March 3rd, 1994.
A Secret Studio In The Countryside.
Ian Wright and Chris Lowe have been here since midday. Ian Wright is one of England's most famous and celebrated footballers - he plays for the national team and is the most regular goal scoria for the club team which Chris supports, Arsenal. Last year Chris CO-wrote and produced his. First pop single, "Do The Right Thing". So far today they have listened to one of the backing tracks Chris has recorded for what they hope will become Ian Wright's second single, and they have played a short game of tennis. Now Chris directs Pet Shop Boys programmer Pete Gleadall to sample the vocal from a current dance music white label over one of Chris's backing tracks, to give them inspiration for a vocal line. They listen to the result.

"This is really fast when you compare it to old records," sighs Chris. "Records just get faster and faster." He tries to adjust the high chair on which he is sitting, but fails. "I'm not very good at technology," he mutters. "I'm crap at it."

Ian Wright is wearing a Stussy cap, an Air Jordan top, white umbro socks, Jordan 23 sneakers and unnamed black tracksuit trousers. Like Chris, he is sipping a glass of champagne. "These sessions are all about champagne," Chris says.

They wonder what to do next. "Can I do a nasty record for my own personal collection?" wonders Ian, and throws out a few obscene lines by way of example. "Let me do an Ice Cube thing." Next he pretends to be Barry White. "Barry White doesn't sing," he says, "he's sleep-talking and they've recorded it.''

Ian Wright steps up to the microphone, champagne still in hand. The track plays through couple of times, but he is too nervous to sing anything. "Just sing a couple of lines from a Prince record you like, just to get into the swing of it," suggests Steve Kutner. Steve Kutner is the record company person who put Ian and Chris together, and he also CO-writes Ian Wright's lyrics.

Ian Wright still looks hesitant, and sings nothing. "This is the most difficult bit," encourages Chris. "I can't just sing 'you don't have to be beautiful to be m~ girl"' says Wright. "What are some James Brown lines?" Steve and Chris chat amongst themselves. "Can you shut up, pleas??" snaps Ian theatrically. "I'm trying to work." He does begin to sing a Prince song after all. "'You don't have to be rich..."' he croons, and then breaks off. "But it helps," he says. "Ask Chris Lowe." Then he starts getting into it, belting out the first verse of Prince's "Kiss" over and over. It sounds good, especially when he does a long, loud Prince-style roar. But he's not happy. "I want to sing something else," he says. "I can't sing Prince. I'm not good enough."

Ian and Steve try to think up some lyrics. Steve makes one particularly obscene,' suggestion. "That's disgusting, man," splutters Ian "You kiss your mother with that mouth." Steve stares back through; him. "Give me a pen," he says. "I've got some inspiration." "Hey!" says Ian. "Just looking at me! Whereabouts did you look?" Steve writes out some words. "Block capitals, man," instructs Ian, laughing. "I'm a footballer! Block capitals, best wishes, all the best." When Steve writes "Monday" Ian says "it's not 'Monday' - write 'Maaahnday'." Four lines are completed. "Let's do it, man. Let's hit it, man," says Ian, and when the music starts up again he dances and shadowboxes. "'The phone starts ringing on a Monday,"' he sings, finding a simple but effective tune. When he reaches the line "it's fatal on the hot line" he stops. "I can't say 'hot line'," he tells Steve. "It's not good for me." They debate some alternatives, but most of them are rude. "I need something with soul," Ian says. "I've got kids looking u to e.

He sings the lines through again, not stopping this time. "Every time I want to sing," he says once he has finished, "I want to burp." They laugh. "Have you got anymore lyrics?" he asks Steve. "No," sighs Steve. "Sing that round again. You think these things grow on trees?" Ian asks for some advice on his delivery. "Sing it normal the first two," suggests Steve, "and then the third time give it the big 'I Am..."' "I can't help it," he replies. He pulls his trousers up to his knees and sings all four lines again: "the phone starts ringing on a Monday it's piercing through my heart and soul it 's fatal on the hot line my baby takes the toll". When he gets into it, his voice is sometimes remarkably pure and soulful.

