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The Pet Shop Boys release their new single Leaving on October 14 (DIGITAL) and on October 15 (PHYSICAL).
Their new album Elysium is out now.
On The Olympics Ceremony, Neil said it was great but there should have been less performers doing bigger numbers.
Neil said: “Of the section we saw, I thought the Spice Girls came across really well. I thought the whole thing in the taxis was really good. And I thought Fatboy Slim was great. But, overall, maybe there should be less of more people. I liked the bit we were in – a musical collage starting with Madness, the Grenadier Guards, then us, then One Direction. And Ray Davies doing Waterloo Sunset was really great. I think when you had people doing very long songs, it got boring. Annie Lennox did something obscure, and George Michael did two songs. Less was more exciting. The original idea was a collage. I wish they had done more of that.”
The track Your Early Stuff is a collection of ‘snippets’ from taxi drivers. Neil said: “Your Early Stuff is a compilation of remarks taxi drivers have made to me, a playful reference to how long we’ve been around. People who don’t really follow music might think that you’ve retired or that you haven’t done anything since the Eighties. I live in London and I travel in taxis a lot and very often someone will make some remark about the Pet Shop Boys. Every single line in that song, every single thing has been said to me.”
On growing up and getting older, Neil said: “Well, doesn’t everyone always feel their age? I don’t think that it is any different for us than for anyone else. I don’t really feel my age. A couple of months ago, Chris said something about living somewhere and he said, !It’s the sort of thing I might do in my fifties” – and then he realised that he was in his fifties. But I feel it’s like that for everyone.”
On today’s pop music and the charts being dominated by the same artists and producers, Neil said: “The issue is that we operate in the medium of pop music, which is partly a young person’s medium. I looked at the chart the other day and I realised that since the last album, only three years ago, we’ve entered this strange world of somebody or other featuring somebody or other. Every other track is Calvin Harris featuring Nikki Minaj or with Snoop Doggy Dogg or someone.”
Chris added: “Or featuring three. David Guetta doesn’t just have one or two.”
Don’t follow them. Pet Shop Boys are not into social media, particularly Facebook. Neil said: “We’re not on Facebook. We think it’s sinister and horrible. Pet Shop Boys are but we’re not.”