Pet Shop Boys. 3.9.17. The Sage.

Since the re-release of their breakout single ‘West End girls’ in 1985, through celebrated releases including ‘Actually’ and ‘Behaviour’, the Pet Shop Boys have sold more than 50 million records worldwide and may be more responsible than any other music group for taking electronic music into the musical mainstream.

Using a highly original version of dance music, the Boys success was achieved through a clever blend of witty, subversive, lyrics from Tennant, pioneering electronic disco beats and production from Lowe and a combined philosophy to never take themselves too seriously. Somehow, the Pets proved to anyone with creative instincts that you don’t always need to be serious to produce serious work.

Surprisingly, it’s been the live – rather than recording – setting where the Boys have always appeared most serious; 1991’s ground breaking Performance tour setting, what remains, the benchmark for live shows by a dance act.

Dignified and visionary, Neil and Chris have maintained a consistently high standard of live show in the 26 years following Performance, particularly with this year’s Super tour. 100 minutes, 20 songs, lazer shows and supplementary band members combine to blend dance decadence with pop melancholy, dry wit with political discussion. Remixes of ‘Heart’, ‘Go West’ and ‘Domino Dancing’ prove that they still remain vigilant with the trends of club culture, whilst ‘Left to my own devices’ and ‘Love is a bourgeois construct’ remind us of the yang that often needs to be repaid for the ying of hedonism.

Choosing a set, mostly, focused on their dance and upbeat pop catalogue, the Shoppers prove not only that they always were, and will be, dance music’s pioneers but also that the dance floor will welcome us whether we feel happy or sad.

Almost 30 years of live show perfection and counting, the Pet Shop Boys proved yet again that they are untouchable.