UK pop duo Pet Shop Boys bring their lavish stage show to Hong Kong
Veteran British electro-pop maestros return with a lavish new show
are something of a paradox — a mainstream band that consistently comes up with fascinating lyrics; a totally polished dance-pop act with a rebellious punk sensibility; an irresistibly danceable high-NRG disco band famous for standing entirely motionless on stage; and 1980s synthpop artists that have never broken up or stopped touring.
Among the most unusual acts to have achieved popular success, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe didn't break into the mainstream from another genre, but immediately positioned themselves as a hit-making pop act. A Hong Kong audience will discover all this at their gig at AsiaWorld-Expo on September 26
After coming to prominence in the mid-1980s, they scored a string of hits during what Tennant has called their "imperial phase" between 1986 and 1988.
We wondered how it was going to go down in China. But it was amazing — there were girls screaming, and people with iPads flashing Union Jacks
, the song that broke them, established the template of highly danceable synthpop that was also brooding and evocative, overlaid with Tennant's utterly distinctive, ambiguous spoken-word verses about inner-city life.
Tennant jokes that the song was the UK's first rap number one.
Among many others, it was followed by , a satire of 1980s consumerist excess; , Tennant's excoriating take on his Catholic-school upbringing; , which revived the career of Dusty Springfield; and their cover of Wayne Carson's .
But it wasn't until 1989 that they played their first gig — and it was in Hong Kong. "It was our first ever full-length concert, it was in an arena, and it was quite nerve-wracking," says Tennant of the show, which was designed by the late Derek Jarman. "There are pictures of us before and after, and you can see the relief on our faces."
The show didn't end well for everyone: the colonial authorities weren't happy about a scene in the video accompanying in which two men kissed. "The projectionist was supposed to cover it with his hand, but he didn't, and as we were leaving Hong Kong the promoter was getting arrested," says Tennant.
When the number one hits dried up, the band might have been expected to gradually fade away. Instead they roared back to prominence in the early 1990s, largely thanks to two more covers, both of which completely reframed the originals.
They pretty much invented the mash-up a decade early, hilariously spiking U2's with Frankie Valli's . But the real turning point was 1993's version of Village People's , a gay anthem they turned into a song about the uncertainties surrounding the fall of communism in Europe that has gone on to become the world's least likely football chant.
The band have released 12 albums since, constantly reinventing their sound, from restrained, downbeat electronica to lavishly produced orchestral pop to sparse, guitar- and piano-driven ballads.
As well as projects such as musicals, classical compositions and ballet, they have toured lavish stage shows, created by architect Zaha Hadid and set designer Es Devlin.
Devlin developed the futuristic aesthetic of the current Electric Tour, which features dancers and a projection screen on stage with the band. The tour, in its second year, has just notched up 100 gigs, including the band's first performances in Beijing and Shanghai. Tennant says he was nervous that the audiences might not be familiar with the music.
He needn't have worried. "We wondered how it was going to go down in China. But it was amazing — there were girls screaming, and people with iPads flashing Union Jacks."
The tour began before the album from which it takes its name was released. The exuberant , a characteristic change of direction after 2012's restrained , was produced by dance-pop maestro Stuart Price, aka Jacques Lu Cont, Les Rhythmes Digitales and Thin White Duke. The band's bestselling album in their homeland for 20 years, Tennant says it is also the best-reviewed they've ever released.
In addition to releasing two albums in less than a year and embarking on a mammoth two-year tour, Pet Shop Boys have also been busy with their other musical interests. These have included performances of their new soundtrack to Sergei Eisenstein's silent film classic with the Dresdner Sinfoniker, and , a 2010 ballet based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale.
Their most recent project, , created for the annual BBC Proms series of mostly classical concerts, was a classically orchestrated tribute to Alan Turing, the computer pioneer. Turing's work on code breaking played a major role in helping the Allies win the second world war, but he was later cruelly persecuted for homosexuality by British authorities.
"The concert was completely scary, simply because of the technical challenge, with all of the electronic gear, plus the BBC Concert Orchestra," says Tennant.
"The whole thing's on the radio, and you don't want to screw up on the radio, because people will hear it all around the world. And because of the technical challenges, we'd only heard the whole thing once before."
Among other unnerving gigs was their performance at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics playing which reunited them with their instantly recognisable conical dunce caps of the early 1990s. "The organisers wanted the pointy hats," says Tennant.
"You're being watched around the world, and when we came on in rickshaws, it felt unsteady: I was worried the wheel was going to come off." After that, AsiaWorld-Expo shouldn't present any problems.
