New york |
April 26, 2014. Tonight, the Pet Shop Boys play at Terminal 5 on the west side of Manhattan. This morning they left Atlantic City, where they played the previous night, and travelled by car ā stopping on the way to visit Angelo Badalamenti at his home in New Jersey to discuss the songs he is arranging for their Royal Albert Hall Proms performance in July. At the venue, after a brief soundcheck, a meet ānā greet is scheduled where Neil and Chris will speak with, and sign something for, those fans who have arranged (and paid) for them to do so. Neil and Chris stand to one side of the stillāempty Terminal 5 ?oor, about halfway back from the stage, and people are let in by security in ones and twos and fours. Literally, naturally, watches and listens. Here are some random snapshots, as people ?le through ā male meet ānā greeters are denoted by āMā, female by āFā: M: [with great enthusiasm] lāve had a wonderful time! Neil: Weāve had quite a good time. F apologises for Neil and Chris having to do this. Chris: No, we like this bit. Itās the show we donāt like. F: Are you ?fying tonight, or tomorrow? Chris: Thatās none of your business, is it? F: Why donāt you sing on the āThursdayā song? Chris: Because Iām wearing a mirrorball at the time ā itād be ridiculous. Neil: [talking about the show in Atlantic City last night, and how the gauze messed up during āRentā] Thatās the ?rst time itās gone wrong since the beginning of the tour. And then I nearly got the giggles. Thatās never happened to me before. M: Did you go to the casino? Neil: No. Chris: We donāt gamble. Neil: You shouldnāt gamble ā itās a losersā game… Enjoy the show tonight. Itās going to be a proper rock ānā roll gig tonight. Neil photographs a fan all dressed in orange who says he has come from Fort Jefferson in Long Island. Chris: Weāve travelled a lot further than that. M: Of course. As musicians you travel all over the world. M: Only one wish. Chris: Itās not going to be granted. M: A photo! Neil signs his T-shirt instead. F [with wife]: I proposed to her in front of you guys. [asks them to sign a photo of their wedding at Rockefeller Center] Neil: Should I write ācongratulationsā on that? Assuming you can read my handwriting. Chris: I wonāt write over your face. F: Football or rugby? Chris: Football. Neil: Neither. Neil: [inspecting fan is tāshirt] Is that David Bowie? M: Yes. Neil: Is he coming tonight? If he comes we could do āl-lallo Spaceboyā. Chris: Thatās what we should have done at Coachella. Neil: He wouldnāt have minded doing it. M: [explains he is ?om Poland] When I was 16, I was learning to dance to your music. Neil: I actually went to Poland on holiday a couple of years ago. Neil: 60ās the new 30. Weāre playing the Exit festival on my birthday. Neil: We used to go to Balthazar, down in Soho. Itās probably social Siberia by now. M: I love the play, Closer to Heaven. Neil: Very, very underrated. It was going to come to America. Sandra Bernhard was going to do the Frances Barber part. We had a meeting with her and everything. Chris: [refusing to sign the āLeavingā twelve- inch single with Neil s face on the front cover] Youāve got the wrong one. Iāll sign it on the back. M: [says he is going to get into the queue for the show now] Chris: I would go back home and have a lie down if I were you. Neil: Have a cup of tea. And something to eat. A ham sandwich comes to mind. M: [says he has been a fan since the beginning of the Eighties] Neil: [?rmly] Mid-eighties. M: [continues by saying that he recently looked at their old videos and that they look like little boys] Neil: [dryly] It was a long time ago. Chris: I know youāre not meaning to be insulting… F: Do you know how long Iāve waited for this. My mum bought these tickets for me. Neil: What a nice present. F: āInside a dreamā is my favourite song. Neil: Good choice. F: [asks whether they might do some remixes of it] Neil: Funnily enough, we had some done for Coachella, and we were going to put them on the World Wide Web. Glad you reminded us. Weād forgotten about them. Two female fans are particularly glittery. Chris: I love a bit of glitter. Neil: So do I. Neil explains to a fan the disastrous tale of