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Elly Roberts reviews
Parlophone (EMI)
- Released: Sept 2004
- Year: 1991
- Cat. No: 5999619
- Rating: 8/10
- Region(s): All, PAL
- Running time: 239 minutes including commentary by Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant
- Sound: DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- Subtitles: On rehearsal – English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch
- Price: £13.99
- Booklet: Includes interview with Tennant and Lowe
Track listing:
- 1. This Must Be A Place I Waited Years To Leave
2. It’s a Sun
3. Losing My Mind
4. What Have I Done To Deserve This?
5. My October Symphony
6. I’m Not Scared
7. We All Feel Better In The Dark
8. So Sorry I Said
9. Suburbia
10. So Hard
11. Opportunities
12. How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?
13. Rent
14. Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take my Eyes Off You)
15. West End Girls
16. Jealousy
17. Always on My Mind
18. Your Funny Uncle
Dead-pan synth-duo the Pet Shop Boysgot together after meeting in an electronics shop in August 1981. VocalistNeil Tennant from North Shields in Northumberland, and keyboardistChris Lowe of Blackpool, Lancashire, discovered they shared a passionfor synthesisers and dance music.
As a youth Tennant had been involved in theatre, and had sung and playedguitar in a group called Dust. Lowe, an architect student, had studied pianoand trombone. They took their name from a group of friends who worked in apet shop. By November 1985, the quintessential English pair were instant popstars with the release of their debut single West End Girls.
Ever since, the cult pair have consistently charted with anthemic top twentyentries.
Performance was conceived in 1985, but due to the enormity (andexpense) of the project it took 5 years to realise. In the interim period, itallowed them to notch up even more hits.
This unashamedly self-indulgent show was highly applauded at the time forbeing original and innovative. It includes ten dancers, three backing singers -Sylvia Mason-Jones, Pam Sheyne, Derek Green – who give the real singingcontribution, and two off-stage musicians JJ Belle and Davidson, with thegreater emphasis placed on the theatrical visual content ; back-projectionsand heavily stylised choreography.
Input was provided by opera director and designer David Alden and David Fieldingand choreographer Jacob Marley, as the concept used a narrative stretching fromchildhood through to death and afterlife.
Filmed at the NEC Birmingham in the summer of 1991, this hugely OTT and tongue-in-cheekshow is a stunning theatrical event – however its not spectacular by any means.Its all singing all dancing throughout, and very slick, as performers andsingers have little time for costumes changes between songs. Rather than dothe standard gig, they opted for an unorthodox biographic show that used theirlyrics as the basis for the visual content. The theatre world snubbed the ideawhen approached, so they lured Alden, Fielding and Marley to bring their ideasto life in the most daring fashion, which is fresh and fruity.
The first half contains a lot of sexuality, later becoming quite surreal andbizarre. Their ‘life journey’ comes across as a visual travelog that displaystheir playfulness and satirical qualities. At times there seems to be nointellectual logic, because there are no literal interpretations of the lyrics -hence the artistic licence. Above all the music is fantastic and doesnt seem dated at all.
As an exercise it worked like a dream, as the collective disciplines combinetheir expertise in a thoroughly planned production. It toured the world thatyear becoming a huge success.
Performance includes 18 songs, including, Its A Sin, What Have IDone To Deserve This ?, Suburbia, So Hard, Opportunities, Rent, Where TheStreets Have No Name, West End Girls, Jealousy, Always On My Mind.
Web link: Pet Shop Boys.co.uk
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.