Pet Shop Boys Nonetheless BBC Breakfast 2024

uh we're already busy chatting, sorry for Sarah if she overheard us in conversation with the Pet Shop Boys who are with us this morning Chris, hello morning, how do you do this? It's very relaxed, isn't it? Yes, well, it's nice, we like it when it's Rel How are we moving forward in this, yes, tell me and share it with us, it's nice for you to do press, do you like all this exposing yourself? It's a duty, but we try to enjoy it. I mean, this is our 15th album, yeah, to have reached that stage seems incredible.

I remember in 1985 we signed a contract with Mi Records in those days and it was for seven albums. I remember when we signed it I said we will always do it. make seven albums because making an album back in the day seemed like a big mountain to climb and here we are and here we are at 15 yeah, how many years ago with um, what was it called, we should check when, when, approximately, how long ago. Selena Scott Selena Scott oh okay we've been doing this for quite a while, that was our first appearance on BBC

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and the really cool thing was Chris was half way like a nod, well it was very early, it was very early SEL SEL Scot said Chris, were you really asleep?

Well, no, I don't think I closed my eyes, but I don't think he was completely asleep. I think that's why you have your glasses on now, so I'm actually asleep. Now, are you one of those people who can seem asleep when you're awake? It's quite a skill if you can do that. I could almost sleep standing up if I had half a chance. I call that a superhero ability I think it's the famous designer Carl Leld Yes, he's no longer with us, he always wore dark glasses, the story is that he used to do that, just fall asleep.

You are rigid, R Prussian, you know education and you would be sitting down. drumstick, but you'll actually be asleep, you know what's going to happen now Chris, the audience will be glued to you looking for signs of activity, you were here to talk about the new single, your new album, let's let people take a look at that. First, the new single, will you? Who wants to explain the video there, the images and the story, the song it is? Well, Chris wrote the song during lockdown. The different confinements. Chris and I sent each other music. I. I music and I sent myself. sent him the lyrics and he sent this song and it sounded a little bit like Madonna and um and I was thinking about dancing and there was a documentary on TV about Rudolph Nurri, the ballet dancer, and the song became about him and you know, it's incredible. life the Soviet Union defected in Paris he became a big star in London swing you know, he knew Mick Jagger and Freddy mury and and um and the song says you know that in the 60s you could feel the freedom and that's why the song really is about freedom through creativity. um there's a link that doesn't exist with the arts in the sense that you have it there and you're going to perform at the RO Opera on the same stage.

In fact, the cover of the single uh Dancing Star is a photograph that we got from the Royal Opera House and it's new to the Royal Opera House stage and we'll be doing five nights there at the end of July this year. I think it's quite interesting because you can win more money in the stadium. It's probably a great stadium, but the atmosphere is much more necessary. We could play at the O2 Arena for one night and we don't really make any moves um, but the reason we do it is because it's a beautiful theatre, maybe the most. beautiful theater in Britain and um we bring in a whole new audience and they can enjoy this beautiful theater we can enjoy performing on this huge stage and everyone has a great time yeah we're doing it Chris Long without the answers from him.

It continues on a b, doesn't it? uh, speaking of live performances, uh, Jack, our failure manager saw you at Glenbury, that's right, it's not God's name and he's the worst time of my life, why not, he said it, oh, yours , Yes, good. I don't think it was cool that you were talking, he said you were what happened, well actually the audience didn't realize what happened so in our show at the Royal Opera House there's a screen and then the screen He gets up briefly and Chris and Gast and I walk forward, of course, we're live on TV.

We were headlining the other stage on Saturday night or Sunday night maybe and there were 70,000 people left and the screen went up about 10 inches and stopped and we just looked at each other. and we couldn't talk because you have your music in your headphones, so we both ran to her. I ran to the front and Chris couldn't get to his front keyboard in time, so he went to the keyboard position you had second. ke position in the B and suddenly I run and I think I'm here alone live on television, I didn't know what had gone wrong, no one tells you and I had to do the first six songs by myself, which were You, who with a empty keyboard next to me and Chris was there and the other one, we have three other musicians, they were all behind the screen, oh I was still playing but no one could see me and in fact it was trending on Twitter, where Chris, which one.

It was worth it because there was a massive roar from the crowd, well, I had to go out and get Chang out of the first six numbers and I heard this cheer and our tour manager came running up and said everything was fine once in a while . It was fantastic, there was a real adrenaline rush. I have to be honest, but you hated the first six songs. The first six songs were really a horrible time, but when you see it on TV, I guess I've learned how to do it. be professional because Jack looked, I look relaxed, here is the witness, did you know something was wrong?

It was brilliant, he didn't realize, he didn't know anything, there you go, so the crowd was happy, so there you go, uh, tell us. a little bit about the album because it's been a while, it's true, Chris and what was the moment when you went, you know what things we have? Well, like Neil said, I didn't realize we were making an album. I was just writing music sending it to Neil, he was sending me music back and we were having a really nice time writing music and then one day Neil said well I think the album is finished and he even sequenced it all, he said.