their announced then cancelled concert at the Hollywood Bowl some years ago, explaining the role their American agent played in the debacle. Neil: Our former agent… Consequently the Hollywood Bowl isnāt talking to us. Weāre banned from the Hollywood Bowl. The fan asks about the upcoming Proms concert. Neil: Oh, thatās not going to be cancelled. The Hollywood Bowl is one of the only things weāve ever cancelled. Apart from our ?rst tour. M: Ijust want to say āhiā. Nothing to sign. Chris and Neil sign the laminated pass that gives access to the meet ānā greet anyway. M: [reminiscing about an encounter with Neil at an earlier concert] I said, āNeil, youāre a very sexy man,ā and you ?ashed your Calvin Kleins at me. Neil: I probably did. It was 20 years ago. I was only 40. M: [asks if they will perform with Sylvia Mason- James again] Neil: Sylvia? Oh, I imagine so, one day. We havenāt been doing that kind of show. Two female fans. F: Do we get hugs? They get hugs. Neil talks to them about North Carolina. āNorth Carolina is a very nice place. Iām thinking of going to live there.ā Neil: [lying] Tonight Iām going to walk on for anal encore and sing āEdelweissā. Chris: And weāll all burst into tears. M: I want to say something witty and profound, and itās not going to happen. Neil: āGood eveningā is enough. M: I have a few questions. I would like to hear rare songs. Neil: Itās a difficult one. M: As a fan, you have many good rare songs. Neil: We try to do a mixture. We do a song like āFugitiveā on this tour. Chris: Thatās the ?rst question ā how many more? Neil: [politely] I think thatās the last question. Female fan introduces herself as from Jamaica. Neil: You heard the Pet Shop Boys in Jamaica? F: Yeah. Neil: Weāve been to Jamaica on holiday. 1 used to go there every year at one time. For some reason I stopped. F: [reminiscing about a previous encounter] You gave me your guitar pick. Neil: No guitars in this show. She requests that they play āBeforeā when they next tour. Chris: Oh, I love āBeforeā. Neil: We probably will. Good idea. M: [talking about Coachella] I heard it was really dusty for you. Neil: It was dusty for everyone. And the sand blows in the gear. But we survived. F: Oh my god, Iām going to freak out. Neil: [?rmly] No, you mustnāt do that. F: Thank you for making my teen years. Talking to two male fans about Dubai: Neil: Will we like Dubai? I donāt know what to expect, other than a lot of tall buildings. M: The tallest building in the world is there. Chris: I wonāt be going up there. [In fact when they go to Dubai, they both go up the Burj Khali a.] A male fan says that they should play āI want a loverā. Chris: [dubious] Is that one of our best? Neil suggests that perhaps they could get Stuart Price to do something with it, though it doesnāt sound much like a ?rm plan. A male fan asks Neil whether it had been a good idea to go back to the United Kingdom after his ?rst meeting with Bobby āOā. Neil: I was only here for a few days. M: I understood you wanted to stay here. Neil: No, Iām too English. I like visiting. A male fan correctly identi?es the make of Neilās glasses. Neil: Are you a designer? M: No, Iām a label whore. M: [presenting Neil and Chris with a poster which includes on it the title of every single Pet Shop Boys song] The bad news is, Iām not leaving without a picture. Neil and Chris: [instantly, in union] Yes, you are. Neil: [studying the poster] Is this every song? It doesnāt look that many, does it? Chris: Weāre not very proli?c, are we? Some gifts are presented from a Japanese fan club. Chris: [gratefully] You know, these are the ?rst gifts weāve had. We only do this for the gifts. After the meet ānā greet, Neil eats in catering. Chris retires to the room with the accurate sign outside it: Chrisās Nap Room. Back in the main dressing room, Neil wonders how to make the room look less bright and unwelcoming. āLetās see how we do mood lighting,ā he says, and turns off the main light switch. Much better. āThere we are ā mood lighting.ā He lies down on the sofa and talks some more about Coachella for a while. āI was the second oldest person on stage there, the ?rst being Bryan Ferry,ā he says, and explains how much posher the whole event was than he expected. āItās actually on a polo ground. I was disappointed it wasnāt really in the desert.