Pet Shop Boys
62 articles
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Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 3 September 2004
Potemkin and the sound of a Pet Shop Boy ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, August 1988
Messrs. Tennant & Lowe discuss Thatcherite anti-gay legislation and pop politics; making movies; their fans; pop associates Depeche Mode, Morrissey and George Michael; singles, albums and the music business; being starstruck by Dusty Springfield, and dressing up!
File format: mp3; file size: 83.9mb, interview length: 1h 31' 35" sound quality: ***
Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant (1996)
Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages Audio, November 1996
Starting off with an hilarious account of how 'Go West' became a football chant, Neil Tennant goes into a treatise on British pop culture: the limitations of irony; the ideologies of the '80s against the triumphalist '90s; sexuality as cultural choice, and politics. He also looks back on his time at Smash Hits, and feeling beaten to it musically by New Order's 'Blue Monday'.
File format: mp3; file size: 56mb, interview length: 58' 17" sound quality: ***
List of articles in the library
Neil Tennant At The British Record Industry Awards
Report by Neil Tennant, Smash Hits, 28 February 1985
You saw Prince. You heard Frankie. You felt the warmth of Wham's sun tans. You watched the TV show but now read THE FULL STORY! ...
The Pet Shop Boys: An ex-Smash Hits Writer and the Grandson of a Nitwit
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Smash Hits, 18 December 1985
Doesn't sound like the ideal line-up for a successful pop duo, does it? But now that 'West End Girls' is whizzing up the charts that's ...
Pet Shop Boys: What Does It Take To Make These Men Happy?
Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 26 February 1986
A NUMBER ONE RECORD? GETTING ON THE COVER OF SMASH HITS? LOTS OF LOVELY MONEY? WELL, THEY'VE HAD ALL THAT AND THEY STILL LOOK LIKE ...
Pet Shop Boys: Please (Parlophone PS81)**
Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 29 March 1986
AUF WIEDERSEHEN PETS ...
Pet Shop Boys: Suburban Stardom
Essay by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 7 June 1986
England swings to the yawning sound of the suburbs, where Dynasty kids dream of escape and fortune. DON WATSON reflects on the hit and myth ...
Review by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 22 November 1986
THE ART of the re-mix was perhaps debased forever by the whole Frankie fleece-the-punter exercise. Re-mixes have subsequently come to be cold-shouldered to isolated corners ...
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, December 1986
LEAFING IDLY through the pages of last year's diary – recalling his early adventures in the wonterful world of pop – Neil Tennant arrives at... ...
Report by Jon Savage, The Observer, 15 February 1987
JON SAVAGE takes a sceptical look at the BPI Awards ...
Neil Tennant: Smash Hits Editor For A Day!?
Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 25 February 1987
Oh no! What to do? The Editor had flounced off to some so-called "conference", with half an issue of Britain's Brightest Pop Magazine still to ...
Take: 1 Wasteland, 2 Pet Shop Boys, 7 Deadly Sins, 15 Monks
Report and Interview by William Shaw, Smash Hits, 1 July 1987
...and what have you got? "Beats me," says William Shaw, "but I hope they don't eat all of that vegetable crumble." ...
Pet Shop Boys: Actually (Parlophone)
Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 5 September 1987
ACTUALLY BRILLIANT ...
Pet Shop Boys: Cheeseburgers, Carrot Cake and Coffee (yum!?)
Report and Interview by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 27 March 1988
That's the rather odd "combination" that the Pet Shop Boys seek out when they have some time to "kill" in New York. "I'll have some ...
Outsiderdom: The Pet Shop Boys
Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, August 1988
The Pet Shop Boys have played live once, never toured and only grudgingly socialize with the pop fraternity. They've stoutly refused to take the conventional ...
Phil Harding and Ian Curnow: Production Lines
Interview by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 4 February 1989
PAUL MATHUR TALKS TO PHIL HARDING AND IAN CURNOW, KEYWORKERS IN THE SAW HIT FACTORY ...
The Pet Shop Boys: NEC Arena, Birmingham
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 17 July 1989
All good guilty fun. Adam Sweeting watches the Pet Shop Boys come to life ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 August 1989
"My whole life I've sung songs that were written before I was born." But no longer. Liza Minnelli, Oscar-winning superstar, talks to Adam Sweeting about ...
