PopArt:The hits out now includes the new single 'Flamboyant'

Pet Shop Boys
Barfly, London
Dorian Lynskey
Tuesday March 9, 2004
The Guardian

The Barfly, Camden's much-loved indie shoebox, rarely plays host to anyone whose name is familiar outside close friends and family, but for the past week the likes of the Cure and the Darkness have played here as part of a series of charity shows. Some tickets were auctioned on eBay, where a pair for tonight's gig fetched an eye-watering £2,200: that's £78.57 per person per song. You can only hope that the winning bidders aren't stuck in traffic.
This is the first time in 20 years that Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have performed without the aid of dancers, costume changes or Derek Jarman short films, relying instead on two keyboards and a recalcitrant Powerbook. "As someone once sang," says Tennant, quoting one of his own lyrics, "we wouldn't normally do this kind of thing." Far from appearing misplaced, though, the duo look exactly how most people picture the Pet Shop Boys: Tennant dapper in black jacket and T-shirt, Lowe mock-solemn behind sunglasses and baseball cap, in front of a mirrored backdrop. Hairlines aside, it's almost like watching a 1986 Top of the Pops.

Faced with a room full of diehard fans - one woman is virtually trembling as she mouths every lyric - Tennant and Lowe are free to tour the side streets of their remarkable back catalogue. There's Jealousy, the first song the pair ever wrote together; In Private, originally produced for Dusty Springfield and never played live before; and Tonight Is Forever, their first album's hymn to metropolitan hedonism.

Stripped back to electronics, these songs sound sleeker and tougher. Flamboyant, the new single, and a retooled It's a Sin bite as hard as any electroclash track. The evergreen Being Boring, meanwhile, is rendered in quasi-ambient slow motion. During a final gallop through the hits, including Opportunities, Rent and West End Girls, band and audience seem equally elated. £78.57 per song is almost reasonable.