Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
One half of the Pet Shop Boys, the duo behind 'West End Girls' who sold tens of millions of records.
On the island
Eight records
I love the way that Rex Harrison talked and sung sort of simultaneously. And also I like the wits. It's a very, very witty musicalness, and the lyrics are really, really clever.
for me the first pop record that really, really made me an obsessive pop fan. I mean at the time this record was so famous it was like a nursery rhyme.
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Sinfonia of London, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
The richness of the harmony with this plaintive folk melody really hit me sort of physically. And I was just really, really moved by it.
The opening of this song changes. It used to sound so amazing in this stereo booth on Marvelous Speakers. And I still think it's a brilliant song, this.
what I really like about it is it has the inherent drama. I've always liked music, but it's got this hard street New York sound and it's got this keyboard line the ding ding ding ding ding ding ding which also became a pretty much a staple of the early petrol boy sound.
Irene Higginbotham, Ervin Drake & Dan Fisher
Billie Holliday has this power to take a melody and a lyric and to totally make it into an an it s it sounds like an organic production of her. ... It's like a voice that you can't pin down. It's like smoke or something.
I Don't Want to Hear It AnymoreFavourite
probably my favorite singer of all time, who we were very lucky enough to work with, Dusty Springfield. It's a great song
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47: I. Moderato
New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
throughout my life I've been always been interested in Russian history and in Russian music. ... This is one of my favourite pieces of Shostakovich.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:00Would it be fair to say that you are known in Pet Shop Boys' terms as the tall, less grumpy one?
Um, maybe to the outside world, yes. I became a singer by accident. Um I only was the singer in the Petro Boys'Cause Chris wasn't gonna sing.
Presenter asks
10:17Did you feel any sort of residual guilt [about the song It's a Sin], given that you were a good Catholic boy?
No, well I didn't. ... I mean, Itza Syn was also an early example of the Petrop Boys trying to bring a different kind of subject matter into pop music.
Presenter asks
13:11Were you lonely in school? Were you isolated?
No, no, I wasn't. I always had a couple of good friends. I liked the feeling of not belonging. It consolidated that feeling in me that I wasn't like the rest of them and that I was going to do something special with my life and I would do whatever I wanted and I would have no fear about it.
The keepsakes
The book
Honoré de Balzac
which is actually I can't remember how many books, it's about twenty five books, I think. You know, it's a fantastic picture of France in the Napoleonic period up to uh the mid nineteenth century. And it's the sort of thing you need a lot of time, but it's a lot of different fascinating stories. I know once you got to the end of it you could just start again.
The luxury
DVD projector and a huge box of DVDs
So I can sit on my desert island with a tie a sheet up to a pair of trees and sit there at night watching fabulous movies.
Presenter asks
When you met Chris [Lowe], did you feel that the part of the jigsaw that you needed to put in place was then finished?
Yes, I thought I would m be able to m we would be able to make music that was more relevant, that was different. And yes, I did feel that I had a second chance now with this.
Presenter asks
29:40Would you have liked to have had children?
Yeah, I would um yeah, it's not too late. Um but uh I've you know, I've chosen not to, I suppose. ... I probably have ruled it out now. I used to think about it quite a lot at one time. Yeah, no, it won't happen now, I don't think.
“I liked the feeling of not belonging. It consolidated that feeling in me that I wasn't like the rest of them and that I was going to do something special with my life and I would do whatever I wanted and I would have no fear about it.”
“I always used to tell people when I was about sixteen, seventeen, that I was going to become a pop star and I would be really famous.”
“I remember when Western Golds was number one, we were on top of the pops, and as the camera was panning over to us, Chris hissed at me, don't look triumphant. Because the 80s was a triumphalist kind of time. And we didn't want to be part of that.”
“I've spent all my whole life trying not to be a stereotype.”