Taylor Swift is a sort of mrs. Thatcher
of pop music my name is John Doran and I
write about music in this series of
British masters for noisy I've been
speaking to musical Mavericks and
artistic outliers such as Noel Gallagher
viv albertine and Jimmy Page today I'm
meeting one of the all-time great
conceptual ists of popular music Neil
Tennant as one half of Pet Shop Boys he
has been responsible for some of the
greatest singles to ever grace the top
quality now 35 years into their career
they are enjoying a rejuvenation both in
energy and sound so super 13th album and
I guess after the really runaway success
of electric that there must be a lot of
expectation for this album electric was
the first album we made that was
actually pure electronics although we're
sort of known as a synth - oh all of our
albums have had other musicians normally
orchestras and so working with Stuart
price on electric that was the first
album where it was purely electronic
from start to finish I think it's quite
thrilling really obviously you get a lot
of bands even as you say kind of synth
based bands who get to a certain stage
in the career and usually they're
looking at dragging out a stool and an
acoustic guitar and doing unplugged
albums and stuff like that but you're
going in the opposite direction really
now we want to make some noisy records I
think so I believe the first track that
you wrote on the album was pop kids when
you were on tour with take that one of
these we did that to it because we did
eight
dady I should say eight nights at
Wembley Stadium we had the referees
dressing-room and so there was a lot of
downtime
and so at the hotels we were staying in
we would write a bit and I had this idea
for a lyric called the pop kids and so
that was the first song we wrote
whatever we did when you
they called us the punk-ass
we
I believe we're coming up to the 35th
anniversary of you and Chris writing
West and girls has the songwriting
process remained fundamentally the same
or is it changed out of all recognition
I know it's reasonably similar and what
is similar and always has been the same
is that it's an enjoyable process it's
it's fun it's not like a job it's like
playing obviously it is really a quiet
club' album and I was wondering if you
were kind of influenced by the kind of
landmark clubs that they have in Berlin
which they just don't have in this
country like burg Hein or trees or what
we do go to Budokai and sometimes when
we're in Berlin we tend to go on Sunday
afternoons actually and Chris's musical
influences tend to be more dance music
Chris only really likes one thing and
that is euphoria
now you can find euphoria in a very sad
ballad still a kind of despair can be
euphoric whereas I have a more
observational approach so what we do is
a compromise between those things I've
got to say that this summer I'm going to
be 45 and if when people say to me let's
go to a nightclub my first response is
to burst into tears you know because I
can't think of anything worse and I was
just like you know are you still a
clubby person do you think are yes the
chance to stay up all night listening to
industrial techno surrounded by people
who look like they've wandered in from
The Walking Dead or whatever dude is
this still seem like an appealing thing
for you actually when you put it like
that it sounded very appealing um but um
no no I mean I'm 61 now and I first went
clubbing in 1973 what was your first
club like the first club was called shag
aromas it was in Neil street when Covent
Garden was still Covent Garden
the fruit and vegetables it later became
the famous Roxy Clara but it was the
first gay club I go into as well and it
was very what we would have called in
those days
ahjusshi this was like you know the
David Bowie period people were
sophisticated and light soul music and
maybe like Bryan Ferry and Lou Reed and
people dressed up to go out and so we
used to go there and it was where I
first heard a 12-inch mix which was a
huge impression on me
papa was a rolling stone by the
temptations the full length version of
that if you know the album's grey album
I think is one side of a rock wall here
and they played the whole thing and the
lights and the sound system was great
and and it was just magical
it's very easy I should say for me to
sit here in 2016 and say Western girls
one of the greatest pop songs ever
recorded
but obviously the actual narrative of
what that song went through is a little
bit more complicated than that
and the Bobbio version fair enough that
was a club hit but when you came to
re-record it i believe neither your
label or your manager liked the song did
they no they all they liked the song Tom
Watkins - loved the original record of
Western goes there western town
the eastern bars and Western and then
when we made again he was worried Steven
Hayes Brooks was going to be too smooth
right and we Chris Knight wanted to make
it sound filmic which is why it started
someone walking down the street you got
that sort of ersatz trumpet solo in the
middle because we want it all to sound
very film noir that was our sort of idea
of it what their record company and
Horne was saying was Oh Bert is this
going to be a hit and we thought if it
wasn't a hit then we would never have a
hit as we thought it was unusual we
regard it by the way as a rap record
yeah it's never ever appears in any
history of rap even though it was the
first rattler morning America sometimes
you better off
kicking in chest now I would look back
