Pet Shop Boys

The 1980s saw the birth of the Pet shop Boys who went on to be a huge electronic pop group who enjoyed great success. The duo consisted of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe.

The duo have sold over 50 million records and remain one of the most influential groups of there time. The duo started out at college in London and had a mutual interest in electronic music and started to collate some tunes in the hope of getting a big break.

That big break duly arrived when Neil working as a journalist was sent to America to interview the rock band The Police. He decided at the same time to arrange a meet up with producer of HI-NRG records Bobby O. He was impressed with the material provided and decided to produce the songs such as West end Girls and opportunities.

The band decided to sever links with Bobby but giving him royalties of future sales and the duo teamed up with Tom Watkins and signed to Parlophone records. They released opportunities and despite it's lowly chart peak, they were encouraged. They repackaged West end Girls and the single slowly crept to number one in the UK and the fame was instant.

Neil was able to leave his position of deputy editor of teen mag Smash Hits and the band were able to concentrate full time on music. A follow up single Love comes quickly and debut album Please were released and the band were quickly becoming one of the most requested acts on tv and radio. Opportunities was re-released again and Suburbia were released as singles to great success again.

The end of 1986 saw them release a disco remix album aptly named Disco and the band preformed live on the MTV music awards in LA. !987 saw the duo earn BRIT awards and Ivor Novello awards for West end Girls and on the back of this they released It's a sin which topped the charts in the UK.

They followed with the catchy song What have I done to deserve this which started a long relationship with 60s legend Dusty Springfield. The band had the song before the first album and were reluctant to use another female lead and eventually they got there woman! Later that year the duo did a cover of the Elvis Presley classic Always on my mind and the song was a Christmas number one and kept the Pogues off the number one spot.

Prior to that the single Rent was a top 10 hit in the UK. The boys took time out to produce and write Eight Wonder huge 80s hit I'm not scared which help propel Patsy Kensit pop career. The duo also recorded this on there album Introspective.

The 1980s drawing to a close the duo then went on a first world tour sampling the delights of Hong Kong, Japan and the UK. This was the start of the bands global success and the 1990s and beyond saw the band grow there success. During the 1980s the duo released 3 studio albums all peaking into the top 3. They released 13 singles with the Neil and Chris achieving four number ones (West end Girls, It's a sin, Always on my Mind and Heart) and a further 6 top 10 hits.