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Pet Shop Boys Information
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'Pet Shop Boys' are a British electronic music act, formed by Neil Tennant (born on 10 July 1954) who provides main vocals, keyboards and very occasionally guitar, and Chris Lowe (born on 4 October 1959) on keyboards and occasionally on vocals, too.
This highly inventive UK duo owe the longevity of their career to the ability to combine melodic pop/dance music with intelligent lyrics and striking style. They are one of the most consistently successful duos in pop music, particularly in Europe. Since 1986, they have had 38 top 40 singles in the UK including four number ones: "West End Girls", "It's a Sin", "Always on My Mind" and "Heart". They continue to make interesting headlines in pop music, primarily due to their unique sound accompanied with their involvement with other artists and side-projects. The Pet Shop Boys have maintained a strong presence in the dance and club charts in the United States, but their mainstream success waned in the late eighties (their last top 40 hit in the US was "Domino Dancing" in 1988). Their popularity is still prevalent through their very active and devoted fan base.
Before Pet Shop Boys
Neil Francis Tennant was born in North Shields, Northumberland. While at school, Tennant played in a group in Newcastle called Dust. Their most popular song was called "Can you hear the dawn break?" and they were heavily influenced by The Incredible String Band. In 1975, after completing a degree in history at North London Polytechnic, Tennant took a job at Marvel Comics, anglicising spellings and indicating where over-risque woman needed to be redrawn decently. In 1977 he moved to Macdonald Educational Publishing, later moving to ITV Books. In 1982, he joined Smash Hits.
Christopher Sean Lowe was born in Blackpool, Lancashire. At school, Lowe played trombone in a seven piece dance band called One Under The Eight, who played old-time popular favourites like "Hello Dolly", "La Bamba", and "Moon River". In 1978, Lowe went to University of Liverpool to study architecture. From 1981 to 1982, he spent a work placement year gaining practical experience in a London architectural practice. During this time, he designed a staircase for an industrial development in Milton Keynes.
On August 19, 1981, Tennant and Lowe met by chance at an electronics shop on the Kings Road in Chelsea. Realizing they had a common interest in dance music, they began to write together. To begin with they 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".
The Early Years
Tennant and Lowe worked on material together in Tennant's Chelsea flat, where they came up with many of the songs that would later surface on future albums such as "It's A Sin", "West End Girls" and "Jealousy". Their big break came in August 1983, when Tennant was sent by Smash Hits to interview The Police in New York.
Pet Shop Boys were obsessed by a stream of hi-energy 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 Bobby O suggested making a record with the Pet Shop Boys after hearing a demo tape that Tennant had taken with him.
In April 1984, the Bobby O-produced "West End Girls" was released and it was a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Unfortunately, the track did not do well in the UK, but it was a minor hit in France and Belgium.
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 had progressed to the role of deputy editor) and in July, a new single "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money)" was released, reaching number 116 in the UK. Unperturbed by the low chart position, they returned to the studio in August to re-record "West End Girls" with Stephen Hague. Released in October 1985, this new version of "West End Girls" initially entered the charts at a similarly low position, however it also began a slow chart rise so that by January 1986 it achieved the number one position. It was subsequently number one in USA, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand and Norway, and sold an estimated 1.5 million copies worldwide.
Sound and image
Neil Tennant has consistently and sincerely labelled the Pet Shop Boys' music as "disco". Their music's trademark sound is a combination of pure synthesised pop (which could qualify them for a New Wave label), with sometimes slightly over-the-top instrumentation, contrasting with Tennant's laconic vocals, sometimes spoken-word or rap. Their lyrics (mainly written by Tennant) are articulate, stylish and poetic, often with a melancholic undertow. Strong studio production values mark out their work.
Visually, the group grew to favour avant-garde tailored fashions. 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 unanimated in the foreground.
However, when touring in 1991, they were heavily influenced by opera and theatre staging. They brought in David Alden and David Fielding from the English National Opera to help with stage and costume design. The shows 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. In 1993, when promoting their Very album, they dramatically changed their image. 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 again realized for their Nightlife album, in which they transformed their look wearing wigs and glasses with very futuristic urban wardrobes.