over a lot of early Pet Shop Boys
interviews in the run-up to this
interview and if there's one thing that
links all of them it's the journalists
desire to know what you think of the
current pop landscape and I kind of
think you've been hoist by your own
petard here by being the former deputy
editor of Smash Hits so as to not break
with tradition what do you think of the
current pop landscape I think the
current pop landscape is pretty good at
Lee I thought last year we arrived at a
place where mainstream pop music started
the first time in ages to take in
influences from what would be
underground if there wasn't underground
if you hadn't gone mainstream which I
basically in the weekend I and Skrillex
working with Justin Bieber so I think
even now just while we are speaking Zen
Malik's single have you heard it no it's
called it to you it's the most beautiful
record because I just can't face
I think Lady Gaga's being interesting
Taylor Swift is a sort of mrs. Thatcher
of pop music but in that she seems to be
about economics but you know what at
least someone's interested in that I
might just being like an old man
shouting at clouds when I kind of think
that Kanye West notwithstanding we seem
to have a dearth of really good
eccentric Mavericks in the pop landscape
well what that what there's a problem in
pop music in spite of what I've just
said which is the subject matter or pop
music and there is only currently one
subject matter and that is the singer
and possibly their emotional life or
their sort of issues with fame what have
you there's not a lot role-playing going
on what did the pet shop boys learn from
David Bowie or is that too big a
question even as a teenager Newcastle I
saw Ziggy Stardust at the new custody
Hornets a mutant is half empty and what
I liked specifically was the artifice
David Bowie was sort of pretending to be
something it was a theatrical
performance and it was a totally
different way of doing things when we
wanted to do live shows we thought we've
got no interest in doing a rock and roll
concert experience we want to do
something that is artificial what I was
really stunned to find out was that I
spent two years working for Marvel
Comics in the UK and so in all
seriousness I have to ask you who would
win in a fight between the Wolverine
Deadpool and spider-man I thought you
know I'd even know the middle one is
what interests me is when I worked at
Marvel Comics which is in 1975 1977
to help to organize a Marvel Comics
comic exhibition at the ICA which
coincide with Stanley coming over and
Stanley was really really really
concerned about one thing and that was
getting Marvel comics made into
and it seemed impossible the now it
fascinates me when I would think about
what we had in the comics the x-men that
wasn't even really a first rank strip is
this huge film franchise and spider-man
of course was what particularly what
Stanley was considerable conspired Obama
so it was a brilliant strip Spiderman
actually lived in New York and you could
recognize and you know had a girlfriend
and pop music was mentioned and all the
rest of it and it was rooted in real
life was a brilliant conceit that
Superman didn't and DC Comics didn't
have and that was that wasn't any way
but I bet so Stanley he was still on the
goes we know it must be thrilled when he
looks when he sees how they might to
transform this into the series of
massive film franchises I got it right
did he used to were you responsible for
anglicize in some of the speech in the
comics yeah well you know as you as you
know American Spelling's differ color
being the classic example so we would
put yeah I would have to go through and
then we had two or three artists who
would put the use in because we were we
wanted people children spell but I
completely misunderstood this at this is
this kind of image of you having Captain
America saying dear boy fancy a couple -
no no no it was just it was only
spelling and the other thing they used
to do is we had to because it was they
were read by very young children read
Sonya yeah was sometimes topless okay
not in the UK she had a broad role not
drawn on her and there was someone used
to draw the brows on red Sonia I
interviewed you Marc Bolan four or four
Marvel Comics it's used a big Marvel
Comics fan Omar :
were you were fine there's a mass still
a massive phantom up but what was he
like mark very nice um he was chunky you
know before he when he died he'd gone
skinny again missing that mark Bolivar
he dies only 29
young we were 45 and and he had great
big hands he had fingers like sausages
and because you're all sort of mark bone
is being fair yeah and actually although
he would talk like this and he was you
know he was he was great my one of my
few when feel regrets in my life is that
he gave me a copy of his album
futuristic dragon and I didn't ask him
to sign it because I thought it was
uncool so I'm gonna wrap this sir but I
I know it's on a newspaper on the way in
here apparently there's some Tory at the
moment suggesting that people should not
be allowed to retire before the age of
81 I wanted to say I'm looking forward
to the next 20 years of pet shop boys
heads thank you
yes I don't think we'll be retiring
before what do you say 18 102 races
aimlessly complaining about this because
they do it even as it stands at 67 isn't
it the Christmas competing about this
only the other day um so when you turn
80 bit off thank God only 12 more months
of the burger I milady ago that's it
look we've matched the walls