50 years ago today, I went with my friend Eric Watson to see a gig by a new rock group called the Sex Pistols at the Nashville pub in West Kensington. The Pistols were impressive — they reminded me a little of The Ramones whose first album I had heard — but then a member of the audience was beaten up by one of the group’s friends in a horrifying incident. Eric and I left the gig stunned and I wrote a letter to the NME about it. To my surprise, the NME printed my letter as a little news piece with a photo by Joe Stevens. Later in 1976, the Pistols achieved notoriety in a controversial TV interview. A series of brilliant and subversive singles and an album followed which resonate to this day. Neil x
Pet Shop Boys today release “A man from the future” via Parlophone Records.
Recent Pet Texts
I enjoyed visiting “Zaha Hadid: The Architecture of Performance” today — an exhibition which opens at the new Zaha Hadid Foundation in London on November 3. It includes a section about Zaha’s designs for our 1999 Nightlife tour. It brought back a lot of memories! More details at the link below. Neil x
Exciting to meet everyone involved in the new Rambert dance production of Russell T. Davies’ TV drama, “It’s a Sin”, before rehearsals started yesterday. The production opens at Manchester’s Factory International in February before beginning an extensive tour. Tickets are on sale now — link below.
Pet Shop Boys feature in the October issue of ZEITmagazin MANN.
In the accompanying interview, they reflect on their career, their approach to songwriting and their thoughts on contemporary pop music.
Interview: Johannes Dudziak, Christoph Dallach
Photography: Nadav Kander
Styling: Julian Ganio
Pet Shop Boys’ new album, “A man from the future”, honouring the work and life of Alan Turing is number 19 in this week’s official UK album chart and number 6 in the physical albums chart. The album has also so far charted at number 8 in Germany, 7 in Belgium and 12 in Switzerland. Thanks to everyone who’s supported the album and given it such a warm reception.
Parlophone are investigating production issues which have unfortunately created problems with certain tracks on the “A man from the future” Blu-ray. PSB have just been made aware of these and apologise for the disappointment caused. Once these issues are resolved, Parlophone will manufacture and distribute replacement discs to those who have purchased the Blu-ray. Details on how to apply for a replacement disc will be shared as soon as we have them.
Pet Shop Boys’ single “DJ Culture”, co-produced by British dance music duo Brothers In Rhythm and mixed by Stephen Hague, was released 35 years ago today. Explaining the lyrics, Neil said that “just as in DJ records everything is sampled to sound authentic, so in a lot of aspects of modern life – for instance in politics – it is almost as though attitudes are sampled.” These photos were taken by PSB photographer and friend, Eric Watson, during the “DJ Culture” sleeve session in 1991.
Very happy to read the first “A man from the future” album reviews and all your kind messages this week. x
Neil will be visiting Durham Book Festival this Saturday, where he will talk to Durham University chancellor Fiona Hill about how growing up in Newcastle shaped his life as a musician. The conversation is part of Fiona Hill’s “Forged in the North” podcast series and will also be live-streamed at the link below.