NEWS
On this page you will be kept up to date with all the very latest Pet Shop Boys news. Some of the news items on this page have been reproduced from
PetShopBoys.co.uk,
with the kind permission of Bill 'Redman' Goodin.
30th August 2010 - Pandemonium Tour Ends Or Does It
The 'Pandemonium Tour' which began in St. Petersburg, Russia, in June 2009 officially ended
on Friday in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, after 88 performances in over 30 countries.
However in recent days there have been suggestions that the tour will make it to Australia,
Japan and the Far East in 2011.
12th August 2010 - Xacobeo Festival
It has just been announced that the Pet Shop Boys will complete the bill for the Xacobeo 2010
Festival at Monte do Gozo, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Friday 27th August 2010. This
show, not the V Festival as previously announced, is currently the last scheduled show of the
'Pandemonium Tour'.
2nd August 2010 - V Festival
The Pet Shop Boys have travelled back to the UK from Korea after their performance at the
Jisan Valley Rock Festival in Korea and are now on holiday. Their next concerts will be at the
V Festival in the UK on Saturday 21st August 2010 and Sunday 22nd August 2010 when they will
headline the Arena stage. These look set to be the final 'Pandemonium Tour' concerts as no
more dates are planned to follow them.
26th July 2010 - Glastonbury Highlights
'Pet Shop Boys At Glastonbury' will be shown on BBC4 on Friday 30th July 2010 at 9.30pm and
again on Saturday 31st July 2010 at 1.00am. It's on for an hour and will show highlights from
this years festival. Also on BBC4 on Friday at 10.30pm is 'Synth Britannia' featuring artist
including, Neil Tennant who discuss the sounds that defined the 80s.
24th July 2010 - Literally Issue 35
It's here, Literally Issue 35 came through my letterbox this morning.
To find out what's in it see the
Literally page for more details.
10th July 2010 - Happy Birthday Neil!
So Pet Shop Boys and all the many fans online wish Neil
a very warm and happy 56th birthday!
4th July 2010 - The Most Incredible Thing
From a press release issued today by Sadler's Wells theatre in London:
"Sadler's Wells is delighted to announce its next new production, a full-length dance work with music by Pet Shop Boys and choreography by Javier De Frutos, featuring Ivan Putrov.
Based on a Hans Christian Andersen story, the world famous electronic pop duo, Pet Shop Boys, have composed an original score for their first ever full-length dance work and their first collaboration with Sadler's Wells. Titled The Most Incredible Thing, the production makes its world premiere at Sadler's Wells in Spring 2011. A team of world-class creative collaborators join choreographer/director Javier De Frutos who brings his unique brand of visceral intensity to this modern fairy tale, which celebrates the power of art in the face of human destruction.
Pet Shop Boys were introduced to Sadler's Wells over four years ago by The Royal Ballet Principal, Ivan Putrov (seen in photo right at a workshop for the ballet), who asked them to write a ballet score for him. Lowe and Tennant suggested that The Most Incredible Thing would be the perfect narrative basis for a new ballet.
Andersen's The Most Incredible Thing was written in 1870 and tells the story of a princess, a kingdom, and of two very different approaches to the task of creating something extraordinary. With its resonant narrative adapted by Matthew Dunster and Pet Shop Boys, design by Katrina Lindsay, and film and animation by BAFTA winner Tal Rosner, this new production is designed on a large scale, featuring a cast of 15, a 26-piece orchestra, and a message of hope that lies at the heart of Andersen's tale."
The world premiere production of The Most Incredible Thing will be at Sadler's Wells from March 22nd to March 26th, 2011, preceded by a week of preview performances. Tickets will go on sale in the autumn. After Sadler's Wells, the production will go on tour.
24th June 2010 - UK Support Act
Sophie Ellis-Bextor
will be joining the Pet Shop Boys as special guest on their final run of UK dates, which will
conclude their hugely successful worldwide 'Pandemonium Tour'.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor emerged ten years ago when she collaborated with DJ Spiller to produce the
smash hit number 1 single 'Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)'. Now she is back with album number
four 'Straight To The Heart' due to be released on Monday 2nd August 2010 on which she worked
with an amazing team of writer/producers that includes Freemasons, Greg Kurstin, Calvin Harris,
Cathy Dennis, Metronomy, Richard X and Armin Van Buuren.
