"SUPER" le nouvel album des Pet Shop Boys

CD PROMO

Le visuel de SUPER à l'air de rendre mieux imprimé sur papier que sur les pages du web

Pascal a écrit:

CD PROMO

haaa ce sent la fuite ... bientot

*** SPOILERS! ***

Première critique de l'album par Norman Fleischer (celui qui a posté les photos du promo de SUPER)

- Quick opinion: #Super is a solid new @petshopboys LP with a few heights and lows. Would love more actual songs and less club tunes ft. Neil
- It's pretty much Electric pt. 2 with a few new aspects. Second half way better than the first one
- It shares the same club sound foundation (than "Electric") but Price allowed the boys to be a bit 'more PSB' this time ;-)
- Its a mix of both ("The Pop Kids" and "Inner Sanctum") I must say. They turned down the trancy EDM vibe and went a bit more 'house'. Need to listen again I think
- A lot of them sound just like club tunes with Neil vocal feature on it. Should do more actual songs next time...
- They should have named it 'Up' or 'Uplifting' due to its high energy vibe.
- IMO #PopKids is one of the better ones (tracks) on it. Still, Undertow and Dictator Decides will hopefully please every PSB fan
- Maybe '20-something' or the closing track (maybe it sounds a bit Reggaeton). Rest is pretty much f2dafloor. Only one ballad
- Haha. No cowbell noticed yet but Dictator Decides got a certain 'I'm not scared' vibe and 'Burn' is also quite 80s.
- 'Undertow' is the most obvious hit and should be a single. 'Burn' and 'say it to me' could also work. Its 2016 tho ;-)

No surprises for me, I think they know this album is going to be too much oriented to the electronic music and club tunes. A bit difficult to be listened for general public like "Elysium" was in some terms. So, that's why the next year they are going to relase a more pop oriented album. The thing is I think they are going to put many B-sides songs on this album (instrumental and things like that) and probably the best ones are going to be on the next album (more pop oriented).


Pour traduire en gros, l'album aurait pu s'appeler UP vu la qualité "high energy" de l'album. On est bien dans la continuité de ELECTRIC mais avec des titres plus PSB et un son plus house. D'après lui, le tout sonne comme des titres de club avec Neil en featuring. "The Pop Kids" est l'un des meilleurs titres avec "Undertow" (un futur single) et "Dictaror Decides"qui ressemblerait à "I'm not Scared" et "Burn" qui sonnerait très 80's. Il n'y aurait qu'une ballade. Toujours selon lui, un album plus pop devrait suivre l'an prochain (le fameux troisième de la trilogie).

Va bientôt falloir créer un topic "SPOILERS" pour ceux qui ne veulent pas être influencés avant l'écoute
L'avantage est que les oreilles de chacun d'entre nous écouteront autre chose que les siennes. Undertow sera peut-être la plus pourrie de l'album

Tu as raison Fanta, je vais mettre une alerte SPOILERS et pour sa critique, oui c'est toujours subjectif, après c'est toujours bien pour les curieux de glaner quelques infos

ça me rend encore plus impatient, c'est malin !

giac the lad a écrit:

*** SPOILERS! ***

Première critique de l'album par Norman Fleischer (celui qui a posté les photos du promo de SUPER)

- Quick opinion: #Super is a solid new @petshopboys LP with a few heights and lows. Would love more actual songs and less club tunes ft. Neil
- It's pretty much Electric pt. 2 with a few new aspects. Second half way better than the first one
- It shares the same club sound foundation (than "Electric") but Price allowed the boys to be a bit 'more PSB' this time ;-)
- Its a mix of both ("The Pop Kids" and "Inner Sanctum") I must say. They turned down the trancy EDM vibe and went a bit more 'house'. Need to listen again I think
- A lot of them sound just like club tunes with Neil vocal feature on it. Should do more actual songs next time...
- They should have named it 'Up' or 'Uplifting' due to its high energy vibe.
- IMO #PopKids is one of the better ones (tracks) on it. Still, Undertow and Dictator Decides will hopefully please every PSB fan
- Maybe '20-something' or the closing track (maybe it sounds a bit Reggaeton). Rest is pretty much f2dafloor. Only one ballad
- Haha. No cowbell noticed yet but Dictator Decides got a certain 'I'm not scared' vibe and 'Burn' is also quite 80s.
- 'Undertow' is the most obvious hit and should be a single. 'Burn' and 'say it to me' could also work. Its 2016 tho ;-)

No surprises for me, I think they know this album is going to be too much oriented to the electronic music and club tunes. A bit difficult to be listened for general public like "Elysium" was in some terms. So, that's why the next year they are going to relase a more pop oriented album. The thing is I think they are going to put many B-sides songs on this album (instrumental and things like that) and probably the best ones are going to be on the next album (more pop oriented).


