Pet shop boys translation of the group name. Pet Shop Boys singer: I can't stand it when they call me "retro". Do you know Russian music?

Until the fall of 1981, the life paths of Neil and Chris did not intersect and each of them lived their own lives. Both of them were born into middle class families, but despite this, they were very different families.

Neil Francis Tennant

Born on July 10, 1954 in Great Britain, a suburb of Newcastle - the north of the country. Older sister - Susan. Two younger brothers - Simon and Philip. He studied at the monastery school of St. Cuthbert's Catholic Grammar School in Newcastle, studied history at Polytechnic in London. Worked as an editor at Marvel Comics and a journalist at Smash Hits.

Christopher Sean Lowe

Born on October 4, 1959 in the UK, Blackpool. He attended the Arnold School and studied architecture at Liverpool University. He is a licensed architect, but has not worked by profession.

Until the fall of 1981, the life paths of Neil and Chris did not intersect and each of them lived their own lives. Both of them were born into middle class families, but despite this, they were very different families. Neil began writing songs at a very early age and formed his first band, Dust, when he was still 16 years old, after which he attended North London Polytechnic, where he studied history and socialism. Then he changed several jobs - he was a book editor, worked at Marvel Comics, until he became a journalist at Smash Hits. Chris followed in the footsteps of his family, which had musical roots. He learned to play the trombone and performed in a group called "One Under The Eight", which emulated the styles of artists such as Hello Dolly and Moon River. At 18, he went to study architecture at the University of Liverpool. But one day, on August 19, 1981, in one of the music stores in London, namely on King Road, they noticed each other...

Neil went into the store to buy some supplies for his synthesizer and noticed a guy there who was "laughing a lot," his name was Chris Lowe. Chris himself ended up in this store also by chance - at that time he was doing an internship and was building a staircase not far from this store.

Chris recalls: "We were talking about emerging American pop music, and we had such different ideas about music that we spontaneously decided to team up and invent something new!" But then, thanks to Chris, everything suddenly burst! "Pet Shop Boys" almost didn't happen! Out of guilt towards his parents, who used their food to save money for Chris's expensive education, he returned to Liverpool to continue his studies. But Neil did not lag behind him: for 2 years, both sent each other draft songs by mail and made demo recordings during the holidays. They called themselves the "Pet Shop Boys" because the London friends with whom Chris slept during his visits ran a pet store. Finally, his big opportunity came through Neil's work on Smash Hits. In August 1983 he was scheduled to fly to New York for an interview with Sting. The famous dance producer Bobby Orlando ("Divine", "Lisa Lisa", "Cult Jam"), a big idol of both "Pet Shop Boys", also lived there. Neil arranged a meeting with Bobby and talked him into it for so long until Bobby agreed to release the single. In April 1984 Chris and Neil recorded "West End Girls" in New York, which became a club hit in America. Impulsive Neil immediately quit his magazine, Chris still successfully passed the exam.

In 1985 Chris moved to London. "That's when I finally decided to become a professional musician," says Chris, "Neil and I decided to rewrite our American hit 'West End Girls' and release it in the UK." The idea turned out to be very successful, the song became number one on both sides of the Atlantic, and the Pet Shop Boys were named the best composers in Britain. After the success of the first single, Pet Shop Boys began to be invited to perform concerts all over the world, but the guys were in no hurry to go on tour. “What kind of stupidity is this for a dance group to perform at a stadium?” say Pets, “We play disco music, not rock and roll.” This may explain why the band has only toured the UK three times in the band's history. Neil joked about this: "We would tour, we just have trouble finding a good drummer."

Albums:

INTROSPECTIVE (1988)

BEHAVIOR (1990)

DISCOGRAPHY [compilation] (1991)

RELENTLESS (1993)

ALTERNATIVE (1995)

BILINGUAL (1996)

ORIGINALS (1998)

- Neil, what direction do you profess: someone classifies you as a pop performer, someone classifies you as a trance performer...

Perhaps we can be classified as pop performers. But throughout our history, we have constantly improved and changed our style. Compare our latest album Super and our debut album Please and you will immediately realize that they sound very different. We are influenced by modern trance music. At the same time, we developed our own style.

- Aren’t you offended that many classify you as retro?

I can't stand it when people call me "retro". “Vintage” is better, but not “retro”. Or here’s another option: “legendary,” what do you think?

- But still, your most famous song was written a long time ago...

Go West was written by the Village People as a kind of gay anthem and was about how many gay men moved to San Francisco in the 70s. We recorded it 15-16 years later. It took on an elegiac tone as people began to reflect on the theme of “the dream of all gays,” which was overshadowed by the AIDS epidemic. When we made the version, we tried to show both the light and dark tones of the composition. The fact that it is often compared to the anthem of the USSR is just a coincidence, which we had no idea about at that time. We came to Moscow to take part in filming for MTV. And then we realized that “moving west,” initially in San Francisco, for Russia at that moment meant economic changes, a transition from communism to a new system - that is, in fact, “moving to the West.”

- The Pet Shop Boys were nominated for a Grammy five times, butYou haven’t received a single statuette yet. It's a shame?

It doesn't bother me at all. You know, David Bowie received a Grammy not for any particular record, but for his overall contribution to music. Same with Neil Young. Whereas Sting must have like 15 of them. It's not that I disrespect Sting - they just like relaxed, jazz-inspired music.

- Is your army of fans decreasing over time or not?

We have many loyal fans in a number of countries - Holland, Germany, Denmark. Many of the Russian fans are gay. They wave Russian flags. We have performed in Russia probably eight times already. And we are happy to return here and appreciate our Russian fans. Many years ago, namely in 1987, when the hit It’s a sin was released, the first ever exchange of Soviet children who came to visit British families took place. When asked who they would like to meet, they said: "We want to see the Pet Shop Boys!" - That’s when we first met Russian fans.

-Where will you perform this time?

This time we are visiting only Moscow. Before that, we were only in the capital and St. Petersburg. One day we would like to visit other cities to get a more accurate impression of Russia, but so far we have not been anywhere.

- How do you see Russians?

Russians are warm, friendly, sometimes impenetrable. But once you get to know them better, you become convinced that they are very nice people.

- Do you know Russian music?

I adore Russian classical music - Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky. A I don’t know any of the modern performers.

1. Before the Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant worked as a music journalist and Chris Lowe studied to be an architect. They first met in August 1981 in a musical instrument store, where Neil was buying parts for his synthesizer and Chris was looking at the shelves, laughing hysterically. It was this abnormally loud laugh that attracted Neil.

2. The duo's original name was West End, in honor of the elite London area of ​​the same name. To the question “Why was the group called Pet Shop Boys?” Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe answer that they themselves did not work in any pet shops, but they often had fun in one of these London shops where Chris's friends worked.

3. From the very beginning of their career, the friends determined that they would play electronic music based on Italo disco and electro. So it's not surprising that the band's sound was particularly influenced by Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk, Bobby Orlando, New Order and New York club music.

4. The duo went on their first tour 8 years after their founding, in 1989. The group prepared for real concerts long and carefully, as a result of which their once static performances turned into theatrical shows with scenery, dressing up, dancers and so on. Concerts took place in Hong Kong, Japan and the UK.

5. In 1993, Pet Shop Boys released the album Very, which is considered by many to be a Eurodance masterpiece of that time. Filming of the international album hit Go West partially took place in our capital, where the musicians were captured walking along Red Square (the Pet Shop Boys were in Moscow at the invitation to the opening of the MTV television broadcast in Russia; the group drove around the city in the former limousine of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev).

6. Over the course of their career, the Pet Shop Boys have made numerous covers of songs by other famous musicians, with some of these versions becoming more popular than the originals, such as covers of Elvis Presley's Always On My Mind and Village People Go West.

7. Pet Shop Boys are known for their fruitful collaborations with other musicians: Dusty Springfield, Liza Minnelli (in 1989 they wrote and recorded the entire Results album for her), the pop group Eighth Wonder (the song I'm Not Scared), Robbie Williams (the songs No Regrets and She's Madonna). In the 1990s, Pet Shop Boys began to remix songs by other artists: Blur - Boys And Girls, David Bowie - Hallo Spaceboy, Yoko Ono - Walking on the Thin Ice, Rammstein - Mein Teil, Madonna - Sorry, The Killers - Read My Mind and so on.

