Pet Shop Boys lead singer: I can't stand being called "retro". PET SHOP BOYS - the history of the songs "It's A Sin" (1987), "Heart" (1987), "Go West" (1993) and "Can You Forgive Her?" (1993) Pet shop boys as the title translates

Biography, life story Pet Shop Boys

By a tragic coincidence, Pet Shop Boys have always been considered the long-lived analogue of Modern Talking, although in England Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant are treated with much more respect. All alternative bohemia are their friends, cult director Derek Jarman directed their videos, Johnny Marr from The Smiths plays guitar on their albums, their next disc is rumored to be produced by Brian Eno, and David Bowie and Blur give them songs for remixes. Such an elitist environment does not prevent the Pet Shop Boys' singles from constantly sticking around in the charts, and the "boys" themselves from rejecting the slightest attempts to make them postmodernists. But the duet is perceived perfectly at any level - both as an exquisite mockery and as a melodic disco with intelligent lyrics. The Pet Shop Boys formed in 1981 when music journalist Neil Tennant and architectural college student Chris Lowe met in a music store on King's Road. Neil was already 27, Chris was five years younger.

After several unsuccessful auditions, the famous disco producer from New York, Bobby Orlando, drew the attention of them. With him, the "boys" created their first single "West End Girls". This plastic did not have the slightest success, as well as the next one, Opportunities. However, the Pet Shop Boys managed to secure a contract with EMI, and, reworked by Stephen Hog ​​(who would later become famous for his collaborations with post-punks Siouxsie and James), the West End Girls version suddenly becomes a super hit, reaching number one in England, the States and half a dozen other countries. In 1986, the debut album "Please" was released, the next - probably their most famous song "It" s A Sin ", and they begin to talk about the Pet Shop Boys as one of the most interesting groups of the 80s. The duet brings to pop "music a new image and opens up new, unknown facets of disco, which was already trodden along and across. As it turned out, dance music can be smart and even gloomy. Neil Tennant's detached, emotionless vocals, Chris Lowe's minimalist and hypnotic rhythms are only for the first the eyes seemed gray and colorless, but upon closer examination, they suddenly bloomed with all sorts of colors and dragged the listener into a very special world, from under the dead charm of which it was not so easy to escape. the achievements of their less successful (but more interesting) predecessors for a wide audience. o they valued their status as an alternative group too much to run for fame and money at MTU.

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The ambiguous image and catchy lyrics were also introduced by other Manchester natives The Smiths at the beginning of the decade, but Morrissey and Marr remained true to old-fashioned guitar music, so they were barred from the discotheques. Crossing the latest achievements of the British underground with the utmost commercialization, the Pet Shop Boys have achieved success in the charts, making themselves simultaneously the darlings of the alternative music press. Indeed, mystery is an integral part of the Pet Shop Boys image. How can such talented musicians play despicable disco? Why would a pop group write such ambiguous and ironic lyrics? Who the hell are they really? Maybe just "smart people who hate rock and roll" (literal quote from one of the songs)? In the late 80s, the Pet Shop Boys are experiencing a real heyday - everything that they touch turns to gold. Elvis Presley's old soulful hit "Always On My Mind" "boys" set out to make it as far from the original as possible - and a daring dance single was born that repeated the success of "West End Girls". The star of the 60s, Dusty Springfield, has long forgotten how a hit differs from a candelabra, but no one knows where her dug-out Pet Shop Boys wrote the song “What Have I done To Deserve It?” for the singer, which once again lifted Dusty to the top of the charts. A completely unexpected collaboration with Liza Minnelli results in a very unusual album for both Liza and the “boys” “Results”. Over the years, they also collaborated with Tina Turner and Boy George.