Pour traduire en gros, l'album aurait pu s'appeler UP vu la qualité "high energy" de l'album. On est bien dans la continuité de ELECTRIC mais avec des titres plus PSB et un son plus house. D'après lui, le tout sonne comme des titres de club avec Neil en featuring. "The Pop Kids" est l'un des meilleurs titres avec "Undertow" (un futur single) et "Dictaror Decides"qui ressemblerait à "I'm not Scared" et "Burn" qui sonnerait très 80's. Il n'y aurait qu'une ballade. Toujours selon lui, un album plus pop devrait suivre l'an prochain (le fameux troisième de la trilogie).

    Que de bonne nouvelle je sent un album de ouf vivement le 1 avril !

Donc en gros un album pas terrible, et undertow est le super titre.

Ce qui me fait peur c'est lorsqu'il dit que pop kids est un des meilleurs titre de l'album

C'est très vague ce qu'il dit. La première partie est plus faible que la deuxième, et pourtant tpk est le meilleur titre. Il dit aussi que c'est un album solide et il regrette que la plupart des chansons soit des titres clubs avec la voix de Neil.

fabricepsb a écrit:

Ce qui me fait peur c'est lorsqu'il dit que pop kids est un des meilleurs titre de l'album

Pareil mais je pense (et espère) que ce ne sera pas le cas.

fabricepsb a écrit:

Ce qui me fait peur c'est lorsqu'il dit que pop kids est un des meilleurs titre de l'album

C'est me meilleur titre de l'album pour lui ... si l'on demande à chaque fan, quel est le meilleur titre de chaque album pour lui, on aura des avis très différents ... Surtout au moment où un album sort. Après avec le recul, les choix peuvent aussi se modifier.

C'est moi où Neil parle de faire de la promo en France, Espagne, Allemagne... ?

Oui exact, ça m'a fait tilter aussi

Fantaroux a écrit:

fabricepsb a écrit:

Ce qui me fait peur c'est lorsqu'il dit que pop kids est un des meilleurs titre de l'album

Pareil mais je pense (et espère) que ce ne sera pas le cas.

idem que vous car pour un lead-single ben ca me parait pas très puissant tout ça.

Ce rond rose de "Super" me fait penser au CD de "Fundamental".

Bien vu, je n'y ai même pas pensé une seconde.

Donc d'après la critique que j'ai étudié, il ne faut pas s'attendre à un super album surtout quand il annonce que pour lui "The pop Kids" est le meilleur titre de l'album, ca ça me fait un peu peur, j'avoue...

Ne me basant jamais sur l'avis des critiques, j'attends avec impatience de l'entendre en entier pour me faire ma propre opinion !

Il n'as pas l'air très convaincu en effet.

Les psb sont en couverture du magasine attitude. Superbes photos.

J'adooore! I want a dog!

Pets Win Prizes
This month the UK’s most successful musical duo of all time celebrate 30 years since the release of their first album with a brand new single and new album. Matthew Todd speaks to Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, the Pet Shop Boys

Neil wears jacket by Philipp Plein, polo neck top by Rick Owens, jeans by Acne, boots by Christian Louboutin Chris wears jacket by Adidas, polo neck top by Topman, sunglasses, jeans, boots, hat all Chris’ own
PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSEPH SINCLAIR

