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Pet Shop Boys
Musical history
Formation and early years (19811984)
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met in an electronics shop on Kings Road in Chelsea, London in August 1981. Recognising a mutual interest in dance music, they began to work on material together, first 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".
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, which derived from some friends who worked in a pet shop, in Ealing. They said that the new name "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, simply 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 19 August (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. On 2 November it was voted "Screamer of the Week" by listeners of Long Island, New York radio station WLIR. Though the track did not do well in the UK, it was a minor hit in France and Belgium.
Signing with Parlophone: the debut album Please and the remix album Disco (19841986)
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 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", later resurfaced, in a longer remixed version, as the opening track to the duo's first remix album, Disco, in 1986. This version was also 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 the top spot. It was subsequently Number One in the USA, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, 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 24 February 1986. The single reached number 19 in the UK Singles Chart and was followed by their debut album, Please, on 24 March. 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, which Neil Tennant has since stated is now a Pet Shop Boys "signature thing", akin to e.e. cummings' use of exclusively lower case letters. New versions of second single "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" and album track "Suburbia" were also released in 1986, followed by a remix album, Disco, in November.
"Imperial phase" with Actually, the four UK Number 1s and the movie It Couldn't Happen Here (19871988)
1987 started with Pet Shop Boys receiving both BRIT Awards and Ivor Novello Awards for "West End Girls". Later, on 15 June, 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 10 August. Co-written with Allee Willis and also featuring Dusty Springfield on vocals, the single reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Although the duo had wanted to release this track on their debut album already, they had 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 1987, 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 then forthcoming second album Actually, the song became a massive worldwide hit and resurrected Springfield's career, leading to her 1990 album, Reputation, on which Pet Shop Boys were major contributing producers. This duet was also the start of a series of collaborations with high profile musicians, going on 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. Curiously enough, their Presley cover would later be re-released in a 12" version, consisting of a medley, along with an acid house track by the duo, entitled "In My House". This extended version, consistently called "Always on My Mind"/"In My House", would later be included on Pet Shop Boys' 1988 album, Introspective, with the 12" medley attached to the vinyl edition of their Actually album and only marketed in the United States in such double release. 7 September 1987 indeed 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 would not 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 30 November; 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 extended version of the track on their Introspective mini-album. 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. This single version would be included in their first greatest hits album, Discography: The Complete Singles Collection, whereas the album version would be used for their second retrospective, the double Pop Art: Pet Shop Boys - The Hits. 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 fictitious wife. It was seen to be extremely ironic, since McKellen was a well-known gay figure at the time (he came out in the 1988)[citation needed].
Introspective, Behaviour, the Performance tour, Discography, and "The Crying Game" (19881992)
In the 1996 BBC Radio 1 documentary About Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant noted that their "Imperial Phase" ended in 1988. On 12 September 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 Singles Chart. He felt that their major success was now over and that it was going to be a challenge to remain successful going forward.
The duo's third studio album, Introspective, was released on October 10, 1988(1988-10-10). This was in fact a 6-track mini-album and was followed by the Trevor Horn-produced Top-5 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 ever, in which they performed in Hong Kong, Japan, and Britain. The tour followed the ideas of the extravaganza that could not have been afforded earlier in their careers. Derek Jarman returned to direct the performance and he provided several films that were projected during the shows.
On 24 September 1990, a new single, "So Hard", was released, reaching #4 in the UK and Pet Shop Boys' fourth studio album followed, on 22 October 1990. Entitled Behaviour, it was recorded in Munich, with producer Harold Faltermeyer. The album was never intended to be a dramatic change in mood to their earlier albums; However, it is noticeably subdued. It included the fan-favourite "Being Boring", the second single from the album, which, despite being a fan favorite, only reached #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, who had previously been marketing director at Polydor.
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 double a-sided single, with a remix of the album track, "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" by Brothers In Rhythm. This was followed by the duo's first world tour. Named Performance, the tour kicked off in Tokyo, on 11 March 1991. 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 House. Before taking a break in 1992, Pet Shop Boys released, in 1991, an 18-track compilation commonly referred to as Discography, which included all of their single releases up to then, two new singles, "DJ Culture" and "Was It Worth It?", and only omitted "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" (although it did appear on the video companion called Videography). While "DJ Culture" had a fair success, "Was it Worth It? became the duo's very first single to miss the UK Top 20 since their two Bobby 'O' debut singles.
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, generated four singles, including the hit single "Losing My Mind", a cover version of the Stephen Sondheim song. The duo's own version of this appeared on their "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 himself, was released on 4 December 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 Cicero, The Ignorants, and Masterboy.
The Very era: Very, "Absolutely Fabulous," Disco 2 and the Alternative B-sides album (19931995)
In June 1993, Pet Shop Boys infamously re-invented their image and 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 on the UK Singles Chart, while its iconic music video featured 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, often considered as their signature song, 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 27 September and is the only Pet Shop Boys album to ever 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 OMD, 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, which was composed of six all new heavy dance tracks, with a darker tone to the perky Very.
In 1994, Pet Shop Boys offered to remix fellow Parlophone act 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. Also 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' too. Tennant and Lowe do not consider it as a Pet Shop Boys' single release and it was not included on any of their next best-of album. 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 12 September 1994, 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 and Behaviour, in a continuous megamix by Danny Rampling. Then, in October, Pet Shop Boys began their Discovery tour, which would see them visit areas that they had 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", i.e. "Paninaro", was released to promote 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 Closer to Heaven (19962001)
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 19 February 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 (That's The Way Life Is)", a Latin American music-inspired track, featuring a drum sample from a track called "Estrada da paixo" 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 son
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