The B-side of your new single is a brilliant but very strange song called "The Truck Driver And His Mate". What might all that be about then?

NT:
Its title was inspired by the old Yorkie adverts, which used to say something like "big enough for the truck driver and his mate". They had this built-in homoerotic innuendo which I always thought was an incredible way to market a chocolate bar. It also sounds like a gay porno movie. Do you think you're camp?

NT:
Personally or professionally? I think I am a bit camp. And professionally I think we do things that are camp, but mostly they're unintentional. On the last tour we did in South America and Australia we did "Go West" wearing silver hats which lit up. They were Chris' idea. Chris is from Blackpool, and whether he likes it or not he has an instinctive sense of showbiz - he saw the hats on Holiday On Ice or something. I think camp has a more serious side to it too. It has a type of sincerity. You confirmed your sexuality in Attitude magazine in August '94. Why didn't you do it before?

NT:
I never said anything in the past because when we first became successful we were very much a pop group with a wide following, and I think it is essential to not give yourself away completely. To some extent people are projecting what they want you to be on to you, and therefore you can be all sorts of different things at the same time. So why then?

NT:
By the time I did this interview it was around my 40th birthday, I felt happy to talk about it, and I thought our audience had changed. And I thought Attitude was a good magazine. On a more practical side, I barely had a gay sex life in the Eighties, anyway. If you'd been in my bed you wouldn't even have known. What the strangest fan mail you've ever had?

NT:
I get stalked by people, particularly Germans. They tend to follow you home and hang round for eight months. What exactly is domino dancing?

NT:
That came from when we were staying at a hotel in the middle of nowhere in St Lucia years ago. In the evening there was nothing to do except play dominoes; this friend of ours always used to beat us, and he used to do this celebratory dance. Are you a new lad?

NT:
No. I hate it, new laddishness. I think it's pathetic. What's the new Pet Shop Boys album going to sound like?

NT:
Well its much warmer-sounding than our previous records. The rhythms are warmer - a lot of it sounds quite latin, and some of it sounds quite disco - and the songs are uplifting. There's some love songs. It's not Britpop. It's quite an international-sounding album. Are you and Chris pulling in different musical directions?

NT:
We always have done. That's what the Pet Shop Boys is, basically. Chris listens to more dance music and I listen to more classical, so you end up with dance music with strings. What one thing do you like that he hates?

NT:
:He hates any kind of guitar music, although he loves Oasis. He likes them because they have that emotional pull that we like.
  Do you like them?

NT:
I think Oasis are the Stock Aitken and Waterman of the Nineties, in that they churn out loads of songs that are highly derivative, but also exhilarating and fresh sounding. I'm sure Noel Gallagher wouldn't thank me for that, but in retrospect I think you can say that SAW wrote some of the best songs of the Eighties. David Bowie; why?

NT:
Originally because he asked us to remix "Hello Spaceboy" when I met him backstage at his Wembley Arena concert. I made the second verse by cut-ting up the words of "Space Oddity" as a joke reference to the cut-up thing, and it's now the third Major Tom sang. When he was on the Brits I wanted him to do "Space Oddity", "Ashes To Ashes" and "Hello Spaceboy". Do you rate him?

NT:
Yeah... we really undervalue someone who is as wonderful a singer and performer as Bowie. He has the most fantastic presence on stage, and seeing Bowie on stage these days you're seeing a master of that particular art. In any other medium he'd be more respected. What about Tony Blair?

NT:
I met him at a party, and I thought he was Tony Banks. I think he's a very nice person. He's really into music. I spoke to him at The Brits, and he was looking really thrilled because he'd just been talking to David Bowie. He tries to deal with the reality bit, but he has now entered the stage of media obsession. Are you, as someone who comes from Newcastle Upon Tyne, following the fortunes of the North-east football clubs?

NT:
No. I really hate foot-ball. I do know Newcastle United aren't doing well, though [the interview took place during Newcastle's poor run of results in early March]. Have you noticed that footballers seem to be getting better looking?

NT:
No, because I haven't noticed footballers. Do you follow fashion?

NT:
Obviously I am a slave to fashion. If you were a woman for the day what would you do?

NT:
It'd be great to be a woman for the day. I sometimes think that at the age of 60 it would be great if you changed your sex, it would be like being reborn. I'd go shopping for new clothes, and it would be interesting to give birth. Would you try to seduce Neil Tennant?

NT:
Oh no. I don't think he'd be my type. What do you think your enemies think about you?

NT:
Cold. -. pompous... arrogant.. - and shallow. That's what I'd say about me Pet Shop Boys' new single "Before" is released in April