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08/07 Brighton Centre Pet
Shop Boys, Brighton Centre, July 8 Pet
Shop Boys: Unusual passion In an interview to promote the single It's A Sin, he said: "I can't see the point really. I quite like the idea of being on the coach, having the meal in the lobby and wrecking the mini-bar. "The only thing I don't like the idea of is being on stage and having to sing for a rather long time." But even Neil seemed to enjoy himself last night. The new songs, in particular, were belted out with an unusually unmannered passion which sometimes sounded more Oasis than Pet Shop Boys. And the singer boogied around with abandon, employing an endearing dance manoeuvre reminiscent of the back pocket-tapping Asda advert. As ever, Chris Lowe lurked in the background with a baseball hat pulled low over his eyes. But even he seemed to be enjoying himself. The new single I Get Along shows what incredible staying power this band have. They have been around since the mid-Eighties but their new songs still sound fresh and their old songs still sound good. There's no need to rely on nostalgia to inspire loyalty and affection - and that is pretty unusual in our retro-obsessed age. I Get Along is an anthemic scarf-waver of a song, very different in style to the early hits. It's more rocky, with a few licks of the wah-wah guitar to roughen it up a bit. Live, it sounds great. The Pet Shop Boys played four or five songs from their newest album, Release. London got a rapturous reception and Birthday Boy is a clever track but Love Is A Catastrophe was the most powerful; a torch-song about the perils of love and with the same anthemic feel as I Get Along. But, of course, it was the old classics that enraptured the audience, from a brilliant version of Go West to You Were Always On My Mind, West End Girls and It's a Sin. It's
never been cool to like the Pet Shop Boys. But unlike most of their
"cooler" late-Eighties contemporaries, they are still
around - and their music just keeps getting better. |