The Pandemonium show was designed by Es Devlin (who worked on their stunning performance at
the Brits in 2009) with choreography by Lynne Page. At the end of last year The Times called
it "the ravishing pop spectacle of the year". These dates are your last chance to experience
it in UK arenas. The dates are:
Tuesday 13th - Empress Ballroom, Blackpool
Monday 19th - The Brighton Centre, Brighton
Tuesday 20th - Bournemouth International Centre, Bournemouth
Wednesday 21st - International Arena, Cardiff
Friday 23rd - Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Tickets are on sale now. Buy tickets at
Ticketmaster.
23rd June 2010 - Ballet Music Preview
A group exhibition entitled 'Room Divider', curated by writer and critic Michael Bracewell,
will open to the public on Saturday 3rd July 2010 at the Wilkinson Gallery in London and
includes a new piece of music by the Pet Shop Boys. 'The grind 2' is the demo of the piece of
music that opens Act 3 of the ballet score which Chris and Neil recently completed. The
exhibition "celebrates the relationship between Romanticism and the machine aesthetic".
For more information, visit the
Wilkinson Gallery
website.
An announcement about the ballet production will be made in a couple of weeks.
17th June 2010 - Glastonbury Festival
The Pet Shop Boys will be performing at the Glastonbury Festival this weekend at Worthy Farm
in Pilton, England. Their onstage time on the Other Stage is now confirmed as 10.15pm.
You can see them perform live on BBC3 at 10.15pm.
31st May 2010 - Summer 2010 Pandemonium Tour
The Summer 2010 leg of 'Pandemonium Tour' began on Saturday night with a fantastic set at the
close of the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain. The audience's energy was amazing
and the atmosphere helped Neil get over the food poisoning he'd been suffering from all day,
and to give confidence to a new dancer, Helena Dowling, who had replaced Charlotte Walcott
(who was unable to rejoin the tour) and was performing for the first time with Neil and Chris.
The tour continues on Wednesday 23rd June 2010 at Castello Visconteo in Pavia, Italy then moves
onto the Glastonbury Festival on Saturday 26th June 2010.
For all the Pet Shop Boys' tour dates see the
Tour Dates page.
28th May 2010 - Happy Birthday So Pet Shop Boys!
So Pet Shop Boys is 10 years old today!
20th May 2010 - Taiwan And Korea
The Pet Shop Boys have announced that they will be performing for the first time in Taiwan and
Korea. On Thursday 29th July 2010 at the Twinkle Rock Festival in Taipei, Taiwan and on
Saturday 31st July 2010 at the Jisan Valley Rock Festival in Icheon City, Korea.
For all the Pet Shop Boys' tour dates see the
Tour Dates page.
27th April 2010 - Italy
The Pet Shop Boys have announced that they are playing their only Italian date of the
'Pandemonium Tour' on Wednesday 23rd June 2010 at the Castello Visconteo in Pavia (35km south
of Milan). For all the Pet Shop Boys' tour dates see the
Tour Dates page.
17th April 2010 - Record Store Day
The Pet Shop Boys release a limited edition seven-inch vinyl single for Record Store Day,
today. Side A features 'Love Life', the Pet Shop Boys' hitherto unreleased
2001 recording of a song which became a hit for the Swedish group Alcazar. Side B has
'A Powerful Friend', recorded in 2002 and never released before, which features 'Release Tour'
guitarists Bic Hayes and Mark Refoy.
The record is one of a series of limited seven-inch vinyl records Parlophone is releasing to
support this year's UK Record Store Day, including a new single by Blur and Tinie Tempah's
number one single 'Pass Out'. Each release is limited to 1,000 and exclusive to the
independent record shops taking part.
Neil Tennant comments, "Independent record stores play a vital role in selling music
from the fringe as well as the mainstream. We're delighted to be releasing a one-off vinyl
single only available in independent shops as part of Record Store Day."
A list of participating UK stores can be found on the
Record Store Day
website.
16th April 2010 - Glastonbury Festival
The Pet Shop Boys will be headlining the Other Stage at this years Glastonbury Festival on
Saturday 26th June 2010. The Pet Shop Boys last appeared at Glatonbury in 2000.
A full line up can be found on the
Glastonbury Festivals
website.
14th April 2010 - Lady Gaga Remix
Lady Gaga's 'Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) - Pet Shop Boys Remix' will appear on Lady Gaga's
album, 'The Remix', which will be released on Monday 10th May 2010. Pre-order 'The Remix':
UK CD.
20th March 2010 - Pandemonium USA
'Pandemonium Live' will be released in the USA by Astralwerks this Tuesday 23rd March 2010.
The double-disc package is identical to the British release with the same bonus features.
Buy 'Pandemonium Live':
USA CD+DVD.