ā The dancers can be heard in the corridor outside. āThe dancers have taken up knitting,ā Neil notes. āThey sit in their dressing room manically knitting.ā He naps for a while, then sits upright. āItās contact lens time,ā he declares. āGood evening, New York! Weāre back ā so soon!ā announces Neil between āOpportunitiesā and āLove is a bourgeois constructā, early in the show. As predicted, the venue is rammed with people, and the atmosphere is celebratory. Unlike the previous night, smoke hangs in the air and the lasers ?ll the tight space above the audience thrillingly. (The full set-list: āAxisā, āOne more chance /A face like thatā, āOpportunities (letās make lots of money)ā, āLove is a bourgeois constructā, āFugitiveā, āIntegralā, āI wouldnāt normally do this kind of thingā, āSuburbiaā, āIām not scaredā, āFluorescentā, āWest End Girlsā, āSomewhereā, āLeavingā, āThursdayā, āLove etc.ā, āI get excited (you get excited too)ā, āRentā, āMiraclesā, āItās a sinā, āDomino dancingā, āAlways on my mindā, āGo westā and āVocalā.) āWell,ā says Neil, changing backstage, with trademark understatement, āIt wasnāt a disaster.ā Although he then adds, directing the thought to tour manager Andy Crookston, who is busy opening the Champagne, āGod, itās a small stage.ā āItās the width thatās the thing,ā says Andy. āItās about ?ve steps across, to be honest,ā says Neil. Chris drinks a vodka, Neil has Champagne, and also some chocolate. Pete Gleadall comes in. āSee?ā he says. āBetter microphone, much better sound.ā āWhy have we waited until this show?ā Chris asks. Generally the mood is one of satisfaction, both about tonight and this whole short American tour. āItās been good,ā says Neil. āAll the way through last night this guy was going āPet Shop Boys, you fucking rock!ā It was great. I was singing the whole show at him.ā āTheyāre so strange, those casino gigs,ā says Chris. āIt was so cold,ā Neil agrees. āI thought that I was going to get pnemnonia. And the air- conditioning takes away all the smoke, so you canāt see the lasers.ā There is a knock on the door, and in comes an old friend, Norwegian singer Sondre Lerche; they begin to catch up on news since they last met. āYou still havenāt done our song,ā says Neil. āWe remixed it. We were going through the Fleetwood Mac thing.ā āThe Tango In The Night thing,ā agrees Sondre. āWeāve come through that,ā says Neil. They discuss when they last saw Sondre play, which, they conclude, was in Naples. āThat was one of our favourite shows ever,ā says Neil. āIt was so great. A jewel of a theatre ā just you and a guitar. Like, I always think I prefer Elton just with a piano. And you made all these Italian jokes.ā āI said āprontoā a lot,ā demurs Sondre. āComing out, we were worried we were going to get mugged,ā says Neil. Then they talk more about the song the Pet Shop Boys gave Sondre. āNow Iāve got used to your vocals on it,ā Sondre says, to Neil. āYeah, thatās what you said eight years ago,ā says Neil. āIām meant to be the backing vocals. Iām meant to be Lindsay Buckingham ā youāre Stevie Nicks.ā Someone asks Neil whether he and Chris saw Kraftwerk at Moogfest. āNo,ā he replies, ābut they watched us. How nerve-wracking is that?ā āDo you know those guys?ā asks Sondre. āNo,ā says Neil, as though the notion is too improbable to entertain. āDoes anyone?ā This quick a?ershow drink turns into quite a party, a dozen or so friends drinking until well past midnight. At one point Neil says, āIt has always bugged me that we werenāt more successful in America ā we could do a show in Las Vegasā. Itād be great.ā At another he announces, āI always say, if I was a young musician, itās a great time to reinvent rock ā EDM is so rubbish.ā When he reminisces about a trip to New York in the midāEighties, Chris interjects āIs that when you interviewed Marilyn?ā (It was.) Eventually the party begins to break up. Though not everyone is quite convinced that the night is yet over. āWhat I need,ā says Neil, āis a hot dog. I know it sounds terrible. Maybe a little bit of mustard. Of course, I donāt eat the bun.ā |