We are very sad to learn that the composer and arranger Angelo Badalamenti has died. We first worked with him in 1987 when he made the orchestral arrangement for “It couldn’t happen here” on our “Actually” album. He subsequently arranged songs we produced for Dusty Springfield (“Nothing has been proved”) and Liza Minnelli (“Rent”), also two songs on our “Behaviour” album (“This must be the place…” and “Only the wind”), and in 2013 arranged our “Four songs in A minor” which Chrissie Hynde sang at the BBC Proms. He became famous for his collaborations with film director David Lynch including “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks”. Angelo had a uniquely eerie orchestral style and was a joy to work with. We send our sincere condolences to his family and friends.
We have additional information about the making of the “A man from the future” album.
Recent Pet Texts
Pet Shop Boys and Andrew Hodges’ listening and conversation event for “A man from the future” at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester is now sold out. The conversation will also be filmed and made available to watch online shortly afterwards, with further details to be revealed here in due course.
On this day 30 years ago, Pet Shop Boys released their sixth studio album, “Bilingual”. This was taken in 1996 by Andy Earl during a publicity session for “Single-bilingual”.
We enjoyed our visit to Bletchley Park with Andrew Hodges last week to film a piece about “A man from the future” and Alan Turing for BBC News. There will be further news about this project in a couple of days. Neil and Chris xx
Photo: Charlie Coletta
- It was our last concert of the summer tour last night in Esbjerg, Denmark. Wet and windy but still fun! Thanks to everyone who came to one or more of the shows! See you in 2027. xx
Photo credit: Morten Rygaard
Esbjerg. Suset Festival tonight. Last show of the summer!
The Tracey Emin sculpture by the Munch Museum on a beautiful day in Oslo.
Morning coffee in Oslo.
Pet Shop Boys’ “Se a vida é (That’s the way life is)” was released as a single on this day 30 years ago. A video for the song was filmed at the Wet ‘n’ Wild theme park in Orlando, Florida, directed by photographer and filmmaker Bruce Weber who also made the videos for “Being boring” and “I get along”.