I don’t agree with this comparison of Israel to apartheid-era South Africa. It’s a caricature. Israel has (in my opinion) some crude and cruel policies based on defence; it also has universal suffrage and equality of rights for all its citizens both Jewish and Arab. In apartheid-era South Africa, artists could only play to segregated audiences; in Israel anyone who buys a ticket can attend a concert. Neil x
Composer Mark Springer’s new album, “Sleep of Reason”, which includes a collaboration with Neil Tennant, is out now and available on double vinyl, CD and digitally at the link below.
Recent Pet Texts
To accompany the release of Mark Springer’s “Sleep of Reason” album, which features Neil on vocals, a video for the opening track, “Phantoms and Monsters”, has been created by John Maybury and Daniel Goddard with footage from their forthcoming film “Confessions of a Pin Eye Zombie”. Link below.
Tickets for Pet Shop Boys’ “Dreamworld” show at the Royal Sandringham Estate on 14th August are now on sale at the link below.
I loved performing three songs at last night’s London Soundtrack Festival concert at the Roundhouse in London with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra arranged and conducted by Anne Dudley. In this photo Jake Shears and I are duetting on “Rent”. I also sang “Nothing has been proved” and “Everybody’s Talkin’” (from “Midnight Cowboy”). A great experience. Neil x
Photo: Julie Edwards
“Phantoms and Monsters”, composed by Mark Springer, with Neil Tennant on vocals and the Sacconi Quartet on strings is out now digitally at the link below.
This quintet piece is the opening track of Mark Springer’s forthcoming new album, “Sleep of Reason”, which will be released along with a solo piano piece and a quartet piece on 25th April 2025.
Neil discusses Pet Shop Boys’ relationship with Russia in an interview with the independent Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, now also published in The Guardian. Links below.
I just met the composer Mark Springer to get some CDs of his beautiful work, “Sleep of Reason”, the first part of which I sing on. It’s always exciting to get finished copies of a new record and this looks very handsome! It’s released on April 25th. Neil x
Pet Shop Boys have remixed a song by Primal Scream, “Innocent Money”, and you can hear it now at the You Tube link below and on streaming services. More information at the NME link below.
Pet Shop Boys are among more than 1,000 musicians who have come together to release “Is This What We Want?”, an album protesting the UK government’s proposed changes to copyright law, which would allow artificial intelligence companies to build their products using other people’s copyrighted work — music, artworks, text, and more — without a licence.
The album consists of recordings of empty studios and performance spaces and can be heard at the link below. All profits are being donated to the charity Help Musicians.