Pet Shop Boys: The Band That Likes to Say "Yes"

2009. After 25 years as a duo, it would be fair to ask yourself, does the world need a new Pet Shop Boys album? Well, “Yes” is probably not the first answer you would give but “Yes” IS the title of their latest album. The affirmative nature of the title follows on through the 11 tracks, every one given a glossy pop sheen by Xenomania, the team behind Girls Aloud. To these ears, it’s not a classic PSB album; whilst consistently good throughout the production seems to iron out and peaks and lows. There are all the catchy hooks you’d expect from a collaboration between the kings of chart pop past and present, but somehow the sum of the parts doesn’t quite add up. There are no bizarre-but-it-works three choruses in one songs like “Biology”, for example – it’s almost as if the two parties have cancelled each other out.

What “Yes” has got though is Tennant & Lowe’s confidence and belief in what they do. When it’s good it’s very good indeed. Opening with the single “Love etc.” which is already a classic, the album confidently ploughs ahead with the lovely “All Around The World”, and then guitar strummer “Beautiful People” which is perfect for Radio 2. The second single “Did You See Me Coming?” sums up the album – it’s good but not spectacular. “Vulnerable” is a low point, one good chorus looking for a song – beating us into submission with it does not a song make. The album doesn’t really pick up again until "Building a Wall" and the excellent “Pandemonium” and “The Way It Used To Be”. Then the bizarre “Legacy” ends the album on the wrong foot – it’s the only thing here that feels out of place, it doesn’t really fit. “Yes” hasn’t got the range of songs and moods you’d expect from Tennant & Lowe, ala “Behaviour” or 2006’s adventurous “Fundamental”, and it’s certainly not as “pop” as “Very” (but what ever could be?). But after 25 years you could expect far far worse from a band (hi Duran Duran!) and thankfully this is far from being poor.

So where do Neil & Chris fit in the current pop landscape? Since 1993’s “Very” their record sales have diminished and they have a hardcore fan base (including myself) who’ll buy everything and therefore they’ll still be in the charts, albeit usually for a couple of weeks before dropping like a stone in water (or “Morrissey-syndrome” as it is known). They’ve probably lost a few casual fans over the years with some odd career moves – 2002’s “Release” album being a case in point, we don’t want PSB all melancholic and playing real instruments for gawd’s sake. Fortunately that was just a phase they had to go through and they were back on form with the greatest hits “PopArt” & then the Trevor Horn produced “Fundamental”. Neither of these sold amazingly though. But here in the 21st century, it’s not all about record sales…

Back in the day, Pet Shop Boys were legendary for not being able to cut it live, as they admitted. It wasn’t until 1989 that they ventured out onto their first tour – the problem for them being that they hate rock shows. As Chris said, once you get past the first 20 minutes you’re bored. Therefore they set out to make their shows a little different from what went before, but would only go out on tour when it was financially viable for them to do so. Their first tour was co-directed by the late Derek Jarman, with elaborate costumes and his own back projected films, as well as having Courtney Pine jazzing all over the shop. It was different but far from the ideal extravaganza they envisiged.

1990 saw the release of their most melancholic and "down" album thus far, "Behaviour" so what happens with the supporting tour? What could only be described as one of the best shows any band has ever put together, and a million miles away from the inward looking parent album. “Performance” saw PSB create their own little world on stage, where Neil & Chris became performers in a journey from youth to death and beyond, eschewing onstage instruments (boring) for costume changes, sets, dancers & backing singers – it was an event, which I can’t do justice to here in print. Get the DVD. Tennant & Lowe at the the end of their imperial phase.

This tour cost them a small fortune, which they were prepared for, but it meant that we wouldn’t see it’s like again for a while. What it did show though to the world was that Pet Shop Boys COULD cut it live, and when you saw them you’d get your money’s worth.

The following tours could only skulk about in the shadows of “Performance” – like U2 with “ZooTV” & “Popmart”, where do you do go when you’ve put on a tour like that? For PSB, it was the "DiscoVery" tour of the Southern Hemisphere, and then 1997's residency in London's West End. Not as spectacular but these tours saw them getting to grips with being a proper live act. The 1999 “Nightlife” tour saw them playing big massive arenas for the first time, and being bloody good at it. They then experimented with smaller, more intimate traditional shows in 2002 on their "Release" tour, befitting the music they were playing at the time. But at some point the wigs and costumes had to come out of the box again, and in 2006 the “Fundamentalism” tour was a triumph, celebrating their confident & strong new album whilst playing the hits as well. So good I saw it twice (see here for my earlier blog article). It was becoming noticeable at these shows that they were picking up more of the “non-we’s”, those people who see an advert for the tour, remember they used to love “West End Girls” & “It’s a Sin” and buy tickets for themselves & the missus. In trying not to do the traditional rock group live thang… Pet Shop Boys became one. They release albums and then do a tour to support it, but really nobody other than themselves & the hardcore fan need another album, they just want to see a great show.

Nobody would blame Neil & Chris for gong out there each night and just banging out the hits, putting little effort into the whole show. They’d still sell tickets and do well. But these are the Pet Shop Boys we’re talking about. That would be too easy… and lazy.