8. The titles of the Pet Shop Boys compositions tend to be in two polar directions: they are either short, minimalistic titles (Rent, Before, Minimal), or, conversely, long sentence titles (You only tell me you love me when you're drunk, This must be the place I waited years to leave, I don't know what you want but I can't give it anymore, where, contrary to music industry practice, only the first word is capitalized in song titles); title-questions are also common. Interestingly, the albums also have one-word names: Please, Release, PopArt and others.

9. Pet Shop Boys also pay special attention to fashion, which is not only reflected in the musicians’ everyday clothing, but is also an integral part of their stage image. The role of the dandy is assigned to Tennant, while Lowe prefers a semi-sporty style (baseball caps and sneakers) and projects an aloof image, which he also helps to strengthen with fashionable sunglasses, which he has hardly taken off since the early 90s.

Neil Tennant - page 2
News - page 3
Pen pals - page 7
Album Pet Shop Boys - page 8
Electronic - page 12
Letters - page 18

3
NEWS

So Hard single cover, photograph of Neil and Chris in black and white, taken by Eric Watson. Chris eats an apple.

New Pet Shop Boys album will be released October 22. They recorded 12 songs in Germany with producer Harold Faltermeier (see page 8). The final version of the track list is under discussion, since some songs were recorded in London. They haven't decided on a title for the album yet, although Neil writes down suggested titles in his notebook. The list reads: Pet Shop Boys Smart, Pet Shop Boys Naughty, Pet Shop Boys Living Legends, Pet Shop Boys Self-Expression, Pet Shop Boys Just Like That, Pet Shop Boys Thank You, Pet Shop Boys Will Remain Boys, Pet Shop Boys Scoundrels, Pet Shop Boys Hooligans, Pet Shop Boys Scoundrels, Pet Shop Boys Syndrome, This Whole Pet Shop Boys Theme, Pet Shop Boys Strangely enough, Pet Shop Boys More of Everything, Pet Shop Boys Mentally, Pet Shop Boys Outside of Themselves(“The concept for the cover for this title,” says Chris, “was a picture of us with ourselves, making it two Neils and two Chrises, very conceptual”) Pet Shop Boys Sausages("and then in Germany they would call it... Wurst and the like," says Neil), Pet Shop Boys Plastic, Pet Shop Boys Bolts and Nuts, Pet Shop Boys Multi-Party, Pet Shop Boys Head on, Pet Shop Boys Headlong, Pet Shop Boys Head, Pet Shop Boys Leader, Pet Shop Boys Punishment, Pet Shop Boys Enthusiasm, PetShopBoys Richard, Pet Shop Boys Absolutely No Reason, Pet Shop Boys Attitude, Pet Shop Boys Sorry, Pet Shop Boys Complex, Pet Shop Boys Character, Pet Shop Boys Original Sin and Pet Shop Boys Angst!
"So, of course, nothing this won't be the title of the album," Chris comments.
When Literally had already gone to press, they decided to call their album Pet Shop Boys Behavior.

Pet Shop Boys Riverside Football Team, sponsored by Pet Shop Boys, missed out on winning their league because they were deducted two points due to some disciplinary issues.

The Pet Shop Boys are still busy planning tour, although it will almost certainly begin no earlier than February 1991, most likely in North America. It is tentatively planned to visit Canada, the USA, Australia, Japan, Europe, including parts of Eastern Europe and the UK in late spring. "The theme for the tour will be 'more of everything,'" Neil laughs.

Book Pet Shop Boys, Literally (see issue 3) will be published in hardback by Viking Penguin on November 12th this year for £12.95. It covers the 1989 tour, but also includes a number of interviews with Chris and Neil about just about everything, as well as 16 never-before-seen photographs of Lawrence Watson. Neil and Chris will be able to autograph the book within a week or so of publication, although details are yet to be arranged.

The video for the song So Hard was filmed in Newcastle in early August, directed by Eric Watson and cinematographer Pascal Lebecq, who shot Madonna's "Vogue" video. (The video was filmed in two days. They went to filming immediately after returning from their Los Angeles concerts with the group Electronic). The video clip was shot in black and white.
"It's basically about boys going out to meet girls on a Friday or Saturday night," Chris explains. "They meet, then they go to the sea..."
"It's very Pet Shop Boys-esque," says Neil. Each time Neil and Chris appear in the video, they are accompanied by Dainton's personal security guard and an equally imposing figure known as Chopper: "We had to have a bit of an outsider's eye to this whole thing - we're not really involved." Eric Watson calls this video "Domino Dancing in Newcastle."

Video clip of So Hard: Pet Shop Boys with Dainton and Chopper.

Anna Gascoigne (left) and her co-star in the video.

Pet Shop Boys on the Newcastle coastline.

According to the Newcastle publication Sunday Sun"They wanted to capture the glitz and splendor of Newcastle nightlife." Essentially, they chose Newcastle (the hometown of not only Neil but also Eric Watson) because of the bar area there called the Big Market, where people queue to get into the bars "and it's like a nightly riot."

One of the actresses in the video, Anna Gascoigne, is the sister of soccer star Paul Gascoigne. By the way, Neil and Chris recently met Keith Allen, a comedian and the author of the lyrics for Neworder's song "World In Motion", at a bar. He proposed the idea for a joint recording between the Pet Shop Boys and Paul Gascoigne. They didn't agree.

Neil will appear in Books At Bedtime on ITV on November 11 and will talk about five books he's recently read. Their list will be published in the next issue Literally.

Regular readers Literally You may notice that at the end of the magazine there is no longer a page with products and an order form. From now on, information about exclusive products will be provided on a separate form. Numbers Literally 1, 2 and 3 are still available: full information will be on these forms.

Neil Tennant.
Chris Lowe at the wall.
Neil Tennant at the wall.
Pet Shop Boys: "a little foreign-looking."

The latest cover of the Pet Shop Boys song was made by the group Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine are acclaimed indie darlings whose version of Rent appeared on the b-side of the Rubbish single. It contains samples of phrases from Heads, the crazy psychedelic film by The Monkees, and also from Thundercats. At the end, the singer recites an application for housing benefit. "Broadway" in the text was replaced by "Fulham Broadway". Here's what they told the publication Literally members of the band known as Fruitbat and Jim Bob: “Before we put the guitar and vocals on,” says Fruitbat, “most of our backing tracks sound like Pet Shop Boys songs. And we really always liked Rent. We just added the melody and Jim Bob bawled out the request for getting housing benefit, because our version of Rent is an ode not only to the Pet Shop Boys, but also to housing benefit. I'm not quite sure what the original is about, it's a little unclear, right?" According to them, they are very big fans of the Pet Shop Boys. Especially the songs It's A Sin and Suburbia. “But most of all we stole from Left To My Own Devices - our next single Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere has the same orchestral fragments. It is unlikely that we will perform Pet Shop Boys songs again. Next time we want to do a dub reggae version of Soft Cell's Bedsitter...
Neil and Chris say they're thinking of basing Carter's version of Rent on live shows next year.

Neil and Chris performed on the show in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium with Electronic on August 4th and 5th, playing Getting Away With It and Patience Of A Saint. Full report on page 12.

Neil and Chris met Madonna and attended her party at the London nightclub Studio Valbonne. They thought the show was "great." Neil wasn't happy with her last tour Who's That Girl, so “I didn’t think I’d like it this time either, but it was actually fantastic.” Chris especially liked the production and choreography.

Neil went on holiday to the south France. The photo on page two was taken on the beach in Antibes. “There were some Scots asking, “Are you from England?” I said, “Yes.” They said, “What do you do?” And I said, “I work in the music business.” And they said, “Good luck to you.” who knows, maybe someday we'll ask you for an autograph!..."

During their stay in Germany, In the midst of recording, the Pet Shop Boys went to Barcelona for a weekend together. They "wandered through the famous Gothic Quarter." They "tried some Spanish food," were surrounded by children throwing fireworks at a Joan of Arc festival, and ran into Boy George in a nightclub. They saw Prince at the Munich Olympic Stadium, but didn't really enjoy the concert. "We couldn't see it and there was no atmosphere." They also visited several Bavarian castles, one of which, Neuschwanstein, was the inspiration for the Disney castle. Bang-bang-oh-oh-oh. "He's very good from a distance, but disappointing up close."