Neil wears jacket by Acne, polo top by Rick Owens, jeans by Acne
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are in a very ‘up’ mood. They are back with a brand new album, Super, their 13th and the first since their widely seen as a return to form – and the dancefloor – 2013 effort Electric, recorded with recent live collaborator Stuart Price of Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor fame. Like that record, Super is bangier, dancier, more electronic, more like what you really loved about the Pet Shop Boys in the first place. The day after our shoot the first single goes to radio. ‘The Pop Kids’ is about a young guy and girl who move to London to be part of the music scene and spend their lives ‘quoting the best bits’. The internet loves it. “It’s my life,” says one breathy Tweeter. And so it is. The Pet Shop Boys are not just a band for gay people – it might be hard to have had 42 UK top thirty singles and four UK numbers ones if they were – but there is a very specific gay sensibility and narrative in their work which comes simply from Neil Tennant expressing his life experience and with Chris Lowe’s club-driven sound.
In the north London studio we are shooting in today, various assistants bring in familiar looking outfits – caps for Chris, long coats for Neil, the sort of shiny things one associates with the quirkiest duo in pop, not to mention the most successful. 2016 marks 30 years since ‘West End Girls’ hit number one around the world and their first album, Please, was released. 50 million records later, the Pet Shop Boys are still relentless. Understandably so. Driven, so it seems, by the sheer undiluted joy of making pop music.
How does it feel to be 30?
NEIL: 30 years since the first album? It’s something you don’t give that much thought to but 30 years is a long period of time. It just doesn’t seem that long because it’s been continuous ever since and before that actually, making records and videos. We didn’t start touring properly until 1999.
You didn’t tour for a very long time…
NEIL: Now we tour all the time. We were always interested in doing the theatrical tour thing. We booked a tour in 1986 and then we saw the figures and realised we couldn’t afford to do it. We booked the same tour the next year, we still couldn’t afford to do it. Then, in 1991, we finally did that tour. Before that we did a short tour directed by Derek Jarman. We’ve really followed that sort of ethos of presenting a show ever since; working with directors and designers. That used to be very unusual, but now it’s become commonplace really.
The new album is very modern but the single ‘The Pop Kids’ has a 90s sound to it which reminded me of some of your early records.
NEIL: There’s a similarity to our first couple of albums in that there’s more space in the music. When we made the album Fundamental with Trevor Horn, every track’s got an orchestra on it. There’s not a lot of space as there’s an orchestra chugging away whereas this breathes more.
CHRIS: This one is very electronic with no real instruments.
You’ve been doing this a long time. Do you clash with producers?
NEIL: It’s a good idea at the beginning of the album process to decide what the album is. For this we had 25 songs. Our producer Stuart [Price] came to our studio in London and we played through all these 25 songs and decided what approach we wanted to follow on from the last album Electric, which was very electronic and quite up and tuneful and melodic but not too poppy. We have some poppy pop songs that are actually pretty good but we decided to use them later and not on this album.
CHRIS: Also, when you’re working with Stuart you know you can do some tracks which are more instrumental. You don’t need to worry about traditional song structure so you can be a lot freer. So for instance, ‘Inner Sanctum’ just has one bit of vocal; it doesn’t need anything more.
NEIL: There’s nothing else to say, either. (Both laugh).
CHRIS: It’s quite nice. It gives the whole album space to...
NEIL: Breathe a bit so there’s this place where there’s not a ton of lyrics. So a song like ‘The Dictator’ has got a lot of lyrics which is followed by ‘Pazzo’ which is just the lyric ‘You’re crazy’.

Chris and Neil photographed in New York in 1985
[To Chris] You’re the clubbier of the two. Do you get really excited when you work with someone like Stuart Price?
CHRIS: It’s very exciting working with Stuart for that reason, because he also likes to string an element of euphoria into the music: huge drum fills and moments of ecstasy. We have very similar taste when it comes to dance music. It’s very exciting when you get those moments in the studio and you imagine what it might look like in a club.
NEIL: The two songs we took out – one’s a bonus song for the album, the other is a B-side – one of them is called ‘In Bits’ and the other one’s called ‘The Lost Room’, and they’re both quite dark songs. We have actually written an incredibly dark album which could yet be made with all these extremely dark songs about what’s happening in the world and also, musically quite heavy. We actually compiled a list the other week.
CHRIS: We might bring out ‘Duper’ next…
NEIL: Super Duper!
CHRIS: …the companion piece. (Laughs)
NEIL: That’s a great idea! It happened during your interview!

