fan club magazine) from 1984 to 2004 was released. Neil Tennant comments in the book, "In the beginning we made a decision - and it was in our EMI contract - that that we'd have control over how everything worked; that obviously the songs mattered hugely, but the way they were presented was going to matter hugely as well; and that we were never going to give up on that." Pet Shop Boys supported the publication of the book with signings in London, New York City and Berlin.
   Also on October 16, the third single from Fundamental, "Numb", was released. It was written by Diane Warren, and is the only song on the album not written by Tennant and Lowe.
   On October 23, 2006, Concrete (originally titled "Concert" but changed at the last minute to the originally-planned title) was released. It is a double-CD of the complete Mermaid Theatre concert with the BBC Concert Orchestra, featuring guests Rufus Wainwright, Frances Barber and Robbie Williams. A 90 minute "director's cut" of the concert aired on BBC 6 Music on August 28, 2006.
   A small exhibition of portraits of Pet Shop Boys opened in the Bookshop Gallery of London's National Portrait Gallery on October 30, 2006 and ran to February 28, 2007.
   On December 7, 2006, Pet Shop Boys were nominated for two 2007 Grammy Awards. These were Best Dance Recording for "I'm with Stupid" and Best Electronic/Dance Album for Fundamental.
   Pet Shop Boys were supposed to conclude 2006 and commence 2007 by performing at the Concert in the Gardens at Edinburgh's Hogmanay party but the event was cancelled at short notice due to bad weather conditions.
   In February 2007, their 'Stars Are Blazing' remix of The Killers' "Read My Mind" was released. During this period, the Pet Shop Boys said that they were in the studio writing and recording new material.
   During the latter part of 2006 and early 2007, Neil Tennant served as executive producer on Rufus Wainwright's new album Release the Stars, recorded in Berlin. He also sang backing vocals on a number of tracks, most notably on "Do I Disappoint You" and "Tiergarten".
   Pet Shop Boys continued their world tour, albeit with a slightly different production and set-list, on March 14th 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and then played concerts in Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and Australia (as co-headliners of the V Festival 2007), Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, Great Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Singapore.
   Pet Shop Boys released a live DVD, Cubism, in May 2007 via Warner Vision. The DVD features a live show recorded at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City in November 2006.. Pet Shop Boys "played" at a free festival in the online virtual world Second Life on June 30.
   On October 8th, 2007, Pet Shop Boys released Disco 4, the latest in their series of remix albums. Previous sets have focussed on remixes of recent tracks (or including new songs, in the case of "Disco 3"), but the fourth in the set differed in that it was largely made up of remixes completed by Pet Shop Boys of other artists' work, over the past decade. These include The Killers, David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Madonna, Atomizer and Rammstein. Only two tracks by the Boys, remixed versions of "Fundamental" tracks "Integral" and "I'm with Stupid", were included. The official Parlophone press release stated "Integral will have a limited service to club and selected radio DJ’s, whilst a politically-inspired video for the track will be made available through You Tube and the Pet Shop Boys’ website".
   Although Pet Shop Boys' "Fundamental" tour was declared on their website to be officially ended, they've recently announced further concerts in Zaragoza, Barcelona, Valencia, Bucharest and Dublin.

Discography

Sexuality Neil Tennant had neither confirmed nor denied rumours about his sexuality during the 1980s. Tennant "came out", as it were, in a 1994 interview for Attitude, a UK gay lifestyle magazine. Lowe, meanwhile, has remained tight-lipped about his own preferences, although he's opined (in a 1996 BBC radio documentary) that there is, basically, but one sexuality, which suggests that he may consider the terms "gay" or "straight" to be constricting labels. The duo are sometimes incorrectly assumed to be a couple (in the 1990 biography Pet Shop Boys, Literally, Tennant recalls that even their ex-manager, Tom Watkins, was under this impression for a time, which inadvertently fueled up even more rumours about their preferences).
Pet Shop Boys are seen as significant figures in gay culture for such songs as "Can you forgive her?", "It's a sin" (for which gay director Derek Jarman produced the video), "New York City Boy" and their cover of Village People's "Go West". They have written a song about a young male fan spending a night with a rapper, based on Eminem, called "The night I fell in love" and a song about coming out, "Metamorphosis". Their 1990s single "Being boring" dealt with the gay experience and the devastation wrought by the AIDS crisis; the song (and its supporting video, filmed by Bruce Weber), remains one of their most popular. However, Neil Tennant has stated many times that his lyrics are not specifically gay. Many of their songs are written from an ambiguous view point that can be taken any way the listener perceives it, and this goes some way to explain why a large segment of their die-hard fans are heterosexual.
Pet Shop Boys have performed and worked with many artists considered to be gay and bisexual icons such as David Bowie, Elton John, Liza Minnelli, Dusty Springfield, Boy George, Kylie Minogue and Madonna. Pet Shop Boys attempted to organise and perform in a planned 2001 tour of out gay musicians, entitled 'Wotapalava'. However, the plans were later put on hold and the idea seems to have been discarded.

Influence

As of 2003, Pet Shop Boys were ranked by Billboard's Joel Whitburn (in his book Billboard's Hot Dance/Disco 1974-2003) as the fourth most successful act on the U.S. Dance/Club Play charts, behind only Madonna, Janet Jackson and Donna Summer.
   In October 2005, a Swedish tribute band called West End Girls had a number-three hit single in their home country with a cover version of "Domino dancing". In January 2006 they released their version of "West End Girls", and an album was released in June. Pet Shop Boys also have several tribute bands in the form of Birmingham-based Pet Shop Noise who have been performing locally for many years, and Seattle-based West End Boys.
   Madonna's album Confessions on a Dance Floor, released November 2005, includes a track called "Jump" which has close similarities to "West End Girls". An interview at Popjustice with Stuart Price, who produced Madonna's album, revealed the track "Jump" was a complete Chris Lowe inspiration. Apparently, while recording the album, Madonna blurted out at one point, "Pet Shop Boys! I fucking love them!" Pet Shop Boys remixed "Sorry", the second single from the album. Their mix has proven to be a favourite, as even Madonna has used their version in her 2006 Confessions tour. The history between Madonna and Pet Shop Boys goes back to 1988 with the song "Heart". In the liner notes to their greatest hits album , the band states that, "When we wrote this song we wanted to submit it to Madonna but didn't dare risk disappointment." The Pet Shop Boys kept the song for themselves, and it ended up going to number one in the UK. Later, in 1991, Madonna was referenced in a tongue-in-cheek lyric in the song "DJ Culture," soon after Madonna and Sean Penn had divorced. Tennant writes, "Like Liz before Betty / She after Sean / suddenly you're missing / then you're reborn". Tennant refers to the 'reinvention' Madonna was going through at the time.
   Actor David Tennant, currently the star of Doctor Who, took his stage name from Neil Tennant. The actor's real surname is MacDonald, but he needed a stage name for Equity as there was already an actor registered with the name David MacDonald.

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