On July 10, Neil celebrated his thirty-sixth birthday at a small party and would like to thank everyone who sent cards for his birthday. Especially those 21 fans who worked on the "congratulations book".

Since the release of the previous issue Literally The following albums were released:

Dusty Springfield's album Reputation was finally released in July. It peaked at number 15 on the album charts and has sold around 80,000 copies to date. At the request of the Pet Shop Boys, five songs recorded in collaboration with them, "In Private", "Nothing Has Been Proved", "Daydreaming", "I Want To Stay Here" and "Occupy Your Mind", appear on one side of the record.

The single Getting Away With It by Electronic was released in the US, where it reached number 39 on the charts. In Britain it is impossible to release a single longer than 25 minutes, but in America there are no such restrictions. Readers may be interested to know that along with the single, five remixes of Getting Away With It (as well as both remixes of the b-side Lucky Bag) are also available.

RECORD

Chris
Hoomba Hoomba"Voice of Africa"
Space Space
Hardcore Uproar"Together"
The Realm featuring Chantal"Love in D Minor Mix"
Brothers in Rhythm"Peace And Harmony"

PEN FRIENDS

Please send your requests for friendly correspondence on a piece of paper with your name and address at the top to: Pet Shop Boys Club, PO Box 102, Stanmore, Middlesex, HA7 2PY.

He is young, energetic, funny and completely down-to-earth, and he will answer everyone in any way. Paul, 5 London Road, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire SG188ED.

I'm 37 and crazy about Pet Shop Boys. I also like German pop music (Dieter Bohlen, Hubert Ka, etc.), science fiction, learning German and playing golf. Isako. Unumaashi-machi 348-3 chome 5, Kakamihara City, Gifuken, 509-01 JAPAN.

My name is In Sung. I'm 18 and I also like New Order, Fine Young Cannibals, drawing and painting (especially portraits), comics and cartoons. 10 Hartland Road, Stratford, London E15 4AR

Hello! Fans all over the world, I want more 12" singles (mixes, megamixes, remixes) of Pet Shop Boys. Please write to: Frank, Herlitzerstr. 6.4040 Neuss 1, WEST GERMANY.

My name is Lee and I'm 20. I'm also an Erasure fan. I'm usually extremely positive. I'm definitely not going to the World Cup. I played quite a bit of polo and snooker, but did not become a world champion. 198 Darkwood Drive, Sudbury, Suffolk C0106LX.

My name is Lisa with an "S", not Lisa with a "Z". Please have pity on me... I don't think it's a sin to write to me at 35 Haig Avenue, Chatham, Kent, ME45UF.

I'm a 20 year old mega-petshopboy fanatic who also loves New Order, Depeche Mode, The Beloved, Electronic and other smart electronic pop bands. John, 551 Bromford Lane, Ward End, Birmingham 8 2EA.

My name is David and I also love Shaky, the Beatles, ABBA, Jurythmix and Elvis Presley. My hobbies are reading and writing; my favorite series is Doctor Who and I would like to chat with anyone from Europe, USA, Canada and Australia. 4 Kingsdean, Tadworth, Surrey KT205EB.

Yo, dudes! My name is "Jay", I love football, ultimate wrestling, Depeche Mode and Erasure. If anyone is interested in the same thing as me, write to: 20 Tomlinson Drive, Gunhill, Harare, ZIMBABWE.

I'm 17 and I love Adamski, Erasure and New Order. I'm completely crazy, and I want someone just as crazy to write to me, and we could discuss the show. Vic Reeves Big Night Out and where socks get lost. Emma. 15 Kirkston Drive, Dunstable, Bedfordshire LU63PP.

Were you also fascinated by the music of the Pet Shop Boys? Do you like to play synthesizer like Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant, sing and write music like them? My name is Ken and I also love Tears For Fears, Alphaville, the Dream Academy and A-ha. 15 Aston Street, Toowon, Queensland 4066, AUSTRALIA.

Yo! I'm 13, I'm a girl named Ebony.
I want to find pen pals of any age. I also love Guns N'Roses and think New Kids On The Block are a bunch of untalented assholes. I hate my name, I play drums and my hair isn't black. 8 Mount Road, Henley-in-Arden, Solihull, West Midlands B95 5LU .

“This night is forever, tell me you don’t mind.” Other things I don’t mind are The Beloved, Kate Bush, Lightning Seeds, TV, reading. Julie. 86 Reepham Road, Norwich, Norfolk NR65PD

I'm Elizabeth, 16. I'm interested in good music (Momus, New Order, Erasure), and I also read a lot (including Isherwood, Forster, Colin Wilson and Hermann Hesse). I would like to write to someone in London. 60 Ruskin Walk, Herne Hill, London SE249LZ.

My name is Mina Kotabe. I'm 19 and Japanese. Please send me emails: Let's talk about the Pet Shop Boys. Wakahisa 6-13, Minami-Ku 5, Fukuoka, JAPAN.

My name is Orcuella. I love everything. Newstead, Well Lane, Rawdon, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS196DV.

I am a 21-year-old Japanese woman who loves dance music, films, dancing, singing, reading, etc. I want to find two friends, one from England and the other from any European country. I want information because I am planning a long trip across Europe for about ten years. Mutsuko Kakudate. 419 Kamitsuruma 3026-1, Sagamiharashi, Kanagawa, JAPAN.

Hello! I'm 17, I'm Ari! If you're weird and out of this world, I'm the one you need to write to. 36 Whitehall Road, Handsworth, Birmingham B219BA.

NEW ALBUM

Pet Shop Boys, August 1990

As of this writing, the new Pet Shop Boys album is almost complete: some songs are still being added to and mixed, and a few new songs may still be written. Two previously recorded songs - "The End Of The World" and "Bet She"s Not Your Girlfriend" were removed from the rough album (they will appear someday, somewhere) and one of the ones mentioned below, Miserablism, is likely will also disappear. However, the record may look something like this:

"This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave"
Neil: It's about a dream I've had several times - that I'm back in school, in sixth grade, wearing a uniform, taking exams and thinking (very worrying)"How did this happen? What happened?" and I am ordered to return to classes. This explains the name, because you wonder where you ended up and realize that you are back in the place you couldn’t wait to get out of. It’s also connected to Eastern Europe. Schools are these authoritarian places with strange rituals, and I just imagined that dreams of returning to a communist state would be as bizarre as dreams of returning to my school days. The lyrics were written quite recently, but we wrote the music a long time ago, when we thought we would receive an offer to do a theme for a film Sparks from the eyes, about James Bond. Johnny Marr plays here - some guitar feedback, and some rhythm guitar.
Chris: There is a phrase spoken through a vocoder - in the style of Herbie Hancock. Like in One Of The Crowd - I say "everyone", then "everyone - a moment of attention." It's me.

"Being Boring"
Nile: Of course, it was inspired by the statement that we need boredom and all that, and I thought - a good name for a song. Then I remembered that when I was 18 or 19, all my friends in Newcastle had a party and the invitations quoted Zelda Fitzgerald's famous words from the 1920s: "we were never bored because we were never boring." I was recently talking to a friend, Dave Rimmer, and I told him about this song and he said, “that invitation is right in front of my eyes” - back then it was a whole event called the “Great City Dionysian Party.” The first verse is about the invitation found: and it says "we never felt bored, because we were never boring". The second verse is about leaving Newcastle for London college. And someone told us “your trouble is that by the age of 18 you will already know everything - and then there will be nothing to know.” And the third verse is about how I am now wondering where the people I was with then were. So the song is quite sad, but also quite happy.

"Only The Wind"
Chris: It was written during a storm (laughs).
Nile: Back then, trash cans and corrugated pieces of iron were flying down the street, and it was scary. And the plot of the song is that someone came to see a certain couple and... you know, sometimes you come to someone’s house, and there’s obviously a big scandal and one of them doesn’t come out. And the friend who came to you denies it, saying that everything is fine, although you can hear someone crying and all that. He continues to blame the wind outside. There's a fantastic tune - Chris wrote the music. There are also stringed instruments.

