BBC News have just reported that thousands of gay and bisexual men found guilty of decades-old sexual offences in England and Wales have been posthumously pardoned. The new law is being referred to as the “Alan Turing law” after the codebreaker and computer pioneer who was posthumously pardoned in 2013 for his 1952 conviction for “gross indecency”. In the final section of “A Man From The Future”, performed as part of the Proms in 2015, we referred to “an exception” being made for Turing while “the convictions for ‘gross indecency’ of tens of thousands of other men, dead and alive, remain unpardoned.” This injustice has now been corrected. Full report at the BBC link below. Neil x
Pet Shop Boys’ “Discography” is being reissued on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1991.
Recent Pet Texts
Tickets for Pet Shop Boys’ “Dreamworld” show at the Royal Sandringham Estate on 14th August are now on sale at the link below.
I loved performing three songs at last night’s London Soundtrack Festival concert at the Roundhouse in London with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra arranged and conducted by Anne Dudley. In this photo Jake Shears and I are duetting on “Rent”. I also sang “Nothing has been proved” and “Everybody’s Talkin’” (from “Midnight Cowboy”). A great experience. Neil x
Photo: Julie Edwards
“Phantoms and Monsters”, composed by Mark Springer, with Neil Tennant on vocals and the Sacconi Quartet on strings is out now digitally at the link below.
This quintet piece is the opening track of Mark Springer’s forthcoming new album, “Sleep of Reason”, which will be released along with a solo piano piece and a quartet piece on 25th April 2025.
Neil discusses Pet Shop Boys’ relationship with Russia in an interview with the independent Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, now also published in The Guardian. Links below.
I just met the composer Mark Springer to get some CDs of his beautiful work, “Sleep of Reason”, the first part of which I sing on. It’s always exciting to get finished copies of a new record and this looks very handsome! It’s released on April 25th. Neil x
Pet Shop Boys have remixed a song by Primal Scream, “Innocent Money”, and you can hear it now at the You Tube link below and on streaming services. More information at the NME link below.
Pet Shop Boys are among more than 1,000 musicians who have come together to release “Is This What We Want?”, an album protesting the UK government’s proposed changes to copyright law, which would allow artificial intelligence companies to build their products using other people’s copyrighted work — music, artworks, text, and more — without a licence.
The album consists of recordings of empty studios and performance spaces and can be heard at the link below. All profits are being donated to the charity Help Musicians.
Just over a year ago the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, died in prison in Russia. We wrote and demoed this song in the last few days and dedicate it to his memory and his cause. Neil and Chris x