Pet Shop Boys admit they've 'given up chasing hits in the charts' after 30 years
The Pet Shop Boys have lifted the lid on what it was like to find fame relatively late as they reveal they’ve given up on chasing ‘hits’.
The bestselling band has been going since 1981 and has sold over 50 million records worldwide, with the group often being introduced to a new generation of music fans thanks to their hit songs being sampled or appearing on popular TV shows.
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have cemented themselves as the most successful duo in UK music history and.
And now the pair have spoken about how they found fame relatively late and why, despite the longevity of their career, they’ve given up on having hits in the charts.
The band has been going since 1981 and has sold over 50 million records worldwide (Samir Hussein/WireImage)“We had the highest new entry of the new millennium,” Neil laughed as they spoke to the Radio Times.
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“Went in at eight and dropped out the following week. I quite admire the bloody-mindedness of people who will pretty much do anything for a hit.
“We gave up on that more than ten years ago. When streaming came in, we thought, ‘Well, we had a good go.’”
Their synth-pop classics like West End Girls and It’s a Sin have hit No 1 and seen them reach dizzy heights of success.
Perhaps one of their most successful moments came earlier this year when a song of theirs that wasn’t even a single was selected for King Charles III's official Coronation Celebration Playlist on Spotify.
The playlist of 27 songs was hand-selected on behalf of His Majesty by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
It includes plenty of classic acts like Queen, The Beatles and David Bowie among the newer tracks.
But included among them is All over the World - 2018 Remaster by the Pet Shop Boys.
Olly Alexander of Years & Years performs with the Pet Shop Boys perform at Glastonbury Festival in 2022 (Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)The track appeared on the synth-pop duo’s 2009 album Yes and was originally intended as the second single on the record but isn’t even in the top 10 of their most popular songs on Spotify.
Elsewhere, their older music has been revived in the pop world, giving way to and influx of a new generation of fans thanks to Elton John and Years and Years stomping cover of It's A Sin.
The cover of It's A Sin was hailed as one of the highlights of the 2021 BRIT Awards, but according to reports the routine could have been even more special.
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It's been revealed that original writers and performers The Pet Shop Boys had been due to appear at the ceremony with Olly Alexander and Elton before they decided to step down.
Producers had been hoping to have all three acts on stage together but Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of the synth-pop band cancelled last Friday - just four days before show time.
An insider at the awards blamed the last-minute change on a disagreement about what the performance should like, however the band themselves have said the no-show was down to a contractual issue that could not be resolved.
The source told The Sun: "The concept of all three acts coming together was really exciting but in the end it didn’t work out.
“It seemed like they had different visions of what the performance should look like.
“Some wanted it to be a celebration of gayness, others thought it’d be better to make it more general. Let’s just call it creative differences."
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