And so we come to Thursday 18th June. Manchester Apollo. Typically raining outside. And at 8:00 pm the auditorium is packed out, the crowd putting up with what I can only describe as “noise” from support act Frankmusik, though this may be down to the dodgy acoustics rather than the band. It’s unsurprising that it’s so busy – “Yes” has been the Pet Shop Boys best performing album since 1993, bolstered by that amazing performance at the Brit Awards in February seen by 8 million people, quite a few of which will have bought tickets for this show and the bigger one at the O2 arena in London. (Of course, “Yes” has a white sleeve and all white sleeve PSB albums do well – fact… ish.)

9:00 prompt and the lights drop, and the stage set lights up – this time based on Farrow’s simple but effective coloured square cover design for the album. Neil & Chris emerge from giant cubes onto the stage with similar cubes obscuring their heads, as do the two backing singers, moving in a way reminiscent of the performers in New Order’s “True Faith” video. Before we know it, they’re blasting out the classic “Heart” – the acoustics are pretty bad I must say, it’s all booming bass but it improves – before moving onto “Did You See Me Coming?” which sounds great live. The projections onto the giant cubes on stage are fabulous, all in the style of the coloured squares of the album – it’s like someone’s gone mad with a ZX Spectrum.

Neil says little during the show, as ever, apart from letting us know it’s great to be back in Manchester, and that they’d been to Selfridges. Bless. “Love etc” sees Chris being more animated than usual, bouncing slightly at his keyboard – the animated visuals of the video blending perfectly into the set.

Just as you think that’s all there is to the show (ahh, the 20 minute mark) during “Building A Wall” the cubes come crashing down Pink Floyd style to reveal a bigger wall backdrop, and two dancers giving a gymnastic interpretation of “Go West” on podiums. At this point you find yourself lost in the beautifully colourful “Yes” world that Tennant & Lowe have created – this is genius. Ace backroom boffin & Madonna producer Stuart Price’s reinterpretations of their back catalogue for this tour pay off big style, as samples from one song find themselves in another, casting a fresh new spotlight on old favourites - the drums from “Paninaro” forming the backbeat for “Go West” for example.

We then enter the “New York” phase of the show, going right back to 86 with a couple of “Please” era electro classics not played live before “Two Divided By Zero” & “Why Can’t We Live Together”. We even got a bit of Chris Lowe dancing, which is always a joy. This part of the set ended with a stunning reinterpretation of “Left To My Own Devices” followed by the ever popular “Always On My Mind”.

Chris got a chance to show off his piano skills in the “Ballet” section, with a beautiful straight rendition of loved b-side “Do I Have To” & the still spine tingling “King’s Cross”. One of the show highlights followed with “Jealousy” performed with a mesmerising background ballet by two of the dancers, visualizing the song’s undercurrent of violence to outstanding effect.

The crowd favourite “Suburbia” kicked off the final section of the show, with Chris pounding away on the drums, followed by a Latin-America influenced medley of tunes incorporating their last REALLY big hit “Se A Vida E” and a cover of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” which got the neutrals in crowd singing. Should be a single lads, do it. An up to date revamp of “It’s A Sin” accompanied by more dancing and brilliant backing vocals from the dancers and singers respectively closed the show in glorious style.

This had been a show which even the most jaded onlooker would say was bloody brilliant. Full marks has to be given also for the stage design, which was never the same two songs running, always moving, never being boring. We were never being bored. Which just happened to be the first song of the encore, beautifully performed entirely straight, with just a bit of subtle grey lighting on the set, and Neil in classic PSB garb. Perfect.

How to end the show? How it all started back in late 1985 with their first hit, the number one single “West End Girls”, performed partly this time in it’s “Disco” version, complete with backing singers and dancers in suits carrying brollys and papers, harking back to the “Performance” shows long ago. Simple but brilliant.

In my opinion, this show is the equal to “Performance”, which I never thought I’d say. In some ways it’s the perfect vision of “Pop Art” – it’s a show which always entertains, is brilliant musically, and visually is stunning. Never dumb, never over clever, Pet Shop Boys treat the audience with respect and give you the show they would enjoy – if it’s interests them it’ll more than interest us.

At the end of the 100 minute show you can only look at Messrs Tennant & Lowe and say “You clever bastards. You’ve done it again.” Neil tells the crowd “We’ll be back in December”. So will we. MEN Arena, December 20th. See you at Christmas Pandemonium.

The set list:

More Than A Dream/Heart
Did You See Me Coming?
Pandemonium/Can You Forgive Her?
Love Comes Quickly
Love Etc.
Integral/Building a Wall
Go West
Two Divided By Zero
Why Don't We Live Together?
Closer To Heaven
Left To My Own Devices
Always On My Mind
Do I Have To?
King's Cross
The Way It Used to Be
Jealousy
Suburbia
All Over The World
Domino Dancing
Se A Vida E
Discoteca
Viva La Vida
It's a Sin
Encore:
Being Boring
West End Girls