First of all,

Pet Shop Boys Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant hold forth on sex, lightsticks, their new album, 'Nightlife', and how they may or may not have invented trance

MIXMAG: Were you terrified before your Creamfields show?
Chris: Not terrified - anxious. Judge Jules was before us playing 150-160bpm Euro trance stuff. As soon as there was a breakdown all you heard was this massive roar. We thought, "Oh God, our fastest song is about 130bpm, it's going to be a disaster". We speeded up 'It's A Sin' to 140bpm just so we had something fast. But it went down really well, to our relief. I enjoyed it once I realised the audience were on our side and didn't hate us.Neil: I was annoyed our big entrance got spoiled, though. We were supposed to appear inside a really bright light but someone had unplugged it. So that was more or less the entire point of the show gone. I felt like stopping and starting again.
Chris: That's what George Michael would've done.

MIXMAG: The first two tracks on your new album 'Nightlife' are very trancetastic, aren't they?
Neil: When we were making those songs -For Your Own Good' with Rollo and 'Closer To Heaven' with Craig Armstrong - the "trance" was never uttered in the studio. I think our music has always been a bit like what we now call trance - it's orchestral and sweeping. Until recently I thought trance was something else. I've got these old Trance Europe Express records and it is mellower and less hi-nrg, more the soft end of techno.

MIXMAG: Who are your favourite DJ's?
Neil: If I had one, it would be Danny Tenaglia because his music is just uplifting and it reminds me of good times. That's the main thing. Or our friend Tom Stephan, who is SuperChumbo and did a remix of 'New York City Boy' for us.

MIXMAG: You're an old school raver, Chris. How do you feel about the Gatecrasher kids?
Chris: You should be allowed to do anything in a club, so they're good. What I liked about the rave explosion [Neil laughs hysterically at the phrase] is that you could wear anything you wanted. When people moan about lightsticks and cyber gear, it's usually older people who say it's immature. So what? It's discrimination against the young! Judge Jules, get off your high horse!

MIXMAG: Did the Pet Shop Boys have a mad E period?
Chris: Don't be ridiculous. You can't ask us that.
Neil: Put it this way: I didn't.
Chris: I am not going to answer that question. I'm going to have a biscuit instead [reaches for a McVitie's Digestive]. A disco biscuit. Ha!

MIXMAG: Tell us a good tale about David Morales.
Neil: He remixed 'So Hard', but we didn't meet him until we did 'New York City Boy'. Chris was in America and he started writing the song with David. He's got a great sense of humour and a fantastic speaking voice, especially on the phone. He says [adopts deep, movie trailer-type voice] "Just tell him Mr Morales is here..."
Chris: And ha always that ear piece thing so you don't know if he's talking to you or not.
Neil: He'll suddenly go [in movie voice]: "What is this shit? We don't need this shit." We'll be shocked but it'll turn out he's on the phone to someone. I was being so English, waiting like a schoolboy while he did his calls. But he's very nice. He likes fine food and wine. He took us under his wing in New York.
Chris: We went down Body & Soul with him, hanging out in the DJ booth, which is pretty hip.

MIXMAG: People say the Pet Shop Boys can be unemotional but a song like 'You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk' is both funny and sad.Neil: If you write songs, no matter what trauma you might be undergoing, part of you brain is locked away saying, "Oh, that's a good idea for a song." You're in the middle of a bitter argument and you say something awful and your brain goes: "Mmm, good song title: 'You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk'." It gets you through the miserable episodes of your life.
Chris: If I'm in turmoil I start thinking of shopping lists. I have to remind myself to be upset.

MIXMAG: What's Rollo like?
Chris: He's great, he likes Thai food. Rollo is his real name. He's one of these people Islington tends to produce - quite highbrow but also sort of street. I think he was quite unnerved that I spent the whole recording session lying on the couch, but that's how I work. But like everyone else we worked with on this album, he spent the whole time on the phone. I'm a bit of a phone freak but only so far as I must have the latest one. Mobiles are terrible - those ringing noises drive me mad. Neil has a good one though. What to hear it? [He calls Neil's phone. It sounds like waltz hip hop.]
Neil: People start to sing when my phone goes off. Chris: We're going to make a drum 'n' bass record out of it.

MIXMAG: Neil, it's been said the Pet Shop Boys lost their subtlety when you cam out five years ago.
Neil: Well... you can't have it both ways, can you? We did for quite a long time, but I started to feel it was a bit immature.
When we were pop stars, in the real sense of the word, it gave us some mystique and let people speculate. But the mid-90s I suppose I got bored of it. Most people thought I was gay anyway. It's not particularly important, is it? Sometimes gay people get annoyed with me "attacking the gay scene", which I don't do. But the scene is a bit overrated.

MIXMAG: Do gay men have better musical taste than straight people?
Neil: No, you can't generalise. But gay clubbing did create the modern nightclub. Gay people are more used to clubbing all night straight people, who had to leave the Mecca ballroom at midnight and go to the car park for a fight. In a funny way, everyone lives a gay lifestyle now. You could make a TV series called Straight As Folk about straight people going clubbing, taking drugs and picking up lots of girls or boys and it would be no different.
Chris: Everyone's realised what I've been saying for years: it'd be much better if we were all boys.

MIXMAG: What's the most important thing in life?
Chris: I used to say "love" but I'm not sure now.
Neil: It would have to be something along the lines of... fulfilment.
Chris: Oh yeah? You pervert. THE PET SHOP BOYS' BIG ALBUMS Groove Armada 'Northern Star' (Pepper)
Neil: I like anything in the Air electronic sort-of-dance music area. Chris calls it music to listen to in the bath. The Chemical Brothers 'Surrender' (Virgin)
Neil: I thought this was crap when it came out but I love it now. I like the way the first track is exactly like Kraftwerk. And it's the kind of thing we talk about in interviews: "We want to make music that generates some kind of response." Les Rhythms Digitales 'Darkdancer' (Wall of Sound)
Neil: He uses all the synth sounds we like. And he likes us. Basement Jaxx 'Remedy' (XL)
Neil: Because it's up but not cheesy. Which is hard to do. 'Depth Charge Presents Electro-Boogie Volume One' (K7)
Neil: This is absolutely great. It's got the electro sound I will love to my dying day. And it's got Soft Cell's 'Tainted Love' on it, the 12".

Richard Smith - Outrage, October, 1994