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MUSIC:
Pet Shop Boys As far as hotel wrecking, groupies and guitar smashing goes, the Pet Shop Boys wouldn't be your first choice for the 'bad boys of rock' award. Pet
Shop Boys "Our tours are very rock `n roll anyway, I wouldn't worry about that," said Tennant, now 48. "We had a manager in America who used to manage a lot of big rock bands and he said, 'You are without a doubt the most rock 'n roll people I've ever managed.' We were the most decadent. We had this huge, mad entourage, which gives it this kind of party ambience. It's a bit of a circus. Oh, you'd be really surprised. Heavy metal bands are always in bed by 11 o'clock." In that case, beware when the Pet Shop Boys come to Oxford on Sunday as part of their nationwide tour. Tennant and Lowe are estimated to have made £60 million between them from the 30 million albums sold so far. A truly worldwide success story since forming in 1981, the group's seven previous albums have achieved gold, platinum and/or multi-platinum status all over the world. Famous for being intensely closed about their private lives and failing to dance for the media circus has ensured their elusive air of mystery is still intact. What we do know, beyond the fact that they're both gay, is their previous occupations. Tennant was a journalist for Smash Hits and had a job anglicising spellings for Marvel Comics. Lowe studied as an architect and played trombone in a jazz band called One Under the Eight. "Good," said 43-year-old Lowe firmly when asked about his anonymity. "I like the fact that people don't even recognise me. I don't want people to know anything about me personally. I've never wanted to be a celebrity or to be famous. When we do interviews, they're to explain what we've been doing or to promote the record. It's not to promote ourselves. A lot of pop stars now promote themselves more than their music. The music is like an attachment, in a way." Instead, the Pet Shop Boys' personas are left up to the public's imagination: "Everyone with a degree of exposure gets lumbered with the cartoon version of themselves which you have to live up to," said Tennant. Even so, it is very hard to pigeon hole these two as they don't fit into any music category. Tennant said: "I think Chris and I have always thought that we've never really fitted in with what is happening. We're never part of some kind of scene. "I've always regarded us as being like a cult. People either like us or they don't. We've got a terrific fan base. We have this kind of bizarre thing that people get intrigued by what we do, and then they follow through, even to the side projects, like the musical Closer Than Heaven. Closer To Heaven was not however a success, despite the Pet Shop Boys' huge enthusiasm for their project. "We're trying to do a contemporary play with contemporary music quite true to the reality of clubbing which people who don't normally go to the theatre can relate to," Tennant said at the time, before it closed just four months later. But the Pet Shop Boy are back on form, with their new album receiving rave reviews. The Sunday Times said: "A mere 18 years after West End Girls, Pet Shop Boys return with an album so bursting with inventiveness and controversy that it sounds like a debut....Not to be missed." Release includes I Get Along, about the former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Mandelson, and The Night I Fell In Love, which was inspired by the Eminem controversy. "Nowadays, we think our strength is as songwriters. The album is really divided between personal songs and songs that are just stories, inspired by contemporary events that are in the press and the media," Tennant said. It seems the Pet Shop Boys will never run out of steam. "If you've still got an idea -- which we have," said Tennant, "you can always carry on." The
Pet Shop Boys' appearance at the Apollo on Sunday, July 21, has
sold out. |