They think about the chorus. Steve suggests that Ian Wright simply says "get on the move". He tries it, and it seems to work. "You know when you said 'get on the move'?" he tells Steve. "I thought of it first, so it was my idea." And he grins. They take a break, and Chris plays us the demo version of "Absolutely Fabulous", with just the Pet Shop Boys backing track and samples from the TV programed. "I like Dawn French," says Ian Wright. "I fancy her." He sings, under his breath 'absolutely! fabulous!". "It's catchy," he says. "It's good you can make a record you wouldn't normally make because it's for charity," says Chris. "Like this one," says Ian. "No," sighs Chris. "This is cred. Harder to make, unfortunately." They run through the chorus a few more times, then take a break. All the champagne is gone, so they move onto white wine. Ian talks about football. "Man United at Wembley again," he says. "Spawny northern bastards .I'm gutted." Chris fiddles with the track a little more. "I think I'll make the bass a bit heavier." "Yeah," nods Ian. "A bit more Dawn French." Literally leaves them to it, for they will be at work for several hours yet. Earlier that afternoon, however, Ian Wright had answered a few questions...

When did you first meet Chris?

I met him through Jill [the Pet Shop Boys manager]. And we had been talking about making a record, and because Chris is an Arsenal fan and that, someone suggested that he might, you know, do something to help me on the way. And once we mentioned it to him he was just fantastic from day one, and I'm really privileged.

Had you already known that one of the Pet Shop Boys came to watch Arsenal?

Um, yeah I'd heard that one of them did. I didn't know exactly which one, to be honest. Because if you look at them both you'd not look at them and say "one of them's a football fan", if you saw them on-stage.

Do players usually know which celebrities come to see them play?

Like me, they've just got an idea. Like, Kevin Costner's a big Arsenal fan, and if he's around England he comes to an Arsenal game. Clive James and that. Roger Daltrey comes there.

What did you think of Chris before you met him?

Well, when you see them on the telly and you see him playing piano and that, he doesn't do much to give you an insight into him,

does he?

He just stands there, plays it. Like, the Brit. awards was just typical Chris, man. He just came on and played the thing, and when it finished, walked off with his hands in his pockets. It was so funny - when you know him it's just brilliant the way he can change the way he is on-stage to the way he is offstage. He can just close himself off from that world. Outside of it he can just be a normal person. When I see him up there I say "it's Chris! Look at him! I can't believe it!" When he's off of it he's just one of the lads and I like him like that.

And you thought he would be...?

I thought he would be a typical...what them pop stars are like. They're very on their pedestal kind of thing. The big "I Am...". I'm not saying I thought Chris would be like this, but that's what I get off pop Stars generally. They're up there and you're down here. "I'm this talented guy and I don't really want to talk to you". You get that kind of vibe from a lot of them when you see them. I wouldn't like to name no names but there were certain groups now that I brushed past at the Brit. awards that gave it the big "I Am..." and it was quite nice to know that Chris is a million times bigger than them and he doesn't give it all that. It was such a pleasant surprise to see that he's just a normal fellow.

When did you first meet up?

It was at a restaurant in Kensington. When he came I released which one it was, obviously. It was the technical one. Because I knew Neil anyway. If I saw a picture of them both, because Chris always has something covering his face or has glasses on. I knew Neil's face, so I was "oh yes, it's the other one". We had lunch and that, and I released we had a lot in common. We laughed at the same things and we had the same kind of sense of humor. It was kind of like a house on fire thing.

What did you have in common?

I don't know. Cars. Obviously football. And music, we're into that housy rap kind of thing. That underground thing. It was quite surprising that Chris was into that, because like I say If you see him on-stage you would never ever think that he's into that kind of thing. It's just another string to his bow, I suppose.

What did he ask you that day?

I can't remember. The main thing was that he didn't want it to be one of those run-of-the-mill footballers' records. Just making a record and hoping that it's going to do well just off the back of I'm a footballer. He wanted to know that I was wholly into wanting to make it, and wanting to make it properly. Which was something I was into anyway. I wanted to make a decent record, and we did.

Why did you think you could do it?

