PETSHOP BOYS: SMASH – The Singles 1985-2020
The much maligned Brighton Centre was packed to the gunnnels, whatever they are, for Petshop Boy’s Greatest hits tour with a queue reaching far up West Street and boasting an audience with an unparalleled age range. It’s not often these day that, at 67, I am not in the oldest sector of the crowd but on this occasion it was true and the evidence that these pop icons have an amazingly broad appeal.
Famously the “boys” like to put on a show, an extravaganza of set and lighting and state of the art tech, and this was no exception. The stage on this occasion was framed as a wide letterbox to start, and the wide screen flooded with the glowing colours of the Ukranian flag. In front two street lamps stood in stark isolation until an explosion of white lights strafed the audience announcing the arrival of Neil and Chris in what appeared to be a raincoat and an anorak but topped with bizarre headdresses giving them a mirrored bunny-like appearance. We fans have come to expect the bizarre from this pop duo and we were not disappointed.
The panoramic screen behind masked their band at the start evening and the visuals ranged from the best kind of Apple screen savers to some truly exceptional graphic animations and collaged film. Occasionally, just occasionally to start, we saw ghostly glimpses of what lay behind, but for the first part of the set the two stayed in front of that screen, Tennant stalking about and Lowe lurking behind his keyboard and monitor. Two large portrait format screens flanked the whole and Neil’s live feed filled the left and Chris’s static visage the right, although momentarily I did notice a slight smile appear on his face from beneath the bunny headdress.
Eventually the screen rose above the stage but still only revealing an arrow stripe of stage, but here we find three musicians in bizarre tinsel fringed tops, one percussionist, a keyboard player and finally another musician with more drums, a keyboard and guitar. And those drums fired out an almost relentless beat throughout the two hour long set of hits.
Yes hits, wow that took a long time to get to the music, but it was hit after hit and it was pretty much what we all expected and wanted. None of that “here’s our new album” nonsense on this occasion, just every hot single and famous track that has become the soundtrack to a fan’s life for the last forty or so years. Yes they played the lot, hit after hit and delivered with a reassuringly accurate sound. Pointless here to list the whole set, anyone who knows their work will know what was played and, given the size of the audience, most of their fans were actually there.
It would however be unfair not to mention Clare Uchima who sang the Dusty Springfield part of What Have I done To Deserve This, and did it with style.
Yes it was all there, a pounding and resounding string of faves, framed in a stage set that lived up to their reputation for putting on a good show. Neil and Chris do the job well and they do it with class, with style and without pretending to still be “boys”!
Andrew Kay
26 June
The Brighton Centre
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