Pet Shop Boys

The Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic pop duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards and occasional vocals. The Pet Shop Boys have sold 50 million records worldwide, and are listed as the most successful duo in UK music history by The Guinness Book of Records.  Three-time Brit Award winners and six-time Grammy nominees, since 1985 they have achieved 42 Top 30 singles and 22 Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart, including four number ones: "West End Girls", "It's a Sin", "Always on My Mind" and "Heart".

Links To Peel

In the 1980s Peel was somewhat dismissive of the band's material (probably bracketing them with other acts who were popular at the expense of making worthwhile recordings). Nonetheless, in the 1987 Smash Hits Readers Poll Neil Tennant voted Peel as "Best DJ". [1]. At the turn of the century, he hinted that he was revising his attitude towards the Boys:

"If you were listening on Thursday night, we had some few moments, not enough really, with the Pet Shop Boys," (27 June 2000)

following this with a cover version of their recent hit New York City Boy. On 03 October 2002 he mentioned why he'd invited the duo for a session, which was broadcast on 10 October 2002:

"It came about really as a result of me reading an article in a newspaper somewhere I think, which confirmed that by and large I think their attitude to most things is pretty sound. And it occurred to me as I was reading it that they might just be up for doing a session for the programme, and this turned out to be the case."

However, the band claim that the session came about as a result of Anita Kamath seeing them at Sonar, liking their material and booking them as a result. ^[1] Additionally, Neil remembered:

"When I moved from my flat to my house in London in 1992, one of the people doing the moving was John Peel's daughter (Alexandra), and he came up to me in the BBC and said to me, 'you made a cup of tea for my daughter the other day...you made her a cup of Earl Grey.' I think he was one of those people who assumed that pop stars behave like complete arseholes the whole time, maybe because of his experiences with those he'd championed and been dumped by."

Live

• 24 June 2000: live from Glastonbury in extra Saturday show ^[2]

1. I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Anymore
2. Suburbia
3. Can You Forgive Her?
4. Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is)
5. Rent
6. You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk
7. Paninaro
8. Left To My Own Devices
9. Young Offender
10. New York City Boy
11. What Have I Done To Deserve This? (guest appearance by Cerys Matthews of Catatonia)
12. Positive Role Model
13. It's A Sin / I Will Survive
14. West End Girls
15. Go West

Sessions 

1. Recorded: 2002-10-02. First Broadcast: 10 October 2002. 'A Powerful Friend' and 'If Looks Could Kill' available on Release / Further Listening 2001–2004 (Parlophone). Long unavailable as an official release, a CDr of the tapes was given as a prize in a Radio 1 competition and subsequently leaked onto the Internet.

• London / If Looks Could Kill / A Powerful Friend / Try It (I'm In Love With A Married Man)

Mentioned On Shows

1989

• 08 November 1989: After playing 'Move' by Inspiral Carpets: "As heard on the Steve Wright programme only yesterday afternoon, and somebody reminded me yesterday that I'd said if I ever heard Inspiral Carpets on Steve Wright's programme, I'd play the Pet Shop Boys on this programme. Well I'm not going to, at least not tonight anyway."

External Links

• Wikipedia
• Official Site

Footnotes

1. ↑ This and subsequent references from booklet provided with Release / Further Listening 2001–2004 (Parlophone).
2. ↑ This is the complete setlist. Lacking audio of this show, it is unknown whether all these tracks were actually TX.