ever make another record?

True, there's been the release of Liza Minnelli's LP Results which Neil and Chris produced and wrote songs for, the Pet Shop Boys-penned Dusty Springfield hit In Private plus the Electronic single Getting Away With It featuring Neil on backing vocals, but nevertheless there have been loads of rumors over the past couple of months that there wouldn't be another Pet Shop Boys record ever again.

"One of the reasons we wanted to do this interview," says Neil, "was because I assumed by now

Not at all. In fact, by October Neil and Chris had traveled to Glasgow to begin writing songs for a new Pet Shop Boys LP. Before leaving, they sifted through tapes of old songs they'd written between 1982 and 1984 (as they always do before they make an LP) and found three possible tunes to redo. By the beginning of January they've, now returned to a little basement studio in West London.

AS WE SAUNTER THROUGH THE DOOR of the "calf" around the comer from the Pet Shop Boys' workplace a little boy sporting a baseball cap begins staring at Neil, not quite able to figure out whether this tall bloke in tiny round snot spectacles is who he thinks it is. When he spots Chris shuffling in behind him, his eyes light up and he continues to stare at us as we sit down at a table with our coffees...

"What we're doing now is working more on those old songs and writing some new ones," Chris explains, "We've already written a lot of songs but we want more than we actually need."

"We always like to listen to our old tapes," continues Neil, "because it's almost as though we had another entire career except no one else knew about it so from 1981 to 1985 we wrote a different song every week almost. That's quite a lot of songs really. I've got boxfuls of tapes. We're also very lazy though of course haha. Chris at home plays his Fairlight (flashy computer keyboard) and comes up with some little noodly things so we re going through some of those today to see if there's anything worth using."

Is it true you'll be playing guitar on the new songs Neil?

"Well, I have bought a guitar actually. I can play the guitar, in fact and I've always secretly wanted to have an electric guitar, so when we were in the studio in Glasgow I went next door to this guitar shop and said 'Oooh, I'll have that one' - because I always buy things very quickly - and asked for a distortion pedal and a wah-wah pedal at the same time. And so on some of the demos we did in Glasgow, I'm playing electric guitar. But I doubt I'll be playing it on Top Of The Pops (Chris screws up his nose with disapproval). In fact with our new LP, I think we'll become even more electronic."

Chris moans, "As far as I'm concerned the demos were absolutely ruined, I absolutely hate guitars."

So do the new songs sound a lot different then?

Chris: "It always ends up sounding different actually. It's not intentional though. It's just the way things turn out because you've been listening to different records and simply because you feel different. We've been writing a lot more moody songs lately."

Would you like to tell us any of the song titles or anything?

Neil: "Actually there are some good titles but we're not telling you them..."

Go on. Just one then?

Both: "No!"

Neil: "Actually Chris and I are great ones for telling people what we're doing and everyone knows what we're doing before the records come out, so it'll be quite nice to surprise everyone."

Chris: "One of them's called 'Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You' actually."

Neil: "Yes, and another one's called 'I Should Be So Lucky'..."

AS WELL AS WORKING on their own LP, Neil and Chris are responsible for half of the songs on the soon-to-be-released Dusty Springfield LP. With this coming so soon after the stuff they did with Liza Minnelli, it's becoming rather apparent that they're both rather keen on working with certain female living legends.

"But that's the last of it," Neil is keen to point out. "Our living legends phase is over. That chapter of the book is now finished. There are no other living legends we'd like to work with. It's funny because since we did those records we've had so many people wanting us to write songs for them, It's not fair to say who they are, but there have been absolutely loads of living legends on that telephone - one in particular who made us chuckle quite a lot." (!)

"I suppose these days we're categorised as a duo who make records with famous women, but I think if we were to produce anyone else, it would have to be someone unknown. After the Electronic LP is finished, I think well probably have had enough of collaborating with famous people."

Ah yes - the unlikely pairing of Neil with Bernard from New Order and Johnny Marr. When Neil first heard that Bernard was making a solo record he says he thought "Oh good I want to be on it", and even though they'd never met (Chris had met him once in the toilets at the BPI Awards) everyone thought it was a good idea for them to write some songs together. They recorded Getting Away With It and another song featuring Chris which has yet to be finished.