"So Hard"
Nile: We wrote it in a demo studio. Chris wrote most of the music and I wrote a short piece in the middle.
Chris: This is a Fairlight synthesizer track (laughs). I probably started writing it in my apartment.
Nile: The song is about two people living together and constantly cheating on each other, but pretending to be faithful, and then they incriminate each other. The first line is: " I outwitted you and you received a mysterious letter". And here is an excerpt from the third verse, which says: " I hope that you will be faithful to me / But I believe that this is not so. /We both quit smoking because it is life-threatening, /So whose matches are these?"Actually, the 'so hard' element is in the middle of the song where it says: " And if you give up your affairs,/Then I will give up mine. /But it's difficult/ So difficult"I think people are confused between wanting to be in a permanent relationship and wanting to cheat and all that stuff.

"Miserablism"
Chris: All ancient synthesizers are used here, including the Roland 700 series, the old Moog is a really hefty mechanism.
Neil: The chorus says: " unhappiness - what is, is, and what is not, is not". “What is, is, and what is not, is not” - this is the dying expression of someone’s father. This was the last thing he said and it was perceived in the sense that there is only the reality surrounding you, and everything else No. The song expresses a naked statement of misery: life is terrible - there is no point in dreaming about a better future and a better life. As often happens, in the middle of the song there is real indignation. It sounds a little pretentious, but it says: " but if there wasn’t what is, but there was something that doesn’t exist / you can’t know for sure / but you can feel ecstasy".

"Nervously"
Nile: It's based on a very old song that I wrote many years ago, except that I couldn't figure out the chorus. So I said to Chris, “What do you think the chords are?” And he started up: “oh, like this, and then like this...” and off we go. We wanted to make it an L.A. ballad, you know, like Whitney Houston. But it sounded so sick that we went back to the electric version. A song about two people... when you meet someone, and depending on how old you are, you think - will you kiss, or will you sleep? In a way, it's very sexy: at the end of the song, the decision seems to be in favor of it happening. It's about sexual thrill, to be pretentious.

"My October Symphony"
Nile: We wrote this one in Glasgow at the end of last year when we were writing Being Boring. Chris wrote the music. Marr plays rhythm guitar here. And I play guitar on the demo version.
Chris: This track is my favorite on the album. It sounds the most different from the songs from Actually. There is a whole palette of musical styles here. These include drums like James Brown and Balanescu's string quartet from our tour.
Nile: we asked Alexander Balanescu to write a melody a little in the style of Shostakovich. The song itself is about changes in Russia, but this is completely unclear, because writing songs about perestroika- this is somewhat dreary. There was an idea that the Russian Revolution was an undeniably constructive event in Soviet Russia, and ultimately this idea was called into question, after which all artists, painters and musicians in Russia were called upon to create paintings, symphonies or something else to celebrate myth about the October Revolution. In this song, a certain Soviet musician...
Chris: In general, he was forced to abandon his October symphony.
Nile: He wrote this symphony, and at the same time he wants to save it. In the chorus he asks if he should rewrite it or change the dedication" from revolution to exposure". So this really is the end of the myth of the Russian Revolution. What inspired me to write this song was what I read about Shostakovich, for some reason it made me think what it would be like to see these changes from the inside, because the man in whose name song - a communist or a former communist. One who compromised himself in order to survive.

"To Face The Truth"
Chris: It's an old song, but it sounds really modern. It fits smoothly into the album. It sounds very "Negro". It's actually known as a "Gloria Estefan song."

Nile: She is very sad. Heartbreakingly sad. When we play it at the concert, I'll probably cry by the end. I will have to leave the stage and sniff ammonia. This is the highlight of the album. It all started with a song I wrote one Sunday afternoon while lying in bed on the King's Road and the melody was in the style of Everything But The Girl. This happened in 1984. Then I played it to Chris in that original super boring way and he changed the timing of the chorus.
Chris: And then I added a piece in the middle. It sounds like Juicy Fruit by Mtume.
Nile: The lyrics are almost like Jealousy. About how you lie in bed, and your lover is somewhere else. In this song, the "truth" is that the one you love doesn't love you. But you can't face the truth.

"Jealousy"
Nile: Chris, you wrote this music a long time ago. We now travel back 8 and a half years to Lowe's family eatery in Blackpool. Chris is coming for summer vacation...
Chris: Actually, I don't remember this. This was once my mother's favorite track.
Nile: I remember Chris coming back from Blackpool around June '82 and, oddly enough, actually asking to see about recording it on tape. Of course, I almost dropped dead then. I thought, "This is really good, I'll write the words." The words have remained unchanged since then, unless, of course, I change them when I record the vocals. In terms of lyrical content, look at "To Face The Truth". When I first met Chris, the rest of my friends, especially one very old friend from Newcastle, were jealous that Chris and I spent a lot of time writing songs and that I didn't want to hang out and make music with them as much. But the song, in general, is not about this, although this was the source.
Chris: There are some good points there, such as " didn't call even though he promised"You know that when they tell you that they will call you at eight o'clock, but they don't all night, you stay complete idiot?
Nile: I don't quite understand why we didn't record it earlier. I think when we recorded the first album we were a little unsure about our early songs. We thought that they were outdated and therefore not so good. When we made the second album, we decided that Ennio Morricone would want to arrange it, and there was such a mix-up with him that we ended up recording “It Couldn't Happen Here.” So “Jealousy” didn't make sense.

"How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?"
Nile: We're talking about most pop stars here. The lyrics make allusions to at least six famous pop stars. I won’t say who.
Chris: We tried to make a Bobby Brown style song to win the American market. (laughs).
Nile: The same tricks were there.
Chris: There is a guitar in it. (With desperation) You know, readers, there is a guitar in every song here.
Nile: The text is about the demands and pomp of pop stars, and it just lists everything that pop stars do, and at the end it says: " How can you expect to be taken seriously?" There's a bit about publicly supporting charities and meeting the royal family and - my favorite part - " Do you think they'll put you in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?"There's this thing that's just come up in America recently, so if you're some old rock 'n' roll star, maybe really talented, you're going to be nominated for the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. When I wrote the song, Chris said : "Don't you think you need to find some tougher words?" Because, actually, the words at the beginning were a little out of touch with reality. It didn't occur to me and suddenly I thought, "Oh, this has to be real. terrible. It's a bit like the concept of the song "You're So Vain". What really annoys us about pop stars is Prince of Wales Foundation charity concerts talking about environmental issues that all primary school children know, and that they themselves We just discovered it, about ten years after everything else. The word “longevity” is missing at the moment, but I can add it.

"Living Legends"
Nile: It doesn't have words yet, but it's a really great tune, elegiac but danceable. Even Chris likes it. We don't have a concept for the song yet because Madonna and The Beloved ruined that concept with a list of star names: (sings to the tune of Paninaro)" Monroe, Dietrich and DiMaggio... living legends... oh-oh-oh".

Harold Faltermeier

Harold Faltermeyer, producer of the new Pet Shop Boys album, made famous by "Axel F", the film's theme song Beverly Hills Cop, which he wrote, produced and performed. He is one of the most famous producers in Germany. In the 70s he became famous thanks to his work with producer Giorgio Moroder. In recent years he has divided much of his time between recording records for the German market and a long stream of film soundtracks.
"I think the Pet Shop Boys contacted me in March. At first I thought, 'Why on earth are they getting an outside producer?' Why don't they do it themselves?" So I was curious. They came to Munich to meet me, and I think they were looking for someone to do their rough drafts for the album, which is kind of my thing.
I was already a fan. When I first heard West End Girls I thought it was very innovative. I've always been amazed by Neil's voice. It's not a singing voice, but it has great personality. My top three favorites are "West End Girls", "Rent" and "Always On My Mind". I'm not a big fan of listening to albums, but their first one is my favorite.
When we met in Munich we looked at their new demos and the first thing that struck me was Being Boring. I gave her the highest rating. So Hard only had a rhythmic base - no melody - but I liked the alternation between the "orchestral" parts and the hard electronic groove.
We are recording with This Must Be The Place. I had to adapt. For me it was different because with films you have less time. And here you have unlimited time to choose a sound for a tambourine, for example. You can decorate, correct and improve music endlessly. It was also unusual because usually you write a lot of material, and your fingers want to play what you wrote. Their songs are quite unusual. Especially the way the lyrics match the music. It's not that they're tuneless. But they are very strange. They have a very distinctive handwriting.
Before meeting them, I felt that since their material is very intellectual, I would see two intelligent guys, and I was right. I think in some ways they really need each other. Neil is probably a person who thinks seriously about everything, and on the other hand there is a very cocky rhythmic guy, Chris Lowe. Neil is not very rhythmic, whereas Chris has very good rhythmic ideas, and that somehow describes their characters. Neil approaches the band's music from a scientific, exploratory point of view, while Chris has a more intuitive approach to composing.
It turned out that they both really like beer, and I work in the suburbs of Munich. This is my home, and a couple of years ago I built a studio nearby. It seems you have a custom in England to drink tea at 5 o'clock. And in Munich we have a tradition of drinking beer at 7 o’clock. We went to my so-called "hut", a replica of a mountain hut in the yard of my house, we have real Munich beer on tap there. Chris coined the phrase "hut break." If we were ten minutes late, he would say, “How about a hut break?” Needless to say, work slowed down a bit after that.
Disagreements? Yes. I'm a very tough guy when it comes to deadlines and actual production quality, although it's not great fun for a singer. They haven't changed with these new songs, they're just a little more thoughtful, a little smarter and a little more complex, and there's more melodic variety in the songs.
We're almost done now, my favorites in terms of energy are This Must Be The Place... I really like Nervously - it's a very innocent song in a way; and So Hard. There has been a huge leap since I first heard it. And we giggled terribly the first time we heard Neil sing the lines " whose matches are these?"It's just gut-wrenching. There's a lot of pathos in it, but at the same time it's realistic."

