…but this week, the ever-humble Pet Shop Boys take a rare moment to celebrate their success, just for the VO5 NME Awards 2017. Mark Beaumont meets the recipients of our 2017 Godlike Genius Award
AS KALEIDOSCOPIC ORBS SPIN OVERHEAD, THE duo sit stoically, barely flinching, one in a gold-lined showman’s blazer, the other wearing a helmet resembling a giant metallic Malteser. They are pet shop boys, NME’s 2017 Godlike Geniuses and the electronic legends who’ve spent the last 35 years creating dazzling onstage spectacles, building a canon of unmatchable synthpop and elevating pop music to the status of theatrical drama, social commentary and high art. “We were never afraid of appearing to be pretentious,” says Neil Tennant, escaping the NME photographer’s blitz of pink neon.
Pet shop boys have sound tracked rebellions aboard Russian battleships. They’ve staged pop operas full of break dancing angels, been CGI space dunces and performed with lady Gaga dressed as a porcelain teapot (her, not them). And now they’re recipients of NME’s ultimate accolade. What have they done to deserve this? come with us now on a journey through the six ages of PSB, beginning, as we must, in a restaurant in a West end town…
PHASE ONE
POETRY WITH DANCE MUSIC
1981-1989
This story is from the February 17 2017 edition of NME.
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This story is from the February 17 2017 edition of NME.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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