PET SHOP BOYS 02 REVIEW

My friend was there. I'm including his review because he's sent me some fantastic photos. Their shows always look uber cool:-





"I’ve been a fan since the PSB’s first hit the charts all those years ago in the 80’s, but never been to see them live; their synthesized and layered soundtrack, mostly electronically produced, has never seemed (to me) a sound that would translate well to a stage show. I did see their ‘opera’ “Closer to Heaven”, twice, and loved every moment – but then, they were not performing.

Kicking off the set with “Heart” from oh!... way back in ’88, this set the tempo for a frothy nostalgic bop down that lane with memory on the name board and had everyone up and dancing from the start. A simple but effective stage set of a wall of white cubes which were knocked down, re-arranged and re-stacked several times during the show and served as sometimes podiums for the energetic dancers and onto which were projected images and blocks of colour contrasted with both the boys, to start with, and the backing singers/dancers dressed in bright coloured cubes providing a simple but ‘very 80’s’ backdrop to the brilliantly delivered songs. A moody “Kings Cross”, a wonderfully raucous (and camp) “Always on my mind”, the lesser known “Two divided by zero”, “Viva la Vida” and the simply brilliant “Go West” which had everyone jumping around and singing along. Hit followed hit with only a couple of references to the new album “Yes”, – “Building a Wall” and “Pandemonium”, being the only two I recognised. “It’s a Sin”, “Being boring” and the effervescent “West end Girls” brought the show to a fitting end which is where it all started 24 years ago – and it sounded just as right today as it did way back then.

It’s difficult to say exactly how much of the sound was produced on the night and how much was drawn from the memory sticks of the computers – but it was good; very slick and very polished. True to form, the reserved Chris Lowe stood in his ‘DJ booth’ playing synth. But did finally manage a smile at the end. Neil (Tennant) delivered a sound but staid performance as front man; that said, he’s is no longer a young man, but then again, neither is the reviewer"

I went with them on their world tour back in the '80's because I was working in the music business then. I've got some fantastic photos of us all together then, but no good ones of the actual show. SO. Instead, I thought I'd add photographic evidence that Chris Lowe can smile after all (how cute does he look in his sailor's hat?):-