Electronic group - Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr - in Los Angeles.

July 27, 1990. On stage at the Manchester Apollo, the Pet Shop Boys are rehearsing their lines for Electronic's upcoming gigs, with Neil singing backing vocals to the empty audience. Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner miss rehearsal. Instead, they are backstage, in the downstairs guest room, with a few friends and assistants, eating, playing pool and reading the newspaper.
They're grabbing today's episode Daily Mail and laugh at an article about the "Manchester scene" which contains some ridiculous, outdated advice about how people dress here. “Flares!” - Johnny Marr grins mockingly. He goes to get some tea and then he and Bernard settle down at the end of the table, mentioning halfway through that this is the first interview they've done as Electronic...

When did you first hear about Neil and Chris being asked to participate?
Johnny: About a year ago.
Bernard: Neil contacted us through Mark Farrow (designer Pet Shop Boys). I called him and he just said, “I think they should be on your record,” and I just thought, “Yeah, great.” Mark said, “Can you call Neil?” And I decided - why not.
Johnny: I really wanted to work with the Pet Shop Boys because I'm a big fan of their music, and it's, let's say, a little strange. Smiths fans, guitarists I respect a lot, thought it was weird.

What did they say?
Johnny: A few guitar buddies were really confused.
Bernard: "Hey Johnny, This a little strange..." (laughs) But that's what happened with New Order when we moved from guitars to synthesizers. We did it because I couldn't play guitar anymore because I was singing. We didn't want to bring in session musicians, so we started using the equipment - a session musician without any personal problems, you know. And it was so effective that eventually... we switched to electronics. We had enough problems with the group itself (laughs) and without the participation of new personalities.

How long have you both known each other?
Johnny: (to Bernard) When did we first meet?
Bernard: I can't remember.
Johnny: This was when you were producing Mike Pickering's band. Quango Quango?
Bernard: Exactly!
Johnny: I was invited to play guitar. This was around 1983. Then Bernard wanted to make a solo record and invited me to participate.
Bernard: Actually (to Johnny) We also got together through a mutual friend, right? Andrew Berry. (Laughs) Singing hairdresser. (Andrew Berry is their friend, a former hairdresser who, with the help of Johnny Marr, has just released his first single « Kiss Me, I'm Cold »).
Johnny: Mr. Manchester.

And how did he bring you together?
Johnny: Just told me that he (points to Bernard) good, honestly.
Bernard: He just said I should do something about Johnny. I started my solo project in New Order's rehearsal room, in one of the worst areas of Manchester, and on the edge of a cemetery. On Sundays I worked all day and slept on the floor because I live miles away, and then rehearsed with New Order on Monday. I just got tired of it because it was really uncomfortable and I felt like I needed someone else to write with, so I invited Johnny when he came to a show in San Francisco.
Johnny: Right. Then, over the weekend, we embarked on very, very long songwriting sessions. We'd finish at five in the morning on Monday and then Bernard would go off and rehearse with New Order. When Bernard left to get busy Technique, I went to study Mindbomb, so we took turns working.

Have you always liked Pet Shop Boys?
Bernard: Yes.
Johnny: Yes.
Bernard: When we recorded the Brotherhood album in Ireland, we played Pet Shop Boys every morning at breakfast. Please, so we got used to their influence.

Neal at Los Angeles Dodger Stadium. Chris and Johnny Marr at rehearsal on August 4th.

You're surprising people again, Johnny, right?
Johnny: Yeah, because people think of me as this guy with a can of beer in his hand and a guitar at the ready, chatting with the Rolling Stones. Who I am sometimes (laughs). But I liked working with Bernard not because of New Order's acoustic stuff, but because of the electronic stuff. I'm a very big fan of 70s disco music, always have been: that's why I really love Technique. This is what became the reason for our rapprochement with Bernard - the Italian version of Euro-disco.
Bernard: Dance music with good melodies, actually.
Johnny: People are surprised for only one reason - because of the dogmatic approach of the press to the Smiths, all this anti-synthism, which in the end turned out to be a trap. And it was precisely Bernard’s and my similar attitude towards Euro-disco that led to the fact that we both liked the Pet Shop Boys.

Which songs are special?
Johnny: For a long time I thought Paninaro was the best. Actually, my least favorite is West End Girls. "Suburbia" is a very good pop tune.
Bernard: I like “Love Comes Quickly.”
Johnny: “Wake Up” is brilliant. This is actually my favorite song.
Bernard: What slow motions are there in Please? "Later Tonight". I like her (to Johnny) What song did that guy play for us on vacation? We vacationed in the Virgin Islands, on a yacht.
Johnny: This guy came up on the boat and he was a little crazy.
Bernard: He said, “I have an Augustus Pablo tape for you.” But I turn it on - and someone re-recorded it onto a Pet Shop Boys cassette.
Johnny: Was it "Heart"?
Bernard: Yes.
Johnny: It was a 12-inch. Augustus Pablo removed by Europeans. Amazing. They are everywhere.

How did you imagine them before you met?
Johnny: Exactly the same. Some people are surprised that Chris turns out to be so matter-of-fact and friendly because of his... mysterious personality. But they're both really simple.

Bernard: (laughs) Just like you and me.
Johnny: (in a stupid American accent). Yes! That's why we are such a big happy family! (Gets serious again) In fact, the first meeting we had together is what I officially consider a Great Moment in Rock. We invited them to Manchester and within five minutes of their arrival we brought them to the Hacienda and experienced the delights of the Manchester scene. Great moment...

How did you start working together?
Bernard: We put on the tape at Johnny's house and just said, "Okay, who's going to start?" We had already decided that it would be good if we recorded one song and they wrote the music for it. We did "Getting Away With It" and Neil said (doesn't imitate Neil's voice very well)"Oooh, she I like it, it's very nice...” Chris then launched into Patience Of A Saint.
Johnny: Bernard had a drum beat, Chris had some chords, I laid down the bass, and in about half an hour we had it. It was easy. We all just hummed parts and suggested ideas.

Have you found that you and them have similar ways of working?
Bernard: No. Neil is very... he - tactician. Strategist. And he knows what he's doing. While I have no idea and act on instinct.
Johnny: The way Chris works is amazing. He's doing great record music, throw in chips and ideas. He has a really good ear for sonic details, especially in disco music.
Bernard: I think he comes up with ideas in his sleep when he goes to bed in the studio. (laughs).

Does he sleep a lot?
Bernard: All the time.
Johnny: Chris has real instinct... Neil is more methodical. He knows a lot about pop music, right? We are really fans of him...
Bernard: I am Nothing I don't know about pop music... of the past. Chris and I have pretty similar record collections, disco collections that no one has heard of. For example? "Burn It Up, Mr DJ", "Take A Chance, Mr Flaggio".. It's Italo-disco.

Chris Lowe at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles. Bernard Sumner with Donald Johnson.

