Winners of the 2009 Brit award for Outstanding Contribution To Music, Pet Shop Boys have set the world alight with their own brand of electronic music. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are pioneers in their field.
Here, we present 10 facts that every aspiring super-fan should know...
Girls Aloud
#1: Pop ballets and other collaborations
The Pet Shop Boys wrote the new Girls Aloud single, The Loving Kind. They also appeared on The Killers’ Christmas song, Joseph, Better You Than Me, along with Elton John, and they’ve been working on a ballet. Their tenth studio album, Yes, is released on March 23 this year.
More Pet Shop Boys
#2: It’s a rap
The Pet Shop Boys were heavily influenced by New York hip-hop. 1985’s West End Girls was the first ever single containing a rap to go to number one in the UK. It wasn’t widely recognised as such at the time because the mainstream had barely heard of rap music and many people just thought Neil was talking rather than singing.
Actually
#3: Mind your Ps & Qs
The first two Pet Shop Boys albums were named Please and Actually respectively because the duo were childishly amused by the idea of people going into Our Price and saying, “I’d like the Pet Shop Boys album, Please" and “I’d like the Pet Shop Boys album, Actually."
