Pet Shop Boy tells us why he loves touring






THE Oasis leisure centre is set to be turned into a stage to rival any in the West End when the Pet Shop Boys come to town.




Chris Lowe, who makes up one half of the duo, has promised fans it will be a visual spectacular when they perform on June 7 as part of their first tour for five years.




‘It is a multi-media show, with television screens and looks really great,’ said the 47-year-old.




‘There are some amazing lights and the set has been designed by Es Devlin, who designed the set for our musical Closer to Heaven a few years ago. It is a visually impressive show.’




Chris and Neil Tennant started the tour several months ago and so far have visited America, Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Argentina.




They are now enjoying a couple of weeks off before they start the European leg.




‘At the moment this tour seems to be never-ending,’ said Chris, who says he doesn’t get homesick.




‘We keep adding more and more dates but we both love touring.




‘We didn’t do a lot of it in the 1980s when we were at the height of our success but we’ve realised since how much we enjoy it.




‘The reaction you get from people when they hear the songs is much better than when you are in the studio. It is a real privilege to be on tour.’




And he said that 3,000 people – the capacity at the Oasis – sounded like a good number to be playing to.




‘I like venues that are standing, but a lot of places see us as a seated type of act,’ he said.




‘We played to really small audiences, like at the Barfly in London which is just above a pub, to a football stadium in Colombia. But 3,000 sounds pretty good.




‘It’s all about the atmosphere you can create in a venue rather than the number of people that are there.’




At the June concert, fans can expect to hear all their old favourites including It’s A Sin, Go West and West End Girls.




Chris, who last visited the town when he was working for an architectural firm many years ago, said that both he and Neil were looking forward to playing in the town.




‘We’ve not played there before so it should be a good laugh,’ he said.




‘The tour seems to have gone down really well with the fans so far. The audiences have been loving it.’




And Chris also revealed that a new album may be on the cards as the disco duo are still busy writing new material.




‘We just go into our little studio and write because that’s what we enjoying doing,’ said Chris.




‘It is best to do it while you are in the mood rather than sitting down and thinking right, I have to write a song now’. We just write when we feel like it.




‘We’ve started working on a couple of songs already so you’ll just have to watch this space in terms of a new album.’




But out of their older material one song still stands out for Chris.




‘I really like playing West End Girls, there is something special about it,’ he said. ‘And it always gets a great reaction from the audience, which is brilliant.’

Taken from: Swindon Advertiser
Interviewer: Stephanie Tye”