Pet Shop Boys at M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool (23 Jun ’23)

My ticket

My Beloved Wife and I went to the M&S Bank Arena to see Pet Shop Boys on their Dreamworld tour, our first visit there since seeing Diana Ross a year ago, as reviewed here.

We headed into town for a burger and some beers from Seven Bro7hers, taking advantage of a Wowcher deal. I had a pint of Juicy IPA and then a very honey-tinged Honeycomb Pale.

My history with the headliner

The first song of theirs I owned was In The Night that featured on the 4-track Solid ep given away with Record Mirror in February 1986, that also included songs by Depeche Mode, LL Cool J and Beastie Boys, so giving me my first real exposure to hip hop.

I didn’t get anything further until the 1986 remix album Disco from Record Collector in Sheffield for £5.40 on a post-university return visit in August 1995, when I also bought albums by The Blue Aeroplanes and Van Dyke Parks.

Record Mirror with free Solid ep

I then got 1991’s Discography comp from the Music & Video Exchange in Notting Hill for £11 in February 1996, also getting Don’t Bore Us – Get To The Chorus! Roxette‘s Greatest Hits at the same time.

My Beloved Wife and I have twice seen PSB before, firstly at this very venue (when it was known as the Echo Arena) in July 2009.

We then saw them two years later as the support for Take That at Hamburger SV’s Volksparkstadion in Hamburg, when it was branded as the Imtech Arena.

I’ve never got round to buying any of their original albums, but I feel as though I shall now be keeping my eyes peeled for any going cheap second hand, especially the deluxe 2-disc versions.

My meagre collection

The main event

This is Pet Shop Boys’ first ever self-proclaimed greatest hits tour, in support of the new 6-LP/3-CD Smash – The Singles 1985–2020 that contains all their singles across that period.

The tour was originally supposed to happen in 2020, finally kicking off in Milan in May 2022, very slowly winding its way across the UK and Europe.

Of course, the two previous times we have seen them were very much hit-packed, but around half of the set was new to us live, with all bar two of the cuts from Discography getting an airing, which pleased me a great deal.

I hadn’t realised or remembered their history with this city – Chris Lowe studied architecture at the University of Liverpool in the late 1970’s, and apparently still counts the Phil as his local pub.

Inside the Arena

Neil Tennant is a fellow Scouseophile, citing the Tate as his favourite gallery. He in fact visited the Walker Art Gallery on the day of the show.

We didn’t have too long to wait for the band to come on, deciding to forego joining the huge queues for a drink as we took our seats.

They kicked off with my very favourite song of theirs, Suburbia, their second Top 10 hit in October 1986, although this wasn’t to be my favourite song of the set.

As I had checked out the setlist in advance, I knew that the second number was a lesser one in my eyes, so I popped to the bar for a healthy supply of San Miguel for us during Can You Forgive Her, another Top 10 record in June 1993.

Fortunately, there was no queue at all at this point, meaning I was back in my seat while the song was still going, so I was able to enjoy my second favourite PSB song, Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money) (which peaked at #11 in June 1986), which I was surprised to discover they hadn’t performed on either of the previous occasions we saw them.

Pet Shop Boys

The hits kept on coming, with the slower Rent another early highlight, and another track we’d not seen live before. There was much less of a ‘show’ than when we’d seen them here back in July 2009, with So Hard backed by stick men walking across the big screens.

The backing band were revealed for Left To My Own Devices, with Neil Tennant appearing in a new costume.

After their very first song, Jealousy, they played the great Love Comes Quickly, a Top 20 hit in March 1986 and another new live one for us.

Pet Shop Boys

Next up was another one we’d not seen before in the form of Paninaro which was originally on the Disco album, hitting the Top 20 when it was belatedly issued as a remixed single in 1995.

You Were Always On My Mind (the Christmas number one in 1987, their third single to hit the top spot) was especially good, despite it not being amongst my favourites of theirs, being followed by Dreamland, a non-charting single from 2019. Tennant was sporting shades, a sparkly coat, but no hat for this one.

Even better was Heart, which was so much better live than I was expecting. This was their fourth chart-topper in April 1988 and was a real joy:

Neil duetted with Clare Uchima on What Have I Done To Deserve This?, who replaced the record’s Dusty Springfield in fine style.

I think that the band also included Afrika Green and Pete Gleadall, but I’m prepared to be corrected.

Vocal was a new one on me, being a non-charting single from 2013, but I had to get up and dance – having already been on my feet at many previous points of the evening.

The main set ended with the slam-dunk pairing of Go West (#2 in September 1993, but never a huge favourite of mine) and the glorious It’s A Sin (their second #1 single in July 1987).

They didn’t take a lot of persuading to return, with the encore kicking off with the deathless West End Girls (their first proper hit, reaching the very top in January 1986, flopping on its original issue in October 1984, then slowly climbing the charts after being re-recorded and put out again in October 1985)

This featured some funky bass as Finland was replaced by a more zeitgeist-y geographical reference:

“In every city, in every nation
From Lake Geneva to the Kyiv station”

The evening ended in a somewhat downbeat (but still great) way with Being Boring, their first single to miss the Top 10 since Opportunities more than four years earlier.

Pet Shop Boys

That brought the show to a top-notch close, but we still had time to continue the evening with a couple of drinks back in Waterloo at the Volunteer Canteen, where we bumped in some friends who are regulars there. Unfortunately, I cannot recall what beer I had, but it had rat in the name and wasn’t White Rat!

I’ll leave the last word to My Beloved Wife, who summed up the show thus: “Pet Shop Boys – WOW. Absolutely smashed it again. Two hours of non-stop hits. Loved every second, desperate to do it all again. So much better live than you could ever imagine.”

In Seven Bro7hers

Tonight’s t-shirt

I wore my red Sparks tee, the PSB’s fellow electronic pop duo.

There were very few other band t-shirts in evidence, as is usually the way at the Arena, with the only ones I spied being Therapy? and Led Zeppelin, somewhat incongruously.

Follow me

If you want to get an email notification each time there is a new blog post (about once a fortnight, on average), then click on the “Follow” button at the bottom.

Playlist

Here is much of the music from the night on Spotify: