Who, What, How & Why abt the Pet Shop Boys?

"This is Chris Lowe, I'm Neil Tennant. We're the Pet Shop Boys", says Neil Tennant at the end of the Performance and DiscoVery tours. The Pet Shop Boys are a musical group which combines intelligent lyrics, synthesized beats, and powerful orchestrations into what some may call "dance music". In reality their music is much more than that, a point which is obvious to anyone who has ever heard their music.

Both were born into middle-upper class, although very different families. Neil started writing songs at an early age, although Chris had more encouragement from his family which had a musical background. Neil was a fanatic of Rock and Roll during his childhood while Chris was an academic geek with zits. Neil studied history and got various jobs editing boring books until finally becoming a writer for Smash Hits magazine. Chris became a hyperactive teenager, worked odd jobs and relieved the boredom of work by chasing girls around the building. At 18 he began studying Architecture and even designed a staircase in Milton Keynes. His future, however was some place else.

They met on August 19, 1981, in an electronics store on King Street when Neil Tennant went to buy some parts for his synthesizer, and met this guy who "laughed a lot" named Chris Lowe.

They chose the name because of some friends of Chris who worked in a pet shop in London. Neil and Chris have also said "it reminded us of the hip-hop groups of the early 80's which we were so found of". Names which were rejected include "West End" among others.

West End Girls, the version produced by Stephen Hague was not their first song. The PSB released Opportunities and WEG in 1984 on Epic. Both songs were produced by Bobby Orlando, and WEG became a minor hit in the US, but failed in the UK. WEG was then recut with the help of Stephen Hague 18 months after its initial release and became number one world-wide in 1986.

Chris sings on the following songs: Paninaro, We all feel better in the dark, One of the Crowd, and Postscript(song at the end of Very). He also speaks a sentence in It's Alright: "It's gonna be alright", as well as telling us how many different types of dogs there are in I Want a Dog. The List of Dogs: Bulldog, hound, pug, labrador, collie, retriever, doberman pincer, huskie, dalmatian, Saint Bernard, and dachsund, mongrel, beagle, cocker spaniel."

It is safe to assume Chris is a fantastic dancer, although he does not show off in PSB videos and concerts very much. He began dancing to disco and hi-NRG music of the early 80s, and continues to dance happily at the hipest clubs in towm.

This is a jacket Chris wore when they performed on Live at the London Palladium, a UK TV show broadcast live from a London theatre. It was accompanied by a painted on scar which made him look "completely manic" in his own words. Chris has since been a great fan and buyer of Issey's designs. BTW, they performed Rent, and also refused to wave to the crowd at the end of the show.

They PSB toured America in 1991, with stops in LA, New York, Washington DC, and other cities. Their shows were always sellouts, even though they were met with bad reviews from the critics. One went so far as to say "Radio City music hall should be fumigated." The song Yesterday When I Was Mad is based on the experiences the PSB had during the Performance tour of Europe and America. They also did a few guest appearances with Depeche Mode and New Order a couple of years before. As for touring again, the PSB have said that they will likely never tour again, the US or anywhere else: "touring turns you into this horrible person", Neil has said.

There are four books on the PSB. The older one Literally shares the name of their fanclub magazine, and is a chronicle of the MCMXXXIX (1989). It is written by Chris Heath, and can be ordered from most retailers in the US and Europe. The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) on this one is 0-306-80494-8. It was originally published in hardcover by Viking Penguin in 1990. The U.S. paperback, at least, published by reprinters extraordinaire Da Capo Press (New York) in 1992, contains some added material bringing it up to date. The second book Pet Shop Boys vs. America, is the extention of Literally and covers the US leg of the performance tour and adds more pictures. It is relatively new and rather hard to find. One reason for this is that it has not been printed in the U.S. It's a 1993 publication (concurrent with Very) and only in hardcover thus far. The ISBN is 0-670-85274-0, and it sells for 15.99 pounds and $25.99 Canadian. The lion's share of U.S. bookstores will tell you it cannot be had in this country, but some claim Waldenbooks will order it for you. The third book, Annually (1988) was meant to be the first of an annual series, but was discontinued after the first book in 1988. It includes lots of pictures, lyrics and interviews, which give a clearer understanding of the PSB. The last book is Introspective (1991) by Michael Cowton. Not authorized by the Boys, it was a book made up of quotations and stories and interviews with Jonathan King and Bobby Orlando, the Boys' first producer. It is fairly useless.

In US Actually was released with an additional disc of Always on my mind. This is the CD which has Neil and Chris sitting in chairs, with Chris wearing a ski hat. In Japan, Actually was released with a bonus 7" with an unreleased anywhere else mix of Always On My Mind (high energy mix) which should be the live version from the Elvis memorial show the Boys did in 1987. And also an unreleased mix of Heart.

When EMI re-released PSB's singles about two years ago, it only went back to the singles from Actually. Therefore, West End Girls, Love Comes Quickly, Opportunities, and Suburbia can only be found on 7", 12", or cassette tape, as they were never released on CD during their initial release. Persons wanting to buy these singles can also expect to pay a higher price for them *if* they can find them.

ZYX records, an absolutely fabulous dance label owns the rights to some early PSB material. This material is released on 4 CDs which are available both as a package or seperately. They contain the original West End Girls, One more chance, and the PSB theme song, among other things. The material is very rough, and shows what the PSB were like in their early days.