Does it surprise you how obsessed they are with the pop music charts?
Bernard: Not Neil, he was the author. Smash Hits, isn't it?
Johnny: I like it because I'm into Dusty Springfield and Sandy Shaw records and stuff like that. Mose (Morrissey) is the same. Exactly the same.

But they are also always interested in listening to the new single by George Michael or Kylie Minogue, right?
Bernard: Yes. I find this a little strange. I don't understand this.
Johnny: They really love pop music, don't they? The entire culture of pop music. I don't look Top Of The Pops, unless the Happy Mondays are performing there or something, but Thursday is Saturday for Neil and Chris.
Bernard: For me, when there's a break, I want it to be a break. I want to drop the music.

What kind of people do you think they are?
Bernard: This is very difficult to answer without sounding like a psychiatrist.

How are they different?
Bernard: Chris has shorter hair. Neil eats more.
Johnny: And Neil knows a lot about history, doesn't he? They're not like Mutt and Jeff or Laurel and Hardy - they're not complete opposites. (Thinks) Neil clearly thinks Chris is very funny. They are clearly very good friends. They are difficult to describe.
Bernard: Neil is a really pretentious intellectual, right? That's what you're trying to say, Johnny, (both laugh.) And Chris is Blackpool's number one guy in the village. That's what's hard to say.

This is true?
Johnny: Neil is a really good pop star, in the best possible way. One of the few people I know who can do this.
Bernard: Yes, but in my opinion they are fans of pop music who came to it to meet their idols (laughs heartily).

Where did the idea for this Los Angeles concert come from?
Johnny: Depeche Mode offered to arrange it for Electronic. I thought, "Oh, that's good," but didn't take it seriously, and then about a week later they mentioned it again. Next thing I know, Bernard and Chris and Neil were talking about it like it was a serious proposal.

Did you think it was just a joke?
Johnny: I thought it was completely impossible. This may still turn out to be the case (laughs). Then we realized that we could do it if we worked hard and just took the soul out of ourselves, which is what we did.
Bernard: Three months ago we only had two songs ready. We had about 18 ideas...
Johnny: We want the show to represent us not as musicians who want to conquer the world, but as people who can dance. I have to say - although it sounds pretentious - we are in a unique position in being ourselves, because there are no rules.
Bernard: And Electronic doesn't always have to be me and Johnny. We want to get away from restrictions in the group. If Johnny wants to record with someone... Gary Numan (laughs), then let it be.
Johnny: We're both fed up with selfish people.
Bernard: And other people's breakdowns...

Do you mind when people refer to Electronic - usually rather snidely - as a "supergroup"?
Bernard: That's quite fair.
Johnny: It's just a painful legacy of the late 70s, but actually it's very creative that good musicians work together. This doesn't sound like a '60s supergroup at all.
Bernard: I still like it (laughs). I think this is quite reasonable.
Bernard leaves - he has to go pick up his son James - and Johnny Marr continues the conversation. He talks about appearing on two new songs on the new Pet Shop Boys album - "it suits me, being a shadow member" - and laughs at Neil's guitar playing. "I found out he's the underground Ritchie Blackmore... actually the themes I've heard are very good and melodic." He talks for quite some time about his goal: “to rewrite the rules, bring guitar playing back into fashion.” “I know why corny guitar playing is corny.” He says he will remain with The The, which allows him to “focus on being a real, high-quality guitar player.”

He reflects on how limited he was in The Smiths. Finally he turned on the Janice Long show on Radio One: "and I heard some whiny Scottish girl with four guys in leather trousers with Brian Jones haircuts, singing about frolicking in the flowers. I thought, 'What have we done?' When he used a synthesizer - inserting a Morse code signal into The Draize Train, one of the Smiths' songs - Morrissey refused to write lyrics for it at all. Still, he is defending his former partner. Now that Morrissey is getting his revenge, fans are telling him that it is. They always liked him. "I think they're pathetic. They owe a lot more to Moz."
He says he initially wanted to form a band called "a Mancunian Parliament" after leaving the Smiths, but decided people wouldn't agree with that, so he "kept his head down and did sessions for a while." When he first talked to Bernard about music, he was amazed that “he likes great rock music. This really surprised me. Fleetwood Mac songs like The Green Manalishi and Dragonfly when Peter Green was with them. The wonderful Stooges. Wonderful Velvet Underground. All the dark Stones songs, like “19th Nervous Breakdown.” Then, of course, there was Italian and New York music... Freez... Starski... Defunk, although they were a little corny... Sharon Redd. Princess records discs. "Shame" by Evelyn Champagne King - This was the first 12" I bought. "Stomp" by Brothers Johnson.
It's clear that he can drone on about old favorite albums for years. He says the idea for "Getting Away With It" was to write a "Sister Sledge"-style song with the Pet Shop Boys on back-up. "I wanted it to be like ABC's 'Look Of Love' so DJs would play it for like five years in their jingles. It's the perfect pop song..."
It's time for the final rehearsal. Even now, Electronic's songs - "Big House", "Try All You Want", "Sun", "Get The Message", "Gangster" and "Donald" - are not quite finished yet. Some have no words at all, and Bernard has not yet memorized the ones that do exist, so he sings, clutching leaves in his hands. Also on stage are an additional keyboard player - Andy Robinson, and two drummers - Kesta Martinez and Donald Johnson (the latter is a member of A Certain Ratio, who raps "Liza with a Z..." in Minnelli's cover of "Twist In My Sobriety") .
After four songs, Chris and Neil wander onto the stage. Chris stands behind the synthesizer, and Neil approaches Bernard. “Patience Of A Saint” is a rather strange duet - Neil sings the first verse, Bernard sings the second. In the middle of “Getting Away With It.” Neil and Bernard sit down stage and joke. As “Getting At Away With It” fades out and the last two songs are performed without the Pet Shop Boys, Bernard barks—slightly grinning—“so! Get out!” And they leave.
"Fun" is how Chris describes the two shows next week. "The whole of Manchester was there." The Narru Mondays are noisy and Chris keeps bumping into Simply Red's Mick Hucknall in the hotel lift.
At the first concert, Chris wears a Chevignon raincoat "or exhibitionist's raincoat" (Chris and Johnny Marr have a "common passion" for Chevignon), baggy white Chevignon pants, Timberland boots, a Yohji Yamamoto hat, and Montana sunglasses; Neil shows off his Star Trek outfit, the Thierry Mugler suit he also wears in the "So Hard" video. On the second evening, Chris sports a Nike Air baseball cap, a rubberized raincoat from Gianfranco Ferri, and blue Chevignon jeans; Neil is wearing a long black coat.
"On the second night Bernard came up to me," says Neil, "in the middle of the concert because he was feeling sick and said, 'This is the worst experience of my life,' but everyone said it was better than the first night." Previously, he had spoken with Bernard about the lyrics of one of Electronic's songs, as they bothered Neil because of the lyrics about an angel like a brick wall. "I said, 'How can an angel look like a brick wall?' He replied: “It comes out of the subconscious, and I don’t think anything can be done about it.” That's what I really like about Bernard - he doesn't make excuses or get angry, but simply speaks as if it were a fact. impossible change, as they say - “it’s raining outside the window.”

In every room Literally Neil and Chris respond to a selection of letters sent to the Pet Shop Boys Club. Address on page 7.

Will the Pet Shop Boys ever write a musical? Heather, Norwich.

Chris: Well, yes, we really want to. In fact, we are planning to start it.
Neil: We have an idea and that's probably the next thing we'll do after we release the album and everything. All the bands, including the Beatles, always say they're going to write a musical, but I don't think many do. Squeeze was done once... so we're looking for a playwright to co-write it.

Why don't the Pet Shop Boys print lyrics on their albums? Shallin, Hong Kong.

Neil: I think because in the 70s it was very hippy to sit and read lyrics on the back of albums, and I probably have a prejudice because of that. Also, the lyrics don't look very good graphically. Plus, I don't know if I want people to sit and read while listening to the song. In Japan there are lyrics - the Japanese record company makes them themselves. All recordings have English lyrics and Japanese translation...
Chris: ...and they also explain what it's all about...
Neil: ... in Japanese, so I don't really know what it says. With all that said, we are thinking of printing a lyric booklet for the new album. (Unless the Pet Shop Boys make a lyric booklet, the album's lyrics will be printed in the next issue of Literally.)

