They have been over thirty years in the business and Pet Shop Boys are still going like an express train, spreading their music around the world. Their twelfth studio album "Electric" will be released on June 15, only eight months after their last album came out.
Pet Shop Boys are a British electronic pop duo, consisting of lead vocalist Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe.
Moscow got an early taste of their new songs at the "Crocus Hall" on 5 June, two days after the start of the European tour of "Electric" in Saint Petersburg.
The new album relates to last year's as being its more upbeat counterpart. "It will be a different show than the last time, harder, and a bit more dancy," Tennant said. Video, choreography and multi-media will play an important role at the concert, which has a futuristic approach.
'I think you can judge any society by the way it treats it's minorities'
Neil Tennant
Lead vocalist
The band proclaimed "strong links" to Russia, where they first performed twenty years ago and have returned as recently as last year.
One part of the show opens with Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring," which is mentioned in one of their other songs.
Neil Tennant endorsed his care for Russia last year when co-signing a letter to the Russian government, asking for the release of the members of Pussy Riot.
"Like the prime minister [Medvedev], we think that the sentence imposed on Pussy Riot was out of all proportions to the events that happened," Tennant emphasized during a meeting with the Moscow press.
Pop stars' pleas for the release of Pussy Riot have been recently renewed by a former Beatle.
"I noticed that Paul McCartney wrote a letter to the Russian government, asking for the Pussy Riot's release, so I hope that they will be released soon," Tennant said.
Pet Shop Boys are seen as significant figures in gay culture, but refrained from direct comment on the recent developments in Russia's gay legislations by saying:
"On the gay rights issue, I think, you can judge any society by the way it treats it's minorities."
Gay rights, however, are on the group's musical agenda.
"We just completed a project for "spoken word" electronic orchestra, about the English mathematician Alan Turing, who invented the modern computer. He was also a homosexual, and he was prosecuted in the 1950's." Turing was then was injected with female hormones and he ended up killing himself. Next year this will be sixty years ago, which is when the project will be presented.
For tickets and information, visit: crocus-hall.ru/events/petshopboys or petshopboys.co.uk
Contact the author at artsreporter@imedia.ru
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