3 Little Words

Since they released their fourth album, 'Very', the Pet Shop Boys have had a pretty hectic 12 months. They've released four singles. They've worked with Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French (not Johanna Lumley?!) on the charity single 'Absolutely Fabulous' (Neil Tennant said they only agreed to do it so they could meet the girls). They've contributed a track to Kylie's big comeback album. They've released their third collection of remixes, 'Disco 2'.

They've already written and recorded four songs for their next album. And - as I write - they're locked away somewhere in London rehearsing for the 'Discovery' tour of South America and Australia.

August was a quiet month. So what was Neil doing on the front cover of that month's issue of the British men's lifestyle magazine, Attitude?

Coming out, that's what.

"I do think we have contributed to, through our music and through our videos, and the general way we've presented things, rather a lot to what you might call 'gay culture'," Neil said. "I could spend several pages discussing 'gay culture', but for the sake of argument we have contributed a lot. And the simple reason for this is that I have written songs from that point of view. What I'm saying is that I'm gay, and I have written songs from that point of view. So, I mean, I'm being completely honest with you here, but those are the facts of the matter."

This was news, big news. But was it 'really' news to anyone? I rather excitedly told a (straight) colleague in the music press, gushing to him over the phone, "Have you heard? Have you heard?" And he just said "Oh, you mean he wasn't out already?" Oh well..

No, Neil Tennant was never out. But he was never really in the closet, either. You never saw Neil's photo in the papers with his new "girlfriend" on his arm. In fact he even mocked gay pop stars who do in the song 'Bet she's not your Girlfriend'. We all knew, and Neil, much to his credit, never denied it. It was talking about some accusations that Jimmy Somerville once made that let to Neil's coming out.

"His view is that the entire point of being a pop star is to be a positive role model. I reject the notion of being a positive role model to anyone. I personally find that an arrogant way to think of oneself."

Hindsight's a great thing, but I had a feeling this was coming. 'Very' was dubbed "the Pet Shop Boys' coming out album" by many, and the last year can be seen as one big lead-up to coming out. In November they headlined a benefit for the British gay activist group Stonewall as the Albert Hall. Word has it that Boy George, who was introducing them, wanted to use the line: "They're here, they're queer, and they're not going shopping . . . It's the Pet Shop Boys!" but was reprimanded by Neil's friend, the TV personality Janet Street Porter.

The handful of interviews they did for 'Very' saw Neil unusually upfront when talking about AIDS, homosexuality (in general) and the stories behind the songs, and, it seemed, edging ever closer to making some firm kind of statement. When Chris Hearth's 'Pet Shop Boys Versus America" appeared in February - this was an unauthorized book, remember - Neil was quoted as saying, "I personally think we have a very honest approach to all of this... but in the media it's very difficult to discuss. There are plenty of people who live totally deceitful lives, and the Pet Shop Boys could never be accused of living totally deceitful lives .. I think we are totally honest." And again - though for the first time - claiming, "I would never set myself up as a role model... We are musicians, not politicians."

I'd been hassling the Boy's press officer for an interview for some time. And then, around April, he began saying it was quite likely, and, a little later, began adding, "But it will just be Neil on his own." That's interesting, I thought. That's VERY interesting.

Back in January I met a Pet Shop Boys fan. Not just any old fan, but one of that horde core of devoted loonies who camp outside pop star's homes and know the star's schedules long before they themselves do. She said that all knew that Neil was gay. They prided themselves on knowing everything about them, and it was one of the reasons they liked him. They were different to other fans. They were mainly female, they were sensitive and intelligent, and they liked to think of themselves as being a bit, you know, different. Me and the girl swapped gossip. She had much better stories than I did. She even told me Neil had got a new boyfriend. This was news to me. And it made 'Very' make sense.

I wasn't to keen on that album at first. But now I've come to see it - and to love it - as a coda to their first three albums. 'Please' and 'Actually' dealt with being lost - in the big bad city essentially, 'Behavior' was more about loss: be it loss of life (Being Boring), loss of innocence (Nervously) or loss of love (Jealousy). And 'Very', their first really upbeat album was about finding yourself (Can You Forgive Her?), but more about finding love. 'I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing', 'One in a Million' and the gorgeous 'Liberation' were the first straightforward, non-cynical, non-unrequited-love songs the Boys have ever recorded.

"If there is difference between this album and the albums before," Neil told 'Attitude', "It's simply that 'Very' was written from the point of view of me being in love. It's a diary of a relationship." If love be the food of music, play on. Or something. It's not too wild a speculation to suppose that Neil's finding love gave him the strength finally to come out. A decision at once personal and political? VERY Pet Shop Boys.

Sadly, though, the interview didn't reveal much about how the Pet Shop Boys have contributed to "gay culture", or tell us which songs or videos or ways of presenting themselves Neil feels have contributed the most. But we did get a little sexual history. "I didn't sort of want to be gay in any way. I didn't really like what I saw of the gay way of life, and I certainly didn't want to be part of it. Then, in the '80s, I released that I was probably gay. I mean, by then I knew what I was attracted to. But I didn't really have a proper affair with anyone until three or four years ago, really. For most of the '80s I was, well, not exactly celibate, but not far from it.

"I've never wanted to be part of this separate gay world. I know a lot of people will not appreciate hearing me say that. But when people talk about the gay community in London, for instance, what do they really mean by that? There is a community of interests, particularly around the health issue, but beyond that what is there really? There's nightclubs, music, drugs, shopping, PA's by Bad Boys Inc. Well ... I'm sorry, but that isn't really how I define myself. I don't want to belong to some narrow group or ghetto. And I think that if they're really honest a lot of gay people would say they felt like that as well."

Neil was apparently not too happy with the interview, and most of all with how the story was fed out to other publications. 'Attitude's' press release asked the hysterically vacuous question: "How will the Pet Shop Boy's loyal fans react now that Neil Tennant has said those three little words - 'I am gay'?" The "scoop" was leaked to 'The Sunday Times', which effectively broke the story. A mutual friend told me that Neil was furious that 'Attitude' had given the story to a Murdoch paper - News International also owns the virulently homophobic tabloids 'The Sun' and 'The News of the World'. Just one month before, 'The News of the World' had run a particularly callous full-page story headlined "Pet Shop Boy's Grief as Gay Pal Dies of AIDS." ("The gay pal that Pet Shop Boys star Chris Lowe shared a home with for five years has died of AIDS").

In a two-page spread, 'The Sunday Times' argued that "Tennant's admission reflects a growing view that open homosexuality may not now mean the sudden end of a brilliant career. In fact the reverse may be the case: gay artists may even have a commercial advantage. Tennant's admission will give the Pet Shop Boys free publicity and an even larger fan club - including more of those wallet-heavy pink-pounders...What is there to lose? Nothing. It is now an advantage and Tennant will probably have cause to be gay in both senses of the word."

Oh please! Despite their disgusting - and laughable - inference that Neil's decision was both financially beneficial and financially motivated, 'The Sunday Times' proved exactly as the opposite: as an out gay star Neil can now expect a lot of homophobic garbage to start coming his way. The whispers may be over, but now the screams can begin.

For a pop star to do what Neil has now done - to come unequivocally out of their own volition while they're at the peak of both their creative powers and commercial popularity - is still tragically rare. For a man who has built his career on a love of artifice and playfulness, to be so matter-of-fact was, one could argue, not very Pet Shop Boys. What it was, though, was very brave. And it's for both these reasons that I, for one, am very proud of our Neil.

Richard Smith - Outrage, October, 1994