18th March 2010 - The Ballet
Neil and Chris have finished writing the music for Act One of the ballet today.
11th March 2010 - More Festivals
The Pet Shop Boys are pleased to announce that they will be among the headliners at three more
European festivals this summer:
Thursday 8th July 2010 - Balaton Sound Festival, Lake Balaton, Hungary
Saturday 10th July 2010 - Tollwood Festival, Munich, Germany
Friday 16th July 2010 - Super Bock Rock Festival, herdade Cabeço da Flauta, Portugal
The Pet Shop Boys 'Pandemonium Tour' will be making its debut in Hungary and Portugal and
Tollwood will be the only German date of the summer. For all the Pet Shop Boys' tour dates see the
Tour Dates page.
8th March 2010 - UK Chart
This week in the album chart
'Pandemonium Live'
went out of the top 100.
1st March 2010 - V Festival
The Pet Shop Boys will be among the headliners at this years V Festival. They will be closing
the evening in The Arena at Weston Park, Staffordshire, on Saturday 21st August, and Hylands
Park, Chelmsford, Essex, on Sunday 22nd August. The summer spectacular, held across two sites
and two days will be "crammed with the hottest names in music", including main stage
headliners, Kings of Leon and Kasabian, and 4 Music stage headliners, The Prodigy and David
Guetta. Festival Director, Simon Moran comments, "We expect excitement levels will reach new
heights in The Arena which will be jam packed with Pet Shop Boys and Cheryl Cole closing each
night." Other artists performing in this very eclectic festival include Florence and the
Machine, Groove Armada, Madness, Goldfrapp, Mika, Editors and Faithless.
1st March 2010 - UK Chart
This week in the album chart
'Pandemonium Live'
went down 63 places to number 92.
26th February 2010 - Nottingham Splendour
On Saturday 24th July 2010 the Pet Shop Boys will be headlining the Splendour Festival in
Wollaton Park, Nottingham, England. This is the third year of the Splendour Festival which
last year featured a line-up including Madness and The Pogues. Tickets go on sale today,
with discounts for Nottingham city residents. Prices are: £15 for City residents, £10 for City
residents aged 11-17, and £30 for non-City residents. (Residents must provide proof of City
address.) Under 11s have free admission. The full festival line-up will be announced shortly.
22nd February 2010 - UK Chart
This week
'Pandemonium Live'
entered the album chart at number 29.
18th February 2010 - New UK Tour Dates
The Pet Shop Boys are very pleased to announce a new run of UK dates bringing their 'Pandemonium Tour' to areas of the UK not visited last year in July 2010. The dates are:
Tuesday 13th - Empress Ballroom, Blackpool
Monday 19th - The Brighton Centre, Brighton
Tuesday 20th - Bournemouth International Centre, Bournemouth
Wednesday 21st - International Arena, Cardiff
Friday 23rd - Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 19th February 2010. Buy tickets at
Ticketmaster.
17th February 2010 - Primavera Sound Festival
The Pet Shop Boys have been confirmed as the headliners of the Primavera Sound 2010 festival
in Barcelona, Spain, on Saturday 29th May 2010 which will be their first concert of the year.
Primavera Sound has six outdoor stages and one of the biggest auditoriums in Europe. With
events throughout Barcelona for the week surrounding the festival, it has been described as,
"more like a massive summer party than the usual festival". The huge festival line-up includes
The Pixies, Pavement, The XX, Liquid Liquid, The Fall and Grizzly Bear.
16th February 2010 - The One Show
Chris and Neil will be guests on 'The One Show' tomorrow night at 7pm on BBC1 in the UK.
16th February 2010 - Pandemonium Release Dates
The 'Pandemonium' DVD/CD is now released in most countries but EMI has given provided a list
of countries with a later release date:
Australia: Friday 26th February 2010
France: Monday 1st March 2010
Mexico: Tuesday 9th March 2010
USA: Tuesday 23rd March 2010
15th February 2010 - Out Today
Don't forget that 'Pandemonium Live, The O2 Arena, London, 21 December 2009' (that's the
full title) double-pack DVD and CD is released in the UK today. The DVD includes the full
Pandemonium show filmed by David Barnard who directed the 'Cubism' DVD. The sound has been
mixed for DVD by Dave Woolley. There are also seven DVD extra features: 'My Girl - Live At the O2' and
'It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas - Live At the O2'; the music videos for 'Love Etc.',
'Did You See Me Coming?' and 'All Over The World'; the complete 2009 Brits Awards performance,
featuring Lady Gaga and Brandon Flowers; and an audio commentary by the Pet Shop Boys and
stage designer Es Devlin. The CD includes 17 songs from the show (the full show is too long to
fit on a single CD) and has been mixed by Stuart Price.