[laughs] I don't know. We didn't know. We came up to the studio and we were trying to think of a line so that we could find out If I could sing or not. The line was "second to none", and I sang it a couple of times and then I really got into it, and then they released I could sing and even I got the confidence to think I could do something. But even now I haven't got the confidence that I've got playing football playing football I've got a lot of confidence in what I could do because it's my first thing. Doing the singing I have to have a lot of reassurance from people like Chris and Steve.

So you hadn't tried singing at all before?

No, never. I mean, obviously I'd had a couple of karaokes, but everybody does them.

What had you sung?

"Just My Imagination". I had to do it my first England squad with Graham Taylor. We all went out to see Buddy', and we went to a disco and then we went to a hotel round near Victoria. I think it was the Grosvenor. And when we went in there was this massive table with loads of seats and there was a television - this was the first time I'd ever saw a karaoke so I was thinking, "What's that telly? Surely we can't be watching a game on the opposition this time of night?" Then this guy started to go round taking down what people were going to sing and I thought it was optional and I said "no way am I going to sing" and then Graham Taylor said to me that I had to sing and that I had to sing first. By the time I got over the shyness I didn't sing first, I had to sing about third, and they said I was the best at it which was quite pleasing.

Who was the worst?

Stuart Pearce. Easily. Don't ask me what he was singing because nobody could make out what it was. It was embarrassing. And Paul Parker - Paul Parker sang something to "I Will Survive" in this cockney voice. [Says in cockney voice] "I Will. Survive. As Long As I Know 'Ow To Love. I Know I'll Stay alive." It was one of the best nights I've ever had. Leaving my seat to go over there to sing, I've never had nerves like that before, no matter how big the game is, the nerves have never been like that.

When did you think you'd actually make a pop record?

Steve mentioned to me, would I be interested in doing one? I said "I don't know, man because I wasn't confident in myself. [Steve shouts accusing: "You kept telling Paul Merson you were a brilliant singer!". "Yeah," replies Ian Wright, "but that's just banter in the dressing roam."] Once it all got off the floor and I came up here and sang a couple of things and got used to it, I really seemed quite good to me and I really enjoyed it.

Chris prepared some music for you?

Yeah. He got about four tracks and we picked which one we liked. It was just really to see what my voice would be like when I first came here. Seeing whether I should rap or sing. If my voice was crap then I would have rapped. [Laughs] That's no disrespect to rappers. But it was half-decent - I'm not saying I'm flipping' Luther Vandross or anything - but because I can get away with it I sang a song. Were you disappointed that "Do The Right Thing" wasn't a bigger hit? No. For a first time I was quite pleased. Because now I've got over that hurdle I'm going into it now knowing exactly what I want to do with this one.

Did you always know you'd do a second single?

Chris always said from the start that we should be thinking about doing another one anyway. And because the first one never got the recognition it should have, we're doing this one with the thing in mind to do better.

What ideas do you have for it?

I want a kind of world feeling about it, you know. A world peachy feeling.

Sort of, um, Jamiroquai?

Yeah, but with a more hard-core bass in it. A really deep bass. Because I do like to listen to bass when I listen to records. So we've talked about that. I think this one will be better because we've learned from the last one.

How did you write the words for "Do The Right Thing"?

It was just basically about how I was in football, about not giving up because it's easy to give up. Steve wrote it with me. I thought it was quite good but I'm going to put a lot more thought into the next one - it's something I really so admire, people who can write songs really well.

Can you remember the first time you heard a Pet Shop Boys record?

Yeah. The first one that I really took a lot of notice of that I really liked was "West End Girls". I thought it was an excellent track. And obviously that one "Go West" is fantastic, because they sing it on all the terraces.

Did you own any of their records?

"West End Girls". That was the only one.

What were you keener on when you were younger?

Well, obviously, Bob Marley. Gregory Isaacs. Dennis Brown. Luther Vandross. Change. All that kind of soul thing. Hi-Tension. All that fast disco thing. Evelyn "Champagne" King. I was always listening to everything. My all-time favorite record is that Noel Harrison's "Windmills Of My Mind" which is a record I'll always listen to. I like George Michael. When he first came out with Wham! I thought they were really naff, man, with their hair and all that and Andrew Ridgeley not doing anything. And then when George Michael wrote things like "A Different Corner" I had to say: this guy is really good.