One of the tracks on the "Actually" disc is recorded with Enio Morricone - few disco artists can boast such a stylistic diversity. But closer to the 90s, the disco fashion subsided, and it seemed that the Pet Shop Boys would share the fate of their colleagues on the hit parades of the 80s. They could go into techno, for the development of which they did a lot: “Sound Of Atom Splitting” and a remix of “It's All Right” from the album “Introspec-live” - an acid house classic, but, fortunately, they didn’t. Because that it turned out that they did not need to chase fashion - the Pet Shop Boys formed their own audience, which consisted not only of windy disco-goers. The 1990 disc "Behavior" turned out to be unexpectedly serious, in some ways even depressing. Only the song "So Hard" was a success comparable to their previous achievements, but this album showed the tremendous progress of Neil Tennant as a poet, and the music of "Behavior" turned out to be much more interesting and diverse than on previous albums.Summing up the decade, in 1991 the Pet Shop Boys released the collection "Discography ", the sales of which showed that interest in their music is still great. The album included another interesting cover version - this time the Pet Shop Boys decided to have some fun with the famous U2 hit "Where The Streets Have No Names".

Neil Tennant replaced the emotional anguish and pain for all the sufferers inherent in Bono with his bored indifferent vocals, to top it all, mixing the verses of the original with Andy Williams' frivolous song "Can" t Take My Eyes Off You ". The Pet Shop Boys tour is not even a rare event , but simply exceptional, so the advertising campaign of the records is based on spectacular video clips, on which the leading experts of this genre are involved.Moreover, for each album, a new image, costumes and hairstyles are developed for Chris and Neil. 1993's "Very": colorful jumpsuits and bizarre helmets The duo's record design is a topic for another discussion, but suffice it to say that for the last three projects, the boxes for the discs are specially made: orange for "Very", with a hologram for "Alternative", embossed - for "Bilingual" In the 90s, Pet Shop Boys, having remained, in fact, the only group of the previous decade, did not come out necks in circulation, may no longer care about commercial success, but they still play disco - they are the only ones. It is unlikely that now, on this basis, they can be branded as pop ephemera, and they endured the test of time with honor. The fresh hit of the Pet Shop Boys, sounding from the radio, is as familiar as the change of seasons.

In recent years, the duo's work has taken on new dimensions. The album “Electronic”, which appeared in 1991, was not at all a soundtrack to the famous Soviet television series, but a collaboration between New Order vocalist Bernie Sumner and The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. As it turned out, these musicians did not hold a grudge against the “boys” who took advantage of their ideas, but on the contrary, they retained the warmest attitude towards them: Neil Tennant’s vocals are featured on three songs, and Chris Lowe is also involved on several tracks. "Electronic" was hailed as one of the best records of the coming decade, and the Pet Shop Boys deserved their share of the credit. In 1995, the double CD “Alternative” was released, which collected 30 songs from the reverse sides of the Pet Shop Boys singles, and it turned out that they were hiding genuine masterpieces that were ahead of their time: here is the musical innovation (“I Get Exited”), and the most interesting texts ("Miserablism") and even a dance arrangement of the theme from the "Threepenny Opera" ("What Keeps Mankind Alive").

While recording b-sides, the Pet Shop Boys could not care about commercial success, and "Alternative" turned out to be stronger than any of their numbered album, and it is these songs, and not pompous hits, that will remain in the annals of pop music. In general, this technique, so fashionable in the 90s (putting on the reverse sides of singles not rubbish spoiled by the producer, but songs that are not inferior to the best hits) - it was the Pet Shop Boys that were put into use ten years ago. And in the mouthpiece of the British alternative, the newspaper "New Musical Express" somehow agreed that this is the main contribution of the duo to world culture. In the 90s, they tried to make the first remix, and they approached this problem with the same irony: when the brisk band Blur released the single "Girls & Boys", in which they rather tactlessly mocked the "boys", Chris and Neil were not offended, but rather , offered their version of this song, which can still be heard on the radio. Two years later, when David Bowie for once recorded the brutal and heavy composition "Hallo Spaceboy", the Pet Shop Boys did not lose their heads and made a dance version of this piece, which became David's biggest hit in the last ten years. The album "Bilingual" was released in 1996 and is deservedly considered the pinnacle of their work. Bilingual's music is hip and conservative at the same time - Chris and Neil managed to find the perfect balance of old and new.

The disc shows the whole range of moods, from euphoria (“Se A Vide E”) to fierce melancholy (“Discoteca”), and the entire palette of styles: from orthodox disco of the 80s (“Saturday Night Forever”) to Electricity - a completely experimental thing, which would have sounded unexpected on "Alternative" as well. The record shows a strong influence of Latin American music, and six songs feature Johnny Marr's guitar again. And now, the Moscow concert. This is not the first time the duet has been in Russia - back in 1992 they filmed a video clip for “Go West” on Red Square (the Soviet athletes in this video were portrayed by one New York gay club in full force), and already in 1998 they came to visit Brian Ino to Petersburg. The male choir on the 1997 single "A Red Letter Day" is the choir of the Moscow Academy of Music. The concert took place in Luzhniki - foreign guest performers rarely perform there: alternative groups shake the walls of Gorbushka, "living legends" sprinkle sand on the stage of the Palace of Congresses, which is completely unsuitable for such events. Ticket prices turned out to be divine: from 100 to 400 rubles, but there was no full house, although the stalls were extremely packed.

The audience gathered, although predictable, but nonetheless pleasant - middle class, students, bohemian youth. Or more simply - intelligent people. No marginals and juvenile drug addicts, whose ears immediately prior to the visit of the Pet Shop Boys were delighted by Exploited and Scooter, respectively. A lot of foreigners came - oddly enough, Pet Shop Boys rarely give live performances, and usually in small halls. The concert was delayed by almost an hour, during which the audience was lulled by viscous ambient. Finally, the lights went out and the Pet Shop Boys in blindingly white suits ran out onto the stage, followed by two black women in black, one portly, the other frail. The program started with one of the duo's most famous hits, "It's a Sin". Maintaining their reputation as controversial and mysterious characters, something strange was done from their old hit Pet Shop Boys: not only did the sunny disco somehow imperceptibly change towards the end of the song darkest jungle, so in the middle the black woman, the fatter one, dragged on (she has an excellent voice) “I Will Survive”, the disco hit of the 70s that made Gloria Gaynor famous. we wrote the song with David Bowie a couple of years ago,” Neil Tennant announced, and “Hallo Spaceboy” sounded, and with Bowie’s vocal part, the full Afro-Englishwoman Mrs. Sylvia James coped quite well, and the other, who was fragile, naked, suddenly appeared. .. quite a muscular man.

The concert was generally rich in surprises: for example, the song "Rent" (which already has a rich history: Liza Minnelli recorded it in an orchestral arrangement by Angelo Badalamenti, and a year ago Neil sang it in a duet with Brett Anderson from Suede), Pet Shop Boys performed. .. in acoustics, with one guitar. Modern Talking doesn't know how, that's for sure. Famous cover versions were also played: "Always On My Mind", which also began in acoustics, and "Where The Streets Have No Name", which met with a particularly warm reception from the public. Of the shortcomings of the concert, one can only note the not-best-tuned sound.

Pet Shop Boys have distinguished themselves by good language skills: if the Nazaret group has learned nothing in addition to “thank you” for six visits to us, then Neil Tennant also knows “thank you very much”, “goodbye” and even “I love you”. Despite the assurances of the organizers that the band had prepared a special program for Russia, Pet Shop Boys played the same things as at the summer concerts in London and Turku (Finland), where the author of this text happened to visit. Moreover, not only the order of the songs coincided, but the entire production of the show as a whole. Having performed their new single "Somewhere" (an adaptation of the theme from the musical "West Side Story") at the end of the concert, the duo left, but they, of course, went for an encore - you can't leave Russia without singing "Go West", all the more that in the summer they closed their performances with this song. Hearing the chords of the popularly beloved composition, the whole stadium jumped up from their seats - the Pet Shop Boys left the stage in triumph. “Applause turning into a standing ovation. Shouts of "Hurrah!" Everybody get up” - something like this.

Discography: Please (1986) Actually (1987) Introspective (1988) Behavior (1990) Very (1993) Relentless (1993) Alternative (1995) Bilingual (1996) Nightlife (1999) Release (2002)

Fact #2926

This song borrows the chord progression from the "Canon in D Major" written by the German Baroque organist Johann Pachelbel around 1694.

The chord progression (C, G, A minor, E minor, F, C, D minor seventh, G) is well heard at the beginning of the song in the Pet Shop Boys version, but the tempo of the song is much slower than in the classical piece.