Pandemonium Tour at the O2 Arena
The song ‘Happiness’ begins the album. But the lyrics almost imply you’re not happy.
NEIL: I think that sort of sets up the atmosphere of happiness but, as ever, with the Pet Shop Boys you’re not totally convinced it’s going to be happy. ‘It’s a long way to happiness’ is quite a sad idea, isn’t it?
Is that lyric from you in the first person?
NEIL: It’s quite interesting because in theory I’m not being me, it’s my subconscious talking. We were doing another track, discussing the chord change and I had a mental image of Leo Sayer in dungarees with a perm singing ‘It’s a long way to happiness, a long way to go, and I’m gonna get there the only way I know’. Again, it was one of those songs that didn’t really need to say anything else. We quite liked the idea that it was like someone had sampled it from an old record.
I really loved ‘Twenty Something’. It reminded me of ‘Opportunities’ a bit.
NEIL: It’s about London and Soho specifically, maybe. A decadent city in a time of greed: the bankers and their bonuses. I know from friends it’s tougher for twenty something’s than it was when I was twenty something. Career wise, I mean. When I was that age you could just walk into a job. I had a job within 10 days of finishing my degree. Nowadays it’s more difficult. It used to be much easier to get a flat. It’s observational of a twenty something guy in London. Sort of about money like ‘Opportunities’ is.
Where did the political narrative in your work come from?
NEIL: Before I met Chris I used to write songs on my guitar, they were very singer/songwriter. They were quite political.
CHRIS: You can always go back to that. It’s the right era for you. (Laughs)
NEIL: Then Chris said can’t you make them sexier? So then there was a change, but still an element of observational attitude. A lot of this album is like a lot of Pet Shop Boys albums; a sort of picture of the modern world. Even quite by accident there’s a whole track about Volkswagen called ‘Sad Robot World’. We did a presentation at the Frankfurt motor show and got a tour of the factory. It’s so clean. Robots are washing cars. There was something about it that was balletic; it had a sense of melancholy. I said “It’s a sad robot world, isn’t it?” and I wrote that phrase down and we turned it into a song. Volkswagen wanted us to do something with them but it didn’t happen.
Probably a good thing now. [After the VW emissions scandal]
CHRIS: Yes, we wouldn’t want that association. (Both laugh)
How does it feel to look back at having such phenomenal success and to know you’re still making interesting music?
NEIL: I think it requires a very strong focus. It sometimes feels like a bit of a struggle. Like you’re swimming against the tide. When you’ve been around for a long time there’s a sort of cynicism from the public about you. They assume you can’t be any good anymore. On Elysium we wrote the song ‘Your Early Stuff’. I had it this morning, from a taxi driver. He said “What you doing these days?” I thought we’re having an ‘early stuff moment’. I said “We’ve got a new album coming out.” He said “Who’s that with then? You and another band?” I said “It’s just us. We’re doing the cover of a magazine, actually.”
“What, just you” he said.
CHRIS: No, with a load of dogs! (laughs)
NEIL: People feel you have to justify yourself that you haven’t retired or become a greatest hits show. You also appreciate the cynicism of people thinking do they still have anything to offer. We, of course, think we do and I hope this album proves that.
“PEOPLE FEEL YOU HAVE TO JUSTIFY YOURSELF, THAT YOU HAVEN’T RETIRED OR BECOME A GREATEST HITS SHOW”
What would your younger self have thought about everything that’s happened over the last 30 years?
NEIL: Our priority has always been the songwriting and then making the records. When you first have success it feels so incredible, you can’t believe you have it. Then you don’t think it’s going to last. With ‘West End Girls’ we were potentially a classic one hit wonder. Even the record company thought so. If you’d said to us in 30 years’ time you’ll have performed at the Olympics, headlined Glastonbury in your fifties… At the same time, we never really look back that much unless we’re choosing songs for tour. We never really look forward that much either. What are we doing the year after next? No idea.
CHRIS: They keep raising the retirement age though, don’t they? We’re never going to get to it, are we?
NEIL: I think there’s a feeling of pride to have created something that at the very least has a sort of intense following from a certain number of people.
It was January ‘86 when ‘West End Girls’ went to number one but I read that you felt that ‘Domino Dancing’, which was only two years later, marked the end of what you call your ‘imperial’ hyper-successful phase.
NEIL: It was because when we made ‘Domino Dancing’ and ‘Left to My Own Devices’ there was a general presumption that both would be number one records. We’d just had ‘Heart’ and ‘Always On My Mind’. Both ‘Domino Dancing’ and ‘Left to My Own Devices’ were very strong songs but it was a change of musical style, very Latin; we made it in Miami. They were both quite big hits but you felt that suddenly it wasn’t a given that we would go straight into the top three and I just knew, from my Smash Hits years, it was just a different level. Most artists wouldn’t think about it. I don’t know if Chris was thinking about it.
CHRIS: It’s all over. We’re finished.
NEIL: Time to become an architect. We just carried on regardless, as we’ve been doing ever since.
[To Chris] Were you enjoying it at the time?
CHRIS: Enjoying what?
Being a popstar.
CHRIS: I’ve never enjoyed it. I’m not enjoying it now. (Neil laughs loudly).
You seemed to suddenly enjoy it much more.
CHRIS: When did that happen? Let me know.… Yeah, it’s alright sometimes.
It’s easier for you because you can walk down the street without people noticing you.
CHRIS: Neil can walk down the street.
NEIL: I don’t think I really look like me.
CHRIS: That’s because of the amount of retouching. (Laughs)