They have always been very interested in the artwork and design for their releases. They have primarily worked with Mark Farrow, a person who designed the cover of their first Parlophone release in 1985. Their record sleeves are quite often very minimal, and the attention to detail is obvious, down to the font type and style. In 2006, they plan to release a book cataloguing their artwork and design. One could compare the Mark Farrow and Pet Shop Boys collaboration to the team of Peter Saville and New Order, who are also well known for their fantastic design and record sleeve detail.
Sexuality
Pet Shop Boys are seen as significant figures in gay culture for such songs as "Can You Forgive Her?", "It's A Sin", "New York City Boy" and their cover of The 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" remains a testament to the gay experience and the devastation wrought by the AIDS crisis; the song, and its supporting video filmed by Bruce Weber, remains one of the more 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 listeners perceives it, and this goes some way to explain why a larger majority of their die-hard fans are heterosexual.
Pet Shop Boys have performed and worked with many artists considered to be gay icons such as Elton John, Liza Minnelli, Dusty Springfield and Kylie Minogue. Pet Shop Boys attempted to organise and perform in a planned 2001 tour of out gay musicians, entitled Wotapalava. Unfortunately, the plans were put on hold and the idea seems to have been discarded.
Despite their widespread popularity with both the heterosexual and gay communities, Neil Tennant denied rumours of being gay in the 1980s until finally coming out shortly after the release of 1993's Very in Attitude, a UK gay lifestyle magazine.
Like frontman Tennant, Chris Lowe is also notoriously private about his personal life. There have been many rumours such as he was in a relationship with Pete Andreas, the Pet Shop Boys personal assistant who died of AIDS, but nothing has been confirmed by Chris Lowe himself.
Releases
:Main article: Pet Shop Boys discography
Albums by Pet Shop Boys include:
* Please (1986)
* Disco (1986)
* Actually (1987)
* Introspective (1988)
* In Depth (1988)
* Behaviour (1990)
* Discography: The complete singles collection (1991)
* Very (1993)
* Very Relentless (1993)
* Disco 2 (1994)
* Alternative (1995)
* Bilingual (1996)
* Originals (1997)
* Bilingual Special Edition (1997)
* Essential (1998)
* Nightlife (1999)
* Please/Further Listening 1984-1986 (2001)
* Actually/Further Listening 1987-1988 (2001)
* Introspective/Further Listening 1988-1989 (2001)
* Behaviour/Further Listening 1990-1991 (2001)
* Very/Further Listening 1992-1994 (2001)
* Bilingual/Further Listening 1995-1997 (2001)
* Closer to Heaven (2001)
* Release (2002)
* Disco 3 (2003)
* PopArt: The Hits (2003)
* Back to Mine: Pet Shop Boys (2005)
* Battleship Potemkin (2005)
* Fundamental (2006)
Other Ventures
*Pet Shop Boys are well known for their high profile collaborations with other artists. This began in 1987 with their duet with Dusty Springfield on "What Have I Done To Deserve This?". The duo later went on to produce half of her solo Reputation album, and the singles "In Private" and "Nothing Has Been Proved".
*Pet Shop Boys provided a song for Patsy Kensit's band Eighth Wonder in 1987. The song, "I'm Not Scared", became her biggest hit single and later Pet Shop Boys included their own version of the track on their Introspective album in 1988.
*In 1988, Pet Shop Boys and Jack Bond produced the film It Couldn't Happen Here. The feature film starred both Tennant and Lowe along with Barbara Windsor, Joss Ackland and Gareth Hunt.
*Following their hit single with Springfield, Pet Shop Boys were asked to write and produce an album for Liza Minnelli in 1989. The album, Results, also included the hit single "Losing My Mind", a cover version of the Stephen Sondheim song.
*Tennant and Lowe set up Spaghetti Records in the early 90s. Their most successful release was the soundtrack to the 1992 film "The Crying Game" which featured Boy George performing the title song. Other artists on the label included Scottish singer David Cicero, rap duo The Ignorants and Masterboy.
*Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe worked on Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr's first Electronic album. Tennant co-wrote, co-produced and provided vocals on three tracks: "Getting Away With It", "The Patience of a Saint", and "Disappointed". Chris Lowe also co-wrote and co-produced "The Patience of a Saint".
*In 1993, Chris Lowe wrote and produced the track "Do The Right Thing" for footballer Ian Wright. The song also featured backing vocals by long-time Pet Shop Boys backing singer Sylvia Mason-James and the single featured remixes by Rollo.
*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 Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, and it was suggested to release it as a charity single. The single was released under the artist name of "Absolutely Fabulous produced by Pet Shop Boys". It is widely considered as a Pet Shop Boys single and featured on the 2001 re-issue of their album Very, but it was excluded from the greatest hits album PopArt. The video to the single featured clips from the sitcom along with specially recorded footage of Tennant and Lowe with the characters of Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley).
*In 1994, Pet Shop Boys remixed the Blur single "Girls and Boys". It was a club hit throughout Europe and started a trend for Pet Shop Boys to remix other artists' music. Since 1994, Pet Shop Boys have remixed tracks for artists including David Bowie ("Hallo Spaceboy" in 1996), Fat Les ("Jerusalem" in 2000), Yoko Ono ("Walking on Thin Ice" in 2003), and Rammstein ("Mein Teil" in 2004).
*In 1998, Neil Tennant organised an album of Noel Coward songs, Twentieth Century Blues, with all proceeds going to an AIDS charity. The album included the 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 co-produced the Williams track and provided backing vocals for Elton John. Later that year, Tennant also provided backing vocals on Robbie Williams' "No Regrets" single along with Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy.
*Kylie Minogue duets with Neil Tennant on the Pet Shop Boys' song "In Denial" taken from the Nightlife album. The song, written for the Pet Shop Boys musical Closer to Heaven, is about a father (Neil Tennant) coming out to his daughter (Minogue). Kylie Minogue performed the track live during her 2005 Showgirl tour, singing to a pre-recorded Neil Tennant. This is not the first time that Pet Shop Boys have worked with Minogue. In 1994, the Pet Shop Boys wrote a song from 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 did not like the production sound of the Pet Shop Boys' demo, and asked Farley & Heller to produce the track.
*Pet Shop Boys collaborated with the playwright Jonathan Harvey to write their musical Closer to Heaven. The musical ran at the Arts Theatre in London in 2001 with financial backing from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group. Around the time of the London closure, Neil Tennant said that they were in talks to take to 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, but they were independent to Pet Shop Boys and Really Useful Group.
*Pet Shop Boys remixed Yoko Ono's "Walking On Thin Ice" in 2003. The re-issue of her single featured remixes by other high profile DJs, including Danny Tenaglia and Peter Rauhofer (who have both collaborated with Pet Shop Boys on previous releases).
*In 2003, the Pet Shop Boys' Spaghetti Records label was rebranded as two new labels: Olde English Vinyl and Lucky Kunst. The first release on Olde English Vinyl was Atomizer's "Hooked On Radiation", followed by Pete Burns's "Jack and Jill Party" in 2004. The only Lucky Kunst release to date is a cover of the Donna Summer track "Love to Love You Baby" which features the artist Sam Taylor-Wood (using the pseudonym Kiki Kokova) on vocals. This was not the first time that Pet Shop Boys had collaborated with Taylor-Wood - in 1998, they recorded a version of "Je t'aime... moi non plus", originally by Serge Gainsbourg.
*In September 2004, Pet Shop Boys appeared at a free concert in Trafalgar Square, London where they performed a new soundtrack to accompany the seminal 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin. More live performances were done in Germany in September 2005, and the soundtrack followed on September 5 2005.
*In 2005, the Pet Shop Boys were selected as the headline act for the Live 8 performances from Red Square, Moscow. They were received extremely well by the crowd in Moscow.
