Pet Shop Boys - Being Boring (live)

The kings of pop: Pet Shop Boys
Live from Roskilde (Denmark)
Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo, formed in London in 1981 and consisting of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe.Pet Shop Boys have sold more than 100 million records worldwide,and are listed as the most successful duo in UK music history by The Guinness Book of Records. Three-time Brit Award winners and six-time Grammy nominees, since 1985 they have achieved 42 Top 30 singles, 22 of them Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart, including four UK number ones: "West End Girls" (also number one on the US Billboard Hot 100), "It's a Sin", a synthpop version of "Always on My Mind", and "Heart". Other hit songs include a cover of "Go West", "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" and "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" in a duet with Dusty Springfield. With five US top ten singles in the 1980s, they are associated with the Second British Invasion.At the 2009 Brit Awards in London, Pet Shop Boys received an award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2016, Billboard magazine named Pet Shop Boys the number one dance duo/group over the 40 years since the chart's inception in 1976.[13] In 2017, the duo received NME's Godlike Genius Award. Neil Tennant (27) and Chris Lowe (21) met in a hi-fi shop on King's Road in Chelsea, London, in 1981.[14] Tennant had purchased a Korg MS-10 synthesizer which sparked a conversation with Lowe. Discovering that they had a mutual interest in dance and electronic music, they began to work together on material,first in Tennant's flat in Chelsea, then, from 1982, in a small studio in Camden Town. They say their band name was taken from friends who worked in a pet shop in Ealing, and were known as the "pet shop boys". In August 1983, Tennant, who was an assistant editor at Smash Hits, went to New York to interview Sting.While there he arranged to meet Hi-NRG producer Bobby Orlando and gave him a demo tape containing "It's a Sin" and "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)".From 1983–84, Orlando recorded 11 tracks with Tennant and Lowe including "West End Girls", "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", "It's A Sin", "I Want A Lover", "I Get Excited", "Two Divided By Zero", "Rent", "Later Tonight", "Pet Shop Boys", "A Man Could Get Arrested" and "One More Chance". In April 1984, the Orlando-produced "West End Girls" was released, becoming a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco. On 2 November, it was voted "Screamer of the Week" by listeners of Long Island, New York, radio station WLIR. It was a minor dance hit in Belgium and France,but was only available in the United Kingdom as a 12" import.The quote was subsequently sampled in the song "Paninaro", and further established the band's early reputation of being anti-rock'n'roll and aligned with disco and dance music culture. The 1997 B-side "How I Learned to Hate Rock and Roll", and their 1991 songs "DJ Culture", "Can you forgive her?" and "How can you expect to be taken seriously?" continued this sentiment.Lowe and Tennant have since refuted this claim by mentioning since the rise of House, Rave and Disco, they are not so against rock as stated in multiple interviews when asked about it. However, they are still known for openly criticising trends in the music business, such as casting shows in 2010 or a pop climate obsessed with authenticity ("authenticity is a style and it's always the same style") in 2020.Music journalist Steve Harnell describes them as having both an "ear for commerciality" and the desire to create "something more highbrow". He also described Tennant's lyrics as showing a "love for language", which Tennant sparkles with sometimes quite-obscure cultural references.[89] Their music in the 1980s was inspired by dance music in gay clubs but transformed into a "very British and brainy brand of pop music, shot through with a streak of social comment so subtly done that people frequently missed the point entirely."Their band dynamic has played a role in their public image as well. Early in their career, the duo were frequently accused of lacking stage presence, said to be a deliberate reaction to the hyper-cheerful music of the time, demonstrated by bands such as Wham!. A typical early performance featured Lowe in the background playing the bassline on a Fairlight synthesiser keyboard and Tennant singing, but otherwise passive, in the foreground. Tennant and Lowe both became well known for standing still throughout performances. In a 2016 interview, Chris Lowe said the duo's live performances was a response to the music scene in the 1980s: "Everyone was so active. It was a big party where everyone was having a great time and smiling at the camera. Thumbs aloft! We just didn't want to do that. So we ignored the cameras and the jollity of the situations. Let's face it, it's easier to stand stock-still isn't it?".

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