Pet Shop Boys, obviously

Liverpool. Never my favourite place in the UK but when one of your favourite bands is playing there on their first tour dates in 4 years, you have to bite the bullet and make the effort to travel to land of bindippers. And so we did.

Summer Pops is a month long series of concerts set each year in a very large tent in the middle of Liverpool docklands, usually featuring MOR/Radio 2 fodder doing their old hits, so to non-fans PSB would seem like the ideal choice for this sort of show. However, Messrs Tennant & Lowe have never been ones to trade on their past and as they were back on form with the superb new “Fundamental” album, it was a no-brainer to head the wrong way down the East Lancs Road to see them.

Bearing in mind I’m an experienced gig-goer, Summer Pops was a bit of an eye-opener. Firstly I was shocked at how easy it was to get to the venue, and how many gigs have you been to where you could safely park opposite the entrance 50 yards away? Not being the most glamourous locale (lovely view of some gravel there) but who cares? It was so civilised! No queues, no aggression, everybody was just chilled. Plus! Plenty of clean toilets!. Great. Not many young fans there, but it wasn’t full of screaming queens as the media would have you believe make up the fan base of PSB (but that’s a rant for another day).

Avoiding the out of tune begging bagpiper on the way in, myself & Celia took advantage of the hot summer evening to potter outside the tent having a quick drinkie, whilst listening to the din of the support act, Client, who were a bit generic electro pop and not really worth bothering with. One tray of chips and a couple of t-shirts later we entered the main arena, to find that our seats were really rather good, with a fine view of the stage (though I did have the obligatory 6ft bloke sat in front of me).This wasn’t going to be a problem though as there was no way anybody would be sitting. Although there were a few thousand people there, it was really quite intimate and personal.

The last PSB show we saw was in 2002, when they were going through their “real band” phase, with no theatrics and musicians on stage. It soon became apparent that this was more like the old “Performance” days, when the two dancers appeared dressed as Neil & Chris, before the real duo wandered onstage opening with the compulsively repetitive “Psychological” from the new album.

What initially looked like a dull stage set soon inventively transformed when they kicked into “Left To My Own Devices” & “I’m With Stupid”, with video projections, lights, and bizarre props (giant cowboy hat? Check. Man dressed as a top hat? Check. Bush & Blair? Check) turning what was a good gig into the best personal party you’ve ever had. Celia had turned into a teenager next to me and was frugging away like it was 1990.

This was PSB having fun. Neil strode the stage all night, giving his all and sounding better than ever whilst Chris stood stage right clad in trademark hat & coat, tinkling away at the synth & probably surfing the net on his Mac, occasionally grinning. Merging new track “Minimal” to the old forgotten classic “Shopping” was an inspired move. For the first time in years they played “Rent” in its original form, and it sounded fresh.

The dancers gave their all, dressing up as gold lame cowboys for “Streets”, wearing flowers on their head whilst popping up from behind gigantic Pythonesque cardboard Chris & Neil heads during “Always On My Mind”. Old hand Sylvia Mason-James complemented the two male backing vocalists fantastically throughout.

Not all fun though. We had the obligatory sit-down where us oldies could rest our dancing feet. “Dreaming Of The Queen” was quite sombre and moving, with video footage of the Diana Funeral procession projected onto the movable stage backdrop. Surprise of the night for me was the album snoozefest “Numb” which came alive on stage, especially poignant as it was used the night before on BBC’s World Cup coverage to accompany the montage of another England failure.

The show ended with possibly the best track off the album, “Integral”, which has instantly become a singalong fave, with Neil enjoying himself dressed as some military dictator. Cue the encore with a Tennant-less version of “So Hard” enabling him to have a costume change in time for the final salvo of “It’s A Sin” & the inevitable “Go West”, which caused an outbreak of chanting and pointing west. And that was just Celia.

The icing on the cake was when we left, sat in the car minding our own business, when a steward knocks on the window, and offers to guide us safely away from the venue through the traffic cones. How nice. I can recommend the Summer Pops to anybody (though anybody who went to watch “Whitesnake” the next night needs help).

Whilst I guess nothing is going to top their “Performance” tour, this was in a league of it's own.


Setlist:
Psychological / Left to my own devices / I’m with Stupid / Suburbia / Minimal / Shopping / Rent / Always on my mind / Where the streets have no name / Home and dry / Numb / Dreaming of the Queen / West End girls / The Sodom and Gomorrah Show / Opportunities (Let's make lots of money) / Integral

Encore:
So Hard (Morales mix) / It’s a sin / Go West