* Also in 2005, the Pet Shop Boys were asked to put together the 20th release to the Back to Mine series, an ongoing anthology showcasing artists' favorite personal music selections. The series has featured other well-known DJs and artists, such as Dave Seaman, Nick Warren, Danny Tenaglia, Orbital, Everything But The Girl, and New Order. When approached, the Pet Shop Boys told the Back to Mine crew that they would put together a compilation on one condition only: that they could each have their "own" CD (therefore making it a two CD set). This project allowed both Neil and Chris to express their own individualized musical influences: Neil opted for more artful, ambient, and orchestral ventures, where Chris chose Eighties-inspired retro-disco. After listening to both CDs, one can easily conclude how the Pet Shop Boys sound has come to be, and what makes it so unique to this day.
*Neil Tennant appeared as a guest vocalist on a track called "Tranquilizer" for Superchumbo's 2005 WowieZowie album. Tennant co-wrote the track with former lover Tom Stephan (a.k.a. Superchumbo). This is not the first time that Tom Stephan has worked with Pet Shop Boys. He co-wrote and co-produced the song "Screaming" which appeared on the soundtrack to Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake of Psycho. He has also remixed several songs including "New York City boy", "Paninaro '95 and "Sexy Northerner".
Trivia
*The actor Sir Ian McKellan appeared in the music video for "Heart" playing a vampire who steals Neil Tennant's wife. It was seen to be ironic since McKellan was a well-known gay figure at the time (he came out in the 1970s).
*Pet Shop Boys have a penchant for choosing one-word album titles - often amusing ones, when used in conjunction with the group's name. For example, when asking for a copy of their first album, Please, record-shop customers would sometimes have to say, "Can you help me find the new Pet Shop Boys album, Please?". It is said that because of this polite title, their first album was a big hit in Japan. The album titles are often meant to be part of a sentence, as in , "This is the Pet Shop Boys' Introspective album?"; "Do you have the new Pet Shop Boys Release?" or "This is the Pet Shop Boys' Disco album".
*Earlier this century, Neil Tennant ended debate over how to write the band's song titles. He claims that the definitive Pet Shop Boys style is to treat each song title like a sentence, thus only the first letter of definitive articles should be capitalised. For example: "What have I done to deserve this?" or "Yesterday, when I was mad". Some other amusing Pet Shop Boys "sentence-like" song titles are "The boy who couldn't keep his clothes on", "I don't know what you want but I can't give it any more", "How can you expect to be taken seriously?", and "You only tell me you love me when you're drunk".
*A defining element of Pet Shop Boys is their obsession with extended and remixed versions of their songs. As of 2005, they have been remixed by over 70 different DJs and producers. In many cases, Pet Shop Boys have used aspiring remixers who became well known later-they used Moby in 1991, Sasha in 1993, Trouser Enthusiasts in 1997, and Eric Prydz in 2003. Their roster of remixers also includes Brothers in Rhythm, David Morales, Frankie Knuckles, Rollo, Pink Noise, Basement Jaxx, Deep Dish, Blank and Jones, and Scissor Sisters. The vast array of Pet Shop Boys remixes have made them one of the most collectable bands in the world. Collectors relish the assortment of triple-vinyl limited editions, unique artwork sleeves, and multiple compact disc singles. One highly sought after item is a 1997 fan-club only release called "It doesn't often snow at Christmas", a CD single that is clear with a frosted snowflake on it that came in a Mylar bubble sleeve (and interestingly, this song is being included on a 2005 Elton John Christmas CD, sold exclusively at Starbucks Coffee shops in the United States). The only other artist who probably rivals the Pet Shop Boys in this remix/collector category is Depeche Mode.
*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 #4 most successful act on the US Dance/Club Play charts, behind only Madonna, Janet Jackson and Donna Summer.
*In 2005, a Swedish tribute band called West End Girls had a number 6 hit single in their home country with a cover version of "Domino dancing". An album is planned. Pet Shop Boys also have a UK-based tribute band in the form of Birmingham-based Pet Shop Noise who have been performing locally for many years.
*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 www.popjustice.co.uk with Stuart Price, who produced Madonna's album, admits the track "Jump" was a complete Chris Lowe inspiration. While recording the album with Madonna, she even blurted out at one point, "Pet Shop Boys! I f--king love them!"
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