"We'd heard that they'd always quite liked our records," says Neil, "and we'd always quite liked their records."

"Well, the truth is we'd always quite liked their records and they d always loved ours haha," jokes Chris.

"The first day we were in the studio and Chris began showing off - he'd sneakily prepared a chord change beforehand," Neil smirks. "So Bernard put on some drums and Johnny played the guitar and I put this little tune over it and suddenly we'd all written this song! It was so exciting."

But who would have imagined you'd have got on so well with grumpy old New Order?

ONE THING THAT'S FUNNY about the Pet Shop Boys at the moment is the way that Chris is still listening to loads of obscure House records and dancing the small hours away at underground dance "raves", while Neil is listening to loads more classical ,and stage musical records and becoming involved with things of a more "refined" nature. For a start there's the sort of antiques shop thing called the Decorative Arts Project which he's opened in London with their ex-manager Tom Watkins.

Pardon moi.

"And of course you can stay the night there if you like..." jibes Chris.

And what about your Bingo Bango Bongo nights, Chris? What exactly are they?

SIX MONTHS IS A LONG TIME in the world of pop, as they say, and in the time since the Pet Shop Boys were last in the charts, a variety of "stunning" new popular entertainer's have come up. Neil and Chris being mad pop fanatics are keen to talk about who they like and who they don't, such as New Kids On The Block...

Neil: "Now when they came on the television at the Smash Hits Poll Winners thing, they were fabulous. They looked wonderful. But then the next week or so we saw them on the cover of Smash Hits and they looked terrible."

Chris: "The' problem with New Kids On The Block though is that they're not very good-looking. They're the first ugly teen group."

And Big Fun...

Neil: "We quite like Big Fun really..."

Chris: "Their last single was a real grower actually. Watching their dance routines on Top Of The Pops is the best thing."

Neil: "Jason from Big Fun came along to Chris' birthday party and he was telling me how much he liked the Electronic record and I was saying 'Oh we're doing the video tomorrow. Me, Bernard and Johnny are going to do a Big Fun dance routine in it!' He also told me that he's got a friend who knows my sister! My sister's very excited about this..."

And Sonia...

Neil: "I have a real problem with Sonia herself. We once said this about Kylie actually but Sonia's a more extreme example - it's as if it's World War Two and she's rallying the troops in her bouncy and cheerful way..."

Chris: "A war would be perfect for Sonia..."

Then the conversation turns to how chuffed they are with their new fan club after only having had an information service for years and how they're haying to subsidise it out of their own pockets because of the cost of producing their fan magazine Literally.

Chris: "You hear of other groups' fans cubs making a profit of £10,000 a week, but we've got to pay for ours out of our own pockets It's typical really."

And then they chatter away about how after their new single and LP come out in the summer they'll be doing another British tour and a 15 date tour of America and how Booblys (the little dog who appeared with them in the photos on the Introspective LP) has now become their official mascot.

Neil: "Bubbly's official spelling is B-u-b-b..."

Chris: "No, it's B-o-o..."

Neil: "Oh sorry, I got it wrong myself."

Chris: "It's B-o-o-b-l-y-s."

Neil: "I thought it was B-u-b-b-l-i-e-s."

Chris: "It's actually Pete our assistant's dog, but yes, he's our mascot. He appeared on our Christmas card, he appeared on Going Live and attacked Gordon The Gopher. He went berserk on that actually..."

Neil: "We were thinking of doing a record with him but we thought that was taking things a bit too far haha..."

AS WE GET READY TO LEAVE, Neil enquires why the Pet Shop Boys weren't on the 1990 calendar given away with the last' issue of Smash Hits (it was in fact because there weren't any new pictures of them to use).

The little boy in the baseball cap is still gaping awe-struck as we walk through back out onto the street. It doesn't look as if they've much to worry about really...

This article was taken from an issue of Smash Hits magazine