INTERVIEWS / NEIL / CHRIS / PSB

On behalf of Estonia's Postimees newspaper, Valner Valme interviewed the Pet Shop Boys in 1999. The interview was translated into English by Postimees.

Q: What is the best part of nightlife?

Neil Tennant: Chatting with friends, drinking…
Chris Lowe: Sure…(laughing). You know this stuff!
NT: Also clubbing. Recently we went for the first time to Home which is a new London nightclub, opened last Christmas. You have a fantastic view of West London from the club. An especially cool part of nightlife is also to meet those old friends you haven’t met for a while.
CL: Doing the clubs could be an experience which changes your life, like for instance you see completely different lifestyles. Like I did at a club called Paradise Garage in New York. It was the first club without alcohol I have ever been to. Just dancing… For me this was a completely new world as I’m used to partying in a different way, I was also impressed a few years ago by a massive field-rave.

Q: By the picture media has been painting, you should be polite, quiet and intelligent guys who are as well a bit arrogant. I would say that, except for intelligence, this picture is disappearing …

CL: Hahaha…! Neil can actually be a real handful, he topples chairs, sometimes even beats up people.
NT: Well, I sometimes do act like a football hooligan. But Chris goes mad at times, too.

Q: Could you give us some funny stories happened to you?

NT: OK, in the mid-80’s I was at this party in Hollywood and got really mad with one guy there. He was rude. Well, I was wearing steel-soled boots and booted him in the arse. (Chris is laughing without a break hearing the story.)
Also, I remember in 1988 we had been invited to a TV-show in Germany, we were No.1 there for the second or third week. Our lodgings were without any luxury at all, whilst the organisers stayed in suites. Well,…we arranged a small mess in our room (giggling).

Q: What you used to do when being bored about pop music?

CL: (getting really serious for the first time) Talking of the modern and typical stuff, I’m not into that at all. There more stress on production than music itself. Every single step is dictated by a manager, producers make the music and artists just hop on the stage like puppets. Such a manufactured product is bullshit.
NT: I like the early 80’s as far as pop music goes. People then had something to say, they had excitement, enthusiasm, energy…

Q: What could we expect from experienced Pet Shop Boys on 21st Century?

NT: Our death. This is the most certain thing to happen to us this century.
CL: I don’t think we’ll become like the Beatles… that someone like Yoko Ono once finds an unreleased single from the bottom of some drawer – yes, yes, yes!!!

Q: You will soon come to Estonia. Are you interested at all to see any new countries?

NT: I have been in Finland before. If Estonia is anything like Finland, I will like it very much. I’ve been thinking about a holiday somewhere there. By the way, this tour will bring us to many places we are going to for the first time. Like Greece, Israel… we expect a lot as well from Ukraine…
Postimees newspaper - Estonia