Chris wears jacket by McQ, polo top by Topman, sunglasses, boots and hat all Chris’ own
NEIL: Exactly. I get slightly offended when people think I’m me. I think ‘No, he’s much better looking than me’. I operate as if no one knows who I am. I get the tube everywhere. I didn’t for many years but the traffic’s so awful in London. I either walk or get the tube. At night I get a taxi. I don’t think about it. We are both great walkers. If we go out in London, we’ll say ‘bye’ and he’ll walk east and I’ll walk west. I like to see what’s happening. Some people want to lose touch. We’ve always liked to be in touch with what’s going on.
When ‘It’s A Sin’ came out in ‘87, it was an incredibly homophobic time. Was it influenced or a comment on that in any way?
NEIL: The song was written in 1983. It came out of my subconscious, my schooling, going to a Catholic grammar school. When you start thinking about sex, you’re told that it’s a terrible sin. Everything you want to do is a sin. It’s about adolescence really. So, 1987… it wasn’t as homophobic as 1988 with Section 28.
It felt like it was leading up to that time though. Vicious and nasty.
NEIL: Was that partly because of AIDS? I don’t know.
The press were constantly attacking gay people.
NEIL: You mean tabloids? Maybe you mean The Sun, which was a very entertaining paper but you felt it was a sort of base level homophobia, if only in an ‘oo-err missus’ sort of way, and maybe a sort of racism. But it was more like that in the 70s, I think. It’s probably unfair to The Sun, more like the Daily Express and Daily Mail. It’s astonishing how things have changed. There’s no two ways about that.
You famously came out in Attitude.
NEIL: Typically, being me I did that not for any personal reasons, but because I thought it was a good magazine; different from other gay magazines. The gay press of the 1970s was specifically political, which is the scene Peter Tatchell came out of. When Attitude started I thought this is a good magazine; a style magazine with gay political content. So, when doing that interview it seemed churlish not to say something. It wasn’t a masterplan. I just thought I’d have to say it as it was about time. I felt self-conscious like I was trying to make a profound statement.
Very, the album you had out that year, was perceived as a very gay album with ‘Can You Forgive Her’, ‘To Speak is a Sin’, ‘Liberation’, ‘Young Offender’, ‘Go West’…
NEIL: Yes, it was. ‘To Speak is a Sin’ we wrote in 1983 when we used to go to the dive bar [mentioned in ‘West End Girls’] which was on the corner of Gerard St and is now a…
CHRIS: Chinese restaurant.
NEIL: It was a gay bar. You don’t get bars like that anymore, which we always used to quite like, where it’s not cool. They’d be playing Shirley Bassey or Amanda Lear or the soundtrack of My Fair Lady. Someone there did cartoons of ‘gay icons’ and there’d be lots of guys sitting there not really saying very much. There’d be one or two art student types, you know.
“IF ALL YOU’VE EVER WANTED TO DO WAS WRITE SONGS… THEN THIS IS FANTASTIC”