Review by Terry Staunton, New Musical Express, 14 October 1989
THE LAST time Ms Minnelli did anything of note was at the start of the decade. Her portrayal of shoplifting Linda, the object of Dudley ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 June 1990
Adam Sweeting speaks to the '60s icon who has risen from pop's graveyard to breathe new life into the charts. ...
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, November 1990
DURING LAST YEAR'S concerts, Pet Shop Boys reserved a moment amidst the costumes and the dancing for an intimate spell at the piano with Neil ...
Pet Shop Boys: Behaviour (Parlophone)
Review by Betty Page, Vox, November 1990
THE VEXED QUESTION is: what do we expect of The Pet Shop Boys? We expect, perhaps, in no particular order: excellent tunes, impossible-to-forget hooks; wry ...
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, December 1990
OCCASIONALLY, WHEN they feel like it, the Pet Shop Boys take great delight and perverse pride in portraying themselves as the most preposterously pretentious pop ...
Pet Shop Boys: Orpheum Theater, Boston MA
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 13 April 1991
Bright and bold Pet Shop Boys ...
Pet Shop Boys: Radio City Music Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 30 May 1991
UNLESS ELVIS Presley reappears in Las Vegas, the curiosity and expectations that preceded the Pet Shop Boys' first American tour are unlikely to be equaled ...
Pet Shop Boys: Opera House, Blackpool
Live Review by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 8 June 1991
"WELL, MY mother would agree with you," says Neil Tennant after. "She doesn't like the first half either." ...
Pet Shop Boys: Winter Gardens, Blackpool
Live Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 8 June 1991
TENNANT'S EXTRA ...
Live Review by David Quantick, New Musical Express, 2 November 1991
"WE'VE PLAYED 17 times," beams Neil Tennant, "and this is the first time the computers have gone down." While programmers rush round looking under lids, ...
Review by Andy Gill, Q, December 1991
THANKS TO INNOVATORS LIKE Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire and the Human League, alongside the huge leaps made in drum-machine technology by the Roland corporation, musicians finally ...
Pet Shop Boys: Oh Mister Songwriters!
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, January 1992
What is it like, that magical moment when the creative juices start to flow? Is it one glorious spurt? Or merely a dutiful grind? The ...
Hate: Neil Tennant on the Power of Negative Thinking
Comment by Neil Tennant, Select, October 1992
IF NOT FOR hatred, I wouldn't be doing what I do now. I became a pop star because I hated football at school. I hated ...
Overview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 22 May 1993
From The Kinks to Carter, Bowie to Blur, the Small Faces to Suede, British pop groups have eulogised, mythologised, criticised, glamorised, immortalised, romanticised and agonised ...
The Smiths You Can Dunce To: Pet Shop Boys
Interview by Terry Staunton, New Musical Express, 29 May 1993
WELL, HONESTLY! They're like an old married couple at times: Neil Tennant will poke fun at Chris Lowe, and Chris will get mildly stroppy in ...
MTV Launches in Russia - and the PSBs Cut the Ribbon!
Report and Interview by Dave Rimmer, The Guardian, June 1993
2002 NOTE: This piece about the launching of MTV Russia was published by the Guardian in London, by Tip magazine in Berlin, and by the ...
Pet Shop Boys: Very (Parlophone)
Review by Mat Snow, Q, November 1993
NEXT YEAR Neil Tennant celebrates both his 40th birthday and the tenth anniversary of the first Pet Shop Boys record, 'West End Girls'. Chances are ...
Pet Shop Boys: Very (Parlophone)
Review by Stephen Dalton, Vox, November 1993
A BANG, a crash, a highbrow cultural reference – and the best Pet Shop Boys album yet drops in for cream tea and scurrilous gossip. ...
Pet Shop Boys: Very and Relentless
Review by Stuart Maconie, Select, November 1993
WAY BACK WHEN, a sneering critic once challenged the writer F Scott Fitzgerald to write a novel in six words. Fitzgerald went away and came ...
Pet Shop Boys: An Attitude Thing
Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 20 April 1996
THERE IS NO MORE embarrassing chapter in the big book of Pop Interview Ritual than the one in which you're forced to listen to music ...