What do you think about German reunification? Is it too fast? Is this dangerous or necessary for a united Europe? Jens, St. Wendel, West Germany.

Chris: We just recorded an album in Germany. And I have a German car...
Neil: That's certainly one of the reasons we recorded the album in Germany: we thought it was an interesting time. Although, in reality, we do not speak German, so it is difficult to understand what is happening in the media. But I think the reunion is good. In my opinion, this is the end of World War II in Europe; The end of this entire historical phase. And so it evokes the ghosts of World War II and makes people think. The Germans I spoke with think it’s natural that some people are thinking “since Germany is uniting, does that mean there will be a war, because the last two times Germany united, they started a war.” But, in my opinion, reunification is inevitable, and it is unlikely that Germany will ever need to start a new war - its economy is too strong.

What do your families think of your music? Catriona, Mansfield.

Chris: They love her (laughs). They truly love her. My mom's favorite song is "Jealousy" - she just listens to it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. My dad loves “It's A Sin” - he likes the faster tunes.
Neil: My parents mostly like fast tunes. Their favorite song, oddly enough, is “In The Night”, and out of the blue they start making grandiose arguments about “why don’t you release it as a single?” And in general terms they come up with a marketing campaign. This year they thought we should release it in conjunction with the new season The Clothes Show- which is undoubtedly logical, but we still didn’t. They also love “It's A Sin,” and my dad likes “Suburbia,” and my mom really likes “So Sorry, I Said.”
Chris: There's a Pet Shop Boys mania in our house. There is always one of our videos in the video player - It Couldn't Happen Here or something else...

Do you like The Beloved? Heather, England.

Chris: No.
Neil: I really like “The Sun Rising.”
Chris: Yeah, it's a good song.
Neil: But for me personally, the song “Hello” was a big disappointment.
Chris: It reminded me of Wings' "Let "Em In".
Neil: I think she's just a little stupid because the list of names isn't very good in my opinion. We actually had a similar idea for a song, so I was a little annoyed. It was supposed to be Living Legends, but then Hello and Vogue came out with those lists, so the idea fizzled out. I bought The Beloved album and was somewhat disappointed. A lot of reviews have compared The Beloved to Pet Shop Boys and New Order, but I don't really think they're very similar to us. I also like the song “Time After Time”.

Neil, if you were asked to sing a duet with David Bowie, would you sing?
Pet Shop Boys fan. United Kingdom.

Chris: You would sing, right?
Neil: You know, I don't think I would.
Chris: (teases). Became would! Became would!
Neil: No, I would secretly think, "Oh, that's cool," but I wouldn't. Or maybe I would sing if the song was good.

Neil, do you think Smash Hits as good as three or four years ago? Helen, Woodbridge, Suffolk.

Neil: Well, of course it has changed a lot since I was there. For a while it got better - if you look at it 6-7 years ago, it looks much more primitive. Designs have become more complex and more color photographs can be used. But lately I don't think he's as good as he used to be - I don't know if it's because of him or the charts, which for some reason don't seem appropriate for him. Smash Hits. Sometimes it seems more hacky than usual, but I always read it.

We were thinking about your film It Couldn't Happen Here and I have a few questions. Why does the "burning" man take a red rose? Why is the cross taken out of the water? Maria and Nicole, Hamburg, Germany.

Neil: I don’t know what the red rose has to do with it, perhaps it has to do with love.
Chris: No idea.
Neil: I don't know about the cross, but it looks amazing. My favorite part of the film. We said from the very beginning that there was a lot we didn't understand about this film. Johnny Marr's brother Ian loves it. And by the way, the film was recently shown twice on German television.

While reading the paper I noticed there was a racehorse called "Pet Shop Boy" if you didn't already know that (at 2.15am at Thirsk on May 18th he finished second at 5-1). (Thanks also to Margaret, Felixstowe, for this same observation.) Sarah, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.



Neil: I was excited when I heard about it. Perhaps if anyone knows the owner of Pet Shop Boy they can send us a photo of him.

MTV News recently had an interview with Adamski who said he might work with you. This is true? Melvin, Bedford.

Neil: No. We met in Munich and asked him about this story. I think it all started at Chris's birthday rave last year, when he was initially offered to perform there, but in the end they changed their minds, and there were no live shows there at all. Then earlier this year we were going to do a rave for Crusaid with Liza Minnelli, and our company approached Adamski, but the rave didn't happen. We don't plan to work together, but, you know, we think he's good.

I'd like to know why Chris keeps covering his hair with caps when it's obvious that he like what he looks like.
Friend Vicky, Hem Hill, London.

Chris: What nonsense! I would wear a veil if I could. I just don't like it when people look at me. But this is only in my role as Pet Shop Boy, so I don’t mind walking without a cap. A certain point is that I like to maintain some anonymity in real life. And the cap camouflages me, so few people recognize me on a walk. Well, in my opinion, I look better in a cap.

Have you ever worn bell-bottoms? Louise F., Maidenhead.
Neil: Apparently everyone wore bell-bottoms. I wore them in the 70s.
Chris: It was the norm. You couldn't buy trousers that weren't flared. Even now, if you buy a suit from someone like Burtons, the pants are always a little flared, right?
Neil: It's hard to say. Well, no, we are hardly slaves to fashion (laughs).
Chris: I think it's too fast for us after the first time. I don't like going back.
Neil: Even at that time there was a lot of doubt about bell-bottoms. Even in the mid-70s, at the peak of the popularity of flares, Levi's 501 jeans were considered fashionable.

If you could visit another era, which one would you choose? Sara, Zaragoza, Spain.

Chris: I'd like to visit the future. Just would like to see what it would be like - cars and all. What will people wear? What will fashion be like?
Neil: I wouldn't want to be in the future.
Chris: Actually for me there is also a period from the past. I would like to be in New York in the 20s.
Neil: Yes, that's a good answer.
Chris: New York was very safe and it was very cool.
Neil: Then America was... America.
Chris: America was open.
Neil: There is no period in history that I would prefer to the present. I would like to see Roman times because they looked different. Just look at everything, right? I would be interested to see the food... how they lived... Hadrian's Wall. But, in general, it’s not terribly interesting. I wouldn't want to go to Elizabethan England, because I think it was smelly and terrible... maybe the end of the eighteenth century was exciting, when the industrial revolution was about to happen. And then they built good buildings. The only other time is Chris's answer, 1920s. I actually wish I could have visited Europe at the turn of the century because it was the end of a certain way of life.

In our library we found the book “Playing the Guitar” by Rex Anderson. It says the editor is "Neil Tennant". Is that you? Please tell us! Tricia and Helen, Stowmarket.

Neil: Oh God. In the MacDonald Guides series, I have edited the following books: French family cooking- quite a good book, actually, and Playing the guitar. I was also an assistant editor for Tropical fish And Chess. I remembered Rex Anderson from a series of inserts on guitar that NME had done a few years earlier and how good it was, so I got him to write the book.

I have a question that I would like Neil and Chris to answer if possible. Do they know that if you play "all day, all day" at the beginning of "Domino Dancing" backwards, it sounds like "Ahh, the fire's hot!"? Becky, Abergele, Wales.

Neil: No, we don't know.
Chris: (laughs loudly) Why do they play records backwards?
Neil: I think it's stupid. There are no secret messages in our records. Besides the obvious.

Authors: Chris Heath and Pet Shop Boys.
Photographers: Kevin Cummins (page 12), Chris Lowe (page 13), Paul Ryder (pages 4-5), John Savage (page 2). Penny Smith (pp. 4-5), Neil Tennant (pp. 11, 13-14), Eric Watson (cover, p. 3, p. 8).
©Aeragraph Ltd. 1990. The magazine is available only to Pet Shop Boys Club members and is not intended for general sale. Published three times a year.

On the one hand, the music of the British duo PET SHOP BOYS is, of course, pop. On the other hand, it always stood out against the general background of pop music - everything was done so inventively, open-mindedly and tastefully.
If we add here exquisite, often surreal video clips and song lyrics that go far beyond the scope of “I love you, my baby,” it becomes clear why Western critics call the duo’s work “intellectual pop.”

