PSB in Australia

Interviewer: Cameron Adams
From: Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia) / 07.01.2004
Views: 14528

THE Pet Shop Boys are set to bring their musical Closer to Heaven to Sydney next year.

Frontman Neil Tennant says they're in talks to launch the musical about the time of Mardi Gras 2005, with a possible Pet Shop Boys tour at the same time. But there's a sticking point.

"We always feel Australia doesn't really like the Pet Shop Boys," Tennant says. "Yeah, f. . . 'em!," bandmate Chris Lowe shouts in the background.

"He doesn't mean that," Tennant says. "We haven't been to Australia for almost 10 years, but we just feel it's a bit more of a rock market. Maybe it's changed."

The duo have just released Pop Art, a two-CD compilation of their singles. And they're about to start work on their next studio album, possibly with input from Tomcraft.

The German dance producer collaborated with the duo on Flamboyant, one of two new songs on Pop Art, as well as the single, Miracles.

"We're going more electronic," Tennant says. "You can hear a bit in Flamboyant. That's what the next album will be like.

" And we might work with Trevor Horn again. He's the ultimate imperial producer."

Horn worked on the Pet Shop Boys' single, Left to My Own Devices, in 1988. It's a move that will excite PSB fans, but Tennant says some of the fans take the band more seriously than the band themselves.

"Our new theory is they think we're letting the side down.

"Chris has this story about when he met fans backstage and they were talking about obscure mixes and Chris didn't know the answer to their questions.

"So they turned their backs on him and started talking among themselves. He obviously just didn't know enough about the Pet Shop Boys."

Tennant is also keen to destroy the myth he corrects bad spelling in fan mail.

"It's always been a myth. It says a lot that our audience regard me as being slightly forbidding. But both Chris and I hate misspelling."

Tennant says the Pet Shop Boys have written a song for Dead or Alive called Jack and Jill Party.

"There's a program on UK TV called Diners and you can use your remote to hear a conversation in a restaurant where there are celebrities. Pete Burns (of Dead or Alive) was there, so we chose his table to listen in on.

"I love that he's physically re-invented himself to get attention. There's something heroic about that. So we thought we'd give him this song, which is like an old Divine record."

The record should be released this year.

"Each time I see an interview with Pete Burns, he says we're going into the studio to record it next week, which is always news to us. But we'll definitely do that this year."

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