Also, this chord progression underlies the chorus of the anthem of the Soviet Union (music by Alexander Alexandrov), and the introduction of the Pet Shop Boys version emphasizes this similarity, which also reinforces the "Soviet" theme of the song.

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Download MP3: Pachelbel's Canon in D Major played on guitar

About the song Heart

Fact #2927

Initially, the Pet Shop Boys wanted to give this song to Madonna, but they hesitated for a long time. Then they changed the policy of working with their songs and began to perform all their songs themselves.

About the song Heart

Fact #2928

The original mix of the song contained a guitar part and was considerably longer. The Pet Shop Boys were invited to work on the song by producer and sound engineer Julian Mendolson. He removed the guitar from the song, deeming the part "too complex", and then accidentally erased part of the song.

Source: Neil Tennant for the book 1000 UK Number One Hits

About the song Heart

About Go West

About Go West

Fact #2925

The phrase "Go West, young man" (Forward to the West, youth) appeared in the 19th century and became the motto of the colonization of Western America. In the late 1970s, when the song was released by the Village People, it was widely seen as a celebration of sexual freedom in San Francisco, specifically gay freedom. At the same time, the songwriters themselves denied that they meant this topic.

Performed by the Pet Shop Boys (1993), the song took on a completely different meaning: the video shows a dystopian gray communist world with red stars, monuments to Lenin and Gagarin and other Soviet symbols, from which people "escape" somewhere to the West. That is, the song was read as a story about the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Until the fall of 1981, the paths of Neil and Chris did not intersect, and each of them lived his own life. Both of them were born into middle-class families, but despite this, they were very different families.

Neil Francis Tennant

Born July 10, 1954 in the UK, a suburb of Newcastle - the north of the country. The older sister is Susan. Two younger brothers - Simon and Philip. He studied at the monastery school of St. Cuthbert's Catholic Grammar School in Newcastle, studied history at the Polytechnic in London, worked as an editor at Marvel Comics and a journalist at Smash Hits.

Christopher Sean Lowe

Born October 4, 1959 in the UK, Blackpool. He studied at Arnold School and studied architecture at Liverpool University. He is a licensed architect, but did not work by profession.

Until the fall of 1981, the paths of Neil and Chris did not intersect, and each of them lived his own life. Both of them were born into middle-class families, but despite this, they were very different families. Neil started writing songs at a very early age and formed his first band, Dust, when he was 16 years old, after which he entered North London Polytechnic where he studied history and socialism. Then he changed several jobs - he was a book editor, worked at Marvel Comics until he became a journalist at Smash Hits. Chris followed in the footsteps of his family, which had musical roots. He learned to play the trombone and performed in a band called "One Under the Eight" that imitated the styles of the likes of Hello Dolly and Moon River. At 18, he went to study architecture at the University of Liverpool. But, one day, on August 19, 1981, in one of the music stores in London, namely on King Road, they noticed each other ...

Neil went to the store to buy some supplies for his synthesizer and noticed a guy who was "laughing a lot" and his name was Chris Lowe. Chris himself ended up in this store also by chance - at that time he passed the practice and erected a staircase not far from this store.

Chris recalls: "We were talking about emerging American pop music and we had such different ideas about music that we spontaneously decided to team up and invent something new!" But then, through the fault of Chris, everything suddenly burst! "Pet Shop Boys" almost didn't happen! Out of guilt towards his parents, who used their food to save money for Chris' expensive education, he returned to Liverpool to continue his studies. But Neil did not lag behind him: for 2 years, both sent song projects to each other by mail and made demo recordings during the holidays. They called themselves the "Pet Shop Boys" because the London friends Chris stayed with during his visits kept a pet shop. Finally, the big chance came with Neil's work in "Smash Hits". In August 1983 he had to fly to New York for an interview with Sting. Famous dance producer Bobby Orlando ("Divine", "Lisa Lisa", "Cult Jam"), a big idol of both "Pet Shop Boys", also lived there. Neil arranged a meeting with Bobby and talked to him for so long until Bobby agreed to release the single. April 1984 Chris and Neil recorded "West End Girls" in New York, which became an American club hit. The impulsive Neil immediately quit his magazine, Chris still successfully passed the exam.