Buy 'Pandemonium Live':
UK CD+DVD.
2nd February 2010 - Pandemonium In A Fans Living Room
The Brit Awards have been sponsored by Mastercard for the last 12 years and to celebrate 30
years of the Brits they recently sponsored a competition for a member of the British public to
win a Brit Award winner playing live in their very own living room.
The winner, Lorraine Sands, a Project Manager from Twickenham, received the surprise of her
life when the Pet Shop Boys turned up on her doorstep. Neil and Chris, who received the
Outstanding Contribution to Music Award at the 2009 Brit Awards, recreated part of their
spectacular 'Pandemonium Tour' production live in Lorraine's living room, performing,
'Suburbia', 'All Over The World', 'It's A Sin' and 'West End Girls'.
Neil said, "Reproducing part of our tour in someone's living room was surreal but very good
fun. The whole point of it was to recreate an arena production, or elements of it anyway, in
the intimate environment of a living room."
Footage from this show will be turned into a series of idents during the 2010 Brit Awards
which will be broadcast live on ITV1 on Tuesday 16th February 2010.
1st February 2010 - Oxfam Haiti Auction
The Vinyl Factory limited edition of 'Yes' which was actioned to raise funds for Oxfam's
emergency response in Haiti made £3,100.
23rd January 2010 - Vote For The Pet Shop Boys
Tonight at 10pm, ITV1 will broadcast 'The Brits Hits 30' which celebrates three decades of the Brit
Awards by showing some memorable performances from the last 30 years. You can then vote for
your favourite performance. In the competition will be Pet Shop Boys' 1994 performance of
'Go West' with two Welsh miners choirs and the show tonight will also include an interview
with Neil and Chris.
The voting will be opened during the show. Vote for the Pet Shop Boys, on the
ITV
website. The winner will be announced at the Brit Awards on Tuesday 16th February 2010.
22nd January 2010 - PSB Item In Oxfam Haiti Auction
The charity Oxfam has today launched an auction of music memorabilia which will raise funds
for Oxfam's emergency response in Haiti.
It includes a copy of the Vinyl Factory limited edition of 'Yes' which was recently rated the
number one 21st Century Collectible Product in 'Record Collector' magazine's annual round-up.
This copy (from the PSB's archive) is one of only 300 made by the Vinyl Factory and designed
by Farrow. The complete edition sold out in 72 hours when it was released in Spring 2009.
The bespoke artwork comprises a hand-made box with gold mounted metal tick containing the
album's eleven tracks pressed on eleven super-heavyweight 200-gram vinyl records, with
exclusive b-side instrumentals, housed in eleven specially coloured sleeves. The box also
houses a twelfth sleeve, which contains a fine art print, signed and numbered by the
Pet Shop Boys, plus a credit sheet.
To bid for this piece of Pet Shop Boys memorabilia, visit
eBay.
18th January 2010 - Record Collector
In the February 2010 issue of 'Record Collector' magazine, on sale now, there's a feature on,
50 21st Century Collectables. The Pet Shop Boys are at number 1, with The Vinyl Factory lavish
art boxed vinyl edition of 'Yes'.
14th January 2010 - Pandemonium Live DVD/CD
'Pandemonium Live, The O2 Arena, London, 21 December 2009' is the full title of
live double-pack DVD and CD which will be released by Parlophone on Monday 15th February 2010
(international release dates will vary slightly). The DVD includes the full Pandemonium show
filmed by David Barnard who directed the 'Cubism' DVD. The sound has been mixed for DVD by
Dave Woolley. There are also seven DVD extra features: 'My Girl - Live At the O2' and
'It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas - Live At the O2'; the music videos for 'Love Etc.',
'Did You See Me Coming?' and 'All Over The World'; the complete 2009 Brits Awards performance,
featuring Lady Gaga and Brandon Flowers; and an audio commentary by the Pet Shop Boys and
stage designer Es Devlin. The CD includes 17 songs from the show (the full show is too long to
fit on a single CD) and has been mixed by Stuart Price. Pre-order 'Pandemonium Live':
UK CD+DVD.
3rd January 2010 - UK Chart
This week in the singles chart
'It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas'
went out of the top 100.
1st January 2010 - Happy New Year!
What will the Pet Shop Boys be up to in 2010? Keep up to date by regularly checking back here.
All the best for 2010.