Neil wears polo top and coat both by Rick Owens Chris wears jacket by Adidas, polo neck top by Topman, sunglasses, jeans, boots, hat Chris’ own
CHRIS: Then it became really trendy and then it closed. We took that actor there once – that actor…
NEIL: Terribly famous film actor…
CHRIS: It was a really great night. We went in the Groucho and we got into a rickshaw.
NEIL: Christian Slater, that’s it… We took him there?
CHRIS: We whizzed across China Town to the dive bar. It was a lot of fun. (Pauses) No, we didn’t take him there. It was shut. We just showed him where it was as he was a teenager when it came out.
NEIL: Anyway, so at this point I was in a very strong relationship so I thought well, I’m going to put this in the songs. We were surprised everyone liked that album so much. It was so poppy. Someone said ‘It’s like you’re older people making young music’. I couldn’t work out if that was good or bad.
“SOMEONE SAID ‘IT’S LIKE YOU’RE OLDER PEOPLE MAKING YOUNG MUSIC’. I COULDN’T DECIDE IF THAT WAS GOOD OR BAD”
CHRIS: We’ve certainly carried on in that vein. (Laughs)

First No. 1 single and second album
Were you aware of the connection to young gay people of the time growing up thinking ‘There’s virtually nothing but there is the Pet Shop Boys’.
NEIL: Well, of course. I always thought, looking back to my own youth, there was something very powerful about not knowing someone’s sexuality. We were talking earlier about One Direction and some fans believing Louis is in a relationship with Harry. For young gay people isn’t there something quite strong about that? Then, when someone is gay, its great knowing someone’s gay… but a group like One Direction, they have the grace to go along with that, in a way. Obviously, there’s a sort of romantic and erotic thing about it that girls like as well. I think that’s quite a powerful thing about pop groups, rather than everything. And now it’s great when people are gay. It’s almost a positive, which is a really amazing thing. Particularly for a female audience.

What do you make of Years and Years, who people sometimes say are similar to you?
NEIL: There’s a tendency when anyone is an electronic group making pop records to say it sounds like the Pet Shop Boys. Years and Years, who I like a lot by the way, I don’t think the album sounds remotely like us. But I never think anyone sounds like us when people say they do.
CHRIS: You’re wrong. There’s that Australian group, Tinie Tempah or something, Tay Melane or Tom…
NEIL: Tame Impala?
CHRIS: They sound just like you!
NEIL: I don’t think that. I like that album a lot. The music doesn’t sound like us though.
CHRIS: Sounds like you, though. You’ve been moonlighting.
NEIL: Tame Impala of the Pet Shop Boys. (Chris laughs) I think people who don’t know our records very well have a vague idea about what we should sound like. But Olly Alexander, I think he’s great. He’s a much better singer than I am. By about a million times. He’s got a beautiful voice.
What’s the best thing about being in the Pet Shop Boys?
NEIL: Well, it’s a 24-hour a day job which is maybe the worst thing about it.
CHRIS: Not Saturdays or Sundays.
NEIL: Getting to do this, to write songs, make records with Stuart Price, and people like him and go on tour. If all you’ve ever wanted to be is a songwriter... I never really wanted to be a performer, I became a performer by accident, then it’s really fantastic.
What about you, Chris? What have you enjoyed the most?
CHRIS: I’ve got my misery hat on.
Are there bits you’re proud of?
CHRIS: The best bit is going in the studio and seeing what happens.
NEIL: That’s what has kept us going all this time. It’s really, really fulfilling. It’s miraculous. You go in with something and you come out with something.
CHRIS: Particularly if it’s good. If it’s something you’d actually like to listen to. (Laughs)
Is there any song in particular that you wish you’d released as a single?
NEIL: I don’t think I really care about that. One thing I do think is you write songs and wish they were more popular. For instance, the single ‘Leaving’, I think it’s one of our best songs. At a different time it might have been a bigger single. Someone said you can’t write romance anymore because it’s not egotistical enough. We live in a tremendous age of narcissism. If you divided all modern pop music into narcissist or not narcissistic you’d find it’s one up massively. It’s because of cameras, selfies, social media. The digital era has given us the feeling that everyone is part of a TV show now. It’s a very different way of living your life. It’s changed the way people walk down the street, like they are famous.