In 1985 Chris moved to London. "That's when I finally decided to become a professional musician," says Chris. "Neil and I decided to re-record our US hit 'West End Girls' and release it in the UK." The idea turned out to be very successful, the song became "number one" on both sides of the Atlantic, and the Pet Shop Boys were named the best composers in Britain. After the success of the first single, Pet Shop Boys began to be invited to concerts in all countries of the world, but the guys were in no hurry to go on tour. "What kind of stupidity is it for a dance group to perform in a stadium? - say the Pets, - We play disco music, not rock and roll." Perhaps this explains the fact that in the entire history of the group she toured the UK only three times. Neil joked about this: "We would tour, it's just hard for us to find a good drummer."

Albums:

INTROSPECTIVE (1988)

BEHAVIOR (1990)

DISCOGRAPHY [compilation] (1991)

RELENTLESS (1993)

ALTERNATIVE (1995)

BILINGUAL (1996)

ORIGINALS (1998)

On the one hand, the music of the British duo PET SHOP BOYS is, of course, pop. On the other hand, it always stood out against the general background of pop music - everything was done so inventively, openly and tastefully.
If you add here the exquisite, often surreal video clips and lyrics that go far beyond "I love you, my baby", then it becomes clear why Western critics call the duo's work "intellectual pop".

"It's a Sin" (1987)

The name of the group PET SHOP BOYS is translated as "Pet Shop Boys". However, these guys met in a completely different store - a music store. It happened back in 1981. Despite the fact that the tastes of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe turned out to be quite different, they were united by an interest in synthesizers and electronic music.

Neil Tennant:
“…we have different tastes, but that is what PET SHOP BOYS is all about. Chris listens more to dance music, and I prefer classical music, so the result is dance music with strings.”

Before running to conquer the general public, the guys prudently spent a couple of years preparing musical material, writing many songs during this time that later became hits.
In 1983, Bobby Orlando became the duo's first producer. However, the first singles like "West End Girls" and "Opportunities" were not successful. Then the PET SHOP BOYS go under the wing of a larger company EMI and re-release the same songs. And immediately the result is obvious. The song "West End Girls" becomes No. 1, both in Britain and the USA, immediately striking the audience not only with music, but also with an unusual "dark" text, the interpretation of which is still being fought by the duo's fans. Suffice it to say that among the sources of inspiration for "Girls from the West End" the musicians mentioned the poem "The Waste Land" by a very difficult poet T. S. Eliot.

Neil Tennant:
“I tried to bring elements to the lyrics outside of the normal pop clichés. …What we at PET SHOP BOYS have always tried to bring are themes from the world outside of pop music, themes that are not usually present in it. Like THE BEATLES did with 'Eleanor Rigby', 'Yellow Submarine'...themes never existed in pop music before."

However, the Soviet people recognized and fell in love with PET SHOP BOYS with the release of their second album “Actually” in 1987. The main hit of the disc was the dramatic song "It's A Sin" ("It's a sin"), written back in 1982.

It so happened that Lowe was playing some theme on the synthesizer, and it seemed to Tennant that the music was playing "very religious".
Religious notes immediately inspired Neal with memories of his time at St. Cuthbert's Catholic School - memories, I must say, not very pleasant ones. Thus was born a text denouncing moral despotism.

At school I was taught to be
Chaste in thought, word and deed,
But they didn't succeed...

...Everything I've ever done
Everything I ever do
Every place I've been
Wherever I'm going
It is a sin!

To complete the overall picture, the musicians added the text of the Catholic prayer of repentance at the end. Of course, such a song was very disliked by many of Tennant's former school teachers. But the listeners appreciated it - the single "It's A Sin" became No. 1 in Britain and No. 9 in the USA.

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe in the studio during the recording of Actually.

Bonuses to the song were also added by a costume clip, where a certain Inquisition calls for repentance, chained hero Tennant (Low plays the role of his jailer). In addition, the seven deadly sins appear on the screen in different guises: anger, vanity, voluptuousness, laziness, gluttony, greed and envy.

Later, given the duo's sexuality, "It's A Sin" was interpreted as a pro-gay song. Although the musicians themselves have always refuted such narrow interpretations.

Neil Tennant:
“Our songs are more about ambiguity. In addition, we are also listened to by many heterosexuals who also appreciate and understand the lyrics of our songs.”

