Previewing Obskur Pet Shop Boys — PSB’s imminent Berlin two-nighter, what follows is a five-by eyewitness account detailing what happened back amid the temperate backdrop of April in Camden.
Helpfully, the title of the pre-recorded entry music the Boys entered the Electric Ballroom stage to each night follows the relevant London showdate.
The writers bringing you this six-part feature, which concludes on Friday July 10, Neil Tennant’s 72nd birthday, are as follows: Catherine Walters (CW), Daniel Higgins (DH), our trusty new scribes Alycia Heath (AH) and Jane White (JW), aided and abetted by yours truly (SP).
Thursday 9 April: Inner Sanctum
CW: Day four was possibly the highlight of my pre-concert week, as the Black Cap — the “Palladium of Drag” mentioned by our Nelly T every night up to that point, but ironically not tonight — received a visit from the never shabby Abbi Warburton and myself. Cushions. Cushions might be nice.
Coming out of the newly reopened bar on to Kentish Town Road we noticed a commotion and there was the man himself briskly striding past us and into Electric’s back alley. He had the look of someone who knew there might be people who wanted to meet him but who he’d already decided not to engage with if he could help it.
Shock subsiding, we joined the nascent queue and aimed for the view from a rear balcony, the dais affording us a more central, slightly raised position this time. Unfortunately, whilst the music was clear enough Neil’s vocals were hard to understand at points. Though that might’ve been that being removed from the inner sanctum others around us felt emboldened to natter throughout. One thing was certain: as soon as the first bass-boosted bars of a familiar techno tune (the only representation of 2016’s Super album all week) boomed over the PA the excitement was palpable as the publikum surged.
Audience interaction was strong throughout the week. As NT was prone to declare to collective whoops: “Tonight, no hits. B-sides. Album tracks. Fan favourites”. This may be officially Obscure but you’d have been hard pressed to find many who didn’t know almost every word.
Mind you, when they debuted New Boy on Monday I realised I know it less well, compared to everything else anyway. Described by its lyricist as a “mega-sloppy” ballad, it was attempted again on Wednesday and again tonight with Neil’s precise pre-song patter revealing how it dates back to his Smash Hits era, and was originally on the same 1984 demo tape — “neatly labelled by Chris” — as Rent, and was eventually finished in 2020 as a I Don’t Wanna flip.
All this mid-tempo moodiness certainly gave energetic new drummer Max Blunos, so far appearing only for Obscure week, a time to shine with his buoyant, rolling drum fills. Clare Uchima, a familiar fixture these days as “one of the Pop Kids” from Dreamworld, filled out the sound with vocals and keyboards, while “in computer world”, Pete Gleadall took care of all the backroom tech, “aided by Mr Alan Pollard. He’s normally a Backstreet Boy”, Neil liked to quip.
Continuing to leave his mouth open so he can change feet, Nelly felt compelled to describe the grey bear-type bloke we could witness peeking out from behind the banks of equipment: “Well, he’s handsome enough to be in the Backstreet Boys… nowadays.”
Plates swapped, NT also remarked that Thursday would feature a slightly more reflective setlist with the new additions A Certain “Je Ne Sais Quoi” — a B-side magnifique to the inferior Winner which started life as a song for Kylie and then for Elysium — and, concluding the main set, 2012 album closer Requiem In Denim And Leopardskin, only the latter of which would reappear the next day.
Bringing his electric power chords to both Sexy Northerner and The Truck Driver, the drop-in by Northampton guitarist Mark Refoy added a further indie element as he started his Pet association with the Release tour band, taking in Live 8 in Moscow, and powering a previous War Child set, a Keane co-opted event in Brixton in 2007. I had to double take at first though. Refoy from Release? But that guy was a lot younger! When I realised that tour was almost a quarter-century ago I almost wanted to find a corner to cry in. Entschuldigung!
AH: Neil reverted to the more transactionally romantic “Never tried to hook for your affection” in Later Tonight, though, unlike the first three gigs, for Thursday and Friday he chose to sit down. Welcome to his life as a septuagenarian then. Though considering it’s a pretty piano ballad I’m surprised he hadn’t earlier.
CW: And here is where my Obscure journey came to an end, leaving me wishing I had tickets for the final hurrah but feeling lucky and grateful for what I’d witnessed. I caught my last train home still humming “I dream of a better tomorrow, a new dawn love shining through. This is the moment, this is the time”. And it sure was. Auf Wiedersehen, pets.
Written by Catherine Walters and Alycia Heath
Edited by Steve Pafford
