Jewel in the Crown: Pet Shop Boys

ON A BALMY summer's evening, the grounds of the Tower of London shudder to the art-disco thunder of the Pet Shop Boys' 1988 hit 'Left to My Own Devices'. In an empty hospitality tent some distance from the speakers, the two men who wrote it look up abruptly. The soundcheck has started without them. "That's noisy," tuts Chris Lowe, almost unrecognisable without his familiar public accessories of sunglasses, baseball cap and scowl. "What about the ravens? If they leave thanks to us, it's all over, isn't it?"