The only thing that overshadowed the success of the song was the accusation of plagiarism. It was put forward by producer and broadcaster Jonathan King, stating that the melody of "It's A Sin" was borrowed from Cat Stevens' song "Wild World" in 1971.<сравнить >. King even did some mixing by recording the PET SHOP BOYS song along with Stevens' lyrics. The sequence of chords for the two songs was really similar, but this happens all the time in music (otherwise the musician will not breathe). And since Stevens himself did not put forward any claims, the duet even managed to sue King for monetary compensation for libel.

Heart (1988)

By the way, about plagiarism. Remember Oleg Gazmanov's song about the dog Lucy, which was sung by his son Rodion? It is enough to compare its chorus with the chorus of the PET SHOP BOYS composition "Heart" ("Heart") to understand - who, from whom and when adopted<сравнить >.

Actually, PET SHOP BOYS wrote this song back in 1986, and it was originally called "Heartbeat". At first, the musicians wanted to give it to some singer like Hazell Dean or Madonna. Maybe it is for this reason that the text of "Heart" came out unpretentious - just about love (the duet has almost no such songs). However, for some reason, no one wanted to perform the song, and PET SHOP BOYS released it themselves. As it turned out, not in vain.

The song was accompanied by another memorable clip, which takes place in Transylvania (in fact, the shooting took place in Slovenia in the Mokrice castle). The hero of Neil Tennant brings his bride to the castle, but she cannot resist the magic of the old but charismatic Prince Dracula.

In 1988, "Heart" topped the British charts, but at the same time, oddly enough, became the duo's last No. 1 hit. That's just places in the charts often mean nothing at all. So PET SHOP BOYS will record their most famous song much later…

"Go West" (1993)

After waiting out NIRVANA's grunge revolution, by 1993 dance music was back on its feet. And again among the flagships of this direction were PET SHOP BOYS, who recorded one of their most famous albums "Very".

The main hit of the album was a cover version of the song "Go West" ("Let's go to the West!"). The song was first released back in 1979 by the disco group VILLAGE PEOPLE - the same one to whose hit "YMCA" my generation famously danced in discos. But we didn’t hear anything about “Go West” performed by them, the song didn’t gain much popularity then.

On the lips of VILLAGE PEOPLE, this phrase turned into a call to go to the West Coast - to the city of San Francisco, known for its free morals. Critics immediately tried to interpret the song as purely gay, although the musicians themselves have always denied such fabrications.
But then the PET SHOP BOYS version came out, and the gay halo shone with renewed vigor…

The British duo put a lot of work into the arrangement of "Go West". Instead of a rollicking version of VILLAGE PEOPLE, we have an atmospheric and hymn-like composition, which is well described by Tennant's phrase about the album "Very": “very energetic, very funny, very sad, very romantic, very pop, very danceable and, in places, very funny”. To enhance the romantic notes, PET SHOP BOYS even added a new verse to the original text:

Here, where you breathe freely,
We will be who we want to be
If we stand up for ourselves
We will find our promised land...

Disputes over the meaning of the song were finally confused by the famous video clip, reminiscent of a surrealistic utopia (or dystopia?) on the Soviet theme. In it, we can see how the sky and the Statue of Liberty turn red, and rows of men in caps and with red flags are marching, it must be understood, to the West. Either the communists are calling to conquer the West, or, on the contrary, they are setting a liberal Western vector, or they are even calling to flee there in search of "Freedom" - understand it as you wish ...

Chris Lowe:
“... the idea of ​​the song is simple: if you live in the East, then you rush to the West. As well as vice versa."

The musicians themselves were noted in the video in bizarre outfits that turn them into a kind of psychedelic fly agaric. Moreover, in this form they managed to shoot in the very center of Moscow - on Red Square, Gagarin Square and at the Museum of Cosmonautics (in 1992, PET SHOP BOYS became special guests invited to the opening of the Russian MTV channel).
If we take into account that in 1993 only fragments remained from the USSR, then, it is clear that such a video could contain nothing but irony (well, the clearly gay-type young men marching in leggings looked just a mockery).

