Being Brilliant

The 'stylish' people of Perth, plus the odd handbag dancer, turned out in force for a concert that was pure distinction and enjoyment.

The lights dimmed, the expectation mounted and the clear and apt tones of Neil Tennant singing Tonight Is Forever, followed by a snatch tease of Absolutely Fabulous sent the crowd into paroxysms.

Enter the bewigged and vinyl clad Pet Shop Boys for I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing complete with gogo dancers. We were off to a fine start.

Their rather wry observation of the Elvis standard, Always On My Mind, followed and two male dancers entered to join our female ones, busy dancing in the spectacular wire pyramid cages which continued through Domino Dancing, complete with video backdrop of a large Spanish woman in matador costume.

People had a respite from foot-stamping and body swaying increased as To Speak Is A Sin introduced, but this was quickly shunned for a furious One In A Million, complete with a smattering of Culture Beat's Mr. Vain. Making fun of them? The program assures they weren't, but you decide.

Mass deciding followed as Neil made a quick exit and Chris Lowe stepped up to the microphone to deadpanly UN-list the label-dropping lyrics of Parinaro. Seemingly enjoying the chance to strut around in a jacket Liberate would die for - the man voted by Select magazine as the second coolest person in music (Bill Drummond from KLF came first, but then he machine-gunned a rock award audience) actually even smiled.

Then Neil returned for an acoustic guitar rendition of Rent. "We haven't done MTV unplugged, we haven't been asked...", needless to say this wide departure impressed the pants off the collective throng and made the git next to me drop his ice-cream.

The stabbing staccato intro for So Hard once again whipped the audience up like eggs in a blender and Where The Streets Have No Name saw the female dancers strap on rather impressive Flying V guitars, while the video backdrop seemingly depicted the destruction of London.

A brief break turned the Entertainment Center into a rather large rave experience via a persuasively overdriven Yesterday When I Was Mad before the Pet Shop Bays reemerged in their Tommy Cooper hats and chef suits for Absolutely Fabulous.

West End Girls show some mock-fighting from our male dancers and Kings Cross - as good a song about London as Waterloo Sunset, conjured up the smell of the Underground. Or was it someone's foot odor?

Blur's dance-hall steamer Girls and Boys was also pounded out the reason being that they had remixed the song. This was followed by a nun (superb back up singer Katie Kissoon) emoting I Will Survive as a candle procession alighted the simple but stunning step-set design with Monsignor Tennant (Or was it Cardinal?), bringing up the rear As the end to the main of the show it was quite gob smacking.

A massive swelling of balls (beach balls that is) introduced Go West, and this saw everyone on stage decked out in silver space-suits and flashing-light dunce caps.

From a former Village People gay anthem to what could be termed the Pet Shop Boys' own personally ironic anthem, Being Boring saw the show draw too close and while there may have been plenty more songs audience members would hove loved to have heard played, I defy anyone there to say they left unimpressed.

Never has techno techno bloody techno looked and sounded so impressive. Absolutely Fabulous?? Nah... Superbly Sensational.

This was written by Gareth Gorman and appeared in an issue of X-Press magazine