"It's a Sin" (1987)

The name of the group PET SHOP BOYS translates as “Boys from the Pet Store”. However, these guys met in a completely different store - a music store. This happened back in 1981. Despite the fact that Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe had quite different tastes, they were united by an interest in synthesizers and electronic music.

Neil Tennant:
“...we have different passions, but this is precisely the essence of PET SHOP BOYS. Chris listens more to dance music, and I prefer classical music, so the result is dance music with string instruments.”

Before running to win over the general public, the guys prudently devoted a couple of years to preparing musical material, writing during this time many songs that later became hits.
In 1983, Bobby Orlando became the duo's first producer. However, the first singles like "West End Girls" and "Opportunities" were not successful. Then the PET SHOP BOYS go under the wing of the larger company EMI and re-release the same songs. And the result is immediately obvious. The song “West End Girls” becomes No. 1 in both Britain and the USA, immediately striking listeners not only with the music, but also with the unusual “dark” lyrics, the interpretation of which is still being debated by fans of the duo. Suffice it to say that among the sources of inspiration for “West End Girls,” the musicians mentioned the poem “The Waste Land” by the rather difficult poet T. S. Eliot.

Neil Tennant:
“I tried to bring elements beyond the normal pop clichés into the lyrics. ...What we at PET SHOP BOYS have always tried to bring are themes from the world outside of pop music, themes that are not usually present in it. Like THE BEATLES did with 'Eleanor Rigby', 'Yellow Submarine'... themes like this have never existed in pop music before."

However, the Soviet people came to know and love the PET SHOP BOYS with the release of their second album, “Actually,” in 1987. The main hit of the record was the dramatic song “It’s A Sin” (“It’s a Sin”), written back in 1982.

It turned out that Lowe was playing some kind of theme on the synthesizer, and Tennant thought that the music sounded "very religious".
Religious notes immediately brought to Neil memories of his time studying at the Catholic school of St. Cuthbert - memories, it must be said, not very pleasant ones. Thus was born a text denouncing moral despotism.

At school I was taught to be
Chaste in thoughts, words and deeds,
But they did not succeed at all...

...Everything I've ever done
Everything I do
Every place I've been
Wherever I'm going
It's a sin!

To complete the overall picture, the musicians added the text of a Catholic prayer of repentance at the end. Of course, many of Tennant's former school teachers did not like this song very much. But listeners appreciated it - the single “It’s A Sin” became No. 1 in Britain and No. 9 in the USA.

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe in the studio during the recording of the album "Actually".

The song was also given a bonus by a costume video where a certain Inquisition calls on the chained hero Tennant (Low plays the role of his jailer) to repentance. In addition, the seven deadly sins appear on the screen in different guises: anger, vanity, voluptuousness, laziness, gluttony, greed and envy.

Later, given the duo's sexual orientation, "It's A Sin" began to be interpreted as a song in defense of gays. Although the musicians themselves have always refuted such narrow interpretations.

Neil Tennant:
“Our songs are rather about ambiguity. In addition, we are also listened to by many heterosexuals who also appreciate and understand the lyrics of our songs.”

The only thing that overshadowed the success of the song was the accusation of plagiarism. It was put forward by producer and broadcaster Jonathan King, who claimed that the melody of "It's A Sin" was taken from Cat Stevens' 1971 song "Wild World"<сравнить >. King even made a mix, recording the PET SHOP BOYS song along with Stevens' lyrics. The chord sequence of the two songs was indeed similar, but this happens all the time in music (otherwise the musician will not be able to breathe). And since Stevens himself did not make any claims, the duo even managed to sue King for monetary compensation for libel.

"Heart" (1988)

By the way, about plagiarism. Remember Oleg Gazmanov's song about the dog Lucy, which his son Rodion sang? It is enough to compare its chorus with the chorus of the PET SHOP BOYS composition “Heart” to understand who, from whom and when adopted<сравнить >.

Actually, the PET SHOP BOYS wrote this song back in 1986, and it was originally called “Heartbeat”. At first, the musicians wanted to give it to some singer like Hazell Dean or Madonna. Maybe it’s for this reason that the lyrics to “Heart” came out unpretentious - just about love (the duet almost doesn’t have such songs). However, for some reason, no one wanted to perform the song, and PET SHOP BOYS released it themselves. As it turned out, not in vain.

The song was accompanied by another memorable video, the action of which takes place in Transylvania (in fact, filming took place in Slovenia at Mokrice Castle). Neil Tennant's hero brings his bride to the castle, but she cannot resist the magic of the old but charismatic Prince Dracula.

In 1988, “Heart” topped the British charts, but at the same time, oddly enough, became the duo’s last No. 1 hit. But places in the charts often don’t mean anything at all. So the PET SHOP BOYS will record their most famous song much later...

"Go West" (1993)

Having waited out NIRVANA's grunge revolution, by 1993 dance music had regained its spirit. And again, among the leaders of this trend were the PET SHOP BOYS, who recorded one of their most famous albums, “Very”.

The main hit of the album was a cover version of the song “Go West!” The song was first released back in 1979 by the disco group VILLAGE PEOPLE - the same one to whose hit “YMCA” my generation famously danced at discos. But we didn’t hear anything about “Go West” performed by them; the song didn’t gain much popularity then.

In the mouth of VILLAGE PEOPLE, this phrase turned into a call to go to the West Coast - to the city of San Francisco, known for its free morals. Critics immediately tried to interpret the song as purely gay, although the musicians themselves always denied such fabrications.
But then the PET SHOP BOYS version came out, and the gay halo shone with renewed vigor...

The British duo put a lot of work into the arrangement of “Go West.” Instead of the rollicking version of VILLAGE PEOPLE, we were presented with an atmospheric and anthemic composition, which is well described by Tennant’s phrase about the album “Very”: “very energetic, very cheerful, very sad, very romantic, very pop, very danceable and, at times, very funny”. To enhance the romantic notes, PET SHOP BOYS even added a new verse to the original text:

Here, where you can breathe freely,
We'll be who we want to be
If we stand up for ourselves,
We will find our promised land...

The debate over the meaning of the song was completely confused by the famous video clip, reminiscent of a surreal utopia (or dystopia?) on a Soviet theme. In it we can see how the sky and the Statue of Liberty are painted red, and rows of men in caps and with red flags are marching, we must understand, to the West. Either the communists are calling to conquer the West, or, on the contrary, they are setting a liberal Western vector, or they are generally calling to escape there in search of “Freedom” - understand it as you want...

Chris Lowe:
“...the idea of ​​the song is simple: if you live in the East, then you rush to the West. As well as vice versa."

The musicians themselves also appeared in the video in fancy outfits that turn them into a kind of psychedelic fly agarics. Moreover, in this form they managed to be photographed in the very center of Moscow - on Red Square, Gagarin Square and near the Museum of Cosmonautics (in 1992, PET SHOP BOYS became special guests invited to the opening of the Russian MTV channel).
If we consider that in 1993 only fragments remained of the USSR, then it is clear that such a video could not contain anything other than irony (well, and the clearly gay young men marching in leggings looked like a mockery).

Despite this, the song was loved both in the West and here. I especially liked the musical harmony - C G Am Em F C Dm7 G, in which our ears could easily hear... the anthem of the USSR, except perhaps played more slowly. In fact, similar harmonies were used even before the anthem and “Go West.” It is enough to turn at least to the work of 1694 - the canon of “D major” - by the German composer Johann Pachelbel.

Chris Lowe:
“...we didn’t even suspect it until we recently heard your anthem. I was shocked how similar it was to the beginning of our song. But then we really wanted all sorts of parallels with Russia and even decided to make a video clip for this song in Moscow.”

The gay vibe hasn't stopped "Go West" from becoming a favorite chant song among football fans, who routinely include the names of their favorite players in the chorus.

"Can You Forgive Her?" (1993)

Concluding the conversation about the album “Very”, I would like to note another wonderful composition called “Can You Forgive Her?” (“Can you forgive her?”).
And in it PET SHOP BOYS distinguished themselves by three of their advantages at once.

Firstly, dramatic music in the best traditions of the hit “It’s A Sin”
Secondly, a “dark” ambiguous text in which the hero complains about his girlfriend. Like, she humiliates him as a man and is constantly jealous of her old love. The twist is that it is unclear who the object of this old love of the hero is - a woman or a man. In general, there is something for gays to sing during the feast...