Performing on TV in 2010
GETTY IMAGES, REX FEATURES
How did David Bowie influence you?
NEIL: He was a huge influence. I remember my brother and I watching the Old Grey Whistle Test. We’d already heard some of the songs on Sounds of the Seventies, which was on at 7pm. The camera started right on David Bowie’s face and it was just mesmerizing. My brother Simon and I immediately became massive David Bowie fans overnight. That was early ‘72. Before then it had been The Beatles. Bowie came along and you thought, ‘Wow’. We saw him at Newcastle Hall in 1972; it was half empty. He had astonishing charisma. But the influence is probably the electronic David Bowie. Not the Ziggy Stardust. Chris loved the song ‘Sweet Thing’ from Diamond Dogs, which was a very dark and strange song.
CHRIS: One of my favourite lines from David Bowie which I’ve lived my life under is “Don’t believe in yourself”. I think more of us shouldn’t believe in ourselves. The world would be a much better place. (Laughs)
Are you aware of how much love there is for you? A lot of it is focused on you [to Neil] but there is a lot of affection for you too [Chris]. I know that makes you feel uncomfortable. But do you feel it?
CHRIS: You get that feeling when you go on stage but I suppose everyone gets that. It is quite an amazing feeling. We do meet and greets in America. And people show us a certain amount of love. We get loads of that, which is really nice.
NEIL: We get a lot of gay guys who are older; a bit younger than me probably, and they say ‘Just want to thank you for all you’ve done for the community’ and I always think have we done much for the community, really? I think it’s really lovely of them. I also think people appreciate the fact we’ve been writing songs together for such a long period of time. There’s something slightly moving about that.
That your friendship has lasted…
NEIL: Yeah. That something can last that long in an ever-changing world… That generates a kind of warmth, assuming you don’t hate us. Also, there’s an inevitable thing when you’ve been around a long time, which generates a general loyalty. Boy George has it, for instance.
Would it be fair to say you have quite a complicated relationship with the gay thing? You’ve said you hate being listed as a gay popstar – but you have straight fans too.
NEIL: Yeah. I think the world has moved on now. My problem was always the way we were marketed. As soon as I came out as gay that institutionalised the Pet Shop Boys as ‘a gay band’. In America, for instance, when we were with Atlantic records the marketing was done by the gay marketing department. It was great that they had one. It was mainly dance music. Firstly, it implies gay people are never going to do anything of interest to straight people. No one ever thinks the other way around. And therefore you sort of have a niche audience and you have a niche act and you can go away and be gay – and I resent that actually. And I sort of resent the idea that people who aren’t gay have of being gay, which is a slightly narrow idea that doesn’t reflect my own interests, as it happens. So, that’s why you say an uneasy relationship, because of all the assumptions that go with it, which I think, are dying away. You could find an interview with me in the 80s saying ‘I thought the idea of being gay is old-fashioned’. The idea is about political oppression and I know there is still that but once that ceases, it doesn’t need to be like that anymore. I’ve always been against the idea of people going on about the ‘gay community’, and ‘the Asian community’… suddenly community leaders crop up out of nowhere totally unelected. I think we should have one community. I’ve said this all through my adult life. I think there’s a lot of divide and rule that goes on otherwise and I don’t like it. I think everyone is as important as anyone else. I just don’t like the divide and rule thing.
“AS SOON AS I CAME OUT THAT INSTITUTIONALISED THE PET SHOP BOYS AS ‘A GAY BAND’”
Pet Shop Boys new album Super is released on 1st April. The single ‘The Pop Kids’ is released on 18th March. They play 4 nights at the Royal Opera House in July. petshopboys.co.uk

Chris wears jacket by Adidas, polo neck top by Topman, sunglasses, jeans, boots, hat Chris’ own
STYLING BY JOSEPH KOCHARIAN; GROOMING BY CORINNE ROBINSON; DOG MODELS FROM PET LONDON, PETLONDON.NET; FASHION ASSISTANTS NICK BYAM, UMAR SARWAR, MAX KATTWINKEL