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The carriere of the Petshop Boys started in a hardware store at London's Kings Road, where Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met on aug.19 in 1981, when Tennant was going to buy a wire for his synthysizer. Tennant told Lowe of synthy and gave him his phonenumber. 3 days later Lowe called and they met. The rest is history.
The sound both createdm, they called Euro-Disco-electro-Pop. Their first success Tennant and Lowe celebrated in 1985 with their version of Stephen Hague's 'Westend Girls' which went to number 1 in the US and european charts. In 1987 this smashhit was awarded with the Brit Award for best song of the year, followed by another string of hitsingles as 'Suburbia', 'It's A Sin', the Brenda Lee Cover 'Always On My Mind' and 'Heart' and many more. Most of the Pet Shop Boys songs are produced and done in an electronic way. That meant, they didn't use the usual odd drumkit or guitar, but more synthetic instruments like a drum computer or sequenzer. Only in a very few tracks you find a guitar solo. And that's also the reason, why the whole stage outfit looks a little different as at normal Pop/Rock concerts. 

And yes of course there is this thought, which evolves immidiately - asking: what actually up there is performed live and what not? At tonight's appearance here in Munich at the Tollwood Festival, by the way the only german show, is is pretty obvious, that the voice and the keyboard is played live, but don't ask me about the rest. In addition this concert  includes a colourful lightshow on a big screen in the back of the stage.
We, the photographers have been lead to the middle of the venue at the sounddesk, from where ce take our usual shots for the length of 3 songs. Yeah well, it's quite a distance away from the stage, on the other hand we can picture neatly the whole stage impression at once. 

100 Million records the Pet Shop Boys have sold worldwide so far.And the list of hitsingles is so long, it would be impossible to fit 'em all in in one show.  - Following setlist  should do, only the order could be mixed up a bit....


(c)bjoernmuc


Despite the fact, that this is the only show in Germany, like mentioned before, the place is not really crowded with about 1.500 - 2.000 people. If you think, 5.000 fit in here, then it rather seems empty here.On the other hand good, because the heat is almost unbearable.But however, those few, who are here show much enthusiasm. 

I for my part always did like the music of Tennante and Lowe. But I have to say, it is a hell of a difference, whether you get to hear one or the other song from time to time, or you do get the full portion  all inclusive like here. Because there is this certain risk, that the full set starts getting a little monotone after a while due to it's electronic interpretation. Some critical voices, who think the same or at least similar, criticise the event as boring afterwards. Well I wouldn't describe it that hard. My personal fave comes at no.3 in the set combined with Pantemonium Can You Forgive Her’ from 1993, a self increasing uptempo song.

Unfortunately out of personal reasons I couldn't stay 'till the very end. But whatever I get to see and hear, I do like a lot, without doubt. And it is very photogenic. Although both excentrics Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are still going for personal understatement in daily life beeing so unnoticable, that Tennant still uses the London underground in every day's life.


(c)redcircless

There is still another new album to expect. Maybe this is one of the reasons, why there is only this one gig here in Germany. I mean, the latest release came out back in march 2009 and was only a live recording named 'Pandemonium' So let's wait and see, when a new longplayer is rolling along and hopefully a full tour as well. It's about time....
http://www.petshopboys.co.uk