What is your favorite music now?

Obviously I'm into Prince. Michael Jackson I like - mainly his old stuff. Really old stuff like "Blues Away" and the Destiny album. Right now Jodeci have got a CD out that's really good. And jungle, I'm into that bit. The jungalistic thing. Jungalism. I listen to everything. I listen to Classic FM 1(10.9. You've been hanging out with Chris too, I believe. Yeah. He's a good laugh. I always say I'd like to do things in the summer when I can really - how can I say it without making it sound bad? - not abuse myself but really have a good time with him. It's just unfortunate that all the time we're together is mainly during the season. But we're going to get together and there are going to be fireworks. We're going to go out with our red paint to paint the town.

You went to see U2 together, didn't you?

Fantastic, man. It was great, because Bono -who's another person I really like, in fact we met them all backstage and they were nice guys and that...

I understand you were hanging out with Bono and Salman Rushdie?

Yeah, it was really good, man, because there's two people who I really admire. I really admire Salman for his stand on The Satanic Verses, and trying to get over what he feels. It's really sad when a man gets death threats for writing his opinion. When people start getting killed for their opinion you're not going to get a lot of people saying things.

What did you talk about with him?

He's a Tottenham supporter, isn't he? And he was saying his son is a big fan of mine, and he was saying he admires me and that, and I was saying how much I admired him. And with Bono...I mentioned the lyrics in his song "if you want to kiss the sky you 'd better learn to kneel" and I asked him about that and he was just saying it was just a religious and a profane thing. Which I thought was really cool, whatever it meant. [Laughs] He was saying how when he was growing up he used to look out for Arsenal, because they were either Arsenal or Man United, the Irish people. And he mentioned Merse - he knows Merse's name. And I said "I know you're busy so I'm going to leave" and he said "no, man, just hang. Just chill out, man". I was quite pleased to meet him, but Salesman. I've got the ticket at home which I got them to sign - Salesman Rushdie and Bono meltdown. Bono was signing "Bono Meltdown" so for a while afterwards when people said "Ian, can you sign this?" I was writing "Ian Wright, meltdown". I think it just means melt down, just chill out and ooze out, man. I find that vibe with music people. Take it easy, man.

So you went to the Brit. awards?

Yeah. That was quite good. I was really disappointed because they wanted me to present one of the awards, but they wanted me to get there at 4 o'clock and I had to train and do everything. And they wanted me to rehearse for flipping' three words - ridiculous! I was quite sad about that, but I was pleased for Gabrielle because she won something and I think she's quite good. And when I saw Chris up there with all these miners and with this hat on...and then when he came back into the crowd, no-one would even know that he'd been up there, and I really like that. I also talked to Neil - I've met Neil before but I'd never talked to him as long as I did there. He was asking me about the next record and things like that, and I was asking him about coming down in that crane and he was saying how frightened he was, and I was saying "right, I was frightened looking at you up there". It was exciting. People say to me "what's it like -making a record and that?" and I've said to them, as much as I love my sport and what I'm involved with, the time when I'm involved with the music, just being in the studio with Chris, and going through different permutations to try and get a song right...I've just had so many great times. It's a different outlet.

Would you ever play a concert?

[laughs at some length] I swear, when I see Bono and all that playing to all them people and the people are loving it, I do fantasize me being there and singing, and people being like that. But I don't know. I could not envisage me doing a concert.

Have you listened to a lot more Pet Shop Boys records since you've been making records with Chris?

Like I said, the main one I listen to is "Go West". I'm very disappointed that Chris hasn't given me some CDs and things like that, but I'm sure he might get round to doing it at some stage.

You've just played tennis with him?

Yeah. Yeah. I came second. Somebody beat me.

You're supposed to be good at sport.?

Yeah. I beat Steve. He's had tonsillitis - that's a great excuse. I've just come back from a hamstring injury, but I thought it was only fair that I don't beat him on the first day. I thought, I've got to let Chris beat me, and then I'll beat him next time. So he beat me 2-0.