Pet Shop Boys: Bilingual (Parlophone CDP CFD 170)
Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, October 1996
HumanPet Shop Boys: proving there is life beyond irony ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rolling Stone, 31 October 1996
PET SHOP BOYS have become an institution. The quintessential '80s act, Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant have stuck to their guns and refused to defer ...
Neil Tennant, Brett Anderson and Vic Reeves: Twentieth Century Blues
Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, April 1997
WHAT A SIMPLY spiffing party. The glint of expensive a jewellery, the waft of exotic perfume, the tinkle of erudite conversation "More cocaine, vicar? Help ...
Pet Shop Boys: Savoy Theatre, London
Live Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, August 1997
Exuberant! Pet Shop Boys goosing the good folk of Evita-land ...
Pet Shop Boys: Savoy Theatre, London
Live Review by Paul Morley, Uncut, September 1997
Neil Tennant: vaudevillian existentialist? ...
Basement Jaxx, Pet Shop Boys et al: Creamfields, Old Liverpool Airfield
Live Review by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 4 September 1999
THE SCOUSE THAT JAXX THRILLED ...
Interview by David Bennun, The Observer, 3 October 1999
AS REGENCY drawing rooms go, this one is on the largish side but, at first sight, perfectly ordinary. ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, July 2001
First six studio albums plus Tennant's extra ...
Pet Shop Boys: Release (Parlophone)***
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, May 2002
ON THEIR seventh album proper, PSBs go songful at home with Johnny Marr. ...
Jewel in the Crown: Pet Shop Boys
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 14 July 2006
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 ...
Review by Alfred Soto, Stylus, 28 July 2006
PREPARE FOR ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME interment when critics praise your latest release as Your Best Album Since. When you've recorded a benchmark, ...
Interview by j. poet, San Francisco Chronicle, 5 November 2006
THE PET SHOP Boys – singer/lyricist Neil Tennant and keyboard player/composer Chris Lowe – are renowned for their intelligent songwriting. ...
Interview by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 25 May 2007
THE PET SHOP Boys have been one of the most successful pop duos ever produced in this country. Twenty-one years into their career Chris Lowe ...
Pop Into Art: Post-Punk Aesthetics Revisited
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, May 2008
"Girls, Boys, Art, Pleasure"– Chris Lowe, Pet Shop Boys, 'Paninaro 95' ...
Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, March 2009
WHILE THE unexpectedly sharp return-to-form of last album, 2006's Fundamental, confirmed that the Pet Shop Boys should never be discounted, it's been more than a ...
Review by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 26 March 2009
NEARLY 30 YEARS ON, the Gilbert and George of pop are still charmers. Like two Planet Pop missionaries sent to cheer us up in the ...
Pet Shop Boys: Animal Instinct
Interview by Luke Turner, The Stool Pigeon, May 2009
Pet Shops Boys done good these last three decades, and they're still playing cat-and-mouse with expectation. ...
Latitude Festival Review: The Quietus Gets Saucy In Southwold
Live Review by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 24 July 2009
The Quietus bored by Yorke but tentage to Grace Jones, Pet Shop Boys and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds at the driest wet festival ...
Pet Shop Boys/Bad Lieutenant: NIA, Birmingham
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, December 2009
FIRST SEEN in Britain six months ago, the Pandemonium world tour feels even more dazzling second time around. Even though every pre-programmed note and choreographed ...
Review by Mike Diver, bbc.co.uk, February 2010
ANYONE WHO caught the Pet Shop Boys touring their superb Yes album – BBC Music's number one Pop & Chart album of 2009 – last ...
Neil Tennant: "Twitter Is Sickly"
Interview by Jude Rogers, The Word, January 2011
Social-network agnostic, high-church robe-fancier; supreme pop strategist — Neil Tennant casts a weather eye over the wind-lashed landscape of learning. ...
Pet Shop Boys on The Most Incredible Thing
Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, Daily Telegraph, 17 February 2011
The Pet Shop Boys have joined forces with Sadler's Wells on The Most Incredible Thing, a ballet based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. ...
Pet Shop Boys: Format 1995-2009
Review by Jude Rogers, The Word, March 2012
Pet Shop Boys' later B-sides — now compiled into a titillating album — offer an alternative narrative to the last two decades. ...
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