It's like a stealth album, it was me, I didn't realize he started it, so I guess it's the best way to make a record when you don't actually know you're doing it right, it's also yeah, because actually, although it is a change. The point is that it is also a serious point because the music came from a kind of pleasure, uh not under some deadline or something contractual or something, we were really enjoying it and I think there is a freshness in this album that is because everything be produced by a guy named James Ford, but that really comes out of that because the circumstances were written.

Can I share a reflection with you? I'm old enough to remember watching the video from the beginning, in the early 80's, when they were performing over the years in the mid 80's and my impression was that they were both very serious, a little almost intimidating. , very intelligent and I don't even know what it means, no, and there was just something, there was a kind of There was a kind of aura around you, particularly about you, that it was like you're that kind because I know because we've been here , you are very funny and very charming people, and was there ever?

Image that you were trying to create some kind of Mystique around or I'm trying to burst the bubble now, what two, there were two things, one, we don't dance to music and we do, we're trying to separate ourselves. From that, we present a pretty stern image semi-deliberately, but we're also making the most of who we are when you separate yourself from those acts and we talk to them and they're all you know, yeah, you see so-and-so. I know we're all in touch and we all hang out. What was it like for you in the 80s? Well, remember that in that period, the first half of the '80s, I was a journalist for Smashit magazine, so from the perspective of those musicians, I was a guy who used to interview them and suddenly the Pet Boys were born in America. um, so it was probably stranger for them than it was for me, um, but we were different, we were definitely something different and then a lot of D music hit the charts in the same period and that initial '80s wave faded a little bit. uh Chris, you're a qualified architect, that's right, not quite you're an unqualified architect, yeah, you wouldn't hire Yo, you have both degrees.

I did five years and got my BA and BSc, but to qualify you have to work for one year and then three, okay, so basically you are, but you haven't done it. No, no, what do you think of the place? What do you think you checked out? It's actually amazing what's happening around here, isn't it? I mean, look at it, it's amazing, yeah, yeah, it's great and what did you do why was it the success? I kicked it so you could, actually, I ordered it when I went back to do the Arch um, the Pet Boys was happening and I was flying to New York on the weekends to record with Bobby Orando at Times.

Square and it was so exciting to do all that that it was very difficult to go back to Liverpool and continue doing architecture, so I lost interest a bit towards the end of the term because the Pet Boys were starting to appear, but didn't they? Say that when you were doing a tutorial they asked you about the pet. Oh, it wasn't a tutorial, it was the final submission of the paper and the examiners arrived and seemed more interested in the music than anything else that was actually achieved. To get by with very little work, actually, to be honest, well, we won't, we won't because I won't encourage it, obviously, you have to work, I think you should with the new music now.

On the new album, I think there's an Essence like, you know, it's the Pet Shock Boys, do you have to work on that or is it just inevitable? We have to work to not do it like that. Oh, that wasn't a criticism I like the fact that I know it's no, no, I didn't take it as a criticism, um, I think that's how we sound instinctively, I think it's a combination of music and The Voice, um, and we try to change the sound. Think that if we made a heavy metal record, people would say that they become typical, there is something that we do to do with the style of the strings and there is always a kind of rich chord progression and my voice that that creates a lot of your Las hit songs over the years are kind of markers in people's lives, moments in time, important things, do you have people sharing those kinds of stories with you saying, oh, that song reminds me of us?

We even have her in our kind of circle of people. We work with people who have EZ Develin, a pretty famous set designer, now she met her husband working on the musical Pet Boys and actually there are a lot of examples like that and we also did the show that we're doing, um dream world, the tour. which starts again at the end. May, uh, it's a great show and, for me, singing the songs, each one of those songs brings back so many memories and goes back in time and has taken so many decades, which seems like an incredible thing. um, so it's like that for us too, Chris, does it all come back?

Know? when you do the oldest things. Is it all like completely instinctive? It's all embedded in kind of muscle memory, certainly not. um. I have everything. on a computer screen because I can't remember anything and we even do paninaro, which is I do a little minor voice in just six words and I have them written down, really Y and when they come in too, so not any? It's instinctive for me that's honest that makes a lot of sense I think it makes a lot of sense I would do it so as not to make any mistakes I'm reading the whole program at sight I always think it's surprising that classical musicians if you're playing a violin like the orchestra has sheet music you're playing a K violin or piano whatever you have to memorize everything I don't know how they do it they know um it's been such a lovely chat, is it over?

Sorry, it's over, we could have chatted for a long time. Can't we press a red button? But I like the way you did it. Yeah, anyway, anyway, the album, the name of the album, it's five, it's five nights at the Royal Opera House. Five nights at Royal. opera we will also be playing in Belfast for the first time in 33 years um naam Manchester Glasgow Birmingham uh Europe um so yeah, enjoy, love seeing you uh Chris, thanks for staying with us, staying up, yeah, take it. Tak, at least I could do it. Um, we'll be back of course,

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will be back tomorrow starting at 6, enjoy the rest of your weekend, bye.