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Pet Shop Boys biography
PET SHOP BOYS BIOGRAPHY
Unruffled, cool, often unemotional and stiff upper-lipped, like their artistic counterparts Gilbert & George, The Pet Shop Boys have become the elder statesmen of pop - postmodern ironists hiding behind a veil of melodic and lushly romantic synthpop. The band negotiated the 80s and 90s moving effortlessly from disco to house and techno with their own irreverent, slightly satiric image always intact.
The duo were formed in 1981 by Neil Tennant, an Assistant Editor for pop mag bible Smash Hits and architecture student Chris Lowe. After two years spent plugging away at demos, Tennant met producer Bobby O while on a writing assignment in New York. Bobby would subsequently produce the duo's debut single, West End Girls in 1984. The track flopped in Britain but brought them to the attention of manager Tom Watkins who secured them a deal with Parlophone Records in 1985. Their first release for the label, a sardonic take on 80s greed and opportunism - Opportunities (let's Make Lots Of Money) - failed to dent the charts although a re-release of West End Girls, remixed by Stephen Hague, hit No.1 in 1986 giving the band their breakthrough with a UK and US No.1. Their debut album, Please, released in 1986 was a chart success, crammed with infectious melodies and Tennant's wryly observed lyrics that would become the camp duo's trademark. Album track Opportunities had been remixed and re-released as a single, becoming a hit in the process, especially with hordes of Russian teenagers during Gorbachev's Perestroika era! "They were all in the Kremlin singing 'Let's make lots of money,'" says Neil. "Gorbachev's daughter told us we were her favourite band!" Another single from the album, Suburbia, also made the Top 10.
Visually, the band quickly established themselves as static, cool but stylish. It's A Sin, a superior, gloomy, yet triumphant celebration of hedonism, gave the band their second No.1 later that summer while the duo also teamed up with 60s songstress Dusty Springfield for What Have I Done to Deserve To This, a No.2 hit. The band seemed to have a knack of attracting a leftfield crowd, a large gay following, as well as the football element who just enjoyed a terrace-style singalong. They revelled in their ability to subvert the norm, appearing on Top of the Pops singing a song like Rent (which was a veiled reference to homosexual prostitution). The duo then starred in the poorly received film It Couldn't Happen Here in 1988, whose theme song they co-wrote with Ennio Morricone.
The album Actually, released in 1987 featured Rent, It's A Sin and two further No. singles in Heart and a flamboyant version of Elvis' Always On My Mind. Neil and Chris indulged their love for remix albums with 1988's Introspective, which included a version of the track I'm Not Scared that they'd produced for Eighth Wonder and their lead singer, Patsy Kensit. The album included further hits with Domino Dancing, It'[s Alright and Left To My Own Devices, produced by Trevor Horn. The following year the band worked with one of their idols, Liza Minnelli on the hit single, Losing My Mind before releasing new album, Behaviour, in 1990. The set was uncharacteristically introspective, spawning the minimalist hit single, Being Boring. the following year the duo would contribute to the debut album by Electronic, side project of New Order vocalist Barney Sumner and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. After returning with a clever splicing of U2's Where The Streets Have No Name and Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off You for a hit No.4 single, the duo took two years off before returning with the album Very. Previewed by a celebratory cover of the Village People's Go West, the album's relentless, upbeat tone and celebration of British values with tracks like I Wouldn't Normally Do this Kind Of Thing, was a direct slap to the burgeoning US grunge scene.
After a second volume of remixes, Disco, in 1994 and a B sides collection in 1995, the band returned in 1996 with the album, Bilingual a low key but innovative collection of dance tinged, tunes that gave a nod to the Ibiza dance scene on latin- tinged tracks like Se Vida E. 1999's Nightlife album may have been the first signs that the band were losing the plot slightly, the overly camp New York City boy missing the mark.
After a lengthy US tour, the band's next project was the result of a collaboration with playwright Jonathan Harvey that Neil and chris had been working on since 1197 - a musical surrounding gay life and society's hypocrisy. Closer To Heaven made its West End debut in 2001, to mixed critical reviews. The band also released their score of the original cast recording. They still had time for a new album, Release in 2002. Disco 3 was compiled the following year and after a 2005 compilation, of the dance series, Back To Mine, the band returned in April 2006 with a brand new album, Fundamental, an orchestral, dance state of the nation address.The album, seemingly finding the duo in seriously political mode, featured attacks on Tony Blair and ID cards. The idea behind the lyrics was to take contemporary events and put them into songs that are apparently about interpersonal relationships," explains Neil. Adding in his archly camp manner. "We like something serious that works as a joke!"
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