What are his best strokes?

It's funny. His forearm was really good. His backhand weren't bad. The wind was really all over the place so it's hard to judge. We'll have to play in the summer when I've got my bandana and my Agassi gear on, and I'm really hyped up Connors-style. It's fantastic, man. You can't get into anything like you can get into tennis.

What would make it feel like a success?

I think getting in the top ten. Not getting on Top Of The Pops, because they wanted to put the last record on Top Of The Pops just because I'd made the record.

Are you going to sing any ballads?

Yeah. I want to sing everything. Well, I want to try everything. If Chris thinks I'm good enough to do that, I'll do it, because whatever Chris says when we're in the studio I will do, because he is The Man in there. I love music and I'm just really privileged that Chris has taken the time for me to waste his time and him turn it into something. He's weaving it like Rumplestilt skin! He's really cool about things. He never makes it feel like "listen, I'm in charge here, son". He listens to everybody's ideas. I'm really lucky in that respect. He's got a lot of patience with an amateur, and I really admire him for it. And the amount of work he puts in the studio on them pianos and that, and the way how he can change things and put them in different places, it just makes me stand back in awe really. I don't think I would be comfortable making records with anyone else.

What does Chris say to you about Arsenal?

He's just like any other fan really. Sometimes he gets disappointed with things which go wrong. He'll ask me things like "Why didn't the boss play you last night? Were you injured?" and he might say he didn't think it was a good idea but he'd never say "that was crap and that was this and that was that". Which is really how he is. He's really quite placid in that way.

Why do you think he likes Arsenal?

don't know.

Why do people like MilIwall? You have to like them to like them, don't you? It's like me, the first team I ever saw was MilIwall, so I supported MilIwall all the way up until now. I don't like them, they're just the team I was first associated with. I don't know why Chris likes it, but maybe it's because we win something every other year. We're in Europe, and he likes a trip to Europe every now and then.

Do you get pressure from within football not to spend time on things like this?

Sometimes the boss [i.e. manager George Graham] will say he doesn't want me doing too much commercial stuff one week, to get some rest, but other than that there's no restrictions to it, as long as it's outside the jurisdiction of football. I finish training, the time is mine.

Did he tell you what he thought of the record?

Yeah. He liked the record.

Did you hand out copies?

Yeah. I had to give everyone at the club one. It was a nightmlare. All the lads' misuses liked the record. It was really quite good. It was "guises one of your CDs for my wife, she likes it". But I know it was really for them. It's like the man who comes up to you and says "can I have your autograph? It's for my nephew..."

What did your teammates think of it?

Well, that was the thing. Because football and footballers are so critical of everything you do that's off the main, I was really quite afraid. But all the players who listened to it loved it. Giggly was singing some lines to me - I was surprised that he knew it. As soon as Paul Ince heard it he said he loved it, and people like Lee Sharpe liked it. I thought I was going to get a bit of stick but I didn't get as much as I thought I would. Even supporters from up North were saying how much they liked the record, and everybody always asks me now when I'm making another one.

Do you think there have ever been any other decent football records?

I must admit, Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle's one was, for me, OK. It was a good effort. [Laughs) And I must admit, as much as they give it stick, Gazza's record "Fog On The Tyne" had a good beat. That's about it. There's not been many good ones. That Arsenal one we did for the cup was quite good, with that little reggae Tipper Inc., but it didn't get as much recognition as it should have. I notice you're on the champagne already... [waves glass] This is another reason why I love Chris so much.

October 1994: Though Chris has several partly-finished collaborations with Ian Wright on tape, they still haven finished another record together, though they have been meeting. Earlier this month - on the evening of Arsenal's 3-1 victory over Chelsea - they had dinner and ended up with Newcastle's Andy Cole and Arsenal's Kevin Campbell at a club. "A fantastic night," laughs Chris. But, with the football season underway, and the Pet Shop Boys off on tour, they have no firm plans to complete a single in the near future.

Copyright Areagraphy Ltd 1994: All Articles have been
Taken From Literally 1994 Issue 13