UNITED KINGDOM: NEIL TENNANT TALKS ABOUT REISSUE OF PET SHOP BOYS HITS AS THEIR FIRST MUSICAL OPENS IN LONDON

Record ID: 391535

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: NEIL TENNANT TALKS ABOUT REISSUE OF PET SHOP BOYS HITS AS THEIR FIRST MUSICAL OPENS IN LONDON
  • Date: 29th May 2001
  • Summary: (REUTERS -ACCESS ALL) SCU SOUNDBITE (English) (REPORTER ASKING : "So how do you look back at "West End Girls" ? The real international hit was not the first mix, but the second mix." ) NEIL TENNANT SAYING : "Well it was a new version. We originally recorded "West End Girls" in 1984 in New York, in 1983 actually in New York - it was released in 1984 - and it wasn't a hit b
  • Embargoed: 13th June 2001 13:00
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  • Location: LONDON, UK
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVABC44I3USZWK8ICUMSWYREQNSD
  • Story Text: On June 4th, the Pet Shop Boys reissue their entire back catalogue. It's a busy time for the duo - their first musical has just opened in London, and they're setting off to America on a ground-breaking tour designed to promote the gay cause. Neil Tennant - one of the twosome - says life has never been better! One of the most eagerly awaited re-issues of a back catalogue is hitting the record shops on June 4th. It's the entire work of the Pet Shop Boys, the most successful duo in British chart history with album sales of 28 million worldwide.
    The back catalogue of six albums has been totaly repackaged and remastered. Each album contains a
    "Further Listening" CD, containing remixes, b-sides and unreleased tracks from that album, as well as a 36 page booklet with new sleeve notes and exclusive photographs.
    Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant burst onto the international music scene in 1984, with "West End Girls". When it was remixed and re-recorded, this time for EMI, in 1985, it became a massive worldwide hit, and was included on the debut album "Please" (1986), which also contained the hit, "Suburbia".
    "West End Girls" reached Number One in the USA and Europe.
    The next album, "Actually" (1988), contained the hits "It's a sin"; "What have I done to deserve this ?"; "Always on my mind"; and "Rent". The great British singer Dusty Springfield guested on "What have I done to deserve this ?", while "Rent" was a double-sided hit with the Elvis Presley classic, "Always on my mind."
    1998's "Introspective"saw the big hits of "Domino dancing", "It's alright", and "Left to my own devices."
    Ever the collaborators in the mid-Eighties, the Pet Shop Boys produced Liza Minnelli's "Results" (1989), and Dusty Springfield's "In Private" before releasing "Behaviour"

    (1990). Indeed, Springfield scored a major hit with "Nothing has been proved", written for her by Lowe and Tennant, and taken from the British movie "Scandal", an examination of the Profumo scandal that rocked England in the early 1960s.
    The "Behaviour" album saw a big hit for Tennant's favourite song, "Being Boring", an autobiographical look at his past, and the death of a close friend. "Very" saw the release of "Go West", a reworking of the camp Village People classic. At this time, the duo were touring and putting on shows with great visual flair, and the British filmmaker Derek Jarman was involved in the production of their impressive videos.
    The duo is also announcing plans for a world tour, called Wotapalava. Wotapalava, an English phrase translated as "what a fuss about nothing," will be the first openly gay pop music festival to tour the United States. "Wotapalava will be a celebration of individuality and the freedom to be what you want to be," explains Pet Shop Boy and Wotapalava creator Neil Tennant. "This is not exclusively an issue of sexuality; it's about having the power to live as you want."
    In addition to The Pet Shop Boys, other artists confirmed include Sinead O' Connor, Soft Cell, The Magnetic Fields and Rufus Wainwright. Wotapalava will play 17 markets in North America beginning on July 13th in Miami, Florida. The tour will feature an additional stage with continuous, non-stop dance music by world renowned and premiere circuit DJs. It will play major amphitheatres as well as some specially selected outdoor venues.
    And, in London, the Pet Shop Boys have opened their first musical, "Closer to Heaven", about a young Irish singer whose sexuality is challenged by having to choose between a girlfriend and a boyfriend.
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