Despite this, the song fell in love, both in the West and in our country. I especially liked the musical harmony - C G Am Em F C Dm7 G, in which our ear could easily hear ... the anthem of the USSR, perhaps played more slowly. In fact, this harmony was used even before the anthem and "Go West". It is enough to turn at least to the work of 1694 - the canon "D major" - by the German composer Johann Pachelbel.

Chris Lowe:
“...we didn't even know about it until recently we heard your anthem. I was shocked how similar it was to the beginning of our song. But at that time we really wanted any parallels with Russia and even decided to make a video clip for this song in Moscow.”

The gay halo didn't stop "Go West" from becoming the favorite chant song of football fans, who usually insert the names of their favorite football players into the chorus.

Can You Forgive Her? (1993)

Concluding the conversation about the album "Very", I would like to note another wonderful composition called "Can You Forgive Her?" ("Can you forgive her?").
And in it, PET SHOP BOYS distinguished themselves by three of their advantages at once.

Firstly, with dramatic music in the best traditions of the hit "It's A Sin"
Secondly, a "dark" ambiguous text in which the hero complains about his girlfriend. Like, she humiliates him like a man, and is constantly jealous of her old love. The highlight lies in the fact that it is not clear who the object of this old love of the hero is a woman or a man. In general, there is something for gays to sing during a feast ...

1. Prior to Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant worked as a music journalist and Chris Lowe studied architecture. They first met in August 1981 at a musical instrument store, where Neil was shopping for parts for his synthesizer and Chris was looking at the shelves, laughing hysterically. It was this abnormally loud laugh that attracted Neal.

2. The duo's original name was West End, after the eponymous elite district of London. To the question "Why was the group called the Pet Shop Boys?" Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe answer that they themselves did not work in any pet stores, but often had fun in one of these London shops where Chris's friends worked.

3. From the very beginning of their career, the friends determined that they would play electronic music, drawing on Italo disco and electro. So it's not surprising that Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk, Bobby Orlando, New Order and New York club music have had a particular influence on the band's sound.

4. The duo went on their first tour 8 years after their founding, in 1989. For real concerts, the group prepared for a long time and carefully, as a result of which their once static performances turned into theatrical shows with scenery, dressing up, dancers and more. Concerts were held in Hong Kong, Japan and the UK.

5. In 1993, the Pet Shop Boys released the album Very, which is considered by many to be the masterpiece of Eurodance at the time. Filming of the international album hit Go West partially took place in our capital, where the musicians were captured walking along Red Square (in Moscow, Pet Shop Boys were invited to the opening of MTV broadcasting in Russia; the group drove around the city in the former limousine of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev).

6. Over the course of their career, the Pet Shop Boys have made many covers of songs by other famous musicians, and some of these versions have become more popular than the originals, such as covers of Elvis Presley's Always On My Mind and Village People Go West.

7. The Pet Shop Boys are known for fruitful collaborations with other musicians: Dusty Springfield, Liza Minnelli (in 1989 they wrote and recorded the entire album Results for her), pop group Eighth Wonder (composition I'm Not Scared), Robbie Williams (songs No Regrets and She's Madonna). In the 1990s, the Pet Shop Boys began remixing songs by other artists: Blur - Boys And Girls, David Bowie - Hallo Spaceboy, Yoko Ono - Walking on the Thin Ice, Rammstein - Mein Teil, Madonna - Sorry, The Killers - Read My Mind and so on.

8. The titles of Pet Shop Boys songs tend to be polar opposites: they are either short, minimalist titles (Rent, Before, Minimal), or, conversely, long sentence titles (You only tell me you love me when you're drunk, This must be the place I waited years to leave, I don't know what you want but I can't give it anymore, where, contrary to music industry practice, only the first word is capitalized in song titles); also frequent are titles-questions. Interestingly, the albums also have one-word titles: Please, Release, PopArt and others.

9. Pet Shop Boys also pay special attention to fashion, which is not only reflected in the musicians' everyday clothes, but is also an integral part of their stage image. The role of the dandy is given to Tennant, while Lowe prefers a semi-sporty style (baseball caps and sneakers) and projects a detached image on himself, which he also helps to strengthen with fashionable sunglasses